I'm hoping for a real pitchers' duel tonight. I need something to cheer me up right about now. That being said, I hope the bats can actually function with guys on base today.
I ended up getting pretty much the full thing in my post, just not in one continuous clip. The beginning is maybe the funniest part - with the two of them running (in black and white) across the field.
ah. i think im going with the hometown fsn az feed rather than listen to the espn guys remind me of how god-awful we've been lately. here's hopin for a good game! (sooner rather than later too)
Greetings, all. Seeing as there's a delay let me get the husband's dinner together so I can ogle Josh--uh, I mean watch the game with a clear conscience. :D
Hey everyone. I just turned NESN on. Rain delay. again! I wish we had rain out here. The air is horrible because of the wild fires. It's nasty.
My MIL sent a photograph of her with my husband at game 6 of the 1975 World Series at Fenway. It's framed with the ticket stubs. Can you believe that the tickets were $12.50? That would be around $50 in today's money--for the WS!
ecl, they're showing the Manny highlights again. I'm not complaining ;-)
Shaq: "I'm totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all."
SHAQ. I'm disappointed. Everyone knows you two hate each other - all tracing back to the day he ratted you and your hookup tendencies out to the CO police to deflect attention from, you know, raping someone. Just admit you hate him. Own it. Live it. Love it.
So I get a little extra bit of time to have an appetizer, change clothes, prep for an appointment tomorrow and still enjoy the whole game. That'll work!
yeah hope you guys don't mind a dbacks fan crashin your board tonight! : ) i really like the sox too tho so dont gimme a hard time when the sox steamroll us haha
Yeah, I got the Braves now too. My Aunt is a chipper fan so I have seen them more than I wish. I went for food, I wasn't going to starve through a game again like yesterday.
Be glad you don't live where I do, Trish...definitely in the Braves market. Sometimes my cable has not one but TWO channels simultaneously showing their games. I just can't get into those guys no matter how hard I try. :-(
Well, in Florida, my choice is usually Rays or Marlins. I don't know which is worse. Although I was watching the Rays last night for some time, only game on.
haha jules, i went to my first dbacks road game this year in atlanta and almost went insane! we tried to keep track of the number of times they did that chant but lost track at about 30!
Richmond has the Braves Triple A team (this is the last year though since Richmond was too cheap to cough up for a new stadium). I've gone to a few games, it's a cheap good time. Need to trek out to the Diamond one last time.
AAA is great. We have the Oakland A's AAA team about 20 minutes west of us. I haven't made it out yet this year (working too much), tho. You can't be $7 outfield tickets to sit on the grassy hill (above the pens ;-) and watch baseball.
I've got a single-A Rockies affiliate that plays just a couple of miles from my home (most of last year's team passed through here). I used to go years ago (they were in the Astros system back then) but haven't in quite awhile. Perhaps I should start back, but I am loathe to tear myself away from my Sox!
Jules, I always enjoyed sitting on the third row of the bleachers along the first base line in our little stadium. It was a tradition with my pals and I back in the day. Great view. And it was probably about the same price.
I've always heard good things about the River Cats. We also keep meaning to go out to Norfolk to watch the Tides (Orioles Triple A)--supposedly that stadium is gorgeous.
Being in Florida, where there is so much spring training, there are the St. Lucie Mets nearby, the VB Rays in town, PB Cardinals nearby, and the Jupiter Hammerheads also nearby. It's just they play when the Sox play.
Karen- I met a guy at the Sox-Cards game this weekend who said he wasn't a baseball fan because he "was from Florida". And I was all, "DUDE. You've got baseball ALL OVER THE PLACE down there. That's ridiculous." And then he said "but we like football", and I was all, "DUDE. I'm from Texas. Our football obsession kicks yours to a bloody pulp. That's also no excuse."
haha yup that stephen is quite the looker : ) cmon jd you sooo could slipped on the wet grass forhis pop up! and get used to hat withodog--he's somethin else!
Being from Mass., my football obsession is Patriots. Although my dad graduated from FSU so I do watch that. I know people here who like the dolphins and the jaguars, my team is better I tell them.
New Haven? CT? I didn't know Popeyes existed up north. I didn't discover it until I moved to Florida. We have a new one opening in town, cause the only one now is in the ghetto, no thanks.
My Dad's family is French- Canadian (my grandpa was the first of his siblings to be born here in the US) and his uncle played hockey until his mid 80's.
Oooh, Karen, that's a good idea! I have a few spare e-mail addys that I never use.
