Rage Against The Dying of the Light

The Yankees are freakin' out:

Coming off a 3-7 road trip and with 41 games to go in the season, the Yankees
are desperate to get back in the playoff hunt. That desperation has apparently
led them to demote struggling centerfielder Melky Cabrera to the minors and
waive first baseman Richie Sexson.

Both Cabrera and Sexson are dead weight at the moment, but it's not liking getting rid of them is going to turn anything around either. Yeah, it's hindsight, but the real move to have made with Melky would have been to package him with Kennedy months ago to get Johan Santana, and the real move to get some kind of production at first base/DH would have been to try and nab Adam Dunn, or an inanimate carbon rod, or something that would have been better than Richie Sexson.
But hey, let's give the Yankees credit for not going gentle into that good night.

50 Million Orioles Fans Can't Be Wrong

Time to celebrate a milestone at Camden Yards:

When Camden Yards opened its doors on April 6, 1992, the Orioles knew their ballpark marked the start of a new era in baseball stadiums. Incorporated into the downtown area, Camden Yards began a revitalization process for the Inner Harbor that has led to a massive transformation of the waterfront in Baltimore.

Seventeen seasons later, the Orioles are now receiving the ultimate affirmation on the importance and popularity of their ballpark as they get set to welcome the 50 millionth fan in Oriole Park history -- the fastest ballpark in the history of baseball to reach such a milestone.

Of course, a good 30 million of them were visiting Yankees and Red Sox fans, but butts in the seats are butts in the seats.

Smoove V.

I wasn't going to post anything about Jason Varitek's divorce filing. Not because I'm above gossip or anything, but because I don't have anything clever, funny, or juicy to say about it.

But David Pinto does!

Great Moments In Lifetime Achievement Awards

So you're a Babe Ruth league umpire, which means you spend a lot of time around boys aged 13-15. Then you get arrested, convicted, and sentenced to four years in prison, 35 years probation and a lifetime on the state's sex offender registry for sexually assaulting teenage boys. What's next on the agenda? Well, if you're in Torrington, Connecticut, you get a lifetime achievement award for the work you did with teenage boys:

Members of a Torrington baseball umpires’ group are defending a decision to present a lifetime achievement award to a convicted child sex offender. Tom Barbero, 58, received the award earlier this month from the Torrington Board of Approved Baseball Umpires. He umpired for the association at area baseball games from 1970 to 1998 . . .

. . . Board members said they knew about Barbero’s criminal record and chose to honor him because his service and work as an umpire deserved recognition.“Tommy was one of the greats. He really was,” Board President Lou Fracasso said Thursday when describing Barber’s umpiring experience.

I'll be honest and say that I am extremely uneasy with the direction our society has gone with respect to people like Barbero. As a father of small children, I support relatively draconian investigation, apprehension, punishment, and incapacitation measures when it comes to sexual predators, but even my emotionally-driven lust for vengeance towards these types pales compared to that of many otherwise reasonable people.

Policies currently in place regarding sex offender registry and notification and restrictions with respect to where they can live upon their release have become so extreme that it's easier for a released sex offender to drop off the grid out of sight of any reasonable support or deterrence system than it is for them to abide by the rules and try to fly right in the clear light of society. There are even people who call themselves Americans who are seriously debating whether we should ever release sex offenders to the public -- even if their sentences have been served -- and even worse, who want to try and identify and incarcerate would-be sexual predators before they even commit an offense. It's madness, I tell you, driven by an unholy mix of hysteria, political calculation, and genuine ignorance, all of which threatens to stretch Constitutional liberties beyond recognition.

But Jesus, do you really think giving a pederast umpire a freakin' lifetime achievement award is a good idea?

Olympic Update

I really couldn't care less about Olympic baseball, but these two results from today's action are notable:

China 8, Taiwan 7: This is a shocker. If it helps the Taiwanese, however, history suggests that all of the Chinese baseball players are actually 13.

Cuba 5, United States 4: This is less of a shocker. If it helps the Americans, however, history suggests that all of the Cuban baseball players are actually 38.

Stuff to Do

The New York Times' Joe Lapointe had a nice afternoon in D.C. yesterday:

When my lunch appointment canceled, I looked across the street from my hotel to the Historical Society of Washington and saw the banner for “Separate and Unequaled: Black Baseball in the District of Columbia." . . .

