Results tagged ‘ Broadcasters ’
More Steve Phillips fun with numbers
It’s no secret that, even as far as baseball analysts are concerned, Steve Phillips is not the brightest of the bunch. I’m not exactly sure how he ended up with ESPN. He served as the Met’s GM from 1997 to 2003. He is ‘credited’ with bringing in David Wright and Jose Reyes. But it’s not like he went out and scouted the guys. After he was fired in 2003, it doesn’t seem like he was gainfully employed until ESPN came knocking. And yes, I’m going to assume that ESPN came to Phillips and offered him a job before the 2005 season, not the other way around. What do you think Phillips’ response was to that inquiry? "Why in the world do they want me working for them?" Back to the issue. We know have something to add to Phillips’ crazy predictions:
- 2006: Jose Reyes will have a coming out year, hitting 30 triples, and steal 35 bases.
- 2006: Corey Patterson will hit 40 HR and get 140 RBIs. From the leadoff spot.
- June 19th, 2007: Alex Rodriguez will have the greatest season of any Yankee right-hander, and will negotiate a new 10-year contract for about $35 million a year.
Alright… where to start… so Reyes would be fast enough to bust Chief Wilson’s 1912 record of 28 triples, but not fast enough to get anything more than a mediocre number of steals. Actually, Reyes had 17 triples and 60 steals. Both league-leading numbers. And Corey Patterson got sent to AAA-ball. Whoops.
But this morning was something totally different. It’s interesting that Phillips’ actually tried to stay within his field of ‘expertise’ with this Alex prediction. But Alex is about to turn 32 in July. What kind of idiot is going to give this guy $35 million to play as a 42-year old? Ignore, for a second, the fact that a 10-year contract to anyone over 30 is a bad decision. You’re going to take the most well-paid athlete in the world and give him a 40% raise, just as he reaches his pinnacle of performance? The fact is, no team is going to give Alex that kind of money, except, maybe, the Yankees. This is how that negotiation will go.
Scott Boras: Alex wants $35 million a year. 10 years. He’s that good.
Cashman: Um, no. We’ll give him $20 million. 4 years. Club option for x.
Boras: That’s not good enough. He deserves more.
Cashman: Dude, only one other guy in MLB is making more than $20 million a year.
Boras: I have no leverage. No other team can afford to give me more than $15 million a year.
Stop it, Steve. Do you even listen to yourself?
"Are Steve Phillips and John Kruk stupid?" – April 11th, 2006
Does this really need to be a big deal?
Red Sox and Yankees are fun, there’s no denying that. But is it really as big a deal as ESPN would have you believe? After watching the first 10 minutes of the 6p edition of Sportscenter I had had just about enough. I mean… is there really a bigger non-issue than A-Rod’s slide? First off, look at the play carefully. The dude was way, way, way off-balance. And maybe he intentionally threw himself off. But, the way I see it, he was trying to break up the double play, and somehow or another managed to get his body confused between a pop-up and a take-out slide. That’s why, if you keep watching after he "throws the elbow," as John Kruk so lovingly put it, you’ll see Alex stumble to the ground and fall flat on his backside. Kruk is, not surprisingly, still an idiot. No, the play was not dirty. Alex was not going into 2nd with the intention of giving Dustin an ugly bruise in the crotch.
And, you may say to yourself, "Dustin who? Who is this guy? How dare he talk smack about A-Rod!" Listen. If you actually heard what the little guy said in his post-game, he was not putting anybody down. He said just enough to keep from looking like a coward, but he also went out of his way to say that he was only doing what he had to for the team, etc, etc, etc. Dustin doesn’t care. Alex doesn’t care. Does Curt care? I guess we’ll see tonight. To my knowledge, he hasn’t yet commented on the issue on his personal soap box, the Don Patrick show. But I have this to say – if Curt does drill A-Rod tonight, which he won’t, I will view it as one of the lamest moves in baseball. If you hit the guy, you’re only playing into this whole ESPN-propagated rivalry hype. ESPN loves to make something out of nothing. But there are always a couple guys on every team that like it even more. A-Rod and Varitek fighting down the baseline? That was a heat of the moment, legit fight. Curt drilling A-Rod would just be stupid and childish. Hopefully he has enough sense to know that.
Lets see some comments boys…
You’d think that Dusty Baker the Commentator would be great, right?
