Why I Love Baseball, Part 10

There's no clock in baseball.  Baseball games end when they're good and ready.  In the NBA, most games are going to have 48 minutes of action.  Some will have 53, 58, or any solution for y to the equation y = 48 + 5x where x is a non-negative integer (the greatest value for x in NBA history was 6, I know, you were told there'd be no math).  Football and hockey games have 60 minutes of action unless there's overtime.  I love that a baseball game doesn't depend on a clock.  A baseball game has nine innings, each inning with two halves, and each half inning has three outs.  Excluding games that are called due to rain once the game has become official (after four and a half innings), a game might last eight and a half innings, it might last nine innings, or it might last 19 innings.

The game last night between the Angels and A's went until 1:41 in the morning on the west coast.  That's 49 minutes before I woke up this morning.  If the Dodgers had been involved, I probably would have fallen asleep around 2:00 Eastern.  But if it was a big game at the end of the season, I probably would have stayed up for the whole thing and then slept for like an hour.

I remember the Mets and Cardinals playing 20 innings three years ago.  The good thing about that game was that it was on a Saturday.  I definitely didn't watch that whole game, but I probably watched at least the last five innings.  The Mets used 24 of their 25 players.  Mike Pelfrey (normally a starting pitcher) got the save.  National League games are much more fun because you get double switching and you can end up with the pitcher's spot in the order at a very random spot.  When you get a game like that, you just have to figure out who can do what for your team until the game is ready to end.  You might end up with guys playing positions they aren't used to playing and position players pitching.

I've said that Bud Selig has been mostly good for baseball.  The worst thing that he did as commissioner was not get a grip on the steroid problem in baseball earlier than he did.  The second worst thing he did was ending the 2002 All Star Game in a tie because the teams were out of players (besides Ryan Braun being a cheater, that's the other thing I thought about when I went to Miller Park).  You know what happens in baseball if the teams are out of players?  They keep playing until somebody wins.  Baseball games take care of themselves.  They don't need Bud Selig or a clock to tell them when the game is over.

There's something to not caring about the clock.  My whole life revolves around the clock.  I get up at 5:30 during the week.  My school day starts at 8:00 and goes until 3:00ish.  I schedule my evenings and weekends around the start times of sporting events.  But this summer, I don't care what the clock says.  I'm looking forward to not caring about what time it is (other than the start time of baseball games).  It will be nice to not have to care about the time for two months.  And that's the way baseball always is.

One Year Later

I started the blog a year ago.  The original idea was to blog about what I'd be doing for a year without a job.  Of course, I started a little early.  Then I got a job, so I decided to keep the Year of Jim going for an indefinite amount of time.  So let's review of some things I've done and some updates to some previous posts.

I wanted to get to as many states and baseball stadiums as possible.  I got to four new states in the last year (Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and Wisconsin) and I saw 15 baseball games in 10 different stadiums (seven that I hadn't been to before) in the last year.  There's a good chance that I'll never go to Wyoming again, so I'm glad I crossed that off the list.  I could see going to Arizona, Colorado, and Wisconsin again at some point.  I recently ranked the stadiums.  Since then I was at Miller Park, which I have ranked 13th of the 17 stadiums I've been to.

In my first blog post, I mentioned some things I was definitely doing and some things that I hoped to do.  I hoped to see Notre Dame play in Ireland, go to the entire Big East Tournament, and go to 2013 Opening Day.  I made it to Ireland, which was my first trip out of the country.  I went to Opening Day in Los Angeles and it was awesome.  I couldn't go to the entire Big East Tournament because of work, but I got to four games.

I went to four football games including the National Championship Game and 11 basketball games including the first round of the NCAA Tournament.  The National Championship Game was obviously disappointing, but I'm glad I went.  I don't know if I'll get to go again because the next time Notre Dame gets there, planning it could be very difficult with only a week or a week and a half to figure out arrangements with the College Football Playoff starting with the 2014 season.  So hopefully Notre Dame gets back in the final season before the playoff and I can get to the National Championship Game in the Rose Bowl in January 2014.  As for the NCAA Tournament, I'm glad I did it once, but part of the fun of the tournament is sitting on the couch and watching as many games as possible.  I did get to see a big upset, but it wasn't the one I was hoping for.

