The view from section 233

(click on it -- not bad for a camera phone and free software)

The end justifies the means

Eric Karros, we hardly knew ye.

Announcing today's Dodgers-Mets game on fox, Karros, who I generally liked as a player and a broadcaster, offered this analysis of Matt Kemp's leadoff at-bat in the bottom of the 13th, which overlapped with the pitch that the next batter, James Loney, made contact with.

Kemp flied out to medium center, and over a replay of Kemp's swing, Karros offered this: "I was talking about Matt Kemp and what he did his last at-bat, it was a good at-bat, he drew a walk, but this is a 3-0 pitch, that he hits off the end of the bat. You're in extra innings, and this is when you're not trying to jack one out of the [crack] park, you've gotta get on."

On that crack of the bat, Loney homered to win the game.

Karros tried to reconcile the inappropriate extra inning home run by Loney with the fact that it resulted in his team winning the game with this: "Well, and that's a great job there by James Loney, one out, nobody on, that's when you start to swing for the fence. One out, two out, when you're leading off you don't do it. James Loney not known for the home run this year, but known for the big RBI. Drove himself in right there."

So to sum up: walk-off home runs with 0 out: bad; walk-off home runs with 1 or 2 out: great job. Swinging for the fences by a guy with 17 home runs and a .468 SLG but .321 OBP: bad; swinging for the fences by a guy with 6 home runs and a .353 OBP (better at getting on) but a .426 SLG (less power): great job.