Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Opening Day 2006
We were expecting boos at Petco Park yesterday, but we did not expect a syringe to be thrown on the field, a marginally creative taunt that probably should earn some bitter San Diegan a night in the slammer.
A good start to the season for Barry, who laced the first pitch he saw into center field for a double and later scored on Lance Niekro's first hit of the year. But that was it. We missed the latter portion of the Giants' 6-1 loss due to the Florida-UCLA game and we're glad we did, not that the Gators' 16-point trouncing was any better.
A few things:
If it's Opening Night in the majors, don't put the game on the Deuce. Put it on ESPN, the Original. There are still cable companies in this country who do nopt offer ESPN2, if you can believe that.
Umpires are at it again, calling the phantom force-out at second. Guys: The fielder MUST touch the base in order to register the out, you idiots. How long do you have to be alive before you can understand this concept, and exactly what year will you start calling people safe when they are safe?
And the steroids issue popped up, of course. What would the grand Opening Day festivities of 2006 be like without it? Eric Karros, one of the three broadcasters on the Braves-Dodgers ESPN telecast, wondered aloud what the hell Major League Baseball is trying to accomplish with this ridiculous steroids investigation. They're dragging their own game into the mud even further, even though back in the McGwire-Sosa days, they cherished the fact that two musclebound sluggers were destroying Ruth's and Maris's marks and making everyone fall back in love with the game. Now they're going to pretend that something bad was going on, and worse, they're going to pretend to do: something about it? We already basically know that some guys were having needles stuck in their asses and whatnot; what more can they find out that will prove anything or shock anyone?
When the others, Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe, asked if Karros thinks steroids tarnished the game for several years, the other E.K. summed it up exactly the way we do, by saying, "I don't care." We didn't care when Mark McGwire was accused of taking steroids and admitted taking andostenedione, a legal substance, we didn't care when Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi, et al., each had their various horrible days in the spotlight, and we don't care now that Barry is the major target. We don't care. We just want to enjoy some baseball and have all the complainers shut up.
A good start to the season for Barry, who laced the first pitch he saw into center field for a double and later scored on Lance Niekro's first hit of the year. But that was it. We missed the latter portion of the Giants' 6-1 loss due to the Florida-UCLA game and we're glad we did, not that the Gators' 16-point trouncing was any better.
A few things:
If it's Opening Night in the majors, don't put the game on the Deuce. Put it on ESPN, the Original. There are still cable companies in this country who do nopt offer ESPN2, if you can believe that.
Umpires are at it again, calling the phantom force-out at second. Guys: The fielder MUST touch the base in order to register the out, you idiots. How long do you have to be alive before you can understand this concept, and exactly what year will you start calling people safe when they are safe?
And the steroids issue popped up, of course. What would the grand Opening Day festivities of 2006 be like without it? Eric Karros, one of the three broadcasters on the Braves-Dodgers ESPN telecast, wondered aloud what the hell Major League Baseball is trying to accomplish with this ridiculous steroids investigation. They're dragging their own game into the mud even further, even though back in the McGwire-Sosa days, they cherished the fact that two musclebound sluggers were destroying Ruth's and Maris's marks and making everyone fall back in love with the game. Now they're going to pretend that something bad was going on, and worse, they're going to pretend to do: something about it? We already basically know that some guys were having needles stuck in their asses and whatnot; what more can they find out that will prove anything or shock anyone?
When the others, Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe, asked if Karros thinks steroids tarnished the game for several years, the other E.K. summed it up exactly the way we do, by saying, "I don't care." We didn't care when Mark McGwire was accused of taking steroids and admitted taking andostenedione, a legal substance, we didn't care when Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi, et al., each had their various horrible days in the spotlight, and we don't care now that Barry is the major target. We don't care. We just want to enjoy some baseball and have all the complainers shut up.
