All-Star Silliness
Just a few random thoughts on the All-Star Game, presented in a more-or-less not-so-serious tone...
** I’m with Batgirl on this one. If “This One Counts,” as we heard so often this week, why are the managers gabbing with the TV guys for half an inning?
** I gave them four innings before I muted the TV. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver still stink. Fortunately, the local ESPN radio station was carrying the game. The radio guys were serviceable (I don’t recall the play-by-play guy’s name, while color was handled by Dave “Soup” Campbell), and spent their time telling listeners what was going on in the game, not trying to convince fans of their extreme cleverness.
Campbell made one point at the end of the game that I have yet to see repeated. He contended that if Phil Garner was really playing to win, he would have put Scott Rolen and Andruw Jones into the game in the ninth inning. Campbell’s take was that these guys were the best defenders the NL had left on the bench, and with a one-run lead Garner should have had his best defense out there.
Would it have made a difference? I don’t know if Rolen could have flagged down Konerko’s ground ball, nor do I know Carlos Beltran (assuming Beltran moves to left when Jones goes to center) could have caught up to Troy Glaus’ double. I think I’m not going too far out on a limb if I assert that Jones would not have caught Michael Young’s triple.
Again, if “This One Counts” one would think these decisions would draw a little more scrutiny.
** There was plenty of gab about how the AL “owns” the NL yada yada yada. I guess winning nine of ten will do that. But I have to laugh when the “experts” point to this game as yet another example of AL superiority.
I’m not saying that the leagues are equal. But come on – pulling a 3-2 win with two outs in the ninth out of your a...errr...lower back region doesn’t seem to conform with the commonly accepted definition of dominating the other side.
** And let’s not hear about how straight-talking Ozzie Guillen’s superior managerial talents led the AL to victory. Unless he flashed the “triple” sign to Young in the ninth inning, he did even less Tuesday than he usually does.
** The least-reported story featuring a Chicago player was the injury sustained by Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano. Big Z was giving an interview to a Venezuelan reporter behind the batting cage when he was struck on the elbow by a coach hitting fungoes during BP.
An accident? I don’t think so.
The coach in question was Joey Cora – straight-talking Ozzie’s right-hand man. And when you consider that straight-talking Ozzie has already admitted to being a head hunter and said he would be willing to fight on the field, is it really that big a leap to conclude he would send one of his men out to attack another team’s best pitcher?
And what’s the deal with Cora anyway? On my son’s coach’s pitch team, the first thing we taught the kids was that they don’t swing the bat at the plate or in the on-deck circle before they look to see if anyone’s around them. If a bunch of seven and eight year olds can grasp the concept, why can’t Cora? What is straight-talking Ozzie teaching over there?
Besides, the hopelessly biased Chicago Tribune was surprisingly mum on the whole affair. If it had been an accident, I should expect them to run huge headlines about curses and Baker over-using his staff and “mysterious injuries” and the same rot they’ve been pushing the last three years.
The Tribune’s silence proves they’re in on the conspiracy. What are they hiding? What don’t they want us to see?
** For the benefit of anyone for whom English is a second language (both those born in the USA and our friends from other countries), the previous two bits are examples of irony and sarcasm, with perhaps a smidgen of satire and snideness tossed in for good measure.
Using these literary devices means I run the risk that some people may think one word means something completely different from what I intended, much like the concepts of cowardice and hypocrisy have been misconstrued in the past. It’s an honest mistake; one many of us are prone to...
** I’m with Batgirl on this one. If “This One Counts,” as we heard so often this week, why are the managers gabbing with the TV guys for half an inning?
** I gave them four innings before I muted the TV. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver still stink. Fortunately, the local ESPN radio station was carrying the game. The radio guys were serviceable (I don’t recall the play-by-play guy’s name, while color was handled by Dave “Soup” Campbell), and spent their time telling listeners what was going on in the game, not trying to convince fans of their extreme cleverness.
Campbell made one point at the end of the game that I have yet to see repeated. He contended that if Phil Garner was really playing to win, he would have put Scott Rolen and Andruw Jones into the game in the ninth inning. Campbell’s take was that these guys were the best defenders the NL had left on the bench, and with a one-run lead Garner should have had his best defense out there.
Would it have made a difference? I don’t know if Rolen could have flagged down Konerko’s ground ball, nor do I know Carlos Beltran (assuming Beltran moves to left when Jones goes to center) could have caught up to Troy Glaus’ double. I think I’m not going too far out on a limb if I assert that Jones would not have caught Michael Young’s triple.
Again, if “This One Counts” one would think these decisions would draw a little more scrutiny.
** There was plenty of gab about how the AL “owns” the NL yada yada yada. I guess winning nine of ten will do that. But I have to laugh when the “experts” point to this game as yet another example of AL superiority.
I’m not saying that the leagues are equal. But come on – pulling a 3-2 win with two outs in the ninth out of your a...errr...lower back region doesn’t seem to conform with the commonly accepted definition of dominating the other side.
** And let’s not hear about how straight-talking Ozzie Guillen’s superior managerial talents led the AL to victory. Unless he flashed the “triple” sign to Young in the ninth inning, he did even less Tuesday than he usually does.
** The least-reported story featuring a Chicago player was the injury sustained by Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano. Big Z was giving an interview to a Venezuelan reporter behind the batting cage when he was struck on the elbow by a coach hitting fungoes during BP.
An accident? I don’t think so.
The coach in question was Joey Cora – straight-talking Ozzie’s right-hand man. And when you consider that straight-talking Ozzie has already admitted to being a head hunter and said he would be willing to fight on the field, is it really that big a leap to conclude he would send one of his men out to attack another team’s best pitcher?
And what’s the deal with Cora anyway? On my son’s coach’s pitch team, the first thing we taught the kids was that they don’t swing the bat at the plate or in the on-deck circle before they look to see if anyone’s around them. If a bunch of seven and eight year olds can grasp the concept, why can’t Cora? What is straight-talking Ozzie teaching over there?
Besides, the hopelessly biased Chicago Tribune was surprisingly mum on the whole affair. If it had been an accident, I should expect them to run huge headlines about curses and Baker over-using his staff and “mysterious injuries” and the same rot they’ve been pushing the last three years.
The Tribune’s silence proves they’re in on the conspiracy. What are they hiding? What don’t they want us to see?
** For the benefit of anyone for whom English is a second language (both those born in the USA and our friends from other countries), the previous two bits are examples of irony and sarcasm, with perhaps a smidgen of satire and snideness tossed in for good measure.
Using these literary devices means I run the risk that some people may think one word means something completely different from what I intended, much like the concepts of cowardice and hypocrisy have been misconstrued in the past. It’s an honest mistake; one many of us are prone to...
posted by Bob at
6:50 PM
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