But right now, it's time for ... Objectivity Watch.
I had a gut feeling we'd get the Tigers' feed tonight, and I was right.
Fox Sports News' Tigers guys are Mario Impemba (play-by-play) and Rod Allen (analyst [sic]). If you've ever heard these guys, they are fairly ignorable if the Tigers are losing -- though grossly ignorant about the other team and prone to moronic statements about the game of baseball itself.
But let the Tigers grab a lead ... and look out. These guys, especially Allen, start trash-talking and (what sounds like) strutting around the booth, crowing about how great and unbeatable the Tigers are. We heard it last season and it was on display tonight.
Allen was in rare form.
Top of the seventh, Tigers up 4-1:
I'd like to see a few more tack-on runs for the good guys.Top of the eighth, Tigers up 4-1; Sheffield walks and Donnelly replaces Wakefield. After Ordonez and Guillen both fly out to center, Rodriguez doubles into the left field corner, scoring Sheffield (5-1); Monroe (K, P3, K against Wake) is up:
C'mon Craig, drive this one in!Monroe obeys, singling and driving in I-Rod (6-1):
Good goin', Craig! ... I just like to hear this Boston crowd so quiet.Sean Casey lines a single to right, and Monroe scores (7-1):
They came to play tonight. Boy, did they come to play tonight.Donnelly is pulled:
He's been pretty good this year, but he hadn't seen the Tigers yet.Top of the ninth, with Sheffield up, Impemba says:
Another full count for Sheffield.Sheff's counts tonight when putting the ball in play or walking: 0-2, 1-2, 1-2, 3-1.
Good work, guys. Allen is threatening to make Hawk Harrelson sound like a neutral observer.
The FSN cameras showed puh-lenty of Red Sox fans heading for the exits when Detroit was batting in the eighth. Booooooooooooooo!
As I was fond of yelling at departing Yankee fans when the Sox had a nice lead in the Bronx: "We play nine in this league!"
***
Justin Verlander (2.83, 151 ERA+) / Tim Wakefield (1.79, 244 ERA+)
Wakefield makes his eighth start of the year and his third at Fenway. In each of his last two starts, he's allowed no runs and three hits in seven innings. Opponents are hitting .189 against him this year, with a .277 on-base percentage and a .280 slugging percentage. Oakland's Dan Haren threw eight shutout innings last night and moved ahead of Wakefield at the top of the AL ERA leaderboard: 1.69.
Verlander is also making his eighth start. Opponents are hitting .242/.331/.331 off him. In his only appearance against the Red Sox -- August 16, 2006 -- he pitched six innings, allowing five runs, six hits and seven walks. Boston won 6-4.
Alex Cora gets the start tonight at second base.
The Globe reports that Daisuke Matsuzaka's complete game came in his eighth major league start -- the fewest number of starts for a Japanese-born pitcher. Hideo Nomo's first complete game came in his 11th start (June 24, 1995). ... The Globe also says Josh Beckett threw off a mound today.
25 comments:
Josh: stop throwing. Just chill for a few days, 'k?
Deadspin suggests the name Mr. Sparkle instead of Dice-K. I gotta admit, Mr. Sparkle is one damn fine name.
Oh man, anyone see the Dougie commercial on NESN? Someone in the crowd brought a giant "Dougie's Going Deep Tonight" sign.
SoSH and the Sox, together at last.
Mr. Sparkle after the Simpsons bit? Funny as that scene was, it does nothing for me as a nickname. Dice-K works because it actually sounds exactly like his given name.
Mista Sparkala!
Wake retires the side on 8 pitches for 8 strikes. Nice.
I'm disappointed in myself, it took me this long to subliminally memorize all the lyrics to the new Foxwoods commercial song.
I used to know the old one too well...the 'take a chance, make it happen, pop the cork, fingers snappin, spin the wheel round and round it goooooes, life is short, life is sweet, so grab yourself a front row seat, lets meet and have a baaaaalllll, yeah, lets liiiiive for the wonder of it all! meet me at foxwoods (fox-woods!)' one.
i really wanna go there, just cause they have awesome songs on their commercials.
During the bit about the NESN pizza party, did anyone else catch the suave tone Orsillo had in his voice when he mentioned that he shares an office with Tina Cervasio?
^^no, all i know is they go to her way to much during the game; during at-bats. but i guess where would her job be if we didn't interrupt the game with non-pressing info that could just as easily be covered pre and/or post-game.
Tim-
My reaction was more along the "hah, Orsillo doesn't even get his own office."
Rough game tonight, but c'est la vie. Facing the buzzsaw that is Justin Verlander doesn't lend itself to success.
ok all ta-getha now: just like sun-day! *clap-clap, clap-clap- clap*
Too bad to see Wake get hit but it's gonna happen.
Nice to see the so-called worst LF in the game easily throw out Rodriguez at the plate and later turn a possible double into a don't-even-try-it single.
MLB.tv problems solved by -- get this! -- making changes to the Windows Meida Player according to the FAQ on mlb.com.
