04/18/24
May 06, 2012
SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Pujols finally hits first home run.
Golfs one out, takes 4 steps before running because he's a bad ass. If this had been Manny the integrity of the would be at stake. But it's Pujols, so not so much.
posted by justgary at 06:11 PM on May 06, 2012
Heh, you noticed that too.
posted by tommybiden at 06:16 PM on May 06, 2012
Golfs one out, takes 4 steps before running because he's a bad ass. If this had been Manny the integrity of the would be at stake. But it's Pujols, so not so much.
He's been doing that for years, as have many other batters when they crush a no-doubter.
I did like the response from the Angels dugout: they all ran inside to the tunnel to hide from him (and baserunner Trout). When he came back to the dugout, there was no one there to high-five him.
Big laughs all around, and lots of celebrating by his team mates when they returned to view.
posted by grum@work at 06:22 PM on May 06, 2012
Glad Man City won today even if I would prefer they don't win it all. Glad Aston Villa held Sp*rs too. I am the biggest Fulham fan next weekend :)
posted by scully at 08:22 PM on May 06, 2012
He's been doing that for years
Exactly.
as have many other batters when they crush a no-doubter.
Eh, 390 plus feet? You're using the word crush lightly.
posted by justgary at 08:47 PM on May 06, 2012
I don't know where Yaya Toure gets it from. He's a monster, but like Colin Bell, seems to have an extra lung. He had no right to be there for the second, after probably covering 15 km during the game.
/Anyone catch Mike Summerbee wiping away a tear in the stands? If you're sick of all the Citeh/money hype of recent years, dig out Colin Schindler's Manchester United Ruined My Life, to give you a reality check on what it's like to be a life long Sky Blue.
posted by owlhouse at 08:51 PM on May 06, 2012
Also, even if we didn't need reminding, but sport can sometimes be deadly. In some cases where the game is usually safe, and in others where it isn't always.
posted by owlhouse at 09:03 PM on May 06, 2012
Baron Davis suffered a gruesome knee injury tonight. It's a dislocated patella.
posted by rcade at 09:26 PM on May 06, 2012
The LA Kings are in the Western Conference Finals already. Not too shabby for an eighth seed.
posted by NoMich at 10:22 PM on May 06, 2012
Eh, 390 plus feet? You're using the word crush lightly.
It was a no-doubter, not a wall-scraper.
posted by grum@work at 10:36 PM on May 06, 2012
It was a no-doubter, not a wall-scraper.
So anything other than a wall scraper is 'crushed' and the hitter should take 4 steps while watching the ball? That makes no sense. This was an average home run. Nothing special about it. Pujols looked like an idiot.
The fact is Pujols hit an everyday home run off of a hanging 84 mile per hour slider. You're the highest paid player in the game and it took you over a month to hit your first home run. Just fucking get around the bases.
OR, as was my original point, let's realize we're the media (and some fans) are hypocrites when it comes to this. If Manny had done this, we wouldn't have heard the end of it. When Pujols does the same, nobody has a problem with it.
posted by justgary at 01:31 PM on May 07, 2012
It was hard to see how long Pujols walked on most highlight clips. I count six steps.
I don't want to overstate my outrage, but that does look kind of chumpy. If Bryce Harper did that he'd get Hameled.
posted by rcade at 01:43 PM on May 07, 2012
Saw the highlight at lunch, it definitely was not crushed. Kruk said Pujols was fooled by the pitch and it looked to my untrained eye that Pujols hit it off his front foot. So an alternate take on the whole thing is he wasn't running because he thought he'd hit yet another popup.
Whether to be morally outraged by that is an exercise left to the reader.
posted by yerfatma at 02:45 PM on May 07, 2012
This was an average home run. Nothing special about it.
Except that it was his first.
Of the season.
After everyone and his brother had commented on how terrible he was that he hadn't hit a home run after taking so much of the poor Angels money.
And he does that on every home run he hits. It's like Rickey Henderson's "hop" when he connects.
And, frankly, if other people want to be hypocrites about who can and can't walk the first few steps, let them.
Anyone who hits a ball like this, can fucking dance the cha-cha after any home run, for all I care.
If Bryce Harper did that he'd get Hameled.
Because he's a rookie. When he's done what Pujols has done, then no one will give a damn how he walks out of the batter's box.
posted by grum@work at 06:30 PM on May 07, 2012
And he does that on every home run he hits.
Surely not. If there's any doubt at all he'd be hustling down the line in case it stays in the park.
posted by rcade at 08:50 PM on May 07, 2012
Whether to be morally outraged by that is an exercise left to the reader.
Well, to be clear, I'm not outraged. I don't think he's hurting the integrity of the game. I have no problem with Pujols, or Manny, or Ortiz showboating. I don't want the game to return to the 50s. I just think he looks like an idiot preening in that situation.
Grum believes that because he's Pujols, and because of his past excellence, he's entitled. I think the exact opposite, that because he's Pujols, with his talent and history, admiring a golfed shot, after constantly complaining that the home run drought was not a big deal and he wasn't trying to hit them, is beneath him.
posted by justgary at 10:02 PM on May 07, 2012
Manchester City did the job today - at first blush bringing on de Jong for Nasri doesn't seem like a way to get a goal, but de Jong totally frees up Yaya Toure and that turned out to be worth two goals.
It's "only" Swansea, but the pressure's on United now.