. . . The exhibit, and the free brochure they give out with it, includes some wonderful surprises. One is a photograph of Babe Ruth, lying unconscious next to a wall in Griffith Stadium on July 5, 1924. The caption said he was knocked out after hitting the wall while running for a ball in right field.

Sounds really cool. Certainly worth checking out if you're in Washington between now and October. The Historical Society is at 801 K Street NW, two blocks south of the Mount Vernon Square Metro station.

Protection

Joe Torre thinks that Jeff Kent's recent hot streak is a function of Manny Ramirez providing him "protection" in the lineup:

"Kent's the perfect example of a guy who knows what to do with a pitch you can hit," said manager Joe Torre. "What I'm seeing in Jeff, he's not going out of the strike zone, like we've seen when he knew he's the one we have to count on.

"A big part of getting your pitch is who's protecting you. Jeff feels responsible, whether he's naked or surrounded by Manny. I'm just giving my perspective. It's been a benefit to the two guys who back-to-back have been a force in this game."

Dear Mr. Torre: Correlation does not equal causation.

That is all.

And That Happened

Cubs 11, Braves 7: Mark Kotsay hit for the cycle and Jeff Francoeur -- who now admits what everyone has long known -- went 3-5 with 3 RBI. Nevertheless, the Braves still lost because Tom Glavine got his future Hall of Fame ass handed to him (4 IP, 7 H, 7 ER, 4 BB) in his first start in over two months. Personally, I am disappointed to see the Kotsay cycle, because he now supplants Albert Hall as the answer to the trivia question about which Brave did it last. For the past twenty years, you could bet your children that if someone on the Braves got a triple, Skip Caray would mention Albert Hall's name. Now Skip is gone and Albert's mark is gone, and I'm probably going to have to go and have a good cry. There. Are you happy 2008 Braves season? You've made a grown man cry.

Padres 3, Brewers 2: No matter how bad it gets for the Padres, at least they have one of the best pitchers in baseball on their team to break bad streaks and occasionally remind the rest of the guys what good baseball looks like. Jake Peavy gives up one unearned run on four hits over seven to snap the Brewers' winning streak and stop Ben Sheets.

Cardinals 3, Marlins 0: I wish the Cardinals were still in the NL East. I'd much rather see them in the playoffs than New York, Philly, or Florida.

Mets 9, Nationals 3: Before this game, Lastings Milledge's line against the Mets this year was .171/.275/.229. In this game: 0-3 with a walk. Also, Brian Schneider hit a two run home run. Upshot: Ryan Church's head notwithstanding, I don't think New York has lived to regret the trade yet.

Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 2: Dan Haren did it all, pitching eight innings of two run ball and adding two hits and a run of his own on offense.

Rays 7, A's 6: Brad Ziegler gives up a run on two hits and a walk, ending (a) his scoreless innings streak; and (b) the only thing worth watching about the A's season. Wait, that's not true. Jack Cust is seriously chasing Ryan Howard's single-season strikeout record of 199 -- Cust is on pace for 206 -- so there's still a reason for East Bay fans to tune in.

Astros 7, Giants 4: I've mocked the Astros delusions of friskiness a lot lately, but credit where it is due: they have won eight in a row, are over .500, and have looked good doing it, and I don't think anyone could have predicted before the season began that they'd be playing as well as they are.

White Sox 9, Royals 2: Thome, Konerko, Ramirez, and Uribe go back-to-back-to-back-to-back in the bottom of the sixth. Lance Broadway -- which, coincidentally, is my porn star name -- gets the win.

Reds 3, Pirates 1: Chris Dickerson has spent eight seasons in the minors. There's some evidence that he has passable on base skills, but he has never had corner-outfielder power and, of course, due to the presence of Griffey and Dunn, he's never had a corner spot to play. He probably doesn't have any business being the starting left fielder for a major league team, but because of the Dunn trade, there he is. Last night he went 2-5 with two doubles and an RBI. Because of this, and because he's not Adam Dunn and this is Cincinnati, he's probably going to get more Major League plate appearances than he'll ever deserve over the next few years, so hey, let's hear it for right place-right time.

Tigers 5, Blue Jays 1: I was chatting with The Daily Fungo's Mike McClary as this game was happening. I asked him what he was up to. He said "just watching the Tigers lose again." Our chat ended before the 8th inning rally, but I was happy to see Detroit win this one, because Mike is a nice guy and I have this feeling that he had planned on blogging a championship run this year as opposed to Gary Sheffield turmoil stories.