As we all know, Dusty Baker is no longer at the helm of the Chicago Cubs. He left, and Lou Pinella took his place. That’s a pretty big adjustment for D. Lee, Dempster, and A Ramirez to make. But I’m sure they’ll make it work, right? After all, they always find a way. It’ll be interesting to see if this team implodes in on itself again, if it actually performs to expectations, or if they resort to beaning opposing batters to "defend themselves," as Lou’s previous team did. In the end, I’m disappointed, because I will no longer be able to poke fun at Baker’s crazy antics, or the fact that he is flat out the worst in-game manager in the sport. Especially since Alan Trammel took himself out of the running last year. Bummer, I’ll miss Baker.
Or so I thought.
See, I turned on ESPN yesterday to catch some opening day ball. And then I heard one of the announcers mention something about how to catch a pop-up, concluding what I’m sure was a flash of brilliance with, "isn’t that right, Dusty?" I’ve got rabbit ears for the guy, and if I wasn’t 100% focused before, which I wasn’t, I was now. Sure enough, Dusty Baker was in the booth, "commentating." I did some digging and found out that Baker is not only going to appear on the regular season telecasts, but he is a full-fledged analysis on Baseball Tonight as well. I missed that, because Baseball Tonight isn’t my favorite show. The point is, that’s great. Now, I didn’t hear any interesting Baker-isms, but I’m sure he’s just starting off a little shy. He’ll warm up. By the All-Star break, we’ll start hearing about how all the walks the A’s are getting are just clogging up the bases for the guys that can run. Just wait for it.
Ben Sheets is back. Apparently, he finally remembered who he is, and what people used to think he was. People used to expect great things from the guy. Especially after he shut down the world in the 2000 Olympics, allowing just 1 run in 22 innings. But lately he hasn’t been so hot. I’ve always had faith in the guy. But nothing adds to faith like a 9-inning, 2 hit, 1 run opening day start.
So, I’m back, obviously. I’m going to try to keep this thing going for now on a semi regular basis. I know I said that a lot in the off-season, but it was just really hard to find something to write about. That won’t be as much of a problem now… and I’ll try to hit on the usual interesting, obscure stuff. Not the boring stuff we talked about today. Shoot. See you in a few.
Padres v. Marlins – Fight for Last
Four great things about this pathetic Padres v. Marlins game:
1) Marlin’s LF Josh Willingham punted a ball into the corner instead of picking it up and chucking it to 2nd base, which would have held Brian Giles at 3rd and Mike Piazza at 2nd or 1st. Instead, Giles scored, Piazza was awarded a single, and Willingham got the error. This is exactly the kind of thing that will plague the Marlins all year.
2) The broadcasters were talking about The Brothers Marcus and Brian. Now would be a good time to mention that I have Brian’s autograph. Yes, I attended a Padres game last year when they visited Detroit in Interleague play. They were talking about interesting arguments the Brothers would’ve had as children, and one of them goes, ‘there’s one argument that Brian would win – I’m tanner than you.’ Ya think? Recall that Brian once said,
I feel like when I have a tan, my bat speed increases, you know?
I talked about superstitions a little while ago. At first, this doesn’t seem like one, but it is. Think about it. Do you think Giles’ tan makes him a better hitter? No way. But he thinks it does, and so it does. Same thing as the Finley-Erstad Magic Bag, (see above link.)
3) I cannot believe how bad the Marlins are. The Padres won 9-3. The "up and coming" (bad) Marlins managed 6 hits and 2 walks against outstanding Padres pitching studs like Woody Williams, Alan Embree, Clay Hensley, and Scott Cassidy. They struck out seven times. By contrast, the deplorable Padres offense, (and don’t tell me it’s because they play 50% of their games in a park that has a 700ft outfield fence,) managed 10 hits and 7 walks against the Marlins. That means more than twice as many Padres reached base than Marlins. Again, expect more of the same for the next few years if you’re a Marlins fan. Then again, judging by the empty stadium, (I lied earlier when I said it was half full – it was more like a quarter full,) there aren’t many of you out there.
4) The average Giants outfielder, (age 40,) could father the average Marlins infielder, (age 24.) Sure, it’d be a stretch, but 16 isn’t that young.
That’s all for now. I might make another post later tonight – now that I have my MLB.TV back, it’s like a second opening day! Oh and, thanks to Jason, Tiffany, John, and Kevin for the comments. Keep it up guys.