Last May, I posted about the Sam Adams summer variety pack and how disappointing it is every year.  They made some changes, including taking my suggestion of a blueberry beer.  I had to do the side by side taste test featuring the reigning champion of blueberry beers, Blue Point Blueberry Ale, taking on the challenger and favorite, Samuel Adams Blueberry Hill Lager. Your winner, and still blueberry beer champion of the world, Blue Point Blueberry Ale!  It was a stunning upset.  I was planning on bumping Blue Point Blueberry Ale from my Beer Power Rankings in favor of the Sam Adams Blueberry Hill Lager, but Blueberry Ale holds onto its spot.  The other changes to the Sam Adams Beers of Summer pack were positive.  Porch Rocker came out last year, but was added in the variety pack this year.  It's a lemonade beer, which is good and definitely belongs in the summer pack.  Little White Rye is the other new addition and it's solid.  But between the disappointment of the blueberry and keeping Belgian Session (it has to be the worst Sam Adams beer I've had, it's like the beer is angry at your mouth), it's still not worth it.  I still have one Belgian Session to drink and I'm not looking forward to it.  I drink by mood, so I'll drink that if the Celtics get eliminated from the playoffs.  I'm not giving the summer variety pack another try next year unless they get rid of the Belgian Session.

But some good news for Sam Adams, their Summer Ale remains undefeated.  I bought a six pack of Goose Island Summertime after hearing good things last year.  It's fine, but it's no Summer Ale.  I've tried summer beers from Sam Adams, Harpoon, Brooklyn, Blue Point, and Goose Island (I might have forgotten something also), and Sam Adams Summer Ale has won the championship every summer.  I would rank the Brooklyn Summer Ale second.

And I mentioned my Beer Power Rankings.  I included Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55 even though I had never had it before.  I needed to fix that.  It's staying in my rankings and jumping Coors Light for the number 9 spot.  It's nothing special, but it has my favorite name of all the beers that I drink.  Whenever I finally get to enjoy watching the Dodgers win the World Series (hopefully this year), that's definitely what I'll be drinking to celebrate.

So where do I go from here?  I'm a little frustrated because I can't really figure out what to do.  I have to get to some games in some stadiums that I haven't been to yet, but I don't have anything planned right now.  I think I'm going to England this summer, but I haven't booked the trip yet.  Hopefully I'll get that taken care of and then I can start to figure out what else to do.  I would really like to get to Gettysburg and Cooperstown this summer.  Also, the Long Island Ducks have been around since 2000 and I've never been to a Ducks game.  I want to go to one this summer.  In the fall, I'd like to get to at least three Notre Dame games, including the game at Cowboys Stadium.  Perhaps I could include a trip to the George W. Bush Presidential Library in that trip.  And I want to get to an Islanders game at Nassau Coliseum before they move to the Barclays Center.

I've done a lot in the last year, but I still have a lot more to do.  If anybody wants to get in on Gettysburg, Cooperstown, or any baseball trips, let me know.

Cold Beer, Cold Baseball

I went with my dad to Dodgers-Mets last night.  It was the fourth time I've seen Clayton Kershaw in person (twice in New York, once in Washington, once in Los Angeles) and it was his worst performance in those games.  He wasn't terrible, but his pitch count got too high and he left after allowing two runs in five innings and took a no decision.  The Dodgers scored one run stranded some runners early on against Jon Niese.  Mark Ellis knocked him out of the game in the third inning when he hit him on the leg with a line drive.  My dad wanted Niese to stay in the game because he hadn't been particularly sharp, but I looked up the Mets' bullpen ERA and found out it was 5.12 going into last night's game.  With the Dodgers trailing 2-1 in the fifth, Mark Ellis tied the game with a solo home run.  In the seventh inning, Ellis hit another home run to give the Dodgers a 5-2 lead and they never looked back, winning by a final score of 7-2.  Other than Mark Ellis, it won't be that memorable of a game, but the Dodgers improved to 4-0 when Clayton Kershaw starts with Jim in attendance.

Our view from section 415

The day reminded me of the Dodger-Met doubleheader I went to three years ago (almost exactly, it was April 27, 2010).  I was really excited for my first doubleheader.  I took the train from work in Valley Stream and got there in the second inning and met my dad.  I was surprised that they were playing a true doubleheader rather than one of those split doubleheaders.  It was fairly warm that day, like high 50s.  I figured it would be colder at night so I dressed warmly, or so I thought.  I wore the jacket I would wear when it's like 40 degrees outside over a sweatshirt.  Although it was 53 when the second game started (I looked it up on my favorite app), it was a very windy night and it felt a lot colder.  My dad and I gave up on the second game (the Dodgers lost both and never led either game) and left around the fifth inning.  I never leave early.  That's how cold it was.  My dad drove me back to Valley Stream to pick up my car and then I drove home.  By the time I got home, I was still cold, and I had been in a car for over an hour.

