The Pecan Park Eagle

Bill Gilbert offered up another of his masterful summaries to the PPE yesterday. This one comes in the form of the title Bill gave it: “World Series 2012 Observations.” I’ll kick in a few of my own reflections at the end, but please feel free to add your World Series comments too in the section provided below.

World Series 2012 Observations by Bill Gilbert, Rogers Hornsby Chapter, SABR, Austin

With the success that Marco Scutaro has had with his short stroke, will other hitters follow suit? Not likely. Chicks still dig the long ball.

If Lasagna is nature’s perfect food (according to Garfield) then Matt Cain is nature’s perfect pitcher. Durable, no wasted motion, works quickly and commands his pitches.

For the third straight year, no Eastern Division team was in the World Series.

Are razors not allowed in Clubhouses?

Has anyone ever had worse looking facial hair than Hunter Pence?

Can Tim McCarver make a point without repeating it 3 or 4 times?

The turning point in the series was when Verlander got hammered in Game 1.

Were Miguel Cabrera and Avasail Garcia separated at birth?

Bruce Bochy must be a great manager if he can win with Ryan Theriot as designated hitter.

Why does the National League keep winning the World Series (3 straight years) but gets killed in Inter-League play?

This was a textbook example of winning with pitching and defense.

I agree with Bill Gilbert pretty much down the line …

… Where the length of baseball hits is concerned, “size matters” to Chicks.

… If Matt Cain of the Giants is nature’s perfect pitcher, Jose Valverde of the Tigers is nature’s perfect storm.

… Like a lot of fans, I don’t give a flip that this is the third straight year that we have been forced to watch a World Series that did not include an Eastern team representative.

… Razors should not be allowed in the managerial dressing quarters of the Houston Astros manager for the next 3 to 5 years and only then reviewed for its continuing need as a prohibitive disaster policy.

… Can Tim McCarver make a point without repeating it 3 or 4 times, I say “No. No. No. … And No.”

… Right again, Mr. Gilbert. – This Series was never over until it started.”

… Cabrera and Garcia probably are twins who were separated at birth. My question is: Are we ever going to find a way to separate Bud Selig from baseball in our lifetime? Among his many dumb decisions, I think I hate the “winner of the All Star Game gets home field advantage in the World Series” rule the most.

… You want to know why Bruce Bochy is such a winner? He’s really Rumpelstiltskin – a guy who takes rookies, freaks, rag arms, weird beards, pandas, and marginals – and weaves them together into solid gold winning thread.

… The NL is the money ball league when the games really count in the World Series. During the regular season, the AL gets to feast on clubs like the Astros and Cubs and against the good NL clubs that only play hard when it is all on the line for titles and big paydays.

… That Tiger-clubbing Panda did things with his bat in Game One that made it a lot easier for the Giants to climb the beanstalk on good pitching and tight defense the rest of the way.

… For the second year in a row, a significant former Astro has picked up a World Series Championship ring. Hunter Pence of the 2012 Giants now joins Lance Berkman of the 2011 Cardinals in that rarified company of those who had to leave Houston to gain baseball’s biggest prize.

… As for Bill Gilbert’s question, “Has anyone ever had worse looking facial hair than Hunter Pence?”, I’ll conclude today by answering with a photo:

A THE A … A THE A … A THE A … A THE A … A … THAT’S ALL, FOLKS!!!!