Are John Kruk and Steve Phillips stupid?
First things first. I was watching the clowns on Baseball Tonight again and John Kruk said, "let’s face it, we all know baseball isn’t a hard game athletically." Really? I’m smart. Are you saying I could go out and hit 50 bombs at the Major League level? Just because you’re big, and you made it to the bigs, doesn’t mean baseball isn’t a sport. I might be taking him a bit too literally, but I’m sick of Kruk, and I’m sick of Steve Phillips’ funky math numbers. He’s even worse. Let’s do some Steve Phillips’ Fun with Numbers: last year, he predicted that Jose Reyes would have a coming-out year – which I believed would happen, and did – and that he would hit 30 triples and steal 35 bases. What the eff is he talking about? When was the last time someone hit 30 triples? Never, I don’t think. As it turned out, Reyes hit 17 triples and stole 60 bases – leading the league in both categories, and off nearly 100% – in both directions! – from Phillips’ predictions. For the record, Ty Cobb – 2nd on the all-time list of triples leaders – hit 24 triples in his best two seasons, in 1911 and 1917. Just in case you weren’t ready to go out and kick him already, Phillips then went on to predict that Corey Patterson would hit 40HR and get 140RBI’s from the leadoff spot. Of course, Patterson got sent down to AAA last year, but he did manage to hit for 13HR and 34RBI’s while at the MLB level. And the 140RBI’s were just about as ridiculous as the ’30 triples’ shot he launched – only three guys had more than 140RBI’s last year; Ortiz, Manny, and Teixeira. Corey Patterson is never going to be the Dark Horse that sneaks in and wins that race. You’re an idiot, Steve. And so are you, John.
That said, I still don’t have my MLB.TV fixed, which is why I have to watch BT. I’m calling support tomorrow. However, I found myself sitting through some incredibly boring Biology research presentations yesterday for a few hours – as it happened, during Tigers gametime. My presentation was on the relation of soil pH to the size of trees within an abandoned quarry. Like I said – really boring. I checked the score of the Tigers v. Sox game, and that’s when I got pissed. We dropped one today, 5-3. You know what that means, right? Tiger’s are gonna drop the next 5, or at least 5 of 7. That’s what happens in Detroit, I can’t explain it.
Anyone see Mulder’s bomb? I love watching pitchers jerk it out of the yard. Equally amazing was Jim Edmond’s catch. It looked like a sliding backhand between the knees or something. Can’t find the video anywhere. I’m calling MLB at 11.30a tomorrow morning to fix this up, because I can’t handle it anymore. I’m dying here – MLB.TV is killing me. That’s sad. PS – I also got an email from them yesterday, not in response to my numerous email support requests, but giving me the weekly MLB.TV lineup. In other words, they had the courtesy to e-mail me so they could tell me, ‘yeah, we know you’ve subscribed and you’re paying, but we’re still screwing you. Here’s what you could be watching if we were fixing your problem instead of goofing off! Bend over.’ Meanwhile I’m stuck listening to Baseball Tonight and their silly ‘analysis.’ Harold something or other tried to explain to me how Eric Chavez is on fire now because he got his ‘timing kick’ down earlier in Spring Training. Huh? He’s a good hitter, and he’s just hot now, ok?
Are you freaking kidding me?
I’m going nuts here. Let me say something. Baseball is a sport. Golf, however, is not. Golf requires skill. Golf is tough. I can probably throw a baseball farther than I can ‘drive’ one. You can’t walk onto a golf course, pick up a club, and rake. I know that. But when guys are firing shots at each other because one of them takes a cart to the next hole – saying it’s not fair that he’s missing a prime source of physical exertion in the game – that’s no good. So imagine my disgust when I’m sitting here doing – what else – work, and I turn on ESPN to listen to Baseball Tonight. Instead, I’m listening to ‘Lefty’ blab about how it’s Tiger’s world and he’s just living in it. I don’t even follow golf, and I still know you’re lying. And, I still can’t watch my MLB.TV. Can someone at MLB.com just fix that for me without me having to call you and explain? That would be a fantastic gift.