Yesterday was kind of cloudy and low 50s all day.  It was 52 at the start of the game, one degree colder than it was for the doubleheader.  Remembering how cold that was, we were more bundled up this time.  The wind was also much less of a factor.  We also had access to the Promenade Club and went in there in the bottom of the sixth to warm up.  But we were outside for most of the game.  Although it was a long game, my dad and I stayed until the end and we were literally the only people left in our section by the bottom of the eighth.  It was the smallest crowd for a game I've been to at Citi Field (21,135, the only other game I've been to at Citi Field with less than 30,000 was last year against the Marlins with 25,446).  By the end of the game, there might have been fewer than 1,000 fans in the stadium.  It's hard to know for sure of course, but it was empty.

This gives you an idea of how many people were left at the end of the game.

During the game, I found a design flaw in Citi Field.  Our seats were in what I think is the best row of the stadium in terms of value.  We were in Promenade Gold area (400 level behind home plate) and in the wheel chair row.  Besides having a good view of the field, it's an awesome row to be in for two reasons.  First, there's plenty of room so it's easy for you to get out and you never have to get up to let somebody else out.  Second, you have to go down a few steps to get to the next row in front of the wheel chair row.  That means that when people in that row are getting up to get out, they never obstruct your view.  Behind the Promenade Gold sections, there's a little walkway and then the Promenade Club.  It had some more food and drink options than the concession stands on the concourse.  I had this burrito with pork, black beans, rice, guacamole, and salsa.  That was nothing special, but the good news was that I was able to get a Summer Ale (I will totally drink Summer Ale when I'm wearing a sweatshirt, winter jacket, hat, and gloves).  But there's a problem with the Promenade Club.  It has windows where you can look out and see the field, only you look out and you see second base and the outfield.  You can't see the pitcher or the batter (they do have TVs, but I'm not going to the ballpark to watch on TV).  I feel like they could have elevated the club a few feet and you wouldn't have this problem.  That would have meant sacrificing a few rows of seats in the sections above the Promenade Club, but if they were concerned about that, I'm pretty sure they could have found other places in the stadium to add some seats.  Unlike some of the other things that they messed up with Citi Field (the bullpens, not making it feel like the home of the Mets), I would think it's probably too late to fix that one.

Inside the Promenade Club

The Dodgers don't come to Citi Field again this year.  I don't know when I'll get to Citi Field again, but I'm sure I'll make it to another game or two there before the season is over.  Hopefully the next time I'm there it will be a lot warmer.

I sent this picture to some people with the text:  "52 degrees at Citi Field?  You know what I'm drinking."  Bobby's response:  "It appears to be a Samuel Adams Summer Ale being held in the hand of Cookie Monster"

Broadcast Team Power Rankings

Heaven has a new play-by-play man for football.  In honor of Pat Summerall, I'm giving you my broadcast team power rankings.  This is a little silly because it's hard to compare somebody that only does baseball to somebody that does basketball and football.  And this is just based on how much I enjoy each team, not necessarily on who's the best.  For example, Bob Uecker won't be on this list because I hardly ever hear him call a game.  But here we go:

13.  Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser.  John Kruk is the third guy with them now.  I haven't heard enough of Kruk on a game to have an opinion or him, but Shulman and Hershiser saved us from Jon Miller and Joe Morgan on Sunday Night Baseball.  For that, I'll always be thankful.  Joe Morgan was the worst.

12.  Gus Johnson and partner.  Gus Johnson really should still be doing the NCAA tournament.  Maybe he'll be doing some Big East basketball games with the Big East's deal with Fox.  Fortunately, we still have the Gus Johnson Soundboard.

11.  Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling.  These guys are really good and Keith Hernandez is Keith Hernandez.

10.  Dick Stockton and Hubie Brown.  As Hubie Brown might say, "Okay, you're Jim and you're writing about your favorite broadcast teams.  You know you want to include Hubie Brown, and his partner now is Mike Tirico.  But come on now, you're not going to put a guy who went to Syracuse and lives in Ann Arbor on your list so you have to pick somebody that Hubie Brown hasn't been partners with for more than 10 years."

