Baseball Journal It's really over 11-4-12

No more baseball for the year. I feel like I need a Hunter Pence motivational speech. It's hard to get out of bed or give a damn at work anymore. Oh, wait, that's everyday, but at least I don't have to listen to my co-workers complaining about baseball rain delays causing them to miss the X-Factor. I had a few extra thoughts about the World Series that I didn't get in last week. While I was on vacation, I wrote out some of this stuff that I couldn't use a day later, because it was outdated. So, basically, I'm recycling.

"No way!" was mine and probably just about everybody else's reaction to Pablo Sandoval's third home run in the first game of the World Series. Just about. A few sports talk show hosts decided that the real story of the Panda's historic night was that he was fat. Apparently these "men" (I use that term only in a gender specific sense and in no other) think that being "ripped" is much cooler than joining a World Series club that only includes Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson (and some obscure guy named Al, whatever happened him?). Their only takeaway from this tremendous sports moment was that Pablo was a professional embarrassment to himself and the league for his weight. (No really, I'm not embellishing on that.)

This is why these people are professional sportscasters and regular people like me, aren't. I could never have come up with that kind of in-depth analysis. Listen up you primitive screwheads, Pablo is well aware of his weight, and I'm betting he's good and sensitive about it. Hopefully Pablo will take some time during the off-season to personally show you his Series MVP trophy and then insert it in your rear ends.

I caught a South Korean sportscast on the Worldvision network. The guy had these black, heavy-frame glasses, a bow tie, and 50's letterman sweater on. I thought it was a gag, but no, he was the actual sports guy. Apparently in Korea, they were also playing their national championship baseball series. It was the Samsung Lions vs. somebody. That's really the next step, just have corporate sponsors take over ownership of the teams. He also went over the World Series and did call Pablo Sandoval, Kung Fu Panda. A guy from Venezuela, playing ball in San Francisco, being referred to by his nickname by a TV sportscaster in South Korea. It's a small world after all.

One of my favorite shots of the Series was actually a photograph, that picture of a five-year old Brandon Crawford as a Giant's fan. There he was in uniform, holding up a sign asking the owners to not move the team to a fate-worse-than-death in St. Petersburg to play in the Little Trop of Horrors in front of friends, family, and Yankee fans. (Sorry Rays, you guys got shafted.) If anything epitomized the Giants, it would be the image a passionate little boy, playing his heart out on the field.

After watching the first two games, I was hearing from the experts that the Tigers don't hit left-handed pitching well, and they don't play well on the road. Well then how the hell did they get in the World Series? What kind of expert analysis was that? Please don't insult the intelligence of everyone watching with that kind of commentary.

All these playoff glamour shots of San Fran and the stadium have got to be boosting tourism. Heck, I wanna go.

What was up with that guy behind homeplate wearing an orange Marlins jersey? I thought he was just trying to fit in with the color scheme, but there he was in Detroit too. If you're sitting in those seats, surely you could afford an orange Giants shirt.

I feel like I should mention the MLB network's pre-game coverage. If there's one thing that has made me an even bigger fanatic about baseball, it's been my exposure to the MLB network. It's such a joy to hear sports commentators talk about baseball enthusiastically and unapologetically. Most of the Four-letter's coverage of the NLCS involved speculating on how bad ratings could be for a World Series between two Midwestern teams. That's really some great sports journalism there.

Perhaps the biggest delight has been A.J. Pierzynski on the panel. He's done this before for the playoffs and in addition to being insightful, he's having fun and spreading it around. How different from his hard-nosed, on-field persona. Whenever he hangs up the spikes, I hope he'll pick up a microphone to call games, and that I'll be able to hear him.

I need more baseball here over the winter, so I'll be posting more Rewind material from during the season.