I’ll admit it, I’m a fan. I watched 12 hours of the World Baseball Classic on Saturday and another 11 hours yesterday (in between the Rangers-Bruins game, the UNC-Duke basketball game and the final 22 laps of the NASCAR race).
The baseball is remarkable. Even the blowouts. When you watch baseball based on 162 game schedules every year, you know you’ll get a handful of dogs in August and injuries or fatigue (or boredom) will keep the best players out of the lineup 20-30 times a year — where have you gone Cal Ripken Jr.? Even teams getting killed like Panama and South Africa were interesting to watch. It was emotional and different.
In fact, the Canada-USA game on Saturday might have been one of the greatest games ever played. When Canada gave itself a chance to come back from a 6-4 deficit in the ninth, it was as riveting as any sport can get.
It’s just too bad that the play-by-play announcers and colour commentators have absolutely no idea what they’ve been watching.
It’s bad enough that not one of them has done any homework at all on any of the more obscure players involved (although Sam Cosentino’s old story about Ryan Braun being a “Milwaukee” Brewer and his mother, an Anheuser-Busch employee in Southern California, being a REAL brewer, never gets tired), in the tournament, but it’s downright sad listening to these high-paid donkeys spend three hours talking about nothing other than the American big leaguers.
In fact, last night, the inanity reached an all-time low. The two clowns calling last night’s U.S.-Venezuela game went on and on during the pre-game chatfest talking about the U.S. “power display” against Canada in Game 1. They justified their fawning jingoism by creating a deep discussion about how pitchers are usually ahead of hitters at this time of year.
Not surprisingly, there wasn’t one mention of homers by Canadians Joey Votto or Russell Martin (both doubled, as well), but that’s the clear, undeniable proof that those two guys on Sunday night were unadulterated morons.
Martin (off Scot Shields) and Votto (off Jake Peavy) homered off major league pitchers. The Americans??? Kevin Youkilis and Brian McCann homered off Northern League castoff Mike Johnson while Adam Dunn hit an oppo off former Northern League — now unemployed — righthander Chris Begg.
Oh yeah, it was an awesome display of power. Good gawd! The Goldeyes used to pound the crap out of Mike Johnson, before the Edmonton Cracker-cats released him. And yes, that’s the Northern League Winnipeg Goldeyes, not the National League Philadelphia Phillies.
Do just a little homework. Please. And by the way, what the hell is “pitchability?”
That’s why I watch most sporting events with the mute button on.