9.  Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth.  Al Michaels is the best play-by-play guy for football.  I might take Phil Simms over Collinsworth, but his partner is Jim Nantz.  And I met Collinsworth in Ireland and he was very nice.

Me and Cris Collinsworth at Temple Bar

8.  Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, and Mark Jackson.  Mike Breen is very good at what he does.  I'm going with the old three-man team that included Mark Jackson because Jeff Van Gundy has some wacky ideas and Jackson balanced him nicely.  I like Van Gundy, but I think these guys were even better with Mark Jackson.

7.  Sean McDonough, Bill Raftery, and Jay Bilas.  I could have gone with Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery, but I went with this team because Jay Bilas is really really good at what he does.  I love Raftery, McDonough is solid, and Jay Bilas is as good as anybody that ESPN has for anything (also very entertaining on twitter).

6.  Somebody who's not Tom Hammond and Mike Mayock.  Notre Dame fans hated the old team of Tom Hammond and Pat Haden.  One thing that we didn't like is that Pat Haden went to USC.  Haden left and we replaced him with somebody that went to Boston College (not as bad as USC, but still a Notre Dame rival).  I didn't know much about Mayock other than the fact that he went to Boston College since I didn't have NFL Network (it took Cablevision 8+ years to get NFL Network, that could be it's own post).  I just remember watching Mayock's first game and being really impressed with how well he knows the game.  He's great.  And Tom Hammond is finally getting replaced on the Notre Dame games, so all is well.

5.  Al Michaels and John Madden.  I am very much opposed to gambling, but I find all the gambling angles in football entertaining.  I love the Bill Simmons-Cousin Sal podcasts and I love when Al Michaels makes gambling references during football games.

4.  Marv Albert, Steve Kerr, and Craig Sager.  Marv is the best play-by-play man for basketball.  

He should be doing the Final Four (Jim Nantz should stick to golf) and NBA Finals (Breen is very good, just not as good as Marv).  Steve Kerr is solid.  And you have to respect Craig Sager.  There shouldn't be much that's all that important for his job other than being an attractive female, but he's built a successful career entirely on wearing ridiculous outfits.

3.  Pat Summerall and John Madden.  I grew up with Pat Summerall and John Madden calling the best games on Sunday and the Madden video games (they never should have taken Madden's voice out of the video game).  You could have the video game recordings of Summerall and Madden calling a lot of games and I would enjoy it more than most broadcast teams.  I remember one year after Summerall had retired, CBS had him do an introduction for their Thanksgiving game.  Tom and I had the TV on while we were doing something.  We heard Summerall's voice and just stopped whatever we were doing.  Summerall and Madden were a part of Thanksgiving.  It's not the same without them.  John Madden was as entertaining as a broadcaster could be.  I remember one time when a fumble was being reviewed and Madden said something like, "When our forefathers started this game, a fumble was a fumble.  But now we look for reasons why a fumble isn't a fumble."  And of course, we wouldn't have had this without John Madden.

2.  Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn.  Mike Gorman is good.  You probably have to be a Celtics fan to appreciate Tommy Heinsohn the way I do.  He's probably the biggest homer in all of broadcasting.  If you're not familiar with his work, think about how much Lou Holtz loves Notre Dame and multiply that by two or three.  I remember Mad Dog had him on in 2007 when the Celtics were in the middle of a 22 game losing streak.  He had nothing to say about the team.  He once compared Leon Powe to Moses Malone and that wasn't even his most ridiculous comparison.  That honor goes to when he compared Greg Stiemsma to Bill Russell (I'm not joking, this actually happened, I heard it).  The best part is that I totally think that Tommy actually believes these things (at least as long as Leon Powe and Greg Stiemsma were on the Celtics).

1.  Vin Scully.  Quite simply, he's the best.  I love Tommy Heinsohn for what he does and I love Vin Scully for being the exact opposite.  The number 1 ranking came down to who I would miss more if they retired.  I'd miss Tommy, but not as much as Vin.  Everybody associates Vin Scully with the Dodgers (and rightfully so, he's been doing their games since 1950 when they were still in Brooklyn), but Vin is very fair.  He also does everything very differently because he doesn't have a partner.  When he tells stories, he doesn't have somebody else to help him set them up.  He does everything so well.  He will get some minor things wrong (like the count or calling a changeup a curveball or something), but he's still great.  There are few things that annoy me as putting on a Dodger home game on the Extra Innings package and hearing the road team's broadcast instead of Vin (that was the other factor that gave Vin the edge over Tommy, not getting Vin on Extra Innings is more disappointing than not getting Tommy on League Pass).  He's 85 years old and I wouldn't be surprised if he retired soon.  I really don't want that day to come.  I don't want anybody else calling games for the Dodgers.  Vin Scully is the voice that I associate with baseball.