Zen-
If you use firefox, which you should, I strongly suggest you get the MediaPlayerConnectivity plugin. It allows you to bypass that stupid window and open it up with WMP itself. You'll be much better off that way.
Or, just use Mosaic. It's a hoot.
I do use Firefox -- thank you very kindly for the tip.
Mosaic doesn't do much for me (although it worked when watching the single game didn't). It just knocks the quality of the game I want to watch down too much. In principle it's cool but in practice I find it kind of annoying.
I'm disappointed in myself, it took me this long to subliminally memorize all the lyrics to the new Foxwoods commercial song.
Ugh. That's the reason there's a mute button on your remote.
And it's not new. They used this one last season too. I hate that idiot snapping his fingers in the pool.
Nice to see the so-called worst LF in the game easily throw out Rodriguez at the plate and later turn a possible double into a don't-even-try-it single.
Awesome throw! Very cool.
Too bad we couldn't do the comeback tonight. Also too bad we had the Detroit feed. The announcers are ok until the Tigers start winning. Then they turn into 10-year-olds. Cheerleaders.
ooh, it is a very nice plug-in. Thanks again, Sean.
Tim, you win the prize for being the first person I've ever come across who admitted to liking anything about any Foxwoods commercial. Last year, I walked past a restaurant in NYC, and the singer of that (original) song, John Pizzo-something, was in the lobby of a restaurant, greeting people. Fortunately for him, someone was with me, and was able to hold me back from going in there and strangling the guy.
My least favorite line in the current version: "Hey, I just won!"
And if you really want to go to a CT casino, go to Mohegan Sun. Way better in my opinion.
What about the single worst cover of a talking heads song ever in the Take Me to the River abomination. David Byrne is rolling over in his grave.
Zen, about Mosaic, I'm sure you've noticed, but you can select different speeds at the top of the window. So, if you pump the bar up to full, you should be able to see all 6 at 700kbps.
Take Me To The River was written by the great soul-gospel singer Al Green and released in 1974. Talking Heads covered it three years later.
Foxwoods: John Pizzarelli. A law firm I worked for in Manhattan in the mid 1990s represented him -- when he was a semi well-known jazz guitarist.
the singer of that (original) song, John Pizzo-something
lmfao, John Pizza-something was exactly the name that I imagined when looking at/hearing the guy.
its not that i like it, its just the fact that its damn good marketing (just cause i memorize every word and the rhythm to the song.) the new one has the same rhythm, hell it even to the old song...maybe cause i'm a business student or something, but the marketing scheme is fantastic.
My least favorite line in the current version: "Hey, I just won!"
this is true- completely lame and terrible.
anyway, one thought on the game before i pass out - ive never had to do this "work" thing in my life before and its killin me!
i left to go to the pub at 4-1 pussy cats. i honestly, half-heartedly expected a sox comeback (like a 5-4 win or something) and i was kind of sad when i saw the final. lol, thats okay, 3 outta 4 wont be bad ;-) - i know verlander is the shit and we got ripped tonight. thats why theres 162 games :-)
anyway, sleep time. i may opine more while at work, but im going to bed now...
edit to previous comment:
hell it has the same rhymes as the old song..
From Joe Sheehan, Baseball Prospectus:
"As you look at the Red Sox through 37 games, what stands out is just how little stands out. There’s the performance of Okajima, the low home-run rates allowed by the rotation, and perhaps some over-their-heads work by Varitek and Lowell. There are more disappointments here—Drew, Ramirez, Crisp, Julio Lugo, Matsuzaka to some people—than surprises. That bodes well, because you can say that this is a 26-11 team that, unlike most, hasn’t had everything break right in the season’s first quarter. While you can’t project any team to keep playing .700 ball, it is fair to say that these Red Sox have established themselves as the favorite in the AL East, with very little reason to believe they can’t continue to be the best team in the division."
Hell yes.
Can't wait to hear about how the DET announcers to say how much better Maroth is than Wakefield (due to their W-L records, obviously) ignoring all other statistics like his 4+ ERA.
Take Me To The River was written by the great soul-gospel singer Al Green and released in 1974. Talking Heads covered it three years later.
Plus, David Byrne is very much alive and living in Soho, NYC.
Foxwoods: John Pizzarelli. A law firm I worked for in Manhattan in the mid 1990s represented him -- when he was a semi well-known jazz guitarist.
He's also from a famous musical family. His brother is a jazz musician, and their father is the legendary Bucky Pizzarelli.
The FSN cameras showed puh-lenty of Red Sox fans heading for the exits when Detroit was batting in the eighth. Booooooooooooooo!
Very bad in general, plus it goes against accepted wisdom about how diehard and loyal Red Sox fans are.
I have a hard time getting really worked up about announcer homerism... I mean, neutrality is nice, but the home fans are their target audience. The general baseball stupidity is irritating, but I don't think it's a horrible thing for the announcers to be rooting for the home team.
For example: Go back and listen to Orsillo's call of Lugo's game winning single/error in that Baltimore game and tell me he didn't care whether the Sox won. I like the announcers to be as excited as I am. :)
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