Orioles 11, Indians 6: While Neyer outlined a handy-dandy game rating system yesterday (subscription only) that may help you figure out what to ignore, I feel obligated to write about every game, no matter how inconsequential. This is difficult, because as the season progresses and the playoffs get closer and closer, the meaningfulness quotient of this sort of matchup approaches zero. Still, I've so far resisted the urge to give games like these a pass, as it were, and I spend a little extra time to try and find something worth saying. This one took a while, but here you go: Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera leads the AL in walks, wild pitches, and hit batsmen. There should be some kind of Three True Outcomes honor to give him for winning such a dubious triple crown, shouldn't there?

Red Sox 10, Rangers 0: The Rangers gave up 37 runs in this three game series.

Dodgers 3, Phillies 1: The last time L.A. swept the Phillies in four games the starters were Johnny Podres, Stan Williams, Sandy Koufax, and Joe Moeller. Joe Torre was twenty-one years old and catching for the Milwaukee Braves. Charlie Manuel? Amazingly enough, he was still sixty-four years-old, heavy, and had a head of white hair. It was the damnedest thing.

Sui Generis

Jayson Stark is seriously bent out of shape about all of the love Manny Ramirez is getting in Los Angeles:

What the heck are you cheering for?

For a man who decided his personal net worth was more important than an entire franchise and all the people who played with him, covered for him, depended on him? Sheez. How sad is that? . . .

. . . Yeah, we know what every Dodgers fan on earth is thinking: "What he did in Boston isn't our problem. He didn't blow up our franchise. So who cares?"

OK, here's why you should care: Because this could easily morph into a giant problem for every franchise; for the entire sport, in fact. If Manny Ramirez wanders into the free-agent market this winter and gets anything close to the four years and $100 million he believes he'll get, think about the message that would send, the precedent that would set.

It would, in effect, be an open invitation to every selfish superstar in baseball to pull a Manny. Act up. Stop hustling. Stop trying. Refuse to play. Make up an injury. Whatever you have to do to get back out there on the free-agent market. It's all worth it.

I think Stark is making way too much of this. I have no problem with him being distressed at Ramirez's behavior -- depending on who you believe, his behavior may be very well have been distressing -- but it is unreasonable to suggest that Manny's behavior is precedent setting.

Why? Because Manny is sui generis. I submit that there is no ballplayer of Manny Ramirez's caliber who is capable of matching (a) Manny's baseball abilities; with (b) Manny's attitude, and still remain a successful ballplayer. No other Hall of Fame talent is going to fake injuries or refuse to play like Manny allegedly did because the things that make them Hall of Fame talents -- things like pride, and obsession, work ethic and even simple image consciousness -- won't allow them to. Do you think Derek Jeter or Albert Pujols are even capable of sandbagging? Do you think Alex Rodriguez -- a guy who is worried about being photographed on his bad side -- would dog it for some contractual advantage?

There are loads of players who have mailed it in or acted like general asses in the past in an attempt to gain some tactical advantage or to punish their club's real or imagined transgressions. None of them, however, have ever really gotten anything out of it. Derek "Operation Shutdown" Bell was a pretty good player for a while and saw his career end the moment he stopped trying and refused to play. Maybe the most famous example was Gary Sheffield, who admitted to intentionally muffing plays while in Milwaukee. Did he cause headaches for his team? Sure he did. But he never managed to hold anyone hostage, and has a surprising number of cities on his resume as a result of his reputation for being difficult. It may even keep him out of Cooperstown.

In baseball, if you dog it, you pay the consequences. Manny Ramirez may stretch that rule to its breaking point, but even if he does get that $100M he's looking for (he won't, but let's say he does) he will not set a precedent vindicating Stark's imaginary horribles. That's because he is unique. He is Manny Ramirez -- a man as lacking in self-awareness and normal human motivation as he is blessed with hitting talent -- and there will never be another one like him, for all of the good and the bad that entails.

Heyman Interview

The Big Lead has an excellent interview with SI's Jon Heyman, who does a really good job (a) painting a picture of the online baseball reporting landscape; and (b) demonstrating that, just because someone comes from a newspaper background doesn't mean they have to be hostile to blogs and other online outlets.

Scandal!

Sources suggest that Jerry Manuel has seen an intern for New York's CBS affiliate naked!

