That'll Work, Too

In my war-to-the-death (figuratively speaking, of course) against baseball by launch angle and pitching matchups, I forgot about another weapon to employ.  My thanks to Kevin Pillar of the Blue Jays.

In a one-run game against the Yankees (best team of this century if not others, blah-blah-blah), Pillar singled in the bottom of the eighth inning and proceeded to steal his way around the bases to an insurance run.  The throw home by reliever Dellin Betances was a textbook example of how not to do it.

Pillar reminded me that Jackie Robinson stole home in the first game of the 1955 World Series.  Although the Dodgers lost that game 6-5, they won the series in seven games, which makes me go, Hmm.  Having the opposition steal home has to demoralize a team bigtime.

Consider that Robinson did it 19 times and Lou Gehrig 15 times.  Yes ,you read that right.  “The Iron Horse” stole home 15 times to go with his 493 homeruns.  How incredibly depressing that must’ve been for the opposition, to have the big guy beat you with his legs as well as his bat.   Or having to deal with Robinson’s antics on the base paths as well as the power of Duke Snider, Gil Hodges and Carl Furillo

Now, imagine teams today having to deal with a steady diet of knuckleballers and base stealers.  Everything old would be new again.