Baseball Tonight finally started, and I just saw Chipper Jones pull a Willis McGahee on his right ankle. And now BT is talking about Detroit. They’re obsessed with this team. We get no run for 13 years, then we win the first 5 games of the season and people take notice. They even had the nerve to ask, "if they keep it up, who knows what could happen in the AL Central?" If they ‘keep it up,’ they finish the year with a .833 winning percentage, and MLB will just cancel the post-season. "But didn’t we see these guys coming?" People, wake up… duh. And they tell me how the Brewers and Tigers winning 5 games makes them feel like they belong. We’re not talking about the new kid in middle school, we’re talking about mature adults. And I know they’re gonna talk about the Yankees being cellar dwellers. Again, wake up. If the season ends with the Yanks at the bottom of the AL East, I will never watch baseball again. Stop talking about things that don’t matter. I’m pissed, so I’m going back to work.
Thoughts on Game One
Some thoughts on The Game: I was gonna wait till the end to post them and see what else came along, but I think this game is pretty much over. I’ve been to enough rain-outs to know when the umps stop hoping and start drawing out the game to keep concession sales up.
1) "Bonds on Bonds": Are you freaking kidding me? You know why he wants to do this, right? He wants everyone to know that he’s just a regular guy, like you and me. He’s got a family, etc. He might cheat on his wife. He might cheat on his taxes. He might cheat in the game. He might parade his little kid in front of reporters so they won’t ask him any tough questions. Now he’s parading the whole family on National TV so we’ll feel sorry for him. I have to admit, I never saw this one coming.
2) So, one good reason why we’re talking about steroids during this
Baseball Game? Without a doubt the most tasteless thing I have ever
seen on my life. No need for it whatsoever. Besides, everything they
said was incorrect. Everyone wants to know what was going on? Uh, I
don’t think so. Personally, I don’t care. If some guy hit 12 HR instead
of 10 because he roided up in 1999, I couldn’t care less. I’m not
trying to stick my head in the sand here, I’m just saying – there’s no
need to exhume this body right now, or ever again. And certainly not in
the middle of a baseball game.
3) Peter Gammon’s In-Game Report: Peter Gammons and The Wizard of Oz were separated at birth. Did you see him sitting behind that cage when he gave his first in-game report? Nuts. It gets better. Peter Gammons looks like Frank Morgan, who played The Wizard of Oz. Frank Morgan looks a lot like Mickey Rooney. And Mickey Rooney looks a lot like – you guessed it – Peter Gammons.
4) Danny Graves: He looked more lost than a child out there. And then, of course you had his throw ‘to’ 2nd base. Let me tell you what happened there. Graves panicked, and he was so nervous about picking off that runner that he didn’t give himself enough time to look at his target and, more importantly, plant his feet. He tried to compensate by using his arm to direct the throw and bring it more across his body, but it failed, like that move always does. If you’re a shortstop, you can pull that off sometimes, if you really know what you’re doing and it isn’t too long of a throw.
5) C.C. Sabathia: Doesn’t look too serious. Weird? Sure. But season-threatening? Doesn’t look like it. Then again, it’s all speculation until they can examine him tomorrow.
6) Mark Buehrle: You won’t see him get jacked around like that for the rest of the season, I can pretty much promise you that. And if he does, it won’t be more than 4 runs.
Hello, YES Network? The Boss still pays your salary
I’m watching Yankees v. Diamondbacks on MLB.TV right now. YES is broadcasting the game. The game is being played at the Diamondbacks home field, now going by "Chase Field."
What is YES Network doing replaying Luis Gonzalez’s 9th inning hit from Game 7 of the 2001 World Series? Especially when it’s reached off of your tangent conversation about Mariano Rivera. Talk about bad taste. They also replayed Jorge Posada getting nailed by a Kelly Stinnett long toss and breaking his nose about a week or so ago.
The Yankees set their rotation for now. Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, and Shawn Chacon. Wait, that’s only four guys! I know, Joe Torre is that crazy… no, just kidding!
When we need a fifth starter, it will be Jaret Wright. [Wright] is fine and understands. He was
wondering when we would need a fifth starter, and I told him that [his
being the long man for now] was as much information as I had. Our plan
with the long man is to not bring him in to get out of trouble. I’m not
saying he won’t come into a game in the middle of an inning, but
basically, he won’t come in to get an important out.
Uh, what? Could Torre do anything else to make Wright seem like his child?
Also, does any movie look scarier than Slither? Freakiest commercial I’ve ever seen.
