Sunday, April 01, 2007

Baseball is back...

...and I couldn't be happier:

23 comments:

T.J. said...

And just as I say that, Joe Morgan appears on my TV to bum me out...

T.J. said...

Caron Butler's broken hand is a real dagger for the Wiz.

rob said...

joe morgan, one batter into the season's first game, "y'know, i don't care all that much about statistics". ahh, welcome back, baseball.

T.J. said...

Yep, I caught that too...

Great to have Gammons back at full strength.

rob said...

gammo picking mets over sox in the series. that might make for interesting reading over at mlc.

Whitney said...

Did anybody (except the unemployed guy) stay up to watch the ESPN/MLB tribute to The Natural last night? I figured it'd be cheesy and unnecessary, just like most of ESPN's non-game programming, but it sucked me in for the duration. Credit a lot of that to how good the film is, but it was also enjoyable to hear the players' comments.

Most interesting tidbits: Jimmy Rollins knowing every single line in the movie, and, almost predictably, what two current MLBers were the geeks who carved "Wonderboy" on their bats? David Eckstein and Eric Byrnes.

T.J. said...

I watched it, and found it extremely enjoyable as well. You would've thought Jim Thome was a 10 year old at his first game with how excited he was.

rob said...

i missed it, but i'm quite certain that espn will replay it 29 times over the next several months.

Mark said...

Wiz are going out in the 1st round without Butler.

T.J. said...

Today is such a fantastic day...and it's also the last day the Nats won't be in last place.

T.J. said...

Carl Pavano, earn some of that $40 mil this year please...

Whitney said...

It's supposed to get up to 81 degrees down here on the southside today, and the Extra Innings docket is full of openers. Looks like I picked the right week to quit my job and be a bum.

Whitney said...

And I'll take Tim McCarver over Joe Morgan any day, though I agree with you about Bob Costas.

Mark said...

I have to disagree with you here Whitney. They're both bad, but I'd much rather roll with Morgan than McCarver.

T.J. said...

Pavano might be the first opening day starter I can remember being booed out of the stadium:

Devil Rays (Scott Kazmir) at Yankees (Carl Pavano), 1:05 p.m. ET, ESPN
The Yankees haven't lost an Opening Day game at Yankee Stadium since 1982 (they've won eight straight home openers) and they will give the ball to Pavano, who has one career win at Yankee Stadium.

T.J. said...

The quest for 100 losses is starting off very well...

Whitney said...

You guys can thank Michael Kay for that Elijah Dukes homer. He had just decided to praise Pavano for a fine start, and didn't even get through it before the ball was headed yard-ward. Gotta know the rules of jinxing, Mr. Kay.

A nice salute to Bobby Murcer and his battle with a brain tumor. Man, I hate it when the Yankees and their fans do classy stuff.

And I don't mind McCarver. Yeah, he caters to the know-nothing fan by explaining "nuances" that are actually painfully obvious, but I don't take it as arrogance. he thinks he's doing right by baseball's fringe fans. Meanwhile, Joe Morgan and his "that's just how I feel and no amount of sense of logic can change my mind" stance wins the respect of some and the derision of others. I'm in the latter group.

Scully and Garagiola mid-80's were top dogs. Best of our era. Kubek wasn't bad, and Mel Allen's TWIB was one of the television highlights of my youth. These days my bias and I enjoy the SNY booth a lot, especially Keith. Somehow his arrogance is unquantifiably more palatable than other announcers'.

And in the time I've typed this, the Yanks have surrendered several more runs. Blame Michael kay, I tell you. (I can hear the Bronx spellers now, "F.U., Kay!")

T.J. said...

F.U. Kay

T.J. said...

Adam Dunn...two homers off Crazy Carlos Zambrano already.

rob said...

upstairs for the game, banished from the living room because of dancing with the stars - who's with me?

rob said...

buckeyes resplendent in red for the first time in the tourney

rob said...

how is noah already tired? doing blow off the backs of coeds until 4:00 am will do that to you, regardless of how young and in shape you are.

or so i hear.

T.J. said...

Carl Pavano is who we thought he was.