Put a cap on these long ball games
WONDERFUL, non-intrusive field-side storytelling by SNY during Thursday’s Diamondbacks-Mets game: A muscular young man, in the company of a young woman, trying to remove the twist-off cap from a plastic bottle of water he had purchased. The cap wouldn’t budge. Smiling, he finally surrendered, handing it back to a vendor.
It was the highlight from a 3-2 game that ran a ridiculous 3:45.
Thursday’s 2-0 Rays win over the Blue Jays in 8 ½ innings, nevertheless ran 3:21. Both starters, despite allowing a total of one run, were pulled before the start of the sixth.
The era of the six-inning starter will soon give way to the age of the five-inning starter!
Soon our TV attention will be diverted by graphics carrying teams’ secrets-to-success Red Zone stats from last season. But the chance of a network expert analyst identifying such stats as complied foolishness is not as certain.
Consider: the top three teams in Red Zone TD percentage success, last season — Tennessee, San Francisco and New Orleans — combined for an 18-30 record.
Readers Matter: Lou Dudka asks why managers and pitching coaches don’t hold their hands over their mouths when on the mound to speak with pitchers and catchers.
Steve Arendash reckons that the Yankees now will hike ticket prices to next year’s games against the Tigers, accompanied by the promotional whiff of boiling blood.
Anthony Fischetti: “I have in my car a ‘ John Sterling Odometer.’ It shows how many miles I’ve driven before Sterling finally gives the inning and score. Amazing how far you can go!”
Peter Booth writes that he can never be hired by ESPN “because my last name is Booth, and, well, you know the rest.”
As they say in the restaurant business, “50,000 flies couldn’t be wrong!” Thus, countless readers must be right on this lookalike: Brett Gardner and NYC Police Commissioner James O’Neill.