I also wanted to note that I didn’t forget to talk about the Physics of Baseball at the end of the last post. The picture there isn’t a mistake. I just figured, here’s more information about baseball we should all know. I have that guy’s book, (Robert Adair, PhD.) but I haven’t read it yet. If you’re looking for good baseball books to read, try: A Tale of Two Cities: The 2004 Red Sox-Yankees Rivalry and the War for the Pennent, by John Harper and Tony Massarotti. I’ve read a lot of books, and this is one of my favorite. Also, try The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness, by Buster Olney. This is another great book, and relates directly to the aforementioned Luis Gonzalez play. And, of course, read Bunts, by George Will. Will is one of the smartest writers of our time and takes a break from politics to pursue his other interest, baseball. The name of this site is a quote taken from this book.
See you in a few hours, when I weigh in on SI’s Baseball Preview ’06. Obviously, the start of the season means we go into hyper-posting mode here, so check back regularly.
Some random thoughts before the season…
Wow. We only have about 30 hours to wait before the first pitch of the 2006 season. How amazing is that? Right now I’m watching Red Sox @ Phillies, because I want to know about the Phillies, the game is being played at Citizen’s Bank Park, and it was the only good one that started at 1.05. I’m gonna read Sports Illustrated Baseball Preview after I post this, and then we’ll get more Baseball thoughts. Until then, some website and MLB.com related business.
We’ve added a few countries to our visitor list. New Zealand, Cote D’ivoire, Ghana, The Netherlands, Taiwan, and Panama, I believe. This is adding to our previous visitors from Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, Korea, El Salvador, France, UK, Canada, Ireland, Dominican Republic, and Croatia. I believe that’s it.
Furthermore… I added my first RSS Feed yesterday. "Bleeding Pinstripes" had the honor. For the last year or so, I’ve been skeptical about this whole RSS thing. About two weeks ago, I switched over to Mozzila’s Firefox from Internet Explorer, and I’m crazy about it. I encourage you to check it out as well. In any case, Firefox makes it very easy to ‘subscribe’ or whatever you call it, to web pages. If a ‘live feed’ is available, all you have to do is click the little orange button on the right side of the address bar, and it adds it just like a bookmark. When you try to select the website as a bookmark, it shows you the last 10 posts made, so you can check for a new one I guess. I’m still working on understanding the whole idea.
On that note, the new site – baseballradioshow.com – is finally up. I wouldn’t say it’s running… but it’s online.
Furthermore, the new MLB.TV media player seems to be up and running. One question though. Why is there an ad for MLB.TV on the bottom of the player? Unless this has something to do with Spring Training being free, then I’m not sure I understand the reasoning. I mean.. if you go to see a movie at the theaters, you don’t expect to see a trailer for the movie you’re about to watch, do you? I was watching part of yesterday’s Cleveland v. Detroit game when the show went to commercials. Thing is, anyone who watches MLB.TV knows that a lot of times – especially with networks such as NESN, YES, and the like – that ‘commercial’ really means ‘lets listen to the broadcasters without them knowing it.’ But I’ve never heard anything this good:
Roll the opener! Roll the ******* open! Where’s the ****** open! Prep to roll VT23… *******, where’s VT23! Rollin… *******!
How long was that Perez interview? It seemed like an hour… did you get at least 6 minutes? Good.
[Robotic Voice] Speak up or move closer to the microphone please.
[Robotic Voice] The dog you’re about to hear should appear to come from the right loudspeaker only… Woof!
[Homer Simpson] Hurry up and lose so we can get out of here!
Ambulance Emergency line, do you have an emergency?
Yeah, yeah I need a fambulance. This is Joe, I’m in a mutha*** phone booth…
[Download this here. This story is hilarious - the guy gets attacked by a deer he thought was dead and so he put in his car. Funniest thing I've heard in my life.]Here’s the pitch!… just a bit outside! Here’s the pitch!… oh ****.
Yup, that last one was an S-Bomb. And about the Ambulance call, they replayed this for the next three breaks (and counting) and each time the announcers repeated the guy like little kids. The way I understand it, the Indians just started their own team broadcasting network, similar to NESN and YES. This is called STO. Stow. No idea what it stands for. Super Television Organization? This isn’t the way you want to launch a new network, guys, so clean it up. One area I have to hand it to them in is their shrewd analysis of the Tigers Organization. They noted that the Tigers scored the 11th most runs in the League last year, but it seemed like midway through the season they just quit, and somehow it cost Alan Trammel his job. Uh, welcome to Detroit Baseball. And by the way, any self-respecting Tigers fan knows Alan Trammel was used. Ownership knew they weren’t gonna win squat in the next three years, so they signed a cheap hometown favorite. He got managing experience, and the Tigers got a cheap fix while they rebuilt. And, yes, I know that the difference between the worst Manager in the game and the best is about 1/10 of your worst player’s salary, but trust me, I’m right. The Tigers didn’t sign Trammel to win baseball games.