Popeyes...we had one for just a little while where I live. The place was always deserted. Didn't help that it was in the middle of a trendy upscale shopping district...not exactly a fried chicken demographic. It closed after probably a year at most.
Then there's Church's Chicken here in the South (but not as far north as me). I've had it just once. Greasy but very tasty!
Church and Popeye's are owned by the same company. There's a Church's near my office, but I work in the ghetto and I wouldn't go there unless I had a gun.
somethin like that. and be prepared for more of the same as far as deliveries go with our starter tomorrow. davis has a long pause before he comes home and is our version of "the human rain delay"
Trish and Karen and Ian, I live within eyesight of the worst project in my city and have at times had one foot in the minority community due to friendships with various folks. And when I do my laundry down the street, I'm often the only non-minority there (and sometimes the only English speaker). So...it wouldn't be totally out of the question for me to check out a ghetto Popeye's or Church's.
Yeah, being in south Florida, we have what used to be called minority, now I am the minority. I am trying to learn Haitian Creole, I volunteer with an organization that works in Haiti, plus there are a lot in Florida.
Before they built a Popeye's near me I used to go to the one in North Richmond (drive thru). But this Church's is scary. A couple years ago two people got shot dead in the place--during lunch hour with cops in the parking lot.
Karen, that's quite ambitious, learning Haitian Creole. I was looking up something on line the other day and ended up on a page that described it and gave examples, etc. I can see the French roots, but my goodness, it looks like it would be a handful to learn!
A lot of Haitians do speak French, which is helpful to me. My mom learned French as a kid, so I am used to hearing that. I actually enjoy teaching myself different languages. I actually own almost every language book there is. I learned Spanish, but in school they taught us Castillion, in case you want to go to Spain, not Mexican or Cuban which is here.
Yeah, I realize Tek's signs can't be too obvious. I tend to analyze more than I should. My dad was a sports writer/reporter in Mass. So that explains me, my father's daughter.
Karen, there are tutorials and courses available in Latin-American Spanish. I've got one on CD-ROM...one of these days I'll find the time to start learning it.
Yep, that's it, Trish. It's been so long since I took French that I didn't want to try typing it because the Francophiles on the board would laugh at me!
It was a blast. Trip started and ended in Amsterdam. In between we were in Holland for a week, Paris, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium for a few days and back in Holland.
Ian, oh I'm jealous. That sounds like that would be a fun trip. I have a friend in Denmark. She tries to teach me dutch by sending me messages with no English. I have family from Sweden.
Ian, I couldn't get that phrase to work with my favorite online translation program...is it dialect? I figured the last word related to hugs but didn't want to put a bad guess out there.
I did a chorus trip in high school, 2-1/2 weeks in Iceland, France, Germany and Belgium...and about 1/2 hour of passing through Luxembourg. What an experience!
Stupid question...do K's actually involve tags or being thrown out? Manny just ran the baseline and they said that was to complete the strikeout. I've never noticed this before for some reason.
Awww, Youk. I missed that because I was in here. :-(
Oh, I've seen the can but chewing tobacco is a misnomer--usually people just tuck it in their mouth and let it melt, which is where the spitting comes in. But Josh chews. Maybe he has gum in there too.
Chewing tobacco -- grossest habit ever. I used to play in a band with two mountain boys who both did it. One night they rode in the back of my van on a 2-hour drive home from a gig. The next day I discovered a plastic jug filled w/tobacco spit, and also one of them had fallen asleep with a wadful, and it fell out of his mouth and it looked like a piece of poop sitting on the floor of the van. Ugh. Just UGH.
It seems like 80% of Texas boys dip, and 80% of ballplayers dip - so it was predestined he'd do it. My brother does it, and I force him to use the nonflavored kinds around me, because the "berry" flavor stinks something awful.
Also, dip cups left everywhere? Not sexy. I dated a guy who used coke cans instead of cups, and that was almost worse - because you didn't know there was anything in the can, and when you picked it up to throw it away, it would slosh around and smell.
Ian, does the "most baseball players dip" apply to the African-American and foreign-born players too? Somehow I can't picture Dice-K dipping, or Papi, or any of those guys.
Back when I used to smoke I had a guy that dipped tell me smoking was more gross than dipping. Uh, NO. Not that smoking isn't gross too, which is why I quit.
o--dog: where basehits go to die.
dip is so nasty. some of the young dbacks do it and it's just ugh! and it's people you'd least expect oo. like our announcer (not gracie TG) just stop boys!
