Steve, would you then consider Mo clutch? I mean, he is the best regular season and post-season closer, but also is responsible for the Yankees not winning two World Series. I guess he became less clutch after 2000, right? He forgot how to be clutch?

Look, I love Tim Kurkjian, but this article is total ESPN horsesh*t, likely required to be written by his editor.

I mean, how do you write this stuff?? The lockers are too big? Seriously??!! That’s our new sabr stat? Locker size?? How does that correlate to OPS+?

Just curious.

You had to bring up Luis Gonzalez, didn’t you?

OK, now I have to go throw up.
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My bad, I meant to say Luis Sojo

~~You must be playing devil’s advocate or something.~~

Just a tad.

Different teams. Different eras. There is no one formula for winning. The ’09 team sure looks like it will get to the playoffs. Then it’s pitching, pitching, pitching mixed in with a bit of a crapshoot.

Steve, you may have lost me forever with your comments on flying for your life in war conditions versus batting in the World Series. Unbelievable. You must be playing devil’s advocate or something.

And give me a break. Tino, Brosius, and O’Neill were a lot of fun to watch and good players, but they did not possess any mythical clutch abilities. Far from it. Frankly, Tino struck out the pitch before his famous World Series grand slam but the ump blew it. Was that clutch?

Uhhh…Ted Williams was a Marine Corps fighter pilot, not an infantryman.

He eventually flew 38 combat missions in the Korean War. The last half of them was as wingman for a pilot a little more famous for “flying”: John Glenn. That’s how good a pilot Ted Williams was; he got to be wingman for John Glenn.

Now a wingman is not exactly alone, but if he has to break off an go after an enemy plane, that’s as “one-on-one” as it gets, and with somewhat more pressure, and considerably more to lose, than batter vs. pitcher, even in the World Series.

You had to bring up Luis Gonzalez, didn’t you?

OK, now I have to go throw up.

In baseball, if you screw the PA, no one on the team can help you at that moment.
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1962 World Series game 7. Bottom of the 9th, tying run on third, winning run on second, Willie McCovey hits a line drive ticketed to right field. Problem is, Bobby Richardson is in the way.

McCovey, who was coming off a season where he hit .293-.368-.590 did what he was supposed to do; hit the ball & hit it hard. He did that and had nothing to show for it.

2008 World Series, game 6. Fernando Perez running for Dioner Navarro who singled. Perez steals second, while Ben Zobrist is hitting. Zobrist hits a liner directly @ Jayson Werth playing RF. Zobrist, coming off a season where he hit .253-.339-.505 did what he was supposed to do; hit the ball & hit it hard. He did that and had nothing to show for it.

We can come up with a bunch of scenarios where a player hit the ball hard, and had nothing to show for it, or a player hit a ball softly and reached base because of a fielding error (Mookie Wilson), or because of a well placed hit (Luis Gonzalez). Doesn’t mean they pooched the PA.

But, in the 1-on-1 batter/pitcher match-up, as the batter, the pressure is 100% on you, and you alone, to come through – whereas with the war, the pressure to win the battle does not sit on one man’s shoulder’s alone. Yes, one is life and death and the other is a game. But, in terms of having to execute your “moves” (for lack of a better term), in the battle, you can totally screw up and be protected by the rest of your unit. In baseball, if you screw the PA, no one on the team can help you at that moment.