last night, while watching the cardinals pick apart the red sox one single at a time, a few semi-coherent baseball thoughts flitted through my mind. since such thoughts issued forth from a quarter of a bottle of wine fog i planned to keep them to myself, but, since michael of tennessee asked for it, here they are.
- after the cardinals game i flipped over to the dodgers/tigers game and was caught off guard by the quality of vin scully's commentary. vin has been with the dodgers since brooklyn, understands the visible nuances of the game like few others and, since he calls the game by himself, avoids the mind numbing banter that characterizes most broadcasting pairs. is there any reason, other than possible age discrimination, that fox chose mccarver/buck to anchor their national broadcasts? is there a more competent broadcaster in the game than scully? can we convince congress to provide an exception to the cloning legislation so that we can produce about 29 replicas of scully? i need answers...
- to those few thousand, probably imported, idiots who booed renteria at the start of the cardinals game last night: piss off. if we had overpaid renteria we would likely be without the mulder/grudzilanek/eckstein trifecta that has paid such great dividends. show the man some frickin' respect.
- to pastor rick: they are still not as good as they seem, but they are getting stronger. if hampton's injury persists and the marlins continue to struggle we may be able to hoist another banner at busch.
- i'm not the prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but i will make this prediction. suppan will get shellacked tonight and carpenter will win the rubber game on wednesday.
- that last part reminds me of my favorite topps trivia question ever: "How long is the pitcher's rubber? 24 inches." from what i heard, the writer of that question was immediately fired by topps. however, he eventually righted himself by penning a certain, highly acclaimed screen play for paul thomas anderson.
- although i hate to admit it, derek lee deserves to start the all-star game at 1st base. pujols will get the votes, but lee deserves the start. how's that for (painful) objectivity?
- did the last minute, pre-draft signings of weaver and drew signal the beginning of the end for boras? i sure hope so.
- looks like i was wrong about the As and the White Sox. sue me.
- concerning the DL....so sorry to hear about b. roberts and c. barmes and still savoring the announcements about prior and j. gonzalez.
- last night the red sox announcers were whining about the unfair advantage national league teams have when playing interleague games in their own park. save it. the american league and players association can celebrate the lady's aide all they want, but the senior league will continue to eschew it.
- does anyone care that a-rod is utilizing psychotherapy to help him come to grips with his latent homosexuality? i didn't think so.
- funniest announcer bio i've heard thus far: last night scully mentioned that j. bonderman was a member of 4-H during childhood. i wonder if bonderman's widely reported illiteracy reflects poorly on the organization.
okay, i feel kind of bad about the last comment, but probably not bad enough to delete it. perhaps pangs of conscience will strike later. it's not as heartless as my plans for u.s. population reduction or anything...
as always, i welcome your thoughts and opinions. mike of tennessee, i hope this makes you happy.
5 comments:
Gentry of Beverly: the game was better in person and i too did not boo renteria...i did however take plenty of pics at the game, some even of the game itself!!
Is somebody mocking my handle??? Anyway, thanks for the b.p. and yes, I am officially happy now (it only took 36 years). Michael of TN
Actually agree with much of your assessment...
1. Vin Scully has always been high quality. Too bad he is under contract with ESPN. But, then again, it would be a waste to have him on Fox. Can you imagine him having to deal with announcing "America's Most Wanted Nanny Survivors" or the stupind camera angles, celebrity sightings and general inanity. He is too quality for Fox. Keep him where he is appreciated.
2. Sadly agree regarding Derek Lee. But, oh well, I have seen plenty of Cardinals that should start not even in the game in the past. Sucks to be a Cub.
3. The Renteria boos came from Red Sox fans. C'mon. Wasn't it obvious? They were quickly drowned out.
4. I agree that they may not be as good as they seem, but in the NL no one is as good as they seem (excpet maybe the Padres).
5. I agree that Suppan will probably lose against Clement. Clement and Morris would have been interesting. Does anyone sweep the Red Sox? It seems that they always win 1 game in a blow out.
6. You must have loved that game last night. Small ball and excellent pitching. Great Squeeze, huh?
7. But it is not A-Rod that was half-way uncloseted as the major player for an east coast franchise that dated some journalist from a gay mag a few years back. I still think it is Chipper Jones or Piazza.
8. I wondered how well we played last night. Due to the obvious disadvantage of Varitek catching Wakefield, it was hard to get a full grip on the game. But, Morris showed good stuff.
He could start the All Star game with 2 more wins.
rick,
scully is under contract with espn? does he only do radio or is he t.v. as well?
speaking of espn, i think that jon miller is one of the finest announcers in the game. too bad he has a 5 foot 4 inch albatross tied around his neck every sunday night.
you were correct to assume that last night was my type of game. the squeeze was a blast. the euphoria was drowned out quickly by y. molina getting cut down at the plate, but the squeeze was a blast.
if derek lee is omitted from the starting line up it will only confirm what i've been saying for years: take the ballots out of the fan's hands. most fans, including espn's jim caple by the way, make ridiculous choices. if they put it back in the hands of the players and managers, we'll see better match-ups.
good call about the padres. i don't think they have the pop in their line-up to win the national league, but their pitching scares me.
speaking of pitching, gammons actually had interesting things to say about the brew crew's staff. it's amazing how that team has moved forward since the selig family moved on.
Man. The only other person I know who can write/talk so much about Baseball is one Brian Simkins.
-jamie of chicago
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