Jeffrey Leonard

As I have mentioned before, I really, really liked those pre-Bonds Giants teams of the late 80s. I rooted for them in every game they played that wasn't against the Braves. Why? I liked Roger Craig a lot from his days as Sparky Anderson's pitching coach in Detroit. I simply loved to watch Will Clark play. They had a lot of day games compared to other teams, so their highlights stood out more on SportsCenter. There were a lot of reasons.

Another one of them was Jeffrey Leonard. He seemed to enjoy being the bad guy so much that it was hard for me not to like him. Indeed, I almost felt sorry for him because writers seemed to spend so much time calling guys like Rickey Henderson a hot dog that I was worried that Leonard -- the real deal when it came to attitude and cockiness, as far as I was concerned -- would feel slighted for not being hated as much.

In light of all of that, I was happy to see today's great story from the Sacramento Bee, catching up with Old Penitentiary Face, who is currently managing in the independent leagues. When asked if he thinks he'll ever get a shot at coaching or managing in the big leagues, Leornard says:

"Can I do it? Yes, I know I can," he said. "Will I get that opportunity? Probably not. "Why? I don't have an answer. It could be a number of reasons. It could be my (skin) color, or my controversial career or the drug scandals . . . I don't know if it's because I kicked Will Clark's (behind)," Leonard added with a crooked grin . . .

Until I read that I probably hadn't thought about the Clark-Leonard fight for close to 20 years. For those who had never heard of it, here's the rundown from a 1989 World Series Eve article in the New York Times:

''He was a tumor,'' Clark told reporters. ''We got rid of him, now look where we are. He was a jealous ballplayer. He couldn't understand why a player was called up and got all the attention. So he made my life miserable.''

Leonard, now with the Seattle Mariners, swung back, calling Clark a ''talented hitter, but he's a prejudiced (expletive deleted).'' The black slugger, who was the most valuable player in the 1987 National League Championship Series, which the Giants lost to the Cardinals in seven games, told The San Francisco Chronicle his version of his 1987 fight with Clark in the Giants' clubhouse in Philadelphia.

''My nephew approached him and asked him for his autograph,'' Leonard recalled, adding that Clark had dismissed the youngster with a racial remark. ''The next day they had to pull me off him in the clubhouse. I was about to kill him, but I was afraid to hit him because I knew I would have broken something and we needed the guy to play.''

Kinda puts Bonds-Kent and Fielder-Parra in perspective, no?

The Jimmy Fund Radio Telethon

A note from ShysterBall uber-commenter, tadthebad:

Today and tomorrow, the Red Sox are teaming with WEEI and NESN for the 7th annual Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon. Funds collected are given to the Jimmy Fund which benefits the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The Red Sox have been connected to this charity since the days of the Splendid Splinter, and last year alone the radio-telethon raised over $3 million. Dana-Farber is a world renowned cancer treatment institute, and its dealings with kids afflicted with cancer takes the main focus of the event. Truly, Dana-Farber does God's work. I had a friend who until his end endlessly praised the work of Dana-Farber. Another friend of mine beat cancer, thanks in large part to Dana-Farber. Whatever one's feelings about the Red Sox as a baseball team, this charity is well worth any donation. In years past (and I assume this year as well), none other than George Steinbrenner would contribute large donations to the Jimmy Fund via this radio-telethon. If you have the time, check out weei.com or nesn.com and make a pledge. Kids with cancer is just about the worst thing in the world . . . we can help the cause.

Thanks for the reminder, Tad. To make a gift, go here, or call 1-877-738-1234.

UPDATE: And while we're at it, Jason at IIATMS has a post up about another worthy cause.

UPDATE: Now Jason is making it interesting: make a $100 donation, get a guest post on IIATMS. I would personally like to encourage Red Sox fans to take him up on the offer.

A Quick Political Note

Here in Ohio, we've had some political turmoil in recent months. Our Attorney General was forced to resign amid a sexual harassment scandal that culminated with his offices being raided and everyone behaving pretty badly. It was all great fun. The job has been filled on an interim basis, but by law there will be a special election in November to fill the last two years of the old guy's term.

I offer this because the Republicans have chosen to run a guy named Mike Crites. Baseball fans with absolutely no life may remember that Crites is the guy who successfully prosecuted Pete Rose for tax evasion, which resulted in Charlie Hustle getting thrown in jail.

