the mind of HAL...

[bomp helium]

big series for me today, up against the other division leader, HAL, that psycho maniac, did his best to screw it up, and this time he broke his own rules, which baffles me...

in game one, my shortstop (Eckstein) went down with an injury...I would have moved Jiminez to ss from 2b and put B. Hill in at 2B...perfectly reasonable...instead, HAL put Hill at ss, where I can only presume he was a five, at least...can HAL even do that?

in game two, it was Walker (RF) who went down...no problem...Quinlan goes to RF and Chad Tracy goes to 3B...perfectly reasonable...instead, HAL sticks my backup CATCHER in RF, where I'm sure he was a maximum liability...

now, Tracy was listed as my LH PH...would HAL be so thick as to not substitute Tracy for that reason?...if so, what an imbicile!...

I won 2 out of 3, luckily, but HAL did his best to put the worst lineup possible on the field...is this personal?

can HAL be fired?

but seriously, rather than shuffle things a little, why would HAL just stick someone in the field who never played there in 2004, especially since the other options were far more attractive?...

just trying to get inside the mind of the criminally insane...

bomp

[MARCPELLETIER]

The first thing Hal does is to replace the injured player.

THEN, and only then, he looks at double-switching.

In your case, your rf is injured. I presume that no rf is on the bench. So Hal goes to the catcher and sends him at rf. He THEN looks at double-switch: not worth: your catcher can't play 3B. So he sticks with his catcher at rf.

[bomp helium]

thanks, Dr. Wilby...I guess that makes twisted sense...strange, though, that the software doesn't scan the roster for a few nanoseconds and find the best combination for the situation...it's hard to imagine that something so easy for me to do would be beyond the Big Brain...

enjoying this game, in spite of HAL's psychotic behavior...I wonder how many of you are old farts like me, reliving childhood highs?...I started at 12, in 1968, and was fascinated by Bob Gibson and his 1.12 ERA...'69 was great as well, with the wretched Padres, the Catfish Hunter-Rollie Fingers-Reggie Jackson A's (first year in Oakland?), the Mays-McCovey-Marichal Giants, the hated Dodgers...and many others...

My grandfather gave me the game as a Christmas present, along with his old glove, which looked like a pathetic leather potholder...he was centerfielder for the SF Seals until he stepped on a sprinkler head and tore his achilles tendon...they had to send in Dom's younger brother, that Joe Dimaggio kid...

bomp

[MARCPELLETIER]

I'm young enough for having thought that Tim Wallach was a MVP-caliber player. It is thanks to Strat that I realize the importance of on-base, and that the real hero is the Rock, not Eli.