But they have lost many games this year where they had small leads. It takes fieriness and urgenciness to maintain leads and close out wins.
Last night I was up cheering and going nuts when Berkman showed some fire and Lee showed some fire and when Garner called the ump out I was freaking yelling hell yes! Look I have never been a Garner guy but this club ever since the Bagwell-Biggio era began lacked fire IMO. We have had far to few flashy players who can give you an edge. Atleast Phil shows some emotion from time to time. In 2004, while we were still "boring" we had Roger who is intense as can be plus a cocky Beltran who along with a confident Berkman just killed other pitchers. I am so glad Pence is up because he playes with flair and emotion, now if we can get a Backe healthy and add another piece here and there that comes from that mold than maybe just maybe things will balance out with the others who's mindset is this is a game where you can't get too high or too low and just come to play them one at a time.
even though phil "lost it", i still thought he was rather polite about it. seeing berkman go apesh*t was hilarious. i wish they still did the 'leave a message for lance' bit on the morning show.
Did you want him to go Pinella on the ump? What purpose does that serve? he got fired up and made his point. There's no reason to take it any further than that.
i wouldnt have minded a little dirt kicking, or base stealing..or tossing some crap on the field like berkman did. If youre going to get tossed, go all out i figure.
I thought Garner was an inning too late. Once he saw Berkman barking at the 3b ump, he should've been on the field. Most managers would have kept their past all-star in the game by jumping in long before Garner did. It was good to see the team getting riled up, but this is mostly an exciting thing for the fans, not something that wins or loses ballgames. This is baseball. Getting mad won't help you hit the ball harder or pitch it better. That's just fans and media hyperbolising. Garner did his usual job of stinky management. Biggio batting 1st on the road against a rightie is plain stupid. Biggio playing against a rightie on the road is plain stupid.
Oh c'mon. Watch the replay. Blaming Gar for this is just silly. If you want to criticize anyone/anything about last nights game: 1. Berkman is a complete dumbass for leaving the clubhouse. Dumb. Ass. This should surprise no one. 2. The douche pitcher for the Rockies has had something going on with Lee going back to the WBC (they both played for Panama). Someone on the Rockies will get dotted soon, maybe not this series, maybe the next. It will be handled on the field. I'm sure that the Rockies, especially Holliday/Helton/Hawpe, are really happy that this idiot decided to let personal stuff come into play in a 1-run game.
I will watch the replay when I get home, but when I was watching it live I kept saying to myself where is Garner or another coach. It was obvious the ump was saying don't come here and it was equally obvious Lance was going to go down the line. Since Lance finally got another double I thought it was an inopportune time for him to get tossed.
yeah, i was thinking that phil was going to get tossed as well, but i guess he felt that was 'lance's time'
Maybe Garner wanted Lance to loose his cool and get fired up. Possibly Lance doesn't understand this or it finally clicked in his head that he needs to step up and be the leader of this club house whether he's hitting or not. Even when Bagwell was injured all of 05, he was still our leader. I don't think players would believe Biggio as a leader anymore since his job is now handed to him and some might be upset inside about him detracting their playing time. Clemens was an instant leader when playing with us since the rest of the team was in such awe of him. I just don't think anyone has stepped up since Bags to be an everyday leader. Roy probably doesn't speak his mind or he'd be bashing most the hitters. Forget the coach, an everyday player has to play team Capitan even if we don't officially have one with a C on their uniform, if so i never noticed. That's the spark we're missing and no manager can fill that void.
Watch the replay on astros.com. The 3rd base ump threw him out well, well before Berkman got anywhere near him.