I've commented before just how popular Pete Rose remains in Cincinnati. Soutwestern Ohio is a Republican stronghold. As such, if I were running the campaign for Crites' Democratic opponent, I'd run ads in Cincy making prominent mention of this in an effort to steal a bunch of votes that would normally go to Crites. Maybe juxtaposing a picture of the Hero Rose in a prison jumpsuit with a picture of some murderer going free, and commenting on Crites' questionable priorities or something.

Totally sleazy, but if it weren't for sleaze, this election wouldn't have been happening in the first place, right?

Fake Fans

Apparently there have been a lot of empty seats at Olympic events -- particularly the decidedly unpopular baseball games -- embarrassing IOC and Chinese officials into getting factory workers and other fake fans to fill seats.

On the bright side, the Florida Marlins just got a fabulous idea.

Retroblogging

The L.A. Times' Larry Harnisch has been blogging 1958 recently. Covering the crime beat for the most part, yesterday he talked about an article dealing with Dodger prospects of the day in the face of a disappointing 1958 campaign.

A handful of team-specific bloggers have blogged their team's last championship season on a day-by-day basis, and I've always thought it was a cool. A lot of work to be sure -- there simply aren't a ton of free and easily accessible online resources for older news -- but quite rewarding. I think it would be neat for a general blogger to try and blog a whole season this way. For example, If I had the time I'd take the 1941 season and pretend that I had no clue about what DiMaggio and Williams were going to do that year. I'd pre-arm myself with microfilm copies of the major papers of the day and run an "And That Happened" each day just like I do now. I think it would be pretty fun.

And That Happened

Pirates 5, Reds 2: The Pirates faced the Reds in the NLCS in 1970, 1972, 1975, 1979, and 1990. That may as well be a million years ago. Right now, though, you can bet that Pittsburgh is taking special joy in making sure that someone besides them are going to finish in last place.

Cubs 10, Braves 2: You don't need me to tell you that the Braves have had a frustrating year, but this strikes me as Bobby Cox just getting tired of watching this awful team: "Braves manager Bobby Cox was ejected by third base umpire Joe West in the top of the fifth. Cox never left the dugout but complained when West halted play for the lights to be turned on after Braves reliever Vladimir Nunez warmed up."

Cubs 8, Braves 0: Chipper Jones was scratched from game 2 of the double header with a stomach virus. They make me sick too, Chipper. They make me sick too.

Twins 4, Yankees 2: I was reading various Yankees blogs which were following this one in more or less real time, and I can't get over how similar the entries were. Everyone is saying that it looked the Yankees were mailing it in, seemingly eager to get on the plane and end this godforsaken road trip they've been on. People talk a lot about teams that need to learn how to win. Maybe the Yankees need to learn how to lose.

Red Sox 8, Rangers 4: After Tuesday night's near-debacle, you have to figure that no one felt comfortable when it was 8-0 entering the 8th. When Texas put up four runs that evening people had to feel positively queasy.

Orioles 6, Indians 1: Jeremy Guthrie used to be an Indian. In fact, he was their first round pick in 2002. Never made much of an impression for the Tribe, however, and was waived after the 2006 season. Given a chance to pitch in Baltimore, he put up a 125 ERA+ last year, and is even pitching better this year. Especially recently, He's 7-1 in his last ten starts, and has now won four in a row, and in those four games he has only allowed four runs on 16 hits in 29.1 innings pitched. In a year where Cliff Lee is the only guy from the opening day rotation who is either present or has been worth a damn, Guthrie sure would have been nice to have around, no?

Mets 12, Nats 0:

Manny Acta: What's our record since the break, Randy?
Randy St. Claire: 8 and 17
Manny: 8 and 17. How'd we ever win 8?
Randy: It's a miracle.
Manny: It's a miracle.

White Sox 4, Royals 0: No Royal walked in this game. In fact, the Royals have only walked 294 times this entire year. That's more than thirty fewer walks than the next worst team in the category. At that pace, they'll finish with 397 walks this season. There have been teams with worse walk totals in recent seasons -- last year's Mariners team, for example -- but not many.

Cardinals 6, Marlins 4: The last two NL teams to win the World Series battle for their playoff lives. Troy Glaus goes 4-4 and drives in some insurance late to seal the deal for St. Louis, who is 10-8 since that throttling by the Brewers back in late July and 14-13 since the break.

Blue Jays 4, Tigers 3: A Vernon Wells grand slam in the third holds up.

