Thursday, May 8, 2008

God, I Love Baseball

Some of the latest submissions:

Bob Cedrone, who obviously isn't familiar with some of Greg Maddux's work: "It's not just fans getting caught shouting obscenities on camera, sometimes it's the players too.

"I can't remember exactly what game it was, it might have been last Friday night- Red Sox vs Rays. Kevin Youkilis, a man who is known for taking every single AB personally, as if it were a life and death situation, strikes out, walks back to the dugout and sits down at the end of the bench, right in front of the dugout camera. The director switches to that camera just in time to catch Youk as he puts his hands on his head and shouts out a clearly audible FUCK! that was so loud my wife heard it in the other room, as did my 7 year old daughter. I've been watching this game for over 30 years and I don't ever recall seeing it happen to this extent."

Bruce Coffey, Jr., who noticed Papi workin' on something: "Saturday night, during B.P. we watched as David Ortiz took nearly every ball to left field. The first two right into the corner. The rest off the wall. He hit 2 or 3 to center. But did not pull a single ball to RF during BP. Clearly intentional. Then in the game he had 3 hits, including two doubles off the Green Monster. A thing of intentional, well-executed, well-planned, intelligent beauty and effectiveness."

While he was at it, Bruce shared a nice story he wrote a few years ago which reminded me of how charming Sox fans were back before they became so goddamn ubiquitous.

Nick L witnessed an unidentified Reds player robbing from the pathetic to give to the kids: "I caught a Giants-Reds game at AT&T on April 25. During batting practice,a ball was hit to the warning track in right-center field. A fan (who looks like he might be wearing a Reds hat, but it's hard to see) drops some sort of ball-retrieval device onto the warning track. While one(unidentified) Reds player stands near the ball trying to figure out what to do with this situation, another Red runs over, moves the cup-on-string device out of the way and grabs the ball. He pretends to run away and then throws the ball to a kid nearby.

Photos here!

Jason (the mastermind behind IIATMS) offers this one: "Derek Jeter will only be announced by Bob Sheppard (the Voice of God). Except Sheppard is in his mid 90’s and hasn’t been announcing games all year due to illness. So Jeter had Sheppard record “Now batting, shortstop, Number two, Derek Jeter, Number two” and that’s how Jeter gets introduced. Every time. That’s what I loved about the game tonight. Besides the great hang with my bro-in-law and father-in-law. Besides the great duel between Wang and Lee. Besides the super quick pace of the whole game. Besides the benefit of slipping the parking lady an extra $10 to keep me on the lowest level for a super-quick escape."

Personally, I think the Sheppard thing is a bit creepy, but I understand why a Yankee fan like Jason loves it.

Finally, Annette Gaynes offers the following Arizonian observation: "We all know Randy Johnson's reputation. He's intimidating. He's not a friendly guy. He doesn't like people much. Randy pitched against the Phillies on Tuesday night. Today, Brandon Webb pitches against the Phillies. So last night, while the Diamondbacks were out in the field, 44 year old Randy Johnson appeared to be lecturing 28 year old Brandon Webb on how to get the guys out. Hovering on Randy's other side, looking away but clearly listening in, was 20 year old Justin Upton. Sometimes, youth and inexperience mixes well with age and wisdom."

God, I love baseball.

3 comments:

dubbschism said...

what Annette forgot to mention about Randy Johnson's reputation is his dashing good looks. but i guess that's part of the intimidation factor.

Cooker said...

I saw the Youkilis moment as well... what was also funny was the 15 seconds of silence following it as Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy tried to figure out what to say.

Unknown said...

I like that Jeter/Sheppard thing, too...Jeet has a great sense, and appreciation, of history. He's one of the few that has mentioned the 'ghosts' hopefully moving across the street to the new Stadium.

Another Jeter thing was whenever Joe Torre came out to the mound to talk to the pitcher, Derek would tap Torre's chest with his glove. Every time. Don't know if he does that with the 'new Joe'.

Oh, and, after every victory when the guys line up to shake hands/high five or whatever (each player has a specific slap or shake with each other specific player...it's hard to keep track of the dozens of combinations)...Jeter will flick his gum at Melky Cabrera, who tries to kick it like a hacky-sack. Again, every time...

The team based 'moments' and in-jokes are fun, and really give that 'being in the club' feeling we talked about a week or so ago.