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Monday, June 1, 2009

Brief Thoughts About Baseball (5/25/2009 - 5/31/2009)

1. Mauer hit a meaningless 2 run homer on Monday and then goes homerless for the rest of the week. Pffft, one home run in a week? I could bat for a week and I'd only hit one less home run than Mauer did this week. I expect more from him.

2. Colorado has only been swept twice this year. Oddly enough, both times were by the Dodgers. But still, only two sweeps makes you think the Colorado Rockies are doing alright this year....they're not.

3. I think I found (with a little help from the Mrs.) our first stupid baseball injury of the season. But according to this article it's at least the second this year. Although I don't know what the ruling is since no playing time was missed.

4. The Twins didn't play all that well on Wednesday, but thanks to a record tying six wild pitches , they eked out a victory.

5. Poor Gatorade machine. It was innocent in all this!

6. This recap is the first one I've seen get it right. In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, a Twins manager and catcher and a Red Sox manager and catcher were ejected from Thursday's game, all in the 7th inning. What people miss is why Varitek was ejected.
I saw it live. Josh Beckett threw a pitch that looked to be a strike but was call a ball. Suddenly I hear "God damnit, the pitch was right in there" or something to that effect. I thought to myself that apparently some Red Sox rube in the stands was really upset. Then I realized it was the pitcher Josh Becket who was doing the yelling!
At that point, catcher Jason Varitek jumps up and starts arguing with ump. I'm assuming this was a move to take focus off the pitcher. Basically, Varitek was taking a bullet for Becket. Red Sox manager Terry Francona ran out of the dug out in an attempt to take the proverbial bullet for Varitek, but arrived too late and Varitek was already ejected. So Francona got himself ejected anyway for the hell of it.
But most sports shows I saw that recapped this game missed the fact that it all started with Beckett's tirade. They think Varitek just started arguing the call. Silly ESPN.
Also, Redmond was ejected really quickly for basically nothing.

7. Finally, the Twins squeaked out a victory on Sunday to avoid a Rays sweep. The Twins' road record is now 6 wins and 16 losses....that's bad.

5 comments:

  1. Reading that article that listed all the stupid injuries through the years, this one stood out to me:

    "Nolan Ryan missed a game after being bitten by a coyote."

    Maybe it's just because it's Nolan Ryan, or because Nolan Ryan was arguably the highest profile player listed there (except maybe Smoltzy), but I have this image of Ryan not being bit by a coyote in a comical manner, but as a result of a valiant struggle against a pack of savage coyotes that were trying to eat an orphanage or something.

    And of course, Nolan Ryan saved all the kids and only missed one game as a result. Meanwhile, Hunter Pence ran through a sliding glass door.

    You SAY the Gatorade machine is innocent. But do we really KNOW that?

    The Twins road record is the worst in the majors now, isn't it? Or did that win on Sunday bump them up to second-worst? Either way, yeesh.

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  2. baroness van bitzenhoferJune 2, 2009 at 5:22 PM

    3. In Carlos's's's defence, someone tried to enter the revolving door at the wrong time, which stopped the door and caused the injury. They make it sound like it was due to his own clutziness.

    5. Someone apparently needs some anger management...

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  3. I feel we have the same view of Nolan Ryan, Teebore. All of the Chuck Norris one-liners could easily work for the all-time strikeout king.

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  4. Yeah, definitely.

    Maybe Nolan Ryan and Chuck Norris are the same person?

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  5. I've always felt that Smoltz looks more like Chuck Norris over any other pitcher...and he burnt himself trying to iron a shirt he was wearing! (I believe Lew Ford did the same thing.)

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