Astros 6, Giants 2: Barry Zito chalks up loss number 15. He may have eight or nine starts left. Which means that back spasms, dead arm or something else vaguely debilitating is going to land him on the DL unless he can string together a couple wins soon, because there's no way Sabean lets his nine-figure pitcher lose 20, is there?

Dodgers 7, Phillies 6: Nomar wins the game with a dinger in the bottom of the ninth. From the game story: "Garciaparra's teammates hoisted him off the ground in celebration after he crossed home plate." He was then immediately placed on the 15 day disabled list, suffering from altitude sickness.

Rockies 6, Diamondbacks 5: Two outs in the ninth, bases loaded, Dbacks down by a run, and Adam Dunn at the plate, but Dunner grounds out to end the game. Reds fans nod in solemn recognition.

Brewers 7, Padres 1: CC Sabathia's ridiculousness continues (7 IP, 9 H, 1 ER, 8K). The Brewers have indicated that they aren't going to be in the Sabathia derby this offseason, but even if they hadn't said it with words, they have said it with pitch counts: 97, 122, 110, 106, 124, 109, 103, 114. Egregious? Certainly not. But if you really cared about his stamina, wouldn't you maybe take him out an inning or two early when leading a punchless team like San Diego by several runs?

Rays 3, A's 2: Eric Hinske goes 3-3 with an RBI, but the fact that Carlos Pena seems to be heating up a bit -- he hit his third homer in seven games -- may be more important to the Rays in light of all of their injuries.

Mariners 10, Angels 7: Some of criticized K-Rod this year by saying that his record-pace of saves has been padded by a lot of easy, three-run lead in the ninth opportunities. Hey, those aren't always gimmies, as Rodriguez blows this three run lead in the ninth against the worst team in baseball. Then, when the inning is over, he blows up at the home plate umpire Gerry Davis over balls and strikes and gets ejected. Just a bad day, I suppose. He should be careful, though. I just read a book about a guy who had one bad day, and the results were not pretty.

Pickin' Sides

Many longtime ShysterBall readers know who Diesel is. For those who don't, Diesel is a frequent commenter in these parts and, more significantly, was the voice behind the now-dead blog Two Guys Who, Like, Never Agree. Diesel's real name is Connor Doyle, and Mr. Doyle has started a new blog. While it will stray into areas outside of sports, today he's on about baseball. Working from Joe Sheehan's broadside of the draft, Connor has a really good question:

Why are American sports fans, who are prone to sympathizing with labor concerns
in just about every walk of life, so pro-owner when it comes to athletics? . . .

. . . why are fans still so reflexively anti-player/pro-ownership?

Connor chalks up the general pro-ownership stance of fans to (a) media bias; and (b) envy. Maybe you agree, maybe you don't, but check out his whole argument before you make up your mind.

Great Moments In Visceral Reactions

Last night's Sox-Rangers game was quite the stink bomb, no?

The ShysterBall Link Of The Day, Brought To You By Johnsonville Sausages!

Russ Smith has had it with in-game advertising:

That aside, what really bugs this spectator—and mind you, I’ve got nothing against advertising, and, like a lot people, really get a hoot out of the Geico cavemen and the Aflac duck—is that companies are now infiltrating the broadcast of the game itself, instead of just between innings. For example, last Saturday when the Yankees and Angels were shown on Fox, one of the announcers said, after the Halos broke the game open, “Here’s the Flomax game summary,” and recounted the scoring. An inning or so later, we heard about the “game changing play”—Vlad Guerrero’s homer—“brought to you buy Sharp’s Aquos TV.”

He goes on to list a dozen or two more. The phenomenon does bug me a bit, but I find the degree to which it bugs me depends on how good the announcer is at integrating it into the gamecast. George Grande on Reds' broadcasts seems to do it pretty well and it doesn't bother me. The Indians' team isn't as smooth with the segues and it interrupts the flow. This should be self-correcting too, in that, I would guess anyway, the more conversational it all sounds the more effective the ad is. Maybe it's phony, but when Grande and Chris Welsh mention J.T.M. burgers in the context of the cookout they're going to have on tomorrow's off day, it works. When they stop in the middle of game analysis to plug "J.T.M. burgers -- bring them to YOUR next cookout," it sticks out in a bad way.

Ultimately this is all about damage minimization because all of these plugs are bad, even if they are necessary.