Back to STO. With all the advertising MLB.com does, how are these the only guys in the world who don’t know about MLB.TV? How? Also, I have a problem with them saying 1st base isn’t as easy as most people think. That’s not true. Far and away, it’s the easiest position on the diamond and physically the least demanding. Open up your glove and make a target for the throw. And don’t say the outfield is easier, because I’ve never seen a 1B whip out a cannon and gun someone doThanks for reading. I’ll post some more baseball thoughts after I read the Baseball Preview in SI.
PS: Check this out now. Welcome to April.
Leiter out, WBC, and some Random Thoughts
I have to cram the past week’s worth of thoughts into this one post, so that’s why it’s long. Thanks for reading, anyway.
Leiter Retires
First off, many of you who read a previous post know how badly I wanted Al 
Leiter to retire. Well,
he did. And that makes me happy. The guy stayed in the game just long
enough to realize that he’s done everything he can. I know people are
gonna say, ‘well, without Leiter, Chacon, Small, and Wang we don’t make
the playoffs last year.’ I mean, did Leiter’s 4-5 record with a 5.49
ERA in 16 appearances – 10 starts – really get us to the playoffs? I
know Cashman literally didn’t have anyone to start that July 17th game
against the Red Sox until he picked up Leiter, but still – I don’t
think he was what pushed us into the playoffs, and I think we could’ve
done it without him. But this begs the question – how insane would it
be if both Leiter and The Rocket made their last professional
appearances in the World Baseball Classic? And how messed up is it that
The Rocket is still so good?
World Baseball Classic
Next, the World Baseball Classic. I only had a chance over break to
catch the March 13th, 2nd Round matchup between Cuba and Team Dominicana,
and part of the March 16th Mexico v. USA game. First, the Cuba and
Dominicana game was one of the best games I saw. I only watched till
about the 7th inning, but it had everything. Seriously, we had the
Cuban’s weird style of play, and mix that with the David Ortiz v. Cuba
matchup, (which I believe was actually a separate game.) I’m gonna
leave the WBC for a second and talk about the Perez’s.
Alright, we also had Odalis Perez
going 4.2 innings and only allowing 3 hits, 1 walk, and striking out 3
- and you have to think the Dodgers are delighted to see that out of
him. Odalis has been one of the most up and down players these last few
years, but he turns only 29 in June, and so maybe it’s his year.
Remember, in 2002, Perez put up 222.1 IP, with 38 BB, 155 K’s, 21HR,
and an ERA of 3.00. You can look at the stats for the other years
yourself by clicking on the link above, but the bottom line is that
he’s gone on to pitch less innings while giving up the same amount of
hits and HR, a little more runs, and less K’s. We’ve been waiting for
him to bounce back and maybe it’s time. Be careful not to confuse
Odalis, who plays for the Dodgers, with Oliver Perez,
who plays for the Pirates. Oliver has had two years that couldn’t have
been more different. In 2004, he finally pulled it together and went
about 200 IP with 239 K’s and ERA of 2.98. He followed that up with
an injury-ridden 2005 where he went 103 IP – none of them really
healthy, I’ll grant him – and had an ERA of 5.85 with 87 K’s and 70
BB’s – about the same walks in half as many innings. Just more
information.
So, back to Cuba v. Dominicana. My favorite part of this game was,
without a doubt, watching
David Ortiz jerk Cuba’s Jonder Martinez out
of the yard in the 5th inning. There is no way to describe this if you
haven’t seen it, but basically Jonder left one over the plate, and it
was gone before the bat was off Ortiz’s shoulder, I mean I was watching
at home and I still knew this blast was coming. Ortiz launched it over
everything in Right Field, and you could even see the fans leaning out
of the park trying to find where it landed. Anyway, instead of watching
the Home Run, Ortiz tosses his bat about 20 feet, turns around, glares at the catcher for about a
second, and then goes on his way. Priceless. Ariel Pestano, who was
basically sick of dealing with the pitcher’s inability to pitch, gets
up and starts hollering down Jonder. Where do you ever see a catcher
run down, scream at, and try to coach his pitcher after he gives up the
biggest shot in the world? As if this isn’t enough, the announcers
decided to add the ESPN Deportes call. And here we go again – "No no no
no no no no no!!!!" The whole call translates into something like,
‘that ball ain’t comin back, no no no no…’ Priceless. If anyone knows
where I can find this, please tell me.
