Newton’s First Law of Motion: Once something is in motion, it usually stays that way until something really messes up its course.
Baseball is a game of patterns, and streaks. Seattle knows all about streaks, since it basically is the streakiest team in baseball. But it’s true, in essence, of every team. It’s also a game of contagion. Errors or mistakes (that may not be counted officially as errors, though you KNOW your players could’ve done better on that ground ball…) often come in pairs or series. The Angels are definitely a team of contagion, where most of their runs come in packages of two or three, and if one strikes out, the next two outs tend to follow shortly. As far as streaks go, the Angels just finally ended a 13-game streak in which they only earned four or less runs per game. It took beating a division rival team stuck 13.5 games back to snap the streak. Luckily for the Angels, they were also 9-4 in that period, so it very little affected them, thanks to the great pitching as of late. They also had a streak of about a week where nearly every game ended in a walk-off. First, it was Anderson’s walk-off walk. Talk about the most exciting ending to a baseball game… zZzZz… and then it was Rivera’s walk-off single, Junior’s walk-off single, and my personal favorite, Kendrick’s getting beaned and Maicer’s subsequent walk-off single. Really, that’s all Kendrick is good for – getting beaned. Sure, it makes for very exciting baseball – to win by a run, or to win in the bottom of the ninth with two out and the bases loaded. But after a week of the same thing every game, it starts getting to my stress levels. STOP IT ALREADY!
Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal, and opposite, reaction.
My favorite example of this involves big daddy Vladdy. Vlad knows that pitchers are going to do their best to fool him at the plate. They pitch all over the freaking place to get to him, and of course, it doesn’t help that Vlad is quite probably the best crap-ball hitter in the history of all that is baseball, ever. He can hit’em low and away, low and in, high and outside, straight down the middle… hell, he can golf them out of the dirt even after they’ve bounced in front of the plate. And a lot of times, these crappy pitches, granted contact made, are leaving the park in a hurry. The only place you might fool Vlad is high and tight. He may swing at them, he may not – it’s really up to you, pitcher. Do you want to go there? Santana, in an interview post-game, matched my sentiments exactly. He said, there aren’t many times that a pitcher throws and Vlad’s head and makes it out of the inning without a home run charged to their stat collection. It’s a rare deal. Consider yourself lucky if you get him swinging. Tip: Don’t throw at Vlad’s head; it pisses him off. And you will pay in runs allowed. The End.
Law of Gravity: What goes up, must come down.
As a side note, that may or may not be related here, something needs to be done about the maple bats. In a word, they suck. Four broken bats a game at least, on the average, and most of them come early in the game, or in times when a real hit would matter (as in, the bat breaks with runners in scoring position and two outs, and the freaking inning ends because the bat kills the rotation of the ball). What is it going to take before a change is made? Who’s going to have to die? A woman was hit in the face (THE FACE!) at Dodger stadium when a bat went up – and came down – in the stands, causing her to seek medical attention, which resulted in jaw surgery. That’s just unnecessary.
Maintaining a lead is very difficult, especially one that is marginal, and especially for an extended amount of time. This does not mean it’s impossible. Some leaders are always leaders. It was expected that Boston would be a contender this year. It was expected that Johan Santana be one of the best pitchers in baseball this season. But it doesn’t always last, or stay that way. Just look at Detroit. They were expected to be incredible this year. I know I’ve talked about this before, but look at what happened. They went straight down the toilet to begin with. Luckily for them, they’ve been able to somewhat do the converse (what goes down must come up? Not necessarily, but in this case it’s true). Each team will have its share of minor, or major, ups and downs. Those who are hot now, may not be so hot later. Teams that win now may not win later. But hopefully, that word “consistency” will factor in for the teams we love. As Angels’ fans, we’re all, personally, praying that Oakland finally goes on its major plunge. And I’m sure Boston is more than certain that Tampa Bay will take a huge dive too. But you just never know in this sport.
Law of Conservation: No matter what form you change something into, it always maintains the same amount of whatever it was in the original state.
In an applicable manner: a win is a win, no matter how the heck you got it. Sure, we’d all love to watch our favorite teams win on some game-winning Grand Slam, or by some huge margin of 22-7 in which our favorite teams hit the ball all over the place and score a bunch of crazy runs. But it doesn’t always come that way. Sometimes it comes on a 3-2 win, in which all the runs came in the first two or three innings, and both teams are completely blanked the rest of the way. Sometimes it’s a 1-0 win, and it finally gets decided by someone’s stupid error, allowing the runners to advance on a while pitch, or a lousy walk. It happens. Don’t complain about it – a win is a win. So? GA got a walk-off walk. Though I’d rather watch someone get a base hit to drive in the winning run, or watch someone smash it over the wall with the bases loaded and two outs, I’ll take the walk-off walk any day. It all goes into the same column, right under the W.
Third Law of Thermodynamics: Absolute zero cannot be reached.
This is definitely true for baseball, no matter how bad someone may be doing. I thought we may see it this season, I was really hoping we’d see an 0-162 season, but dang it they just had to get that 1-11 win. It’s almost impossible to lose every game, just as it’s almost impossible to win every game. It’s just such a long season. So don’t stress if your player has gone 0-13 in the last few games – it won’t last. Vlad’s current record has become a major concern in this area. He’s not been hitting so spectacularly this season. In fact, it’s been his slowest start to date. On AM 830 today, I was listening, as I was driving home, to a few callers discuss their view on Vlad’s season. The first caller brought up the question of Vlad’s seeming deterioration as a player. Of course, age is always an issue, and with age comes aging. His back and his hips and his knees have definitely been showing signs of his aging. But really, I don’t think it’s these things that have been the major cause of Vlad’s slumping. Sure, it has some part in it, but what I think Vlad’s problem is, is his own mentality. He wants to hit the crap out of the ball, and you can see it in the huge, hard swings he’s been making. Problem is, he’s swinging at just about everything, indiscriminately. And despite the fact that he’s the best crap-ball hitter in baseball, he’d be better off at this point not thinking so hard about being the hero and the home run hitter, and just focus on watching for a pitch he can contact indefinitely. The caller also said something about these factors possibly leading to the use of Vlad as “trade bate.” I really can’t see Moreno or Reagins or any one else seriously considering trading Vlad. They still speak so highly of him and I see that they truly believe he’ll come out of it and save the day, and be a force in their play-off run this season. He’s going to have to come back with a strong second half. And so, all of this to say, Vlad’s slump for now will be a temporary thing, and he’ll get out of it as soon as he comes back from his little knee-induced vacation.
Theory of Relativity: E=MC2
… yeah I don’t know how this fits either. Whatever.
If only it was E = (MC)2, then it could be Total Errors for Detroit = (innings Miguel Cabrera plays at first or third)2
If only…
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