Nick Swisher would really like it if people voted for him on the all-star ballot. Or so he says. Something about his dad making fun of him for having less all-star appearances. Either way, Swisher's site is pretty fun to look through, regardless of whether you go vote for him.
(Me, I've already been just punching Ichiro-Swisher-Teahen in the AL outfield on all of my ballots anyway. Last year I used to write in Swisher. This year I've been writing in Ryan Doumit.)
I watched the second half of last night's Mariners game while I was at the gym, now that they've put in these awesome "treadmill theater" screens so you can watch whatever you want without annoying anyone else to change the channel. The good part is that I walked about 3-4 miles during the game. The bad part is that I literally could barely stand up by the time I got to the 9th inning, so I sat down on one of those inflatable workout balls to watch Ryan Rowland-Smith.
I missed the back-to-back RBI walks by Johjima and Beltre, but I did get to see the back-to-back FUNK BLASTS by Johjima and Beltre. (Is that the first time that there ever was a game where two teammates had back-to-back RBI walks AND back-to-back home runs?) And it was even back-to-back pitches on the home runs, too. Very cool.
J Lopez pitching to J Lopez was pretty neat. So was Coco Crisp's at-bat -- I didn't recognize him, and didn't have sound, so I'm thinking "who the heck is that spastic freak at the plate?" There's definitely some advantages to watching a game on TV instead of being at the park, but you miss out on things like seeing the Ortiz Shift and such on TV, I think.
I got to see a few innings of the Rakuten-Yomiuri game last night as well. It was actually the first time I'd gotten to watch Ogasawara since he went to the Giants, and it almost made me want to cry. I cheered for Masahiro Tanaka to strike him out, but I fell asleep before that was accomplished. I did see Yoshinobu Takahashi's home run in the third (strangely, I actually sort of expected it to happen), though I didn't see the one in the seventh. Naoto Watanabe continues to impress me as Rakuten's shortstop, too. Talk about a productive draft.
I'll be at tonight's Sox-Mariners game, but not Wednesday's, since between Sunday night and Monday afternoon, all of the decent tickets in the lower levels got bought up for Wednesday's game. Not sure whether it was genuinely a rush on tickets or whether scalpers think they can make a buck off of a Matsuzaka start, but whatever. I'm kind of psyched because I'll get to see Roy Halladay pitch on Saturday! Finally!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Know any Red Sox fans? Or Matsuzaka fans?
Specifically, any of them who live in Seattle and are going to the games this week and might want to buy this banner off me?
I'm selling it for $25 or best offer. I bought it at the Seibu Dome during last season, even though I was already sick of the Matsuzaka hype, because I figured that if he did come to the Mariners it'd be something cool to wave around at the stadium, but now I've just realized there's no way in hell I'm going to wave it around when he pitches for the Red Sox, so I might as well get it to someone who will. I've basically taken it out of the wrapping it came in twice -- once to look at it after I bought it, and once to take the above picture.
It's made out of cloth, the pole is plastic, and it's about 20" x 20". It says "Itadaki Sanshin!! 18 Matsuzaka Daisuke", which means "Give us a strikeout!!", essentially.
I can bring it downtown on Tuesday or Wednesday during the day, I'm going to Tuesday's game and maybe Wednesday's, or someone can come get it from me in Ballard in the evening. The Sox are also coming back in August as well, so there's no real rush per se (and I'll be selling off more of my baseball stuff in a month or so, too).
I'm selling it for $25 or best offer. I bought it at the Seibu Dome during last season, even though I was already sick of the Matsuzaka hype, because I figured that if he did come to the Mariners it'd be something cool to wave around at the stadium, but now I've just realized there's no way in hell I'm going to wave it around when he pitches for the Red Sox, so I might as well get it to someone who will. I've basically taken it out of the wrapping it came in twice -- once to look at it after I bought it, and once to take the above picture.
