Friday, June 01, 2007
Once more into the Hump
I gotta say, I love watching the Mariners beat the Rangers. Because I live in Austin, the Extra Innings package does not send me Ranger games, so I am at the whim of our local broadcasting crew. And while the Rangers announcers are nondescript (no irritating Hud-Dog garbage), they still irritate me in the way they tend to talk down about the Mariners.
Last night, once the Rangers were down 7-0, they went into a long shpiel about how the Mariners are a long downtrodden franchise, and that our best memories of the 70's and 80's are tied into promotions like Funny Nose & Glasses Night.
Now, this is true, of course, but bringing up our inglorious past as a way to distract your viewers from your teams terrible now, seems a bit, well, disingenuous. But I probably read too much into announcers trying to fill time during a 40-minute first inning. Vicente Padilla throws each pitch as if it pains him to put it out there, and with the way the M's dinked and donked him to death, it probably did.
Cha Seung Baek "followed the baseball code" by plunking the Rangers best hitter to lead off an inning. But its a somewhat stupid code. The code should instead require a pitcher to bean the first batter he faces once there are two outs so there is less chance of the beanball coming back to bite him in the ass by kicking off a five run inning.
Of course, I think bunting to break up a no-hitter is perfectly acceptable as long as the bunting team is within 3 runs.
All these "baseball code" items need to be framed in the more important context of winning the freaking baseball game.
That's all for now. Jarrod Washburn goes tonight while Kevin Millwood returns for the Rangers. It should be a good pitching matchup, and hopefully our bats stay hot enough to get us back over the Hump!
Last night, once the Rangers were down 7-0, they went into a long shpiel about how the Mariners are a long downtrodden franchise, and that our best memories of the 70's and 80's are tied into promotions like Funny Nose & Glasses Night.
Now, this is true, of course, but bringing up our inglorious past as a way to distract your viewers from your teams terrible now, seems a bit, well, disingenuous. But I probably read too much into announcers trying to fill time during a 40-minute first inning. Vicente Padilla throws each pitch as if it pains him to put it out there, and with the way the M's dinked and donked him to death, it probably did.
Cha Seung Baek "followed the baseball code" by plunking the Rangers best hitter to lead off an inning. But its a somewhat stupid code. The code should instead require a pitcher to bean the first batter he faces once there are two outs so there is less chance of the beanball coming back to bite him in the ass by kicking off a five run inning.
Of course, I think bunting to break up a no-hitter is perfectly acceptable as long as the bunting team is within 3 runs.
All these "baseball code" items need to be framed in the more important context of winning the freaking baseball game.
That's all for now. Jarrod Washburn goes tonight while Kevin Millwood returns for the Rangers. It should be a good pitching matchup, and hopefully our bats stay hot enough to get us back over the Hump!
