Help on dropped 3rd strike

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by Welpe

That's a relief...and I'm still not bitter from the 2002 World Series at all...

There's this pal-o-mine, who's been waiting all his life for the Giants to win. He was their batboy for years, and is still friends with guys like both Willies, Vida, Madlock, Jack Clark, Darrell Evans, et.al. He's as insane a Giants fan as there can be.

When Bonds overran that flare down the line in Game 6, and with that Little League maneuver of his, tried to pick it up with his glove and dropped it, and allowed Anderson to get to second, resulting in the go-ahead run being in scoring position, necessitating his playing shallow for Glaus, who dropped a fly ball behind him and opened the door for the Angels' comeback and win ... man! After that game, my bud reacted the same way I did after the Donnie Moore debacle 16 years earlier: I-know-it's-not-over-but-there's-no-way-we'll-win-after-this. He was despondent before Game 7 was even played.

It is fittingly wonderful, however, that Bonds--a guy who literally dominated an entire season and post-season offensively--would make a Little League defensive blunder that would directly cost his team the World Series. All the juice in the world won't help you make a fundamental effort on defense. And defense preserves leads. They needed a complete player out there, not some Herculean slugger who doesn't put out.

There are baseball gods, and they were at work in that one.