[bozlax]

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however, no hugs for pinella. nice move pulling zambrano before his spot came up. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

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Meh, I was hearing this same argument on the radio this morning. Zambrano was already at 85 pitches (Sweet Lou had said he was pulling him at 100, anyway), and had struggled in the previous inning. Unless he had a very unlikely 1-2-3 inning, he was getting pulled in the middle of the next inning, anyway, maybe with runners on base, so Lou made the move at the beginning of the inning...and he's always preferred to switch pitchers at the beginning of an inning.

This is like Bosucks fans blaming Buckner for losing the '86 Series, and Cubs fans blaming Bartman for '03. Picking out one action in a nine inning game in a 5 or 7 game series is just whining.

Speaking of Bartman, I heard an interesting thesis the other morning on ESPN Radio, that went like this: their shabby treatment of Bartman since '03 shows Cubs fans to be poor baseball fans (they've basically ruined this guy's life for not knowing enough to let Alou play the ball, despite the fact that everybody in his section was also going for the ball, and despite the fact that that one play just can't be reasonably called the cause of the evental collapse), who don't deserve a Series victory. What say you?

(In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a lifelong Mets fan. I'm about as bitter as an unripe persimmon these days.)