Texy, when I first moved to NC, I had a temp job running the switchboard at a trucking company. This one guy used to spell me while I was at lunch. I had to ask him to please bring his own wastebasket because I couldn't stomach him spitting tobacco juice into my wastebasket.
Dipping is something that was utterly foreign to me, a NY suburban kid who then went to college in a hippiefied Northeastern university town. Imagine my culture shock when I arrived in the South!?!
Ian, for the life of me I can't picture Papi/Manny chewing tobacco. Although it explains those weird mouth movements that Manny exhibits sometimes. Coco too, right? He makes weird mouth movements. And what about Lugo?
And what is the difference between dipping and chewing, by the way?
dipping you just put in your mouth while chewing, you're actually chewing on the tobacco. chewing tobacco is usually more leafy than regular dip which can be a fine cut or a long cut.
snuff and dip are essentially the same thing. that you usually just put a pinch between your cheek and gum and let it sit there.
chewing tobacco (like Red Man) is more leafier and you chew on it in your mouth. I tried that shit once and got so sick. It gave me the spins within a minute of trying and I just puked.
I don't know if those two do it or not. I can't remember if Coco did it at all when he played in New Haven back in 2001 when he was still in the Cardinals organization.
the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company is headquartered here in Connecticut. I had a friend who worked for them who bring us sleeves of it (packs of 10) whenever we needed it at the ballpark.
LOL Texy -- about the headdress and merengue! And somehow it seems more fitting for the guys you mentioned to dip or chew, rather than the Latin-American players. Then again, I didn't realize what a high percentage of players overall do it.
McClellan... supreme... command of strike zone? No. Sorry, but no. I generally don't remember umps, but I definitely remember this guy. He screwed up majorly in that game where Buch got the L for giving up a homer to Iwamura. /random
On a different note, I read something interesting. In the annual 5th Sharon Timlin Memorial 5K for ALS Research this Saturday, Masterson's wife placed 3rd in her age group.
Well, kids, I'm bowing out--I've been getting up early to go to the gym and I'm wiped out. Hopefully Josh will eke out the win--see you on his next start.
I've definitely never been a fan of McClellan, mostly because of his ridiculously late calls, but the ESPN guys were saying he's "generally regarded as one of the best" when it comes to calling balls and strikes.
oo Bethie, that's a good nickname for him! we're big on those here but i've yet to hear one for him besides "the new guy" wow that was the best inning i've seen from us in awhle! (how pathetic is that?!)
at least Josh was able to go out there and give his pen a night off. and i love how haren's got this mountain man image even though he's from northern cali
Well, I don't generally notice boys, because I'm not interested in them, but I'd agree that the Diamondbacks have a few cuties. Of course, since they're playing the Sox right now, and are in the N.L. West with the Dodgers, I have to hate them.
I also have real issues with their home ballpark, and its tendency to run the AC in a night game in May, while the roof is open.
yup reynolds, drew, and micah are definitely the lookers on our team! and for what it's worth, we sorta need to have a park like we do in az. no roof=no fans and heat strokes all around for the players. the only beef i have with it is how quiet it gets (which of course is all about the "fans")
I don't mind the roof. I mind going to a night game with the roof open, and not bringing a jacket because it's still around 90 degrees, and freezing my ass off because the powers that be have turned on the air conditioning.
I've been at Dodger Stadium when it's around 100 degrees. They don't have air conditioning. It's the same thing with Chase, even if they have a roof, because they turn on the AC when the roof is open.
Sorry to go on a rant. This is just one of those things that really drove me crazy when I was last at a game there.
i know what you mean Erin-2, they showed dodger stadium saturday and the thermometer read 115 field level. yuck! chase has really improved this year though as far as the roof.
ecl--young hs a really cute personality (as do most of the boys) him and upton are both very well-spoken and i could never see either of them doing something regretable off the field which is cute in its own right
Statistically speaking, Pedroia and Ellsbury and Lowell all had aberrant seasons at the plate last year -- and they all were PECOTA forecasted to fall back to sub-.300 BAs and low-to-mid .300 OBPs this year. They are regressing back to the mean.
The reverse was true of Papi. He started off cold as ice - but eventually, he moved up to the mean where he normally sits.
It's the same thing that will happen with Drew. He's hot now - but statistically, that won't last. He will regress to the mean... just hopefully not until after Papi is back.
on June 23, 2008 6:36 PM
Does it get any better than this pitching matchup? Dan Haren is a god. Of course, Becketty Boo is THE god.