October 15, 2006

Birthday!

10 comments:

laura k said...

You couldn't find anything Canadian? And from Florida, no less! :)

Happy #43.

Jere said...

Goodbye, Mo, hello Eck!

Peter N said...

43...still young! Happy happyness.

allan said...

I tried to find a picture of Eck's back in his red Sox uniform, but came up empty. I found a big home plate wall display that holds 43 baseballs, but the license plate was too good to pass up (and yes, I did look for Canadian plates, and Vermont, too).

I still laugh at the comment I got more than a year ago, from someone ragging on me and saying I must be a clueless, ignorant college student.

...

If Selig says something will "improve" the game, you can bet your entire annual salary it'll only fuck it up.

I don't like the wild card and would like to restructure the leagues and eliminate it, but as the divisions now stand, the system is not broken.

Selig must not like the MFY always losing to the wild card team. But in many cases, the wild card team has a better record than one of the division winners. A SoSHer went back and added them up; maybe I'll post that later.

... Hey, has LaRussa pissed and moaned about the room service food at his New York hotel?

Go Mets!

laura k said...

If Selig says something will "improve" the game, you can bet your entire annual salary it'll only fuck it up.

Damn right, Whippersnapper.

However, please do not bet your annual salary on anything.

The license plate is good.

Jim said...

Happy 43, Redsock!

When Bud takes credit for the WC, I'm not sure what he's taking credit for. Dividing each league into 3 Divisions, or figuring out how to get a 4th team into the playoffs (er,post season)? The latter is just the logical result of the former, unless he wants a bye team (lets not go there). But penalizing a WC team is lunacy.

Anyway, what Bud really needs to be thinking about is whether the dumbing-down of the game by FOX and ESPN broadcasting crews is doing the game any good. Why is there a need to make commercials imploring your fans to watch a championship series? Bud has to ask the TV lords how many actual examples they have of somebody who has never watched baseball suddenly tuning into a playoff game, sitting there all alone, without even a buddy, to explain stuff to them. I'll wager that there may be new watchers, but they almost certainly are not sitting there solo. There is absolutely no need to have the game dumbed-down. Explain the nuances yes, give us a player's perspective, yes, but don't frigging insult us with the likes of McBuck and Joe Moron, to name just the obvious. You hear the obligatory ballwashing of thanking THE FANS, but has anybody ever asked THE FANS how they want the game presented on TV?

San Francisco Red Sox Fan said...

Happy 43! From a fellow 43 year old Libra!

laura k said...

The problem is that there's often a delay, so if I have the TV sound off, the play-by-play is about two pitches behind.

I used to watch games with the TV sound off and the radio broadcast on, and the delay was always a problem. When I watched Yankees game, it was a godsend. You know why.

For Yankees-Red Sox games, Allan couldn't stand the delay - so we watched with the Spanish-language broadcast. (Buenos noches, amigos!)

But WEEI announcers - blech! I can't stand them. They are among the worst radio announcers I've ever heard.

****

Woti, what you're saying about TV, dumbing-down, neophytes - it's very true. The national broadcast always has to be more general than the local, but approaching it as if the audience has never seen a baseball game before is ridiculous.

Why is there a need to make commercials imploring your fans to watch a championship series?

Those ads really smack of desperation. Is anyone going to watch a playoff game because Tommy Lasorda tells them to? The stupidest part is you have to be watching already to see the commercials!

Peter N said...

Eck was busy doing Quaaludes back in those days. ALLEDGEDLY........and then, as we all know, he got his act together and became a closer for the stars.

laura k said...

Eck was busy doing Quaaludes back in those days.

What, players weren't perfect back in the good old days? I was sure it was only current players who are a disgrace to the game, a black eye for baseball, blah blah blah... yawn...