Tuesday, July 12, 2005

All-Star Game Diary.

I decided to keep a running diary from the AS game tonight. Its really long though so I'll give you a couple of entries on top here and the rest in the comments. Enjoy.

5:35 McCarver stumbles badly thru the intro. I used to consider him the best analyst in the game. Now I pray for his retirement.

5:35 Fox has a Fantastic Four intro here? Shouldn’t we make sure its a hit first?

5:43 Eckstein's the starting SS for the NL? Should the AL loan them one? Jeter maybe so McCarver can swoon over him?

1 Comments:

At 11:02 PM, Blogger Tad said...

5:44 First pitch. Good lord, the friggin Super Bowl starts closer to the top of the hour than this!

5:46 A-Rod steps over a slow rolling foul ball from Abreu rather than pick it up. Ass.

5:47 Nice flip from Miggy on a rocket from Beltran. Double play.

5:49 Buck: Look at the delivery from Beurhle from diamond cam.
(replay)
McCarver: Growing up in St. Charles, Missouri...
Nice analysis of his delivery Timmy. Way to sync up with the images.

5:51 Nasty slider from MB to strike out Derrek Lee to end the top of the first.

5:53 That is the hardest I have ever seen Eckstein throw a ball to get Damon at first. The king of the Lollipop surprised me there.

5:54 Shot of A-Rod at third. How long has he worn those white shoes?? Those are terrible, just terrible. Ass

5:56 Fox plays “Rocket” by Def Leppard as they go to commercial. Shouldn’t they save that for when the Rocket is pitching? Seriously, how hard is this?

6:00 McCarver makes a comment about Houston being closer to first in the standings this year than they were at the break last year. While Jim Edmonds is batting with the bases empty. 3 Astros on the NL squad, maybe we could wait until one of them makes an appearance? Or his Timmy just running down his list of “interesting” notes in order?

6:09 Bottom of 2, Smoltz in. Guess the conversion to starter has gone okay.
6:10 Tejeda smokes a homer on the second pitch. Smoltz? Maybe not so much.

6:12 Kevin Kennedy interviews Buerhle. I can make out no more than a third of what he says.

6:21 Top of 3. Colon throws wildly to first, ball goes way into the RF corner. Beltran scoots around to third and rounds the bag. Vlad picks the ball up and fires an absolute howitzer to home plate. Beltran would have been out by 20 feet if he had tried to score.

6:25 Fox bizarrely shows a big banner reading HHRYA.com that is rolled out over the top of a Corvette billboard. Buck and McCarver are befuddled. Obviously it’s a Chevy thing otherwise they would never have shown it. Its not like Fox is going to give out a free spot to someone.

6:29 Bottom 3. Oswalt comes in, gives up a lucky broken bat hit, then a walk, then a laser to right. Ortiz hit it too hard to be a double.

6:32 I swear it looks like A-Rod is wearing orthopedic nursing shoes. Ass.

6:35 Oswalt throws 5 pitches to Guerrero, none of them strikes. Vlady swings at 3 of them.

6:38 Top of 4. Fox comes out of break late for like the 10th time. Actually they haven’t been late yet, they just arrive right as the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand almost. There is no set up, no announcement of who is pitching to whom. That all comes after.

6:39 DLee leads off with a double. We hear about Lee and the Triple Crown for the third time.

6:40 Make it 4 times.

6:41 Ichiro! It took them 2 batters to tell us about the defensive replacements. Considering that “This one counts,” they sure are broadcasting it like an exhibition.

6:46 Bottom 4. Great graphic on Livan Hernandez being such a horse. He’s thrown over 20,000 pitches since 2000. Wow.

6:48 Roberts doubles and an idiot fan grabs the ball. Ground rule double keeps Varitek at third. I hope they toss the moron out.

6:50 CB Bucknor is one of the All-Star umps? I hope it’s not a merit thing like the playoffs. That guy is a terrible ump.

6:51 Infield in for Ichiro! Are you kidding me! No way this works out for LaRussa. Timmy even backs me up. Two run single, 5 zip AL

6:53 Ichiro gets picked off first. You can hear him yell as he dives back. First instance of me liking the base mike.

7:03 Top of 5, Clement strikes out Beltran on three wicked fastballs. No radar gun? KSTW has a gun but Fox doesn't? Remember folks, This One Counts!

7:05 Bottom 5. Tons of substitutions for the NL. Other than Kent (who's hurt and just wanted one AB), all the NL starters go four innings. I guess this time it does count.

7:08 Buck tries to make it seem, in an interview with LaRussa, that it was an advantage for the Red Sox to have home field advantage in the World Series last year. Let’s see, they won both games in Boston and both games in St. Louis. Yes Joe, huge advantage. Huge.

7:10 Buck pronounces Ichiro's name like Fairly used to. Ich-i-ro instead of I-chi-ro.

7:24 Bottom 6. Not to get caught up in the hype, but I do love to watch Dontrelle pitch.

7:26 Especially when he gives up bombs to T-share!

7:31 Rollins starts the double play, by going down on one knee and fielding the ball with two hands. Great fundamentals. Buck and McCarver make no comment on the super-slo-mo-replay.

7:38 Top 7, Andruw Jones hit that a long, long way. Kenny Rogers is having a pretty bad month doncha think?

7:43 Seventh inning stretch. God Bless America from the Winans? Really? Way to go there Detroit. I'm aquiver.

7:48 Bottom 7. Morgan Ensberg is in at first for the NL. Do they not have a backup 1B? Weird. Oh, it was Pujols, who LaRussa understandably started at DH. Got it.

7:53 Fox actually has to cut a commercial short to get back in time.

7:57 Fans boo because Alou doesn’t try and score from second on a single. Aren't they down 5 runs? I guess the Detroit fans were having so much fun booing Rogers that they just decided to keep it up.

9:16 Bob Wickman, possibly the worst pitcher on the AL squad starts the ninth and predictably walks Andruw. Well maybe not that predictable since Jones is pretty tough to walk, but the bad result is not surprising.

9:22 After BJ Ryan gives up a double to LGonz, then plates him on two groundouts to make it 7-5, Francona has to get Rivera to close it out. Torre apparently asked him not to use Rivera if he could help it. Poooooor Yankees!

9:26 Ball one, then three straight pitches in Ensberg’s wheelhouse. Three straight swings and misses, it’s a final.

9:30 I’m not hanging around for the post game show and neither are the Detroiters. Quick shot of Miggy T getting the MVP and there are like twelve people in the stands.

Overall this was a pretty decent game, I’m surprised the NL didn’t pitch a little better, but that AL lineup was tough.

One thing shocks me though. Buck and McCarver didn’t mention Jeter once. Not one time.

 

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