Boy is this tough. After my nine-hour baseball/NASCAR double header, I now know the limits of my endurance for TV viewing. The last thing I want to do at the moment is write about my odyssey of armchair paralysis. I no longer care what happened or what my thoughts are on the subject of either sport.
And with that out of the way, let’s get down to it.
For TWIB this weekend, I don’t know if the presentation made the show great, or if the subject matter was great and all they simply needed to do was show it. This was a special episode. First, brief tours of New Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I like the Mets’ new crib. Anything that reminds me of Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Dodgers might be enough to make me forget that I hate the Mets. The Jackie Robinson Rotunda was appropriately impressive, as benefiting the man.
Baseball is about history. The montage of past Opening Days could not fail to bring a smile to any fan’s face. Memorializing the passing of Harry Kalas and Mark Fidrych were likewise a celebration of their contributions to the game. I’m sure in fine Philly fan tradition, Harry got a standing “Booo!” from the home crowd at his service at the ballpark. (Just kidding. Philly fans are a running gag with me.)
TWIB is going to have a hard time topping this show for the rest of the season.
On to the Fox baseball pre-game proper with Chris Rose. This guy has a hard job in speed reading the week’s news and trying to make it relatable. Rose seems to do better off script, as shown with his interview with “Headquarters,” Orlando Hudson. The kid’s childhood nickname came from his head looking too big until the rest of his body caught up. I don’t want a bunch of numbers in my baseball broadcast. I want stuff like this.
A somewhat more excitable than usual Dick Stockton and Eric Karros were calling the game. Thank God. These two work pretty well together, though my favorite memory of these two came when they were separated during a potential playoff spot clenching game a couple of years ago. Dick went down to clubhouse and Eric had to call everything for an inning. The Padres’ Trevor Hoffman failed to close out the game and Dick had to go back up to the booth. Eric made the observation that play-by-play was harder than it looked. It was hard on the audience, too. Dick wanted the Brewers to go ahead and win the game because he didn’t want to have to run back down the clubhouse to cover the celebration. Trust me. This is what baseball is all about. Funny stories.
I kind of wanted to see the Yankee game to see more of the new stadium. Judging by the crappy crowd in LA to see the Dodgers and Rockies, I wasn’t the only one. At first, I thought it was the typical SoCal crowd arriving late and leaving early, but even the Fan Cam segment had to be shortened. As it turned out, I think capacity New York crowd would have switched places too. No matter how great the new stadium is, 22 to 4 game against your team would have been painful to watch. Nick Swisher did not pitch. Girardi wants to save his arm for next blowout.
“Looking for a few good women,” said the giant ballpark sign. I think it said it was sponsored by the LA County Sheriff’s department, looking for recruits. (Jerry starts writing something that will only get him in trouble and then quickly deletes it.) I’m not quite so picky. I’m looking for a few good-looking women, regardless of their morals. Thankfully there a few behind home plate, but Fox’s score board kept intermittently blocking one of the better looking ones. She still managed to wave to me while she was talking on her cell phone. Yeah. Hey, babe. Call me. Is it just me or does it just not seem like Dodger Stadium without the guy in the Panama hat behind home plate with the radar gun? What ever happened to him?
I want to like the Dodgers, but they’ve replaced the Giants as the team I’m rooting against solely because of one player on their team. In the Giants case, it was Barry Bonds. Watching him lose the World Series to the Rally Monkey is one of my most cherished baseball memories. With the Dodgers, it’s Manny being Manny. I don’t have his full box score, but what I saw was: HR-Dropped fly ball-HR-bad attempt at diving catch, two runs scored-Walked and scored. Again, thank God, Tim McCarver and Joe Buck weren’t covering this game. They would not have shut up about those fielding errors for the entire game.
So what do we take away from today’s game? KFC is now offering a grilled chicken meal according to their commercial. I must investigate this further.
I’m going to put a hold on further baseball game blogs for at least the time being. I’m obviously not qualified to write about this sport. Even for all my years of watching, I still don’t know what a slugging percentage measures. If I feel compelled, I’ll put something up, but I don’t want watching baseball to become a labor for me. Speaking of laborious, Event Two of the double header is on deck.
J.
No comments:
Post a Comment