According to some guy named Chuck, Kazmir was totally paid off when he made an error one time

[TheFyl]

My friend Chuck, totally believes that Scott Kazmir was paid off to throw the game. That ball was 10 feet over Kendricks head, what was he thinking!

 

How can ANYONE do that realistically. It's a throw from the mound to first base, more routine than jogging to first after a walk. That play was worse than Bill Buckner's bone headed fielding error in shear idiocy.

 

What was the angels final total? 8 or 9 errors in the span of 6 games? Come on, against the yanks you gotta want to play well. GO PHILLIES!

 

Edit: Fixed title. - Toby

[dlk9s]

Yes, your "friend" is correct.

 

 

And the throw from the mound to 1st is far less routine than you may think.

[TheFyl]

First day of baseball practice, you pick up a glove and play toss back and forth from a distance of about 50 feet apart. That's why I'd consider it routine. I know he was fielding a ball, but come on, he only needed to breathe and release

[dlk9s]

But how much money did he get? This is the question that must be answered!

[DrugBust]

You spend all your time throwing from a specific motion at a distance of 60 feet, six inches. Changing that up in an instant is tough and awkward. There is absolutely nothing routine about it.

[endaround]

Wow who ever did the paying really doesn't need to. I mean paying off a starter to throw a game where he's pitching in relief by making an error on a bunt attempt? That's some foresight! Why pay the player when you already know so much?

[CheezWizHed]

Wow who ever did the paying really doesn't need to. I mean paying off a starter to throw a game where he's pitching in relief by making an error on a bunt attempt? That's some foresight! Why pay the player when you already know so much?

Didn't the BlackSox have a bunch of players paid off? But only a few really "looked" like they threw it? Not saying this is the case, just saying if there was one, there surely are more...

[DuWayne Steurer]

This is based on one person's stink-eye evaluation of one play?

 

This thread title needs to be changed, it makes it sounds like there's at the very least, a shady source of information here, and there isn't. It's one guy who doesn't believe a pitcher can't throw a ball away in a tight spot.

[owbc]

Ben Sheets could have thrown it at least twice that high.

[NievesNoNO]

C'mon now it's one thing to call it a bad play, but to to claim he was paid off? Because he doesn't have enough money all ready? Yes, that is a routine throw, however that is a human being standing on that mound. You can swing a hammer at a nail 100 times and the 101 first time hit your thumb even though you've 'routinely' hit that nail 100 times. Bowl enough and eventually you'll bounce one off your ankle into the gutter. Not the best analogies probably, but you get the point. Now try doing it with 60,000 people watching you.

I'm not saying it isn't possible, but to base the idea just around one throw to first base doesn't have much merit.

[pretendastronaut]

I think it's actually very possible that Kazmir was paid off.

 

I paid off Matt Holliday.

[Teatoe993]

I'm surprised this thread hasn't been locked by now.

[joepepsi]

It wasn't just Kazmir. As a friend pointed out at another site, the Angels made lots of silly blunders, the kind of mistakes that make you wonder how they won 97 games. There was less on field evidence with the Black Sox scandal.

"It's less a case of the Yankees winning and more of the Angels losing. The Halos gave away an awful lot during the series. In game 1, they couldn't catch a routine infield popup that ended up costing them 2 runs in a close game. In game 2, Maicer Izturis' wild throw flew past second base, heading somewhere near third, where Chone Figgins (3-for-23 in the series) fumbled it as the Yanks scored the winning run. In a close game 3, Bobby Abreu rounded second, for some unfathomable reason stopped in no man's land, and got picked off by a mile, although the Angels eventually won that game. Game 4 was the worst-umpired game in recent memory, and a 10-1 Yankee blowout in which the Angels didn't show up. Contributing to that debacle was Kazmir forgetting to cover 1B on a Melky Cabrera bunt.

