Baseball Journal 9-1-13

Oh, it’s a Chamber of Commerce day in Chicago.  Absolutely perfect.  The Cubs faced the Philadelphia Phillies in front of good crowd.  (Again, who’s needs a winning record?  Or any playoff potential?  Or a World Series win in the last 100 years?)  Len and JD were clearly caught up in the euphoria of this pleasant Labor Weekend and gave lively commentary, sometimes actually talking about the game itself.  Yeah, in a meaningless game in September between two loser teams, you’re going to be expanding the subject matter. 

Greg Brady started off the affair with rousing renditions of “God Bless America” and “The Star Spangled Banner.”  What he lacked in voice, he made up for in performance.  They later showed him trying to make his way through the crowd, all of whom wanted their picture taken with him (and he obliged, of course).  Hey, Barry Williams is a legitimate American icon.  Let’s see: Johnny Bravo reference, “Sunshine Day” played over the lineup card, a mention of the rivalry with the Partridge Family.  Yep, all the pop culture boxes got checked.  Good job.

The guys had one really worthwhile story, the origin of the “basket” in the outfield.  There’s a chain-link fence at a 45-degree angle jutting out of the outfield wall.  Home run balls sometimes fly, unambiguously into the basket, thus obliviating the need for any umpire video reviews.  Bleacher Bums will reach in for said balls, often in a highly unsportsman-like manner, all but fighting for them.  (Of course if they’re enemy home runs, they’re thrown back.)  

But the real purpose of the basket was to actually catch fans.  Apparently back in the day, some presumably inebriated spectators would take to walking on the top of the wall.  This would inevitably result in the fan falling into the field of play.  It was a different game back then.  Of course, after a shirtless Harry Carey dropped on to the warning track one summer day when doing one of his trademark drunken broadcasts from the bleachers, something had to be done.  Since then, wall-walking has gone the way of Streaking and hula hoops and such.

(I was totally kidding about Harry Carey by the way, but it didn’t sound implausible did it?  You know, this whole story sounds a little fishy.  Maybe Len and JD were having a little fun with the viewers.)

Best crowd moment.  A casually dressed woman wearing a wedding veil holding up a sign, “Just Married.  Send help.”  Her presumed husband beside her with the sign, “And send beer.”  They were in bleachers.  Thank goodness for that basket.

Oh, and a game was played.  7-1 Cubs.

Meanwhile in more relevant games, the Rangers dropped another game to the Twins.  I was beside myself.  Eric Nadel, voice of the Rangers, is getting downright cranky.  Last week there was some sort of web controversy (as opposed to an actual controversy) over his comments that Yu Darvish isn’t a true number one starter, at least not now.  Late in this game, he seemed to all but give up with the team only down by a run, getting on to the players for bad plays earlier in the game. 

He took the team to task for a bad August where the team played about .500 ball against mostly sub .500 teams.  The A’s schedule next month features two series with Rangers and the rest of their games versus sub .500 teams.  The Rangers will be playing teams who may or may not be playing for playoff spots, but are definitely good teams in any case.  I’m also thinking the Angels, who certainly have talent, may play hard for some pride, especially against the Rangers.  Eric, who’s seen an awful lot of Ranger baseball, may be foreseeing a bad end.  I wonder how his partner, Matt Hicks, is digesting all of this? 

The Dodgers won again.  I might be getting nervous about my dire predictions concerning their post season, but will not admit to it.  At the beginning of the Cubs’ broadcast, they mentioned that the Phillies had traded Michael Young to the Dodgers.  Len and JD speculated that they got him so that he can DH in American League parks in the World Series.  Picking up an expensive veteran to DH on the assumption you’re going to the World Series?  You’ve got to be kidding me, but what other explanation is there?

They’ve also picked up Brian Wilson and a bunch of other good reclamation pitchers, not to mention all of the good players that they’ve got sitting on the DL and the bench.  Where are they going to play all of these guys?  Surely it will occur to management at some point, that they’ve accumulated an enormous amount of salary in redundant and washed up players without trading away anybody.  What is the plan for getting rid of these guys at some point?  Is there one?  It’s not my money or anything, but even the Yankees must be questioning this kind of overspending.