Yasiel Puig made some people mad this past week.
Yasiel Puig made some people mad this past week. (USATSI)

It's Friday afternoon in Eye on Baseball, so you know what that means? It's time to send you all off for the weekend with another edition of This Week in (Dumb) Baseball. If you aren't familiar with what we do here, click on some of the below items. The main thing to keep in mind is that this is supposed to be a fun discussion point (a fact that'll be lost on some people rather quickly).

(First installment here | second | third | fourth | fifth | sixth | seventh | eighth | ninth | 10th | 11th).

1. The fake crowd noise thing

This week, longtime broadcaster Al Michaels -- who did play-by-play for the series in question -- said there's no doubt in his mind that the Twins piped in artificial crowd noise during the 1987 World Series.

Please forgive me, but I'm having a hard time caring about this.

First of all, this happened almost 30 years ago. Secondly, this isn't basketball or football where an incredibly raucous crowd has the chance to disrupt an opponent's offense, even marginally. Third, Michaels provides no evidence other than the ol' "because they had to be!" defense.

You know, like if you think someone is on 'roids and say, "because he's big" or "because he's hitting a lot of home runs." That's not evidence, just as "because it was way too loud" isn't evidence of pumping in crowd noise.

Also, it's not against the rules.

So, basically, there's no evidence of wrongdoing here, and the alleged wrongdoing wasn't even against the rules. Oh, sure, folks could say it's unethical and a bit over the line of home-field advantage -- and I'd agree -- but that doesn't mean anything can be done about it in the record books. You can't just revise history based upon "hey, that's no fair!" accusations, especially those absent any concrete evidence.

Talk about a "slow news day" controversy.

1a. Why is golf special?

So let's see ...

- An NBA player can stand at the foul line for free throws with upwards of 20,000 fans screaming and people behind the basket trying to visually distract him ...

- An NFL offense can be faced with decibel levels of noise comparable to jets taking off on a runway while trying to call a play at the line ...

- An MLB batter must try to identify the difference between a sphere that is roughly nine inches in circumference either traveling something like 95 miles per hour and staying (kind of) straight or going slightly slower and either diving or moving side-to-side significantly -- all the while with a crowd of, say, around 40,000 screaming. The same goes for fielders with balls in the air or on the ground or a pitcher trying to get a batter out.

... but in golf, heaven forbid anyone even remotely close to the person hitting the ball make so much as a peep.

If everyone else can concentrate in the midst of noise, why can't golfers? I'm not talking down on golf, I'm fine with the sport. It's just an odd distinction, you know?

2. "Extra" motivation?

So last Friday, Dodgers lightning rod Yasiel Puig said that he looks at the Cardinals at the Dodgers' top rivals, not the Giants.

The rationale is fine. The Dodgers won the NL West both times, topping the Giants, and then lost in the playoffs to the Cardinals. Also, remember, Puig didn't grow up in America. He finally escaped Cuba just a few years ago. He's only been in the majors for two seasons.

And yet, people got angry. Among them, Giants broadcaster and former MLB player Mike Krukow (via csnbayarea.com).

"He's just young. He's just young and dumb and he's gonna say some stuff," Krukow said on KNBR 680-AM Monday morning. "As a group, I doubt if they are gonna be talking about it openly but they are gonna be thinking about it. They don't miss stuff like that ... if there was any way to refocus a whole group with a World Series hangover, this is it. Thank you Yasiel Puig."

I'm not going to go after Krukow himself. On one hand, I love the Giants broadcast team (easily top three in all of baseball). On the other, Krukow was a big-leaguer and I wasn't. He would know better than me what motivates major-league players.

I guess I'm just wondering why it does. Seriously, if you're the three-time champs, why would anything anyone else says make you mad? Shouldn't winning a fourth ring -- after seeing how awesome winning three was -- be motivation enough? 

Drop the specifics here, as this was just an example. This happens all the time in every sport. Why isn't winning motivation enough? Becoming champion at the professional level is the apex of sports, and again and again we see players who need to believe that "no one thought we could do it!" or "everyone said we were done!" or something like that. This is without even mentioning professional pride (doing one's best at all times) or continuing to make as much money as possible for one's family.

I guess to each his own. I mean, if someone like Buster Posey really needs to think "man, the Dodgers don't believe we're their rivals, I'm going to really show them tonight!" before a game, so be it.

Doesn't that sound dumb, though? To think of someone of Posey's maturity level and overall qualifications, Krukow is suggesting that the Giants might have taken next year a little less seriously until Puig said a few words.

(Again, drop the specifics if it helps. I have no issue with the Giants and Krukow is just passing along this mindset that is prevalent among the pros)

As for Puig's comments, spare me if you think he did anything wrong. Twice in a row the Dodgers were knocked out by the Cardinals and he feels like the team needs to beat them to get over the hump. He was just being honest and players say stuff like that all the time in many different sports.

3. I should've grabbed a few!

I have no doubt that some people will buy these. I have no problem with it, either. Any individual person can spend his/her money however he/she so chooses. But, man, I was in that Giants locker room with empty Buds all over the place. Opportunity missed. Live and learn.

Enough dumb, though. Let's head into this glorious weekend by washing away the dumb with some fun.

Random highlight of the week

For his blog, River Avenue Blues, Mike Axisa makes an excellent argument that Bernie Williams was as much a part of the Yankees dynasty core as the so-called "Core Four," so let's grab the highlight of Bernie homering from each side of the plate in a playoff game:

Photo of the week

This one would've been better timed last week, considering I discussed the Die Hard movies and Madison Bumgarner looks like a villain from the franchise (namely Hans Gruber) in this picture from Friday morning, via the SFGiants official Twitter account:

Rock on, Mr. NLCS and World Series MVP.

Baseball card of the week

The rookie Kirby Puckett still hadn't hit a home run in the majors at the time this card was produced.

Tweet of the week: Kent Hrbek

Beautiful.

Possibly dumb pop culture rankings of the week

Last week I weighed in on the Die Hard movies and took some crap about it (as I expected). This time around, we'll do it again with the Lethal Weapon movies. Unlike with the Die Hard series, I love all four of these.

1. Lethal Weapon 4
2. Lethal Weapon 2
3. Lethal Weapon 3
4. Lethal Weapon

Again, I love all four and it was tough ordering them. For me, I feel like the best feature of the series is when humor is mixed in with the action and it's not so dark. The first installment was kind of dark and lacked the humor we saw in the later entries. Once we met Leo Getz (no relation to Chris, presumably), things took off.

That should do it. Don't be shy in the responses. I can take it.

Suggestions (dumb stuff, random videos, baseball cards, pop culture rankings topics, etc.) or hate mail? Feel free to hit me up: matt.snyder@cbs.com or you could always go to Twitter (@MattSnyderCBS).