Wiretowire
Pretty much a regular
Playoffs 19-8
2-0 yesterday
Going to put the game first so you can skip the long, boring other write up.
Mets +2 1/2 -160
This game is the reason the Dodgers got Greinke. And he has been very good. But degrom has been better. I don't see the Dodgers busting out and putting up a big number offensively but the Mets could. Unlikely against Greinke but I am only talking about offensive potential here. Could the Dodgers win? Yes they could. But if LA wins I think it will be close. The Mets could win outright as well. But I see a real close game no matter who wins and when I see that I cheat by taking the +2 1/2 runs and then I take the books money.
As for a total be very careful. I think 6 is a perfect number for this game. By that I mean even buying a run off to 5 and going over is risky and buying a run on and going under 7 is also risky. Blood and many in here will tell you that this total must be completely fucked up because I will go over a 5 any time. But not this time in this game. Walk away from the total here.
A memory ................
I normally don't listen to games on TV. The announcers piss me off with their endless prattle. But last night I listened to the Toronto game. Maybe because the wife is away on business or probably because I was doing other things while the game was on. But after a while I realized I had sat down to listen as well as watch. I soon realized the reason I was listening was Harold Reynolds. Man this guy is good. He nailed everything he was saying and he instantly said the run could score on that weird ball hit the batter throwing back to the pitcher play. As bad as I think Joe Buck is, Reynolds was that good. This got me to thinking about listening to games and I realized the major reason I never listened to TV games was that I didn't need to have talking heads tell me what I was seeing. Then I got to thinking about listening to games on the radio.
There is nothing in this world as great as listening to baseball games on the radio. When I was a kid this was about the only way to catch a game. I remember listening to the Tribe and Jimmy Dudley calling the game. Or Herb Score. One of my most vivid memories of all these old time announcers was that they would be completely devoted to their team. There was one game where Cleveland was playing Baltimore in Baltimore. Score was calling the game on TV in a simulcast. But it wasn't what you would think. You had to watch the game on Channel 43 which was a UHF channel. If you don't know what UHF is then you would never understand curling a ribbon of aluminum foil to your antennae to bring in the picture better. And forget color TV. This was black and white only. Anyway with the Tribe leading 5-3 or something Brooks Robinson rockets a 3 run homer to left and the Orioles win 6-5. Score says "The Tribe lost a heartbreaker" and signs off. Then there is a pause and Score yells "SONUVABITCH!!!!!" He must have thought they had cut away for a commercial but he was still on the air. That night and the next day the phones lit up at the TV station but all in support of Score. You knew that Herb Score loved the Indians.
This love for their team is why we continued to listen to Harry Caray blubber his way through a radio broadcast. Caray would always do this "The bases are loaded for the Cubs in the bottom of the 5th and here's the pitch. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! OHHHHHHHHH!! Holy COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The crowd would be going nuts in the background but Harry got so excited he forgot to tell the listeners what happened. But the fans still loved him.
Or Bob Prince the legendary announcer for the Pirates for years. I used to listen to him as a kid and he would drive me crazy because he would start the game like this "It's a beautiful night in Pittsburgh and here's the first pitch .... Strike One!" Then Prince would start talking for the next couple of hours about Pittsburgh and he would get so involved in his stories he would forget to call the game. His next reference to the game would be "And that's the end of the 5th with the Pirates leading 6-4." WTF??????? But the fans loved him because he talked about their home town.
I can still hear Ernie Harwell's voice telling me that the last foul ball was caught by a man from East Lansing. As a kid it always amazed me Ernie knew who the whole crowd was personally and where they came from. And I can still hear his trademark "This one is LOOOONG Gone". He refused to call the NY Mets the Mets. He always referred to them with their whole name "The New York Metropolitans".
But the best, in my opinion, is still calling games. Vin Scully can tell you a hundred stories during a game and never miss a pitch or any of the action of the game. When I lived in Arizona in the 80's one of my favorite things in the world was sitting outside and hearing Vin say "Why don't you pull up a chair and join us for awhile?" I had an aunt that lived in Santa Monica and everything stopped if the Dodgers were on the road so she could listen to the radio. And I mean the TV was not allowed on and no one was allowed to talk, at all, until the game ended. It is still a great treat for me to be driving to Montreal late at night and find him calling a Dodger game on XM radio. He has called Dodger games for 66 years and if he comes back next year, as planned, you must listen to one of his broadcasts.
But no matter who you like or who you listen to turn off the TV and turn on the radio. It makes the games more exciting. Try it during these playoffs. I know I'm an old man but some things are still timeless. GL
2-0 yesterday
Going to put the game first so you can skip the long, boring other write up.
