1. The Monday Night Football on ESPN era began last night and, wow, did it stink. I’m unable to find a picture of what the on-screen score graphics looked like but for anyone that watched, you know what I’m talking about. The little graphic was in the lower portion of the screen, directly in the center of the picture, just below the players’ feet. It was distracting, to say the least.
Thinking outside the box is great and I applaud television executives when they roll the dice and make creative decisions, but when it comes to televised sports production, just stick to the basics. Give us the most simple score graphics and put it in a part of the screen that isn’t otherwise in the center of the action. ESPN’s broadcast last night showed how much they try to over-think things.
2. It’s not news around here that I think Joe Torre’s an absolutely dreadful manager. Last night Torre made my case a whole lot easier: Bottom of the seventh inning in a 2-2 tie, the Yankees have Johnny Damon on second base, Derek Jeter on first base and Bobby Abreu coming up to bat with nobody out. With a team’s 3-4-5 hitters coming to bat, one would think that the proper strategy is to let the big sluggers hit away, looking for a pitch they can drive. What does Torre do? He calls for the bunt with Abreu.
Abreu hasn’t executed a sacrifice bunt since July 1998. Why ask a lefty hitter with an OBP of .421, who also happens to be facing a righty pitcher, to execute a bunt when that hitter hasn’t attempted one in nearly 10 years? Even if Bobby Abreu were the Venezuelan King of the Bunt, why open up first base and allow the other team to walk the cleanup hitter? Anyway, Abreu was able to bunt Damon and Jeter up and, predictably, the Angels walked Giambi to load the bases for ARod.
Fortunately ARod drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to deep RF, narrowly missing a grand slam. ARod bailed Torre out. I know of no other manager who gets his ass kissed as much as Torre does despite not understanding that taking the bat out of the hands of Abreu and Giambi is sheer baseball lunacy.
To top it off, Torre brings out Mariano Rivera to pitch the ninth inning, despite having a comfortable 7-2 lead. In case he hadn’t noticed, the Yankees are in the middle of a 20-day stretch where they will play 21 games. Every inning that Torre uses Rivera when he doesn’t have to is one more inning that Rivera can’t give him in late September or October when the innings count a lot more. The Yanks could’ve given lefty specialist Mike Myers an inning of work (he hasn’t pitched in at least three days), or they could’ve gone to journeyman Jose Veras for the final three outs. If you can’t trust a pitcher to get three outs before he gives up five runs, that pitcher doesn’t belong on the major league roster. Suffice it to say, Torre needs to be fired as quickly as possible. He’s just a complete moron.
3. Going into last night’s game, the story was that Pedro Martinez was approaching the milestone of becoming one of only three righty pitchers in baseball history to have 200 wins, 3000 strikeouts and a career ERA below 3.00. He was 15 strikeouts away. Now he’s 14 strikeouts away. And perhaps he’ll have to wait until September to get another shot. Pedro injured his calf in warm-ups and proceeded to get bombed by the Phillies, lasting only one inning and giving up six earned runs. If Pedro’s not healthy, the Mets are getting bounced in the playoffs.
4. Finally, Matt Leinart signed with the Arizona Cardinals. I guess Cardinals management caved to his demands because he got more guaranteed money than the two players drafted immediately before him and the total value of the contract ranks him fourth overall for the 2006 NFL Draft class. Personally, I think the Cards should’ve continued to play hardball. Leinart didn’t have a leg to stand on in his demands and the Cards just set a bad precedent. Plus, I don’t like Leinart at all. For the first time since 2001, I’m rooting for Kurt Warner to have a good season. I’ll even become a born-again Christian and join Kurt’s Krusaders if he wins the MVP (not really). Fuck Leinart; may his career be short and full of memorable failures.
Thinking outside the box is great and I applaud television executives when they roll the dice and make creative decisions, but when it comes to televised sports production, just stick to the basics. Give us the most simple score graphics and put it in a part of the screen that isn’t otherwise in the center of the action. ESPN’s broadcast last night showed how much they try to over-think things.
2. It’s not news around here that I think Joe Torre’s an absolutely dreadful manager. Last night Torre made my case a whole lot easier: Bottom of the seventh inning in a 2-2 tie, the Yankees have Johnny Damon on second base, Derek Jeter on first base and Bobby Abreu coming up to bat with nobody out. With a team’s 3-4-5 hitters coming to bat, one would think that the proper strategy is to let the big sluggers hit away, looking for a pitch they can drive. What does Torre do? He calls for the bunt with Abreu.
Abreu hasn’t executed a sacrifice bunt since July 1998. Why ask a lefty hitter with an OBP of .421, who also happens to be facing a righty pitcher, to execute a bunt when that hitter hasn’t attempted one in nearly 10 years? Even if Bobby Abreu were the Venezuelan King of the Bunt, why open up first base and allow the other team to walk the cleanup hitter? Anyway, Abreu was able to bunt Damon and Jeter up and, predictably, the Angels walked Giambi to load the bases for ARod.
Fortunately ARod drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to deep RF, narrowly missing a grand slam. ARod bailed Torre out. I know of no other manager who gets his ass kissed as much as Torre does despite not understanding that taking the bat out of the hands of Abreu and Giambi is sheer baseball lunacy.
To top it off, Torre brings out Mariano Rivera to pitch the ninth inning, despite having a comfortable 7-2 lead. In case he hadn’t noticed, the Yankees are in the middle of a 20-day stretch where they will play 21 games. Every inning that Torre uses Rivera when he doesn’t have to is one more inning that Rivera can’t give him in late September or October when the innings count a lot more. The Yanks could’ve given lefty specialist Mike Myers an inning of work (he hasn’t pitched in at least three days), or they could’ve gone to journeyman Jose Veras for the final three outs. If you can’t trust a pitcher to get three outs before he gives up five runs, that pitcher doesn’t belong on the major league roster. Suffice it to say, Torre needs to be fired as quickly as possible. He’s just a complete moron.
3. Going into last night’s game, the story was that Pedro Martinez was approaching the milestone of becoming one of only three righty pitchers in baseball history to have 200 wins, 3000 strikeouts and a career ERA below 3.00. He was 15 strikeouts away. Now he’s 14 strikeouts away. And perhaps he’ll have to wait until September to get another shot. Pedro injured his calf in warm-ups and proceeded to get bombed by the Phillies, lasting only one inning and giving up six earned runs. If Pedro’s not healthy, the Mets are getting bounced in the playoffs.
4. Finally, Matt Leinart signed with the Arizona Cardinals. I guess Cardinals management caved to his demands because he got more guaranteed money than the two players drafted immediately before him and the total value of the contract ranks him fourth overall for the 2006 NFL Draft class. Personally, I think the Cards should’ve continued to play hardball. Leinart didn’t have a leg to stand on in his demands and the Cards just set a bad precedent. Plus, I don’t like Leinart at all. For the first time since 2001, I’m rooting for Kurt Warner to have a good season. I’ll even become a born-again Christian and join Kurt’s Krusaders if he wins the MVP (not really). Fuck Leinart; may his career be short and full of memorable failures.
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