Saturday, October 17, 2009

The baseball analogy might be Reggie Jackson hitting a bird

Okay, the NLCS last night just stunk. I watched a couple of early innings (since when can an "elite" offense not hit Vicente freakin' Padilla?), as well as about an hour of the bottom of the eighth. All you need to know about this game, and about the detritus that is modern postseason baseball, is that this hour did not represent the entirety of the half-inning.

So I'll post about soccer instead. Under the "truth is stranger than fiction" tag, as well as "you see something new and crazy all the time":

Liverpool playing at Sunderland, first few minutes... Sunderland takes a shot from about 15 yards out, straight in front of the goal but with a few defenders around. It's a kinda weak shot, headed straight for the keeper for an easy save. BUT WAIT! A balloon was on the pitch. "A rogue balloon, dispatched by the spectators," was sitting on the ground near the Liverpool goal. This shot ricocheted off of the balloon, changing its path just enough to get past the goalkeeper.

Now, I don't know enough about soccer rules to know what is supposed to happen here, but I doubt this situation is covered in your normal official's clinic. Apparently the goal stands -- that certainly makes the most sense, even though Liverpool could be justifiably angry at the unfortunate and unlucky situation.

The commentator was excoriating the Liverpool defense, saying that they "should have stomped on the balloon so that it could not impact play." Huh? You really want your fullbacks trying to catch a slippery balloon rather than mark their men? I mean, I would have a word for the Sunderland event management, who allowed the balloon to get on the pitch to begin with. (To take the argument ab absurdio, an unscrupulous team could deliberately release balloons when their offense makes a run on goal.)

Could the referee have stopped the Sunderland attack if he had noticed the balloon? Should he have? (I'm guessing not.) Have you ever seen something like this before?

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