What Boston Means to Me

I'm not from Boston and I've only been there five times, but I felt the need to write my little tribute to the city.  Boston is home to my favorite basketball team, the best beer company in the country, and my favorite baseball stadium.  But when I think of Boston, these are not the things I think of first.

Of the 50 biggest cities in the country, I've spent some time in 15 of them.  Boston and Los Angeles are my two favorites.  (In case you were wondering, Las Vegas is my least favorite since I haven't been to San Francisco yet.)  For Los Angeles, it's pretty much because of the Dodgers and the weather.  For Boston, it's because of the history and my experiences there.

Let's start with the history.  As you probably know, I love the United States of America.  Philadelphia might be the birthplace of our nation, but it was conceived in Boston.  John Adams is one of my heroes.  As I've said before, I believe George Washington is the greatest American ever.  But Adams doesn't get the credit he deserves.  Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but it was John Adams that pushed Congress to act.  Adams belongs on that same level of Revolutionary heroes with Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin just below Washington.  Even before the Declaration of Independence was written, you have the Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's ride, Washington's liberation of Boston, etc.  Without everything that was going on in Boston, our nation might never have been born.

And then there are my personal memories of Boston.  I first visited Boston in 1995 when my brothers were looking at colleges.  I don't remember much from that trip other than going to Fenway Park and seeing Mo Vaughn hit a grand slam against the Twins.  As it turns out, I also saw an incredible rarity in baseball, a save in an 8-run game (baseball-reference.com is probably my favorite website).  Of my four other trips to Boston, three of them involved sports (two Red Sox games and a Celtics game).  I love Fenway Park and I had some really good times with John.  We did a day-drinking bar crawl on the Freedom Trail one time and we went to the Green Dragon Tavern (which is where the Boston Tea Party was planned) another time.  But my favorite trip to Boston was the one that didn't involve sports.  It was my first trip to Boston in 13 and a half years, John's Christmas party in 2008.  Vin was up there and Molly, Darryl, and I made the trip up.  That's most of my best friends from camp.  Since those guys started leaving camp in 2006, there haven't been many times that all five of us were together (I can't think of anything other than that Christmas party, John's wedding, and 12 Bars of Christmas).  Even though I had to put up with some nonsense from John's Boston College fan friends, that party was a lot of fun.  Vin took a great picture of me unconscious in a suit, tie, and the fake old-school Notre Dame helmet that he gave me, but unfortunately his phone couldn't send it to me or something.  I remember that we wanted to go to the Sam Adams brewery the next day, but none of us got up early enough so we went to the Harpoon Brewery instead.  John had to go back to Long Island at the end of the weekend, so John, Darryl, Molly, and I drove back together.  It's one of my favorite random weekends ever.

I love Boston.  I've said it's a city that I could picture myself living in (whereas I would never live in New York City).  Boston has been attacked.  Justice must be done.

We Need Common Sense in Baseball

I wrote an angry blog post last night as I was watching the Dodgers-Padres game.  This is an edited version of that post after learning what happened to Zack Greinke.  

Zack Greinke hit Carlos Quentin leading off the sixth inning in a 2-1 game and Quentin charged the mound.  The umpires ejected Quentin and Greinke.  As it turns out, Greinke's ejection didn't matter because he was injured by Carlos Quentin (now my least favorite baseball player other than Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez).  But why in the world was Zack Greinke ejected?  He was ejected because Quentin charged the mound.  That's ridiculous.  It's a one-run game with now outs in the sixth inning.  There's no way Greinke was trying to hit Quentin and put the tying run on base.  Because Quentin was a moron and charged the mound, they ejected the pitcher also.

Don Mattingly was great after the game.  He's right, Quentin should be suspended for a long time, but he'll probably miss less than a week.  And Matt Kemp also had a great line:  "I think Carlos Quentin went to Stanford, something like that?  I heard there's smart people at Stanford. That wasn't too smart. Greinke didn't do anything wrong. That stuff happens in the minor leagues. It doesn't happen in the big leagues."  I didn't need another reason to despise Stanford, but I have one anyway.

