I don't mean to single out Tim Lincecum or the Giants, because both teams involved last night looked God-awful at one point or another.
VIDEO: Tim Lincecum Makes It To World Series, Jogs The Hell Out Of It
But this degree of mental mistake is startling. It’s more fascinating than Buckner’s muffed grounder, for instance, because there’s no way to know what Lincecum was thinking here -- seriously, there is no universe in which what Lincecum did would have been sensical or effective.
Well, are we sure about that? Running through a few scenarios would be the fair thing for us to do.
SCENARIO A
Lincecum. I’m gonna just, uh, make this guy run back to third.
Uribe. Why?
Lincecum. The bases are loaded. He’ll be out.
Uribe. No they’re not. No he won’t.
Lincecum. guh
SCENARIO B
Lincecum. I’m gonna just, uh, make this guy run back to third.
Uribe. Why?
Lincecum. Because we can’t afford to get caught in a rundown. Someone might score.
Uribe. Who might score?
Lincecum. One of the other baserun... hmm.
Uribe. Oh no, have runners figured out how to go from second straight to home?
Lincecum. I don’t think so. But Young might try to score. Young might have enough time to score if we spend too much time trying to run down...
Uribe. Young?
Lincecum. guh
SCENARIO C
Lincecum. I’m gonna just, uh, make this guy run back to third.
Uribe. Why?
Lincecum. Because...
Renteria. Yeah, why?
Lincecum. guh
SCENARIO D
Lincecum. guh
Scenario D strikes me as the most likely. I did sort of single out Lincecum. Sorry. I suppose that, given Vlad Guerrero's outfield miscues and Ian Kinsler turning the wrong way after reaching first base, and given that neither the San Francisco Giants nor Texas Rangers have ever won a World Series, the teams weren't clear on World Series rules. They're pretty much the same as baseball rules, y'all.
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