While observing Texas’ non-conference struggle with Texas Southern this evening, I found myself flipping around the dial of my XM portable hoping to catch up with what turned out to be a Mets rout in Miami. During the 7th inning of A.J. Burnett’s solid performance against the Yankees, the Blue Jays pitcher was visited on the mound by John Gibbons, which led to the following exchange between WCBS’ John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman (above).
Sterling : …and the home plate umpire moves to break up the confab. Whatever a confab is.
Waldman : Everytime you say confab…(dreamily) I think of a procession of tanks coming down the street.
Almost as classic was Mike Shannon’s reaction in the midst of the Rockies/Cards game to being told the Nationals were suddenly 3-0.
“You don’t wanna play the lowly teams early,” grumbled Shannon. “They don’t know how bad they are yet.”
After being one-hit by a combination of Tim Redding, Luis Ayala and John Rauch (Rumble) this evening, I’m not sure we know how bad the Phillies are, either.
One of the marks of a great ballclub is how it handles adversity. I’m not sure yet how the Mets will cope with the loss of Pedro Martinez for 4-6 weeks, nor can I predict how the Mariners might manage sans the closing skills of J.J. Putz for two weeks. But I’m sure we can all agree, denied the coaching services of Larry Bowa for all of 3 games, the Los Angeles Dodgers are totally fucked.
That’s some sack on Shannon talking about lowly teams from the Cards radio booth.
Wainwright – Lohse – Wellemeyer – Looper – Thompson
Postseason here they come!
I hope some of you were watching the Reds game last night when Jeff Brantley started going a little overboard on his Edwin Encarnacion bashing after the double E failed to lay down a bunt on the first few pitches, with men on first and second, no outs, and the team down 5-3 in the bottom of the 9th.
Thom Brennamen kind of rhetorically asks who else the Reds could send up in this situation, to which the Cowboy says “This guy just isn’t a clutch hitter he doesnt get the job done in big spots. He. . .” proceeds to hit a 1-2 fastball over the left field wall for a walk off 3 run homer. Other than Tim McCarver getting doused with gatorade by Deion, I dont think I’ve ever seen a broadcaster with more egg on his face.
The description of Brantley above made me sob a little. That’s just some beautiful stuff. Maybe some do-gooder will post a YouTube clip of this today. That sounds like one of the best moments in announcing ever.
Seems the Reds rode the momentum from the double E’s walk off homer last night into today’s businessman special.
Highly touted rookie pitcher Johnny Cueto’s first big league start sees him throw a perfect game through 5 and a 1/3, and he winds up giving up 1 run and striking out 10 in 7 innings.
Seems the only thing that could possibly stop this kid is a manager who doesn’t know how to handle a young pitcher (cue Dusty Baker running out of the Reds dugout).
Yahoo finally added Cueto to the fantasy roster. Goddamit. Now I have to wait my turn on the waiver wire. I’ve been waiting impatiently for him.
I tried posting a link twice but my posts aren’t showing up, I think GC might have banned me because I insulted Tim Teufel a few posts back. So much for free speec huh GC? If this makes it through you can find a link to the telecast in this thread (see post 16):
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/east_windup_chronicle_great_moments_in_jeff_brantleys_mouth/
the cowboy’s defining moment, enjoy:
http://www.withleather.com/post.phtml?pk=5427