Mets +2 1/2 -160
This game is the reason the Dodgers got Greinke. And he has been very good. But degrom has been better. I don't see the Dodgers busting out and putting up a big number offensively but the Mets could. Unlikely against Greinke but I am only talking about offensive potential here. Could the Dodgers win? Yes they could. But if LA wins I think it will be close. The Mets could win outright as well. But I see a real close game no matter who wins and when I see that I cheat by taking the +2 1/2 runs and then I take the books money.
As for a total be very careful. I think 6 is a perfect number for this game. By that I mean even buying a run off to 5 and going over is risky and buying a run on and going under 7 is also risky. Blood and many in here will tell you that this total must be completely fucked up because I will go over a 5 any time. But not this time in this game. Walk away from the total here.
A memory ................
I normally don't listen to games on TV. The announcers piss me off with their endless prattle. But last night I listened to the Toronto game. Maybe because the wife is away on business or probably because I was doing other things while the game was on. But after a while I realized I had sat down to listen as well as watch. I soon realized the reason I was listening was Harold Reynolds. Man this guy is good. He nailed everything he was saying and he instantly said the run could score on that weird ball hit the batter throwing back to the pitcher play. As bad as I think Joe Buck is, Reynolds was that good. This got me to thinking about listening to games and I realized the major reason I never listened to TV games was that I didn't need to have talking heads tell me what I was seeing. Then I got to thinking about listening to games on the radio.
There is nothing in this world as great as listening to baseball games on the radio. When I was a kid this was about the only way to catch a game. I remember listening to the Tribe and Jimmy Dudley calling the game. Or Herb Score. One of my most vivid memories of all these old time announcers was that they would be completely devoted to their team. There was one game where Cleveland was playing Baltimore in Baltimore. Score was calling the game on TV in a simulcast. But it wasn't what you would think. You had to watch the game on Channel 43 which was a UHF channel. If you don't know what UHF is then you would never understand curling a ribbon of aluminum foil to your antennae to bring in the picture better. And forget color TV. This was black and white only. Anyway with the Tribe leading 5-3 or something Brooks Robinson rockets a 3 run homer to left and the Orioles win 6-5. Score says "The Tribe lost a heartbreaker" and signs off. Then there is a pause and Score yells "SONUVABITCH!!!!!" He must have thought they had cut away for a commercial but he was still on the air. That night and the next day the phones lit up at the TV station but all in support of Score. You knew that Herb Score loved the Indians.
This love for their team is why we continued to listen to Harry Caray blubber his way through a radio broadcast. Caray would always do this "The bases are loaded for the Cubs in the bottom of the 5th and here's the pitch. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! OHHHHHHHHH!! Holy COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The crowd would be going nuts in the background but Harry got so excited he forgot to tell the listeners what happened. But the fans still loved him.
Or Bob Prince the legendary announcer for the Pirates for years. I used to listen to him as a kid and he would drive me crazy because he would start the game like this "It's a beautiful night in Pittsburgh and here's the first pitch .... Strike One!" Then Prince would start talking for the next couple of hours about Pittsburgh and he would get so involved in his stories he would forget to call the game. His next reference to the game would be "And that's the end of the 5th with the Pirates leading 6-4." WTF??????? But the fans loved him because he talked about their home town.
I can still hear Ernie Harwell's voice telling me that the last foul ball was caught by a man from East Lansing. As a kid it always amazed me Ernie knew who the whole crowd was personally and where they came from. And I can still hear his trademark "This one is LOOOONG Gone". He refused to call the NY Mets the Mets. He always referred to them with their whole name "The New York Metropolitans".
But the best, in my opinion, is still calling games. Vin Scully can tell you a hundred stories during a game and never miss a pitch or any of the action of the game. When I lived in Arizona in the 80's one of my favorite things in the world was sitting outside and hearing Vin say "Why don't you pull up a chair and join us for awhile?" I had an aunt that lived in Santa Monica and everything stopped if the Dodgers were on the road so she could listen to the radio. And I mean the TV was not allowed on and no one was allowed to talk, at all, until the game ended. It is still a great treat for me to be driving to Montreal late at night and find him calling a Dodger game on XM radio. He has called Dodger games for 66 years and if he comes back next year, as planned, you must listen to one of his broadcasts.
But no matter who you like or who you listen to turn off the TV and turn on the radio. It makes the games more exciting. Try it during these playoffs. I know I'm an old man but some things are still timeless. GL
