Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Channeling Your Inner Boggs

The name that has been associated with Daniel Murphy has been Wade Boggs. You saw all sides of that today. Boggs wasn't the best of fielders in his rookie season either. And Murphy had some adventures in left field today that looked a lot like "Danny Being Manny".

But boy did Murphy look like Boggs in the eighth inning with a seven pitch at-bat against Eric Gagne which set up Carlos Delgado's 0-2 dinger which wound up winning the first game of this series against Milwaukee.

Of course, they'll need Murph to be Boggsian (not to mention Delgado continuing to stake his claim to the MVP award ... that's right, I said it) if Carlos Beltran is going to miss any time after tweaking his knee sliding into the home plate umpire, Ed Rapuano, while scoring the last run of the game. Which brings up an important point: How many times have you seen a runner slide into an umpire ... I'd be willing to say never, right? So this raises the question:

What in the bloody hell was Rapuano doing there?

I mean, if this never happens, and this isn't a common mistake, then you'd have to think that Rapuano's positioning is, oh I don't know ... stupid?
Beltran said a brief conversation with Rapuano ensued. "He asked me, 'How do you feel?'" Beltran said. "I said, 'Look at me, I'm limping.'"
I know the Mets have to play against the umpires every once in a while but this is quite ridiculous.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

In a game in Binghamton, Daniel Murphy singled. He moved to second on a sac bunt. After the play, the third baseman, who had charged the plate, was meandering back to second, and the SS wasn't paying much attention. Murphy broke for third, caught everyone by surprise, and made it. He seems to have real good baseball sense, and he hustles. Remember - he's new in the outfield. He's really a 3b. He'll be fine with the glove.

Anonymous said...

Delgado saved Wright's rear end yesterday. If we had lost, all we'd be talking about is how Wright has been bad in crucial situations. He needs a rest . . . or something.

Delgado . . . totally the MVP of the team at least.

Doesn't Murphy look a little bit like Pete Rose? Plays like him too. Let's hope he stays away from the ponies.

Von Hayes?

weesle909 said...

The Daily News referred to that as a "freak collision".

What. As in, "the FREAKin' umpire needs to get his ass out of the way"!?!

Seriously...

Metstradamus said...

Unser, Check ESPN's baseball section. You'll get the Von Hayes reference.

Anonymous said...

Robin Ventura. Robin Ventura. Robin Ventura. That's all I see whenever I look at Murphy. The swing and everything.

Anonymous said...

Actually there were two more umpire contact situations in the game tonight...I believe both with the Brewers. One play occurred when the ump got swept up in a wide slide at second. The ump is just trying to get the best position on the play...the game happens quickly and they are no match for the speed of the players on the field. Its like you trying to do it and we know you can't. Cut some slack here and stop being victims....everything bad doesn't happen to the Mets. Well okay...............