As if this isn’t enough, earlier in the game we got to see Albert
Pujols score from first base. On a double through the gap? No. A ball
off the wall? No. A throwing error, from third to first. Talk
about sailing away. There was some additional technicality on the play
too, I have no idea really, but anytime I get to see a guy who plays
1st base score from first base on a ball fielded by the 3rd baseman,
that’s just incredible. Albert Pujols is a big dude, and he just sprinted 270 feet. Alright. Does everyone remember Ken Griffey Jr’s Winning Run?
It was the fifth game of the 1995 American League Wild Card
Playoffs. Down by one run in the bottom of the eleventh inning, the
Seattle Mariners, with Ken Griffey Jr. up to bat, were setting the
stage for the most exciting finish in a divisional series. Ken Griffey
Jr. smacked a single to center field to advance a runner to third base.
Then the American League batting champ stepped into the batter’s box
and drove a pitch deep to left field; one run scored easily to tie the
game. But wait! Here comes Ken Griffey Jr. rounding third. He’s going to try the impossible, scoring from first base. the throw to the plate is on its way. Ken Griffey Jr. hits the dirt. The throw is not in time! The Seattle Mariners advance to the American League Championship Series, thanks in part to Ken Griffey Jr.’s winning run!
This is from the inside cover of the Super Nintendo game, you guessed
it, "Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run." So what if the account of the play
which is the game’s namesake reads like… it’s 
really boring. These
people made one of the greatest baseball games out of one play. There
are no other major leaguers featured in the game. All the names are
made up, except for Ken’s. It’s like, Ken Griffey Jr. Fantasy World.
Ken’s trade value is like, 130, and everyone else’s hovers around 70.
If you haven’t played this game, buy a Super Nintendo and then buy the
game. It’s 10 years old but… it isn’t going out of date.
Now, just a few words about the Mexico v. US game. I didn’t see much
of the game, only a few innings really, but I did see that Home Run,
errr Double. Anyone else who watched that part of the game live
probably sided with the announcers, as I did. Because they absolutely
tore up the umpires. Really, its sad. Say you saw nothing of the actual
play. All you saw was a ball in right field, about 20 feet away from
the wall. How, you ask, did it get there? It didn’t just land there.
And if it did, it wouldn’t be rolling towards the infield. Ok,
so it could’ve hit the wall. The wall in Angel Stadium is about 10 feet
tall. So, unless the wall is sloped upwards, there’s no way that ball
comes that far back. There, problem solved. And here’s another thing,
because I’ll grant that the umpires didn’t see exactly where the ball
landed, because they certainly didn’t see the ball anywhere else. If
Mexico is yelling at you that it was a Home Run, which would eliminate
them from the tournament, and the US is standing around watching…
then it’s a Home Run. Just like Barry Bonds, if I’m Roger Clemens and I
know Mario Valenzuela is trying to take credit for going deep on me
when he actually came up about 20 feet short, I’m gonna be pissed and
screaming at the top of my lungs. In any case, you only overturn a call
if you’re absolutely sure that you saw something that no one else did,
and you’re
positive about it – 110%. I’m not gonna sit here and rip on
Davidson because it’s been done, and frankly, I’m sure the guy wasn’t
trying to incite something. My beef is with Selig, a man I usually
respect. If you’re all about this World Baseball Classic, why don’t you
go ahead and book the MLB Umpires? Apparently, he tried to do this but
these umps said they didn’t believe they would be getting paid enough
to do the games, so they declined the offer. Now, Selig has an issue
with the Umpire’s Union, not the individual crews, but in any case if
you’re Selig you make them ump the game. You pay them more
money, you do whatever you need, but you make it happen. The difference
between an MLB and Minor League Umpire isn’t huge, and maybe Selig
could’ve gotten away with it, but you don’t take that chance on your
first attempt. It’s also interesting to note that Davidson was a former
MLB Umpire. And he’ll stay that way now, because there’s no way he’s
gonna be allowed back after nearly starting WWIII.
