Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Thoughts from the All-Star Game:
* you'd think that they'd not introduce the five Braves reserves all at the same time, to avoid having everyone feel like the Braves are monopolizing the All-Star roster ...
* this is horrible - an awful rendition of Smashmouth's 'All-Star' that sounds like it's being playing on a steel drum ...
what's this?!? why in the world do you throw in this cheesy rendition of 'Tonight' from West Side Story
* shouldn't it be in your contract if you sign on to sing the national anthem that you have to sound like you actually care about what you're singing?
* Are the announcers contractually obligated to use the phrase "this time it counts" in every other sentence?
* Top of the 5th - Hasegawa comes in to pitch for the AL (can we say 'overrated')
leadoff walk to Sheffield, then Helton crushes a pitch that just hung over the plate, crying out to be pounced on, and Helton willingly obliged blasting it dead center
* That's interesting - apparently it's a judgment call for the umpire on a ground-rule double whether to award a runner homebase
Rolen on 2nd, Furcal on 1st, and Andruw rips a double down the left-field line; with Garret Anderson rushing over to field, the ball caroms off the siding and a silly fan (who will no doubt be kicked out) gloves the ball, prompting the field judge (what are they called?) to correctly call fan interference
meanwhile Raphie is hurtling around third and into home - I would have thought that they'd hold Raphie up at third, but the umpires in their discretion say Furcal would have reached home anyway so they awarded him
* gotta love the "random" Fox "star" sightings - Wanda Sykes? please
* top of the 7th - ANDRUW! just reaches out there and knocks it out
* here we go, bottom of the 7th ... what, no 'take me out to the ballgame'? instead we get 'God Bless America' by Amy Grant - I don't know if it's the speaker or monitor problems,but she sounds way too mellow in this rendition; come on Amy, let's end it off strong ... and ... no
way too sedate ... man, what we need is a Whitney-Houston-1991-SuperBowl-Star-Spangled-Banner rendition, instead we get prozac
* Sosa/Giambi Pepsi commercial where they're up on Mt. Everest with a Sherpa and it turns out that Sosa's ball landed a few inches further than Giambi's, then the Sherpa finds another ball with Babe Ruth's name on it further on up the mountain, punchline: "who Babe Ruth?" ... My wife: "like they sign the balls before they hit them"
* bottom 7th - Billy Wagner: Brett Boone pops up to deep right, Magglio Ordonez pops up to first, Jason Giambi just destroyed that Billy Wagner pitch - that's what you get with power on power - man there was no doubt about that one, now Wagner is throwing off-plate stuff to Hernandez but it's all good because he grounds out to third
* bottom 8th - Eric Gagne: Nomar grounds weakly to short, Garret Anderson w/ a stand-up double (3/4 HR, 2B), next guy grounds out, then Vernon Wells slaps a run-scoring double (one run game, tying run on second w/ Blalock up), oh man - Gagne what is up?!?! Blalock sent that 2-1 offering into the stratosphere - where's the feared Gagne we keep hearing about? there goes Andruw's MVP bid ...
* my brother's take: never let a Canadian pitch in the freakin' all-star game
* yeah, the National league blew it ... what is Dusty Baker thinking? we have a top of the 9th down by one run and we have Paul Lo Duca, Luis Castillo, and Raphael Furcal ...
and Raphie almost ties it up - this close! about 5 feet away ... thanks Gagne, Thanks Dusty
* you'd think that they'd not introduce the five Braves reserves all at the same time, to avoid having everyone feel like the Braves are monopolizing the All-Star roster ...
* this is horrible - an awful rendition of Smashmouth's 'All-Star' that sounds like it's being playing on a steel drum ...
what's this?!? why in the world do you throw in this cheesy rendition of 'Tonight' from West Side Story
* shouldn't it be in your contract if you sign on to sing the national anthem that you have to sound like you actually care about what you're singing?
* Are the announcers contractually obligated to use the phrase "this time it counts" in every other sentence?
