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This blog is the work of an educated civilian, not of an expert in the fields discussed.

Monday, May 10, 2010

David Wright Thrown Under The Bus By SNY Duo

And Also: Whip It is a fun enough movie and good first film for Drew Barrymore as actor/director. It largely follows the book; I think the best friend should have received more time, including at least one of the cut scenes. Elena Kagan is settling. Boo.


I don't like a lot of the on air baseball analysis out there. From the suck-ups over on the Yankee side to the annoying Sunday Night Baseball team over at ESPN. The best probably are the WGN Cubs duo (the former Arizona manager is a bit too effusive at times, but is likable overall -- no total homer like the White Sox guys) and some of the "B" game guys at ESPN. The Mets radio team is pretty good too though the usual play by play guy is not great. The ESPN Sunday Night baseball radio team actually is pretty good come to think of it.

The SNY Mets team is pretty good and professional, including old timer Ralph Kiner when he stops by, and the field reporter who actually does some real work unlike the mostly twinkie brigade in most football games. Ron Darling is probably my favorite, though Sundays he does the TBS games (for a long time, it was the Braves station, but for some reason, no longer). The other two -- Gary Cohen (who used to be the radio play by play guy) and Keith "Ego" Hernandez are good as well. I can do with a bit less trivia from Gary but Keith's "tell it like it is" style works.

But, sometimes, they just piss me off. Yesterday was such a day. First off, the game was a toss away -- the ace vs. mental case Oliver Perez (again, why did we get Figgy, who now fills in for the Phillies? to hold on to a reliever who now is on the DL and hopefully is let go for something more useful, like a water cooler or something?), even though (which turned out to be the case) the Mets had a habit of snake-biting the guy. The Mets are akin to a barber to the Giants ace. But, it all amounted to a no decision, the name of the game this week -- blown leads.

A result of wind and bad play, the Mets came back and had two shots of regaining the lead blown soon after it was achieved. The first time little used pitch hitter Frank C. struck out via some tough pitches and a ball that barely (like a millimeter) grazed his bat. He was pissed, not having that many shots as it is, but the announcers calmly noted yeah it was a good call. This isn't very empathic, especially given the moment and how annoying it is, but I guess, such is baseball. It happens and he is just a new bench player.

The ninth was a different matter. Same situation -- man on second, less than two outs, this time David Wright at the plate. He's struggling of late. So, he was pissed and aggravated when a borderline pitch struck him out. Keith, who usually has no respect for batters who strike out from anything close, for him was somewhat understanding: it was not bad enough to take, but he wasn't overly passionate about it. This suggests the borderline nature of the pitch, putting aside the important point of the game -- bottom of the ninth, losing by one run, a chance to make up for two losing series.

A team leader who has no record of only caring for himself passionately upset. He can be forgiven for it. But, Gary doesn't really go into this. He notes -- not over the top or anything but definitely puts it out there -- that he hurt his team given he was ejected and they had no more position players. The fact it was David Wright and he can be forgiven (but still deserves criticism) was not mentioned. Nor that it was a pretty fast hook (did he say a bad word?) of an important player in a key spot. No, they just went to praising how good the other team's closer was pitching.

[Also - let me say I didn't hear all of the play by play after the second batter, though there wasn't much I missed, and the time to say anything was when he was thrown out anyways -- the Mets already was hurt by a questionable non-strike call in the series already. They managed to win eventually, but even the announcers (a rarity) felt it was a blown call. This very well might have been in David's mind, also not mentioned.]

Let me say that this annoys me too -- you have to comment on such things, yes, but when you are the crew for the home team, you can tone it down a tad without being homers. They don't do this enough in my opinion, including at key moments like this. [One thing I don't like about Keith is when he sometimes notes such and such was a "good game" when the result was a Mets loss, as if winners and losers doesn't really matter here or that we were watching from a neutral site like ESPN.] And, not talking about the umpire or the big picture about Wright isn't even objectively a good neutral analysis.

The closer -- as he should -- kept the guy at second, even though the Mets had three shots to get him in. So, concerns about what would happen if they tied and had to put a pitcher in the outfield (and an outfielder out of position) never came about. Personally, I wouldn't have cared -- I respected David's passion and again felt he deserved to be forgiven for any pickle he put the team in. He is not a selfish player and especially given the position the team were sort of assholes not to be more on his side, instead not even bringing up when it mattered key points, and going on to instead focus on raving about the closer. And, suggesting what he should throw to make sure the Mets lose.

The latter is just annoying given the fans' mentality at the particular moment, the former something else. Am I the only one who feels this way?