FROM THE CHEAP SEATS
Word from New York is that Kevin Brown has a sinus infection, Andy Ashby was ill on Saturday and felt worse Sunday, and that Sterling Hitchcock and Ashby have cold symptoms which have left them unable to speak. And that was before they saw the first two games of the World Series.
I still think the Padres can get back into this. Hitchcock and whoever give them a pitching edge the next two games, and as Earl Weaver once said, "Momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher." On the other hand, the ability to get back into the Series may not be enough. This is not an experienced team and how they'll react to being in the hole two games, to facing the mighty Yankees following last night's mugging, is unknown. Back in the 1930's, a string of inferior National League teams played the Yankees and, shaking in their spikes, rarely won a game. Hopefully, the Padres will get a strong performance from Hitchcock, and then they get to face the Yankees weak link, Andy Pettite.
Not much to say about game two. Paul O'Neill made a big catch in the top of the first, Ken Caminitti made a key error, and Ashby was doomed. Make no mistake, the Yankees are a terrific team, and given a couple of breaks, they're unbeatable. They simply refuse to swing at bad pitches, forcing pitchers to get them out on good pitches and there aren't that many pitchers who can do that.
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Hero of the Game: Orlando Hernandez…even for a Yankee-hater in good standing, watching El Duque is a special experience. It's like going back in time -- the socks, the cap, and the wonderful assortment of motions. Hard to pick one hero, of course, but he never gave San Diego any hope.
Goat of the Game: Ashby… yeah, he was sick, but did he have to make the rest of us sick, too? Things went a little badly, he had a little bad luck, and never had an answer.
Pure Second-Guess of the Game: like Custer at Little Big Horn, once they showed up, strategy was irrelevant.
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New Orleans was trailing Atlanta by 15 with only a few minutes to go, They scored a touchdown on a long bomb and Billy Joe Tolliver raced down the field holding up two fingers, indicating a try for two, in order to narrow the deficit to seven. But the Saints' coaches overruled him and kicked the extra point to leave the deficit at eight. I understand the theory, you see, if you go for two and miss, all the air goes out of the team and you aren't in a "one possession" game. It's an illusion, of course. From where I sit, I would want to know as soon as possible that I'm not going to make the two-point conversion. Then I can try an onside kick or something to try and get back into it. The coaches way, you score the TD to cut it to two, you miss the two-pointer, you go home.
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Great comeback win for the Bills yesterday. Doug Flutie brought back memories of the eighties by improvising a touchdown run on the last play of the game. Of course, he wasn't the oldest QB we got to watch yesterday, as the inevitable injury to Chris Chandler forced the Falcons to bring in 44 year old Steve DeBerg. He threw a TD pass to help win the game. To give you a better idea of just how ancient he is, he helped break in a kid named Joe Montana with the 49ers. Yikes.
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