Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Top of the home stretch, Baseball
More Baseball Takes
Well, before Jose Reyes showed homerun power, hitting three dingers in a game against the Phills earlier this month, the Clarion was thinking he was a triples opportunity. In this era, there are not that many triples opportunities. You see, weird baseball fetishists, here in our office, love the triple, also known as a double where the batter hustles the whole way out of the box, rather than glides. You think nobody is going to get Cy Young’s 512 wins or Nolan Ryan’s career strikeout record, how’s about Sam Crawford’s all-time triples record? At 312, it’s untouchable, the highest any player from the modern era is on that list is Roberto Clemente, who according www.mlb.com is 27th with 166. Triples list link Next from the modern era is Willie Wilson who is something like 57th with 147 triples. Of course, the Clarion is rooting heartily against cheater Barry Bonds, and would love to see Hammerin’ Hank hang on, but the triple, is different, a breed apart, it is a weapon of a bygone era, unlikely to be seen again in era where behemoths prosper and speed demons are few and far between. For Reyes’s season, he has 15 triples with about 40 games to go. Reyes is on pace for twenty…he had an outside shot at 22-23 for a while, but now has cooled off. It is not looking so much like its gonna happen, “Bummer” quoth the triples freaks at the Clarion. By contrast old Sam Crawford had five 20+ triples seasons including one of 26 and one of 25.
And how’s about the National League? (Again, think the Mel Allen t.w.i.b. voice, “How’s about?”) The Clarion is certainly rooting for the National League Wild Card winner to be under .500. We need one of our statistician friends to post and tell us if it is possible, but, truly, the Clarion would love to see both, the Wild Card and one of the division winners, end up under .500. Don’t see why it couldn’t happen, but a graduate stats student could tell us for sure. (The Clarion doesn’t dare hope for two division winners under .500??!) Bill Simmons has taken to referring to the National League as Quadruple A.
Simmons columns
If you are a regular reader, you know by now, that the Clarion Content is a huge MLB.tv fan these days. A large part of what makes MLB.tv so great is watching the local announcers broadcast of out-of-market teams. MLB.tv Most folks are used to only watching their home team’s broadcasters and the national network announcers. Seeing other team’s crews is a huge novelty and lotsa fun for perspective. Any Dodgers game that has Vin Scully is worth a moment. The Braves crew is terrific, especially the always forthright Don Sutton. The Clarion told you about the Texas Rangers announcers insight on A-Rod’s slump. Link to that Post
Several nights back, rather than pounding out more Content, the staff caught a late night Padres-Giants game that went to extra innings. This by the way is the curse of MLB.tv, there is always an out of market game to watch. But this one was another one of those moments, the Padres announcers were positively a hoot. They were straight out of Anchorman, needling one another, lampooning ala Saturday Night Live. It was reminiscent of Christina Applegate’s first broadcast of the evening news where Champ and Brian Fantana are going hog wild looney from just off camera with the antics trying to disctract her. These guys were literally doing the same kind of crap, high school locker room style. It must have been cracking the guys in the truck up because they were having a good old time of it. Switching to the back to the in the booth cam during pauses on the field to catch’em in the act. Both announcers had to do funky things with their scorecards because it was going extra innings; bend them around, flip’em over and use the back edges. As the telecast cut to a commercial, the two of them were literally waving them at each other and talking smack. Mlb.tv occasionally catches additional booth dialogue, possibly because it is getting a different feed of the broadcast. As they broke, mlb.tv viewers could clearly hear one of the two of them saying, “Mine’s better. Mine's better.” in that kinda, “Nanny, nanny, boo, boo…” twelve year old’s sing-song voice. It wasn’t even about the audience or showing off, but rather winning the goofy fifth grader argument amongst themselves. Wow.
Link to game recap
Well, before Jose Reyes showed homerun power, hitting three dingers in a game against the Phills earlier this month, the Clarion was thinking he was a triples opportunity. In this era, there are not that many triples opportunities. You see, weird baseball fetishists, here in our office, love the triple, also known as a double where the batter hustles the whole way out of the box, rather than glides. You think nobody is going to get Cy Young’s 512 wins or Nolan Ryan’s career strikeout record, how’s about Sam Crawford’s all-time triples record? At 312, it’s untouchable, the highest any player from the modern era is on that list is Roberto Clemente, who according www.mlb.com is 27th with 166. Triples list link Next from the modern era is Willie Wilson who is something like 57th with 147 triples. Of course, the Clarion is rooting heartily against cheater Barry Bonds, and would love to see Hammerin’ Hank hang on, but the triple, is different, a breed apart, it is a weapon of a bygone era, unlikely to be seen again in era where behemoths prosper and speed demons are few and far between. For Reyes’s season, he has 15 triples with about 40 games to go. Reyes is on pace for twenty…he had an outside shot at 22-23 for a while, but now has cooled off. It is not looking so much like its gonna happen, “Bummer” quoth the triples freaks at the Clarion. By contrast old Sam Crawford had five 20+ triples seasons including one of 26 and one of 25.
And how’s about the National League? (Again, think the Mel Allen t.w.i.b. voice, “How’s about?”) The Clarion is certainly rooting for the National League Wild Card winner to be under .500. We need one of our statistician friends to post and tell us if it is possible, but, truly, the Clarion would love to see both, the Wild Card and one of the division winners, end up under .500. Don’t see why it couldn’t happen, but a graduate stats student could tell us for sure. (The Clarion doesn’t dare hope for two division winners under .500??!) Bill Simmons has taken to referring to the National League as Quadruple A.
Simmons columns
If you are a regular reader, you know by now, that the Clarion Content is a huge MLB.tv fan these days. A large part of what makes MLB.tv so great is watching the local announcers broadcast of out-of-market teams. MLB.tv Most folks are used to only watching their home team’s broadcasters and the national network announcers. Seeing other team’s crews is a huge novelty and lotsa fun for perspective. Any Dodgers game that has Vin Scully is worth a moment. The Braves crew is terrific, especially the always forthright Don Sutton. The Clarion told you about the Texas Rangers announcers insight on A-Rod’s slump. Link to that Post
Several nights back, rather than pounding out more Content, the staff caught a late night Padres-Giants game that went to extra innings. This by the way is the curse of MLB.tv, there is always an out of market game to watch. But this one was another one of those moments, the Padres announcers were positively a hoot. They were straight out of Anchorman, needling one another, lampooning ala Saturday Night Live. It was reminiscent of Christina Applegate’s first broadcast of the evening news where Champ and Brian Fantana are going hog wild looney from just off camera with the antics trying to disctract her. These guys were literally doing the same kind of crap, high school locker room style. It must have been cracking the guys in the truck up because they were having a good old time of it. Switching to the back to the in the booth cam during pauses on the field to catch’em in the act. Both announcers had to do funky things with their scorecards because it was going extra innings; bend them around, flip’em over and use the back edges. As the telecast cut to a commercial, the two of them were literally waving them at each other and talking smack. Mlb.tv occasionally catches additional booth dialogue, possibly because it is getting a different feed of the broadcast. As they broke, mlb.tv viewers could clearly hear one of the two of them saying, “Mine’s better. Mine's better.” in that kinda, “Nanny, nanny, boo, boo…” twelve year old’s sing-song voice. It wasn’t even about the audience or showing off, but rather winning the goofy fifth grader argument amongst themselves. Wow.
Link to game recap
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