[NU Sports] Joe Girardi

[NEONRye at aol.com]

Chuck,
 
I know that Tony LaRussa is a (fellow) lawyer, and Joe G.'s style is  
evocative of LaR's (lots of pitching changes, etc.).  I have always liked  
Girardi (as a player first), but his reliance on the "book" was too rigid  here.  
Baseball is, at its core, a game where sometimes you need to go with  your 
"gut".  And my "gut" told me (and everyone else watching, I daresay)  that 
David Robertson had the stuff and the heart to keep getting outs.  He  has 
risen in these playoffs, and I can't understand why Girardi refused to ride  
the "hot hand".  If he wanted to take him out after the inning, I could  have 
understood that--maybe--since Robertson had arm trouble in late  
August-early September.  But this nonsense about match-ups makes no sense  to me.  Good 
pitching (a heater of 95 coupled with a very good "hook")  trumps hitting, 
especially in the post-season, and even more specifically, when  you are 
talking about the eighth and ninth hitters in the lineup.   Moreover, it's not 
like Aceves is Cy Young or anything.
 
Paul Levinson