 

Last night was terrible. Vlad Guerrero got doubled off first on a baserunning blunder that you wouldn't expect from a high-schooler. In the Yankee 4th, Kendry Morales lazily failed to catch Jeter's foul pop with 1 out and two on, the ball landing harmlessly on the warning track beyond the dugout. So instead of being the 2nd out, Jeter walked to load the bases with the meat of the order coming up. The Yankees ended up scoring 3 runs. Later, when Figgins tried to bunt, he ran into the ball and was called out. Then, while it was still a 1-run game, Howie Kendrick and Kazmir turned a pair of 8th-inning bunts into 3rd period gym class. First, Kendrick couldn't catch an easy throw. On the next bunt, Kazmir airmailed the ball over first base, failing to execute a 40-foot throw that your grandmother could toss. The gates were now opened for a couple more gift runs.

 

The Angels' leadoff hitter, Figgins, batted .130 (with 0 steals) for the series. Their second hitter, Abreu, batted .160. Maicer Izturis hit .100. Kendry Morales, their big power source, hit .167. As a team they hit .236 with only 3 HRs; take away the unusual spike by light-hitting Jeff Mathis, and the Angels batted .215 and slugged .296 for the series.

 

They also made 8 errors in the six games, a number which does not count the popups that dropped untouched to the ground, the failed bunts, or the baserunning blunders. Overall, the Angels played like @*%@."

[DougJones43]

If there ever are instances of a game being fixed at the professional level (I'm looking at you, NBA), I would assume it would come in the form of the officiating. The players make enough money that they don't need to resort to that. Also, with how often they switch teams and stuff, I just don't think it's possible that players would be involved with fixing games because somebody would have blown the whistle by now.

[AJAY]

I am more suspicious of the umpires getting paid off. The calls were terrible and mostly pro-Yankees.

[NievesNoNO]

joepepsi wrote:

Then, while it was still a 1-run game, Howie Kendrick and Kazmir turned a pair of 8th-inning bunts into 3rd period gym class.

I still don't agree, but that's funny stuff!

 

Just for the sake of argument, I'll pretend to agree that somehow the game was fixed. It would've taken all the players/managers on both sides to agree. Maybe it was fixed by the players union, to show all the light spending GMs that when you spend big money on free agents then you'll go to the World Series.

[Invader3K]

It's hard to imagine a game or series being "fixed" in this day and age. Just one team personnel person or player's relative gets whiff of it, and it would be on some blog within an hour. Within 24 hours it would be blowing up all over ESPN and be a cover story on SI the next week. It just seems to unbelievable that a player or players would risk the amount of money they make in this era to take some short term "pay off."

[molitor fan]

To this day, I thoroughly believe Stern fixed the Bucks/76ers series back during allen/Cassell/Big Dog era that sent them against the lakers.....Stern was openly losing his mind in the stands and rooting HARD for the sixers in that one

[TooLiveBrew]

This thread title needs to be changed, it makes it sounds like there's at the very least, a shady source of information here, and there isn't. It's one guy who doesn't believe a pitcher can't throw a ball away in a tight spot.

 

I agree with RoCo... very misleading.

[joepepsi]

I doubt the Angels threw the series. I think they just played like crap.

[LouisEly]

When a warm-weather team plays in cold and rainy conditions funny things can, and often do, happen.

[RyDogg66]

How much money would each player involved need to be given to "risk" lifetime banishment in order to partake in such a scheme. The driving force behind the Blacksox scandal was that the players didnt make squat for cash and they were easily paid more to throw the game than they could make playing. How much money does Scott Kazmir stand to make over the life of the rest of his career? 50 million? So say he was given 70 million then to throw the game...now do that for each player. There is no was that kind of money is given to the underdog team to throw a series. Come on people, think about this for a minuted. Mainly you, Chuck. And the OP.

[dadofandrew]

If you watch the replay, the 2B missed that throw by a couple inches.

[craigharmann]

First day of baseball practice, you pick up a glove and play toss back and forth from a distance of about 50 feet apart. That's why I'd consider it routine. I know he was fielding a ball, but come on, he only needed to breathe and release

Chuck Knoblauch, Steve Sax, Rick Ankiel and their buddies all say hi.

[JJHardy7]

Chuck Knoblauch, Steve Sax, Rick Ankiel and their buddies all say hi.

 

This isn't directed at you specifically...but what is with the 'saying hi' stuff? I've seen this a few places here and other sites...I guess I just don't get it. I would just say hi, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening back to them...