milwaukeebeers44

http://sports.espn.go.com/minorlbb/n...ory?id=2500470

Did anyone else see this? Bet this tirade made Lou Pinella blush. . .

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“You always try to know what you need, try to manage the game given the game situation, ... and I think that's one of the things that Tom does best.” - Bill Belichick


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Mike the Brit

"Berserk" isn't the word for this guy. He's not out of control. As he says, he didn't hit anybody. Nor, I imagine, did he just scream the f-word over and over. He seems to have been pretty pleased with himself afterwards. He also tried some smart-mouth one-liners, but from what I can see, he's not in the Jerry Glanville league.

To an outsider (I don't know much about baseball) it's like some kind of ritualized infantile tantrum. Weird.

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My prized possessions: Our family pictures; my dad and me getting doused by Bruschi in Super Bowl XXXIX [Shalize Manza Young Up Close with ... Bill Belichick]


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They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, Pats fans should be invincible by now. [Fitzy, 16 November 2009]

Still here to learn

Clonamery

Mike,

in baseball on every pitch there is a call. There are 54 outs in the game. There are a lot of plays in the field. Or sometimes a team is in a funk......some managers use the 'tantrum' to get their own players attention or get the Umpires' attention or both. Some managers plan their attack and others just react out of instinct or frustration.

I kind of like this particular display; it's a heck of a lot better than all the flopping and fake pain that goes on in the World Cup (say Portugal, for instance....ooo, and I hate that team now. England had better play well and kick their sweetbread arses back to Lisbon).

Mike the Brit

Clonamery,

Those are very good points. It's all about the conventions and rituals of the particular game.

Cricket, which is not unlike baseball in the number of plays (actually, there can be over 500 balls delivered in a day) and the build-up between them has a different culture. The players and the umpires are usualy on very friendly terms (managers aren't allowed on the pitch or to communicate with with players; decisions during play are made by the captain in consultation with other players). On the other hand, intimidation of one player by another is part of the game (bowlers can aim to hit the batsman) and there are (usually) well-understood limits for what fielders can say to batters (no swearing, no threats of violence, but denigration of the batsman's courage and/or ability are OK). Mostly it is good-natured and funny. The world experts are the Australians (no surprise!)

The contrast with soccer is spot on. The play-acting and pantomiming there are intensely irritating. There are different aspects. When a player (genuinely) has been fouled, he will often go to ground more theatrically than necessary just to make the foul clear. That is pretty universal. Most fans accept it, although I can't say I like it. Call me old-fashioned!

Beyond that, there is pretending to have suffered a foul when there wasn't one. This is disgusting and very widespread. Referees are under instruction to book players who do this, but any player who is any good at it (and the players in the World Cup are mostly very, very good) can do it in a way that is hard to detect. When a forward is advancing into the penalty area, the defender is bound to make a last-ditch tackle and the difference between a small touch -- enough to unbalance a man running at top speed -- and no touch at all is very small. But that is what referees are paid for. I'm afraid that they often don't do a very good job. [Edit: the referee in the Brazil-Ghana game has just booked Adriano for doing this. Excellent! It was a pretty blatant dive, but referees are often intimidated by Brazil and go easy on them (Brazil is everyone's second-favourite team!)]

Then, finally, there are players pressuring referees to book or send off opponents. This is what makes all the old professionals -- who generally have a laugh when they see a really wild tackle -- truly angry. I agree. Intimidating the referee ought to be a bookable offence itself.

Anyway, we saw all of those in Portugal-Holland -- not all from Portugal, but more than enough. So my sympathies for Portugal have gone.

__________________
My prized possessions: Our family pictures; my dad and me getting doused by Bruschi in Super Bowl XXXIX [Shalize Manza Young Up Close with ... Bill Belichick]


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They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, Pats fans should be invincible by now. [Fitzy, 16 November 2009]

Still here to learn

milwaukeebeers44

And baseball is no exception. While a manager is expected to argue close calls (except on balls and strikes), they rarely go so far as that guy did. Occasionally, a manager will get his panties in a bunch, start spouting off at the mouth, throw down his cap and get tossed. What this guy did was way beyond ANYTHING I've ever seen by a baseball manager (which is why it got so much attention)! Lou Pinella is famous for his tirades, but this guy made him look tame.

__________________
“You always try to know what you need, try to manage the game given the game situation, ... and I think that's one of the things that Tom does best.” - Bill Belichick


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Clonamery

Billy Martin was an artist.

Mike the Brit

I think I actually saw Billy Martin. Did he manage the Oakland As at one time? My memory is of a guy who was thin enough that he could actually run out onto the field. Some of the other managers were strictly at jogging speed!

__________________
My prized possessions: Our family pictures; my dad and me getting doused by Bruschi in Super Bowl XXXIX [Shalize Manza Young Up Close with ... Bill Belichick]


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They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, Pats fans should be invincible by now. [Fitzy, 16 November 2009]

Still here to learn

Mike the Brit

Yes indeed -- brings it home to me that moving to the U.S. will be an exercise in field anthropology in a foreign culture. Sports are fascinating in that way.

By the way, do you know Dublin? If not, I can recommend a couple of bars for a celebration drink.

__________________
My prized possessions: Our family pictures; my dad and me getting doused by Bruschi in Super Bowl XXXIX [Shalize Manza Young Up Close with ... Bill Belichick]


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They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, Pats fans should be invincible by now. [Fitzy, 16 November 2009]

Still here to learn

Clonamery

Yes, and the Yankees. I think he was fired 5 different times by George Steinbrenner.

Clonamery

Mike,

Recommend the bars in Dublin.........

I have always been too down on running the Dublin Marathon simply because I don't sleep when I go to Ireland and drink and eat like I was raised on stout and pork and have been at sea for 12 years.

Cheers.