There was a game three years ago between the Dodgers and Giants where the Giants hit one of the Dodgers' hitters.  Both teams were warned.  Clayton Kershaw hit one of the Giants hitters and was ejected.  Now it's possible that Kershaw didn't do it intentionally and a pitch just got away from him (I really don't remember).  But either way it's stupid.  If it was unintentional, he gets ejected because the Giants' pitcher hit a Dodger first.  It it was intentional, the Giants get to hit a Dodger with no consequences and when the Dodgers retaliate, their pitcher gets ejected.

There was a game two years ago where Kershaw was ejected for hitting one of the Diamondbacks.  You can check out the video.  There was no warning.  Nobody had been hit in the game before that.  Kershaw didn't throw at anybody's head.  Maybe it was intentional based on what happened the night before, but that's baseball.  If you act the way Parra did, there are going to be consequences.

This isn't me speaking as a Dodger fan, this is me speaking as a baseball fan.  These scenarios could happen with any team.  I'm just using examples that I've seen while watching the Dodgers.  Baseball used to allow players to police themselves.  You show up the pitcher after you hit a home run and you're going to get hit.  You hit one of my guys, I hit one of your guys and it's over.  Whenever the Dodgers see Carlos Quentin again, he should get hit.  My suspicion is that there will be warnings issued at the beginning of the game.  Let Quentin take what he has coming to him.  If somebody throws at somebody else after that, then it makes sense to throw somebody out of the game.  But let's use common sense.  The only reason Zack Greinke was ejected tonight was because of what Carlos Quentin decided to do.  That doesn't make sense.

Why I Love Baseball, Part 9

Unpredictability.

The Warriors and Thunder play tomorrow.  I'll predict a score of Thunder 108, Warriors 102, with Durant scoring 30 and Curry and Westbrook both scoring 24.  That's probably not going to happen, but there's a good chance that the game will be fairly close to that.  And there's a good chance that there will be nothing at all that's surprising about the game.

In the Super Bowl, it was entirely possible to predict Ravens 34, 49ers 31.  I had Ravens 27, 49ers 24, so I was only off by a touchdown for each team.  You also could have predicted Joe Flacco would throw three touchdown passes.    I already covered in another post how you know who the hero is going to be in basketball (the star player) or football (the quarterback most of the time), but the hero could be anybody in baseball.

You can't predict baseball like that.  You might be able to predict who wins, but you can't predict what's going to happen during the game.  I went to Opening Day in Los Angeles and something happened that hadn't happened in 60 years.  Clayton Kershaw pitched a complete game shutout and hit a home run.  Bob Lemon did that in 1953 and it hadn't happened since.

Or you could see something that hasn't happened in 130 years.  Lots of baseball fans lived their entire lives and never even could have witnessed a game with a triple play that started with the catcher and had a putout at third base, second base, and first base, but it happened last year for the first time since 1882.

Or you could go to a game and see something that has never happened before.  In the history of Major League Baseball, there have been only six games that didn't have a single.  This game had nine hits without a single.  The previous record was four.  That's amazing.

Let's go back to basketball.  In the playoffs, teams will play each other in best of seven series.  A series could go seven games with all the games being pretty similar to each other.  If you replayed that Dodgers-Braves game 100 times, they would never have another game with no singles.  If you could replay the Opening Day game 100 times, Clayton Kershaw might throw a few shutouts and he might hit a home run, but it's extremely unlikely that he would do both in the same game.

Kershaw, the triple play, and no singles.  That's three incredibly unusual things that have happened with just one team in less than a year.  And you can find similar weird things with other teams.  I can't even begin to explain what happened with Chris Davis last year (seriously, you need to read that if you weren't aware of it, it's amazing).

Those are all very very random things.  But there are much more ordinary things that you can't predict.  For example, the Dodgers averaged 3.93 runs per game last year.  They had three games where they scored 11 runs.  That means they scored 279.9% of their average runs in those games.  That would be like the Knicks scoring 280 points in a game (they average 100 points per game this year so they were easy to use).  The Dodgers gave up an average of 3.69 runs per game.  So if you were predicting a score, Dodgers winning 4-3 would be a reasonable prediction, but there's a decent chance that something completely different was going to happen.  Going back where I started, Thunder-Warriors might not be 108-102 tonight, but you know it's not going to be 255-36.  Of course, that's a good thing if you like basketball (and I do), but I love the randomness and unpredictability of baseball.