The View From Wisconsin

It's a day later, and I still do not understand why the heck Carlo$ Beltran took strike three.

There are a lot of unwritten rules in baseball - don't make the third out at third base, don't steal when you're up by more than four runs late, don't showboat around the bases after you hit one out.

But you would think that the situation would demand that you at least swing at the next pitch. Consider:

• Game seven of the playoffs,
  
• bottom of the ninth,
• two outs
  
• down by three runs,
• the bases are loaded,
• the umpire has been giving opposing pitchers the black of the plate (and, some would argue, both dugouts) for the strike zone

Your job, with two outs and two strikes, is to protect the plate. You learn that all the way back in little league baseball, for cryin' out loud.

I hope that Willie Randolph dressed him down in private, either last night or this morning. He can have high batting averages, he can have gaudy HR and RBI numbers... but this is just downright DUMB.

Labels: carlos beltran new york mets swing strike three