* Top of the 5th - Hasegawa comes in to pitch for the AL (can we say 'overrated')
leadoff walk to Sheffield, then Helton crushes a pitch that just hung over the plate, crying out to be pounced on, and Helton willingly obliged blasting it dead center
* That's interesting - apparently it's a judgment call for the umpire on a ground-rule double whether to award a runner homebase
Rolen on 2nd, Furcal on 1st, and Andruw rips a double down the left-field line; with Garret Anderson rushing over to field, the ball caroms off the siding and a silly fan (who will no doubt be kicked out) gloves the ball, prompting the field judge (what are they called?) to correctly call fan interference
meanwhile Raphie is hurtling around third and into home - I would have thought that they'd hold Raphie up at third, but the umpires in their discretion say Furcal would have reached home anyway so they awarded him
* gotta love the "random" Fox "star" sightings - Wanda Sykes? please
* top of the 7th - ANDRUW! just reaches out there and knocks it out
* here we go, bottom of the 7th ... what, no 'take me out to the ballgame'? instead we get 'God Bless America' by Amy Grant - I don't know if it's the speaker or monitor problems,but she sounds way too mellow in this rendition; come on Amy, let's end it off strong ... and ... no
way too sedate ... man, what we need is a Whitney-Houston-1991-SuperBowl-Star-Spangled-Banner rendition, instead we get prozac
* Sosa/Giambi Pepsi commercial where they're up on Mt. Everest with a Sherpa and it turns out that Sosa's ball landed a few inches further than Giambi's, then the Sherpa finds another ball with Babe Ruth's name on it further on up the mountain, punchline: "who Babe Ruth?" ... My wife: "like they sign the balls before they hit them"
* bottom 7th - Billy Wagner: Brett Boone pops up to deep right, Magglio Ordonez pops up to first, Jason Giambi just destroyed that Billy Wagner pitch - that's what you get with power on power - man there was no doubt about that one, now Wagner is throwing off-plate stuff to Hernandez but it's all good because he grounds out to third
* bottom 8th - Eric Gagne: Nomar grounds weakly to short, Garret Anderson w/ a stand-up double (3/4 HR, 2B), next guy grounds out, then Vernon Wells slaps a run-scoring double (one run game, tying run on second w/ Blalock up), oh man - Gagne what is up?!?! Blalock sent that 2-1 offering into the stratosphere - where's the feared Gagne we keep hearing about? there goes Andruw's MVP bid ...
* my brother's take: never let a Canadian pitch in the freakin' all-star game
* yeah, the National league blew it ... what is Dusty Baker thinking? we have a top of the 9th down by one run and we have Paul Lo Duca, Luis Castillo, and Raphael Furcal ...
and Raphie almost ties it up - this close! about 5 feet away ... thanks Gagne, Thanks Dusty
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
"You can't go get drunk every time you have a bad game, or you'd be drunk all the time,'' Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "So these are the games where you sit around, you think about it ... and try not to take it home to your wife and family. They know how you feel."
Monday, July 07, 2003
Nice to see that the Braves have seven players on the All-Star team
of course, I don't know whether Marcus Giles being selected is a testament to his season (which has been good, but he's been in a major slump the last 5 weeks or so) or to the lack of depth at the position in the National League - where are all the good second basement?!
Javy and Sheff are deserving starters methinks - this is the type of performance we've been looking for from both these guys for a couple of years now
I really hope Sheff doesn't revive his 'no-respect' mantra and realizes that this team is being run by a coporate giant ...
nice to see Furcal coming back around to form this season, and Russ Ortiz has been the most consistent of the staff this year - a well-deserved all-star nod to him
caught a glimpse of Baseball Tonight where they were running down the NL closers, and someone made the comment that should the NL get to the last couple of innings with any kind of a lead, that could pretty much be the ballgame - agreed with the likes of Smoltz and Gagne out there ...
of course, I don't know whether Marcus Giles being selected is a testament to his season (which has been good, but he's been in a major slump the last 5 weeks or so) or to the lack of depth at the position in the National League - where are all the good second basement?!
Javy and Sheff are deserving starters methinks - this is the type of performance we've been looking for from both these guys for a couple of years now
I really hope Sheff doesn't revive his 'no-respect' mantra and realizes that this team is being run by a coporate giant ...
nice to see Furcal coming back around to form this season, and Russ Ortiz has been the most consistent of the staff this year - a well-deserved all-star nod to him
caught a glimpse of Baseball Tonight where they were running down the NL closers, and someone made the comment that should the NL get to the last couple of innings with any kind of a lead, that could pretty much be the ballgame - agreed with the likes of Smoltz and Gagne out there ...
again, Chipper on the bench: 2/4, 2 hr's 3 rbi's, 2 runs
my fantasy team is going down the crapper; the new name is "Throw in the Towel"
I have four 11-game winners on my staff, and I got one stinkin' win last week - ONE!
of course, as I learned to my chagrin last year, all that matters is the playoffs
my fantasy team is going down the crapper; the new name is "Throw in the Towel"
I have four 11-game winners on my staff, and I got one stinkin' win last week - ONE!
of course, as I learned to my chagrin last year, all that matters is the playoffs
