After Gary Bennett‘s out-of-nowhere performance against the Cubs this weekend (.700/.750/.833, with a homer and a game-winning single Saturday and a game-winning grand slam Sunday night), I hope each player on the Cardinals roster–including the guys on the DL–bought him a stiff drink last night.
And then I hope he staggered around the bar, drunk as a lord, shouting, “Don’t you mess with me–I’m freaking Mike Piazza!”
Seconds ago, as I was sitting in my kitchen editing a post for my other blog, listening to the Cubs play the Rockies, I heard the following exchange between Pat Hughes, Ron Santo, and a surprise mystery guest:
Pat Hughes: Colorado has eight runs on twelve hits and one error, though I think the scorer might change that one.
Ron Santo: Yeah, I think he might.
Official Scorer (in background): I’m not gonna change it.
That’s why I listen to the Cubs even when they’re 48-67.
Jim, with whom I failed to see a baseball game last week while I was staying with him in Los Angeles, alerted me to a USA Today story about those hip graphics Fox uses for their football coverage.
Fox, known as the NFL’s most flamboyant carrier, is even cutting back on its glitz.
The network surveyed viewers, Fox senior vice president Gary Hartley says, and found that Fox’s many sound effects, blinking lights and animated graphics were seen as “pointless and annoying.”
So they’ll be reduced. However, he says, Fox is bringing back the
on-screen robots that pop up on its coverage: “We found we’ve lost some
of the attitude we’ve projected in the past. Robots are sacred ground
for that.”
Did they really need to survey more than one person to come up with “pointless and annoying?” Could baseball be next? I can think of a certain talking baseball that I would describe with just those words–if I you limited me to family-friendly language.
And what the hell do they mean by “robots are sacred ground for [attitude]?” These people are very, very strange.
Have you all seen this? It’s a clip of Joe Mikulik, manager of the Rockies’ single-A affiliate, the Asheville Tourists, throwing what might be the best managerial tantrum I’ve ever seen. It happened while I was on vacation, and the first I heard of it was this story in USA Today, which is worth reading even after you see the video, if only because it’s fun to see all the various protest actions Mikulik chooses to take listed one after another.
Near the end of the article, Mikulik, despite apologizing, says, “I never lost control, though it looked like I did. I thought I was in total control the whole time.”
Here is a discussion of a question that has come up among my cadre of seatmates several times over the years: why did the rule allowing a batter to attempt to reach first base safely on a dropped third strike come to be?
My seatmates and I have tended to the position that it’s a rule based in the idea that, to record an out, the defense must make a positive action, having position of the ball.
But a guy at the indispensable all-baseball.com has a different opinion. He’s fairly convincing.
God, I love this game.
From the Post-Dispatch today:
La Russa, asked how Marquis should approach this start, said, only half in jest, “If it was me, I would approach it like it was the last start of my life and if I lose that game, I’m going to die.
“You don’t want to die, do you? Of course, I hit under .200 and nobody ever played me.”
Meanwhile the Cubs, trying to win their second game out of their last fifteen,
just gave up a three-run homer to Mikey P., turning a 3-1 lead into a 4-3 deficit.
1) On the broadcast of today’s Cubs/Padres game:
Pat Hughes: Be careful with this guy, Ron: he spells his name Cla–no “y,” but it’s pronounced “Clay.” I thought it was a mistake. It disturbed me. I couldn’t sleep last night. These things are important.
Ron Santo: You’re bothered a lot of the time, aren’t you?
Pat Hughes: Can’t you tell?
2) Cardnilly heard two people in the stands at Busch Stadium talking about Juan Encarnacion:
Inmate-looking guy [re-emerging from the concourse]: Say, who hit that last home run?
Mildly frightened bystander: Oh, one of the new guys. I forget his name…
ILG: Was it Incarceration?
MFB: Yep. That was the guy.
3) Operation Shutdown may be over, unless Derek Bell can talk the judicial system into letting him continue his workless protest.
4) Pedro has a green thumb. Now if only he’d grow out his hair again, I could wholeheartedly root for him.
5) Congratulations to Jim, who made the 600th post to this blog earlier in the week.
Albert Pujols is a great hitter.
Albert Pujols is a great hitter.
Albert Pujols is a great hitter.
Notice how I did that three
times?
The Vernal Equinox has passed. It’s time for predictions.
Some ground rules:
1) Pick the Braves to win. Seriously. Just give up not doing so. I hate this rule, but if I’d followed it even once since 1991, I’d have picked better.
2) Pick the Royals for last.
3) If you’re really inspired, list the order of finish for each division in each league. If you’re lazy, pick each division winner and the wild card for each league.
4) Pick the MVP and Cy Young. Don’t pick Rookie of the Year, unless you pay more attention to the minor leagues than I do.
5) As you do your calculations, remember that Operation Shutdown is, so far as I know, still in effect. The Pirates will not have the use of the services of Derek Bell.
Play Ball, boys!*
*and girls. Girls are encouraged to post. Got lots of female friends who are rabid fans, don’t want to slight ’em.
Not much to say that Bat-Girl doesn’t say here.
What a fun ballplayer he was to watch.
In the 1991 World Series against the Braves, with the Twins facing a Game 6 that they had to wing, Puckett told his teammates in the clubhouse, “Climb on my back, boys. I don’t know who’s going to take care of Game 7, but I got this one.”
He proceeded to single, steal a base, triple, bring in a run with a sacrifice fly, and score a run. He saved a run with a wall-crashing catch in the third.
And then, in the 11th, his home run prompted Jack Buck’s “We’ll see you tomorrow night!”
What a ballplayer.