Now I’m just gonna talk about a few things that happened on my
forced vacation in the last week. I’ll outline them all now: Dwight Gooden and Denny McLain,
Roy Halladay, Mark Mulder, Mark Prior, and A.J. Burnett.
Dwight Gooden and Denny McLain
So, recent news is that former Mets Star Dwight Gooden was arrested
for violating the terms of his
probation, which was the result of his
DUI in August of 2005. Well, Gooden had a meeting with his parole
officer where he admitted to using the nose candy – that’s right, Gooden
is back on the blow. Rick James once said, "Cocaine… is a **** of a drug."
It appears he was right. The Super Freak himself was done in by
Cocaine, contrary to the initial reports that he ‘died of natural
causes’, because there’s no way someone like that just shuffles off
quietly in the middle of the night. In any case, most of that Mets team
is having trouble with Coke. It’s really too bad. I’m going to stay
away from Kevin Mitchell and Strawberry because I don’t want to be
typing all night, but I couldn’t help being reminded of Denny McLain
when I heard about Gooden. And when I’m reminded of Denny McLain, I
only think of two things: the ‘Beyond the Glory’ episode on him, and
the fact that he now works at a 7-11. This may seem insignificant at
first, but think carefully. McLain just finished serving his second
stint in the slam, this time for stealing from a meat-packing pension
fund. Remember that, when McLain won 31 games in 1968, he was draining an entire case of
Pepsi every day… How do you put the fox in charge of the hens like
that? No doubt McLain has a hose hooked up to the Big Gulp machine.
Roy Halladay and Mark Mulder
Roy just
got extended through 2010, which is good news. He’s amazing. Next,
Mulder is gonna be a free agent next year. The Cardinals need to lock
him up for seven years. I am pretty sure Mulder is baseball’s
winningest pitcher over the last five years. I’ve heard Colon, but I
think Colon only has 84 wins to Mulder’s 88. Again, I have to cite MVP
Baseball 2004 and say that Mulder is amazing for my team. I like the
Cardinals and I like Mulder, a lot. Imagine if Mulder is let loose and
signs with the Red Sox or something? How can you like a pitcher that
plays for the enemy?
Mark Prior and A.J. Burnett
A.J. Burnett, like Dontrelle Willis,
has never been ‘ok’ in my book. Not sure why, I just get the feeling
he’s not a good guy. Mark Prior, on the other hand, I like a lot.
Anyway, Prior pitches for the poor, sorry Cubs who aren’t going
anywhere this year. As long as Dusty Baker lets them cry, they’re
stuck. Again, I could get really sidetracked here so I’m going to stop.
But my point is that Prior is a
great pitcher, when he’s healthy. I’ll
always be a fan. Collisions with players and balls don’t make someone
injury prone, but having your manager throw you out there for over 200
innings in your 2nd year in the majors, after throwing only 100 innings
your first year and despite the fact that you’re only 22, is a problem.
And it looks like he’s starting another season on the DL. Here’s the deal with Prior, when he’s healthy he’s on. It’s not like he’s ever had a really bad stretch, or one nagging injury that sidelines him five times a season, like… a blister. Kerry Wood has the same problem, except his is nagging, and you have to wonder if Baker is the cause. Zambrano is a flat-out freak, so he isn’t
going to hit that wall. Next, A.J. Burnett. Toronto’s hopes nearly got
torn apart when they saw Burnett go down the other day. In any case, he appears to be fine. But doesn’t that scare you to death, when your $11 million a year man goes down like that? At least they didn’t sign Blister Beckett.
That’s all for now. Thanks for waiting a whole week between posts. Recently this blog has gotten pretty popular – we’ve gotten people from Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Croatia, UK, Canada, Israel, Honduras, Mexico, The Dominican Republic, Venezuela and some others I’m probably forgetting. The main point is that people are reading, which is important. I mentioned earlier that Kevin and I bought a website – www.baseballradioshow.com – that should be up in about a month, hopefully. The website will feature this blog as well as the radio show, which will likely be in a podcast form. We also hope to both contribute articles to the site, along with pictures and more. As I said earlier, if anyone is interested in contributing in any way, please contact me. Thanks again for reading, and leave comments and emails.
mlblogsreid
Recent Comments