Did you happen to catch JoPo's article in the Star this morning? If not, it was something of an ode to Buddy Bell, asserting that Bell had won a, get this, "battle of wits" over presiding baseball genius Tony LaRussa in last night's ballgame. It's a little more complicated than this, but basically JoPo suggests that BB outwitted TLR by bringing in right hander Joel Peralta to pitch to righty Ryan Ludwick in the ninth, after closer Octavio Dotel had already blown the Royals one-run lead. The checkmate was made all the more brilliant by the fact that LaRussa had just pinch hit Ludwick for Skip Schumacher, a lefty, in order to set up a righty-lefty matchup with pitcher Jimmy Gobble, whom BB promptly replaced with Peralta. Long story short, the matchup worked out, a marathon baseball game ensued, and the Royals eventually lost on a HR in the bottom of the fourteenth to none other than...Ryan Ludwick (JoPo had finished his column before this came to fruition).
I love Joe Posnanski, and I truly believe he is the best baseball writer in America. That being said, he really missed the boat on this one, and I'm beginning to wonder if he's on a personal mission to save BB's job. See, BB always goes with that righty-righty, lefty-lefty BS, and it fails just as often, and perhaps more often, than it succeeds. He is a robot that way, as is genius-in-residence TLR. In fact, baseball managers in general overdo that crap, and it's one of my many problems with baseball managers. Last night BB's mechanical approach to the game happened to work for a while, and TLR's happened to fail for a while. Next time, it could just as easily reverse.
Oh, and one more thing: Dayton, please fire Buddy Bell! I'm available and more than happy to accept the position of manager of the Kansas City Royals. I promise to set and keep a consistent lineup, play the best players available, and not bunt until the eighth inning. Think it over.
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