It's made out of cloth, the pole is plastic, and it's about 20" x 20". It says "Itadaki Sanshin!! 18 Matsuzaka Daisuke", which means "Give us a strikeout!!", essentially.
I can bring it downtown on Tuesday or Wednesday during the day, I'm going to Tuesday's game and maybe Wednesday's, or someone can come get it from me in Ballard in the evening. The Sox are also coming back in August as well, so there's no real rush per se (and I'll be selling off more of my baseball stuff in a month or so, too).
Friday, June 22, 2007
Game Report: Mariners vs. Pirates - Gone, but not Benschoten
Another night, another Pirates game, another Mariners win, 3-0. Happy Felix Day. Putz wooo. Kuwata ganbare. Golden Doughnut. Say Bay Eh. Whatever. For once I actually found myself regretting going to a game, which is sort of rare for me.
I didn't bother getting to this game all that early, basically arriving at the end of Pirates batting practice. I got Jose Castillo to sign my ticket and once more failed to get Masumi Kuwata. Jason Bay was out again continuing to be the nicest guy on the planet.
A semi-stupid thing happened: while waiting in my usual spot in section 148 for the pitchers to come out and do long tosses, I got stopped by an usher. Most of the ushers recognize me and my camera by now and know that I have a 16-game ticket plan in section 143, and I always move to my seat by game time, but this guy actually wanted to see my ticket and was going to kick me out of the section... and unfortunately, this time my actual ticket was in the upper deck. For some reason, I never seem to get asked for my ticket when I actually have one in Field, and do get asked for it on the rare times when I don't. I told him I was just going to take pictures and would leave by 6:50, but then John Van Benschoten ended up throwing towards the field instead of the stands anyway, so I just got up and wandered down to the bullpen. The Mariners' side of the bullpen was horrendously crowded for the Felix, so I went over to the bullpen pub instead, and this is what I saw:
Through the Looking Glass, or is that a Doughnut Hole?
John Van Benschoten is one of those guys you've probably heard of if you follow the Pirates minor leagues, mostly for being what Chris Snelling would be like if he was a pitcher, since he's spent most of his time having reconstructive surgeries done on his shoulders and rehabbing from them. Once upon a time, though, he was a first-round draft pick, back when I was still living in Pittsburgh and didn't really pay attention to the draft. Hopefully he'll manage to accomplish something at the major league level before he gets traded to some other team and becomes awesome, which is the typical fate for Pirates players.
Much like the rest of the charming young men playing for the
Pirates these days, this guy looks too nice to defeat you.
I didn't even spend that much time in the bullpen, going up to the 300 level during the national anthem. I bought garlic-free chicken tenders and fries from Grounders, which was a patently bad idea -- I think they sort of depend on the overwhelming garlic to distract patrons from noticing that the chicken strips are dry and tasteless while the fries are soggy. Blech. I think next time I try a food experiment at Safeco, I'll go for the Mexican food, which I've been curious about but not adventurous enough to try yet.
I was sitting in row 9 in section 329, with a gigantic family all sitting to my left and a bunch of loud blonde girls sitting in the row behind me. One section over there were a few people with Pirates hats in row 9, and a whole bunch of loud Japanese people in row 11. I wasn't actually wearing a Pirates shirt at this point, since it was too hot out to wear two shirts. I just sat there quietly with my scorecard, watching the game unfold. Sometimes I wonder why I go to the park now that I have cable at home and can actually watch the game on TV; though I was right behind home plate, I was way too far up to get any sense for how Felix was pitching besides just watching the batters and some of the radar gun readings.
The Pirates went down 1-2-3 in the first inning on 6 pitches. The scoreboard informed us that we could get "Griffey Returns" commemorative baseballs for $100 starting at 10am Friday in the team store, autographed by Griffey, with proceeds going to Children's Hospital.
The Mariners also went down 1-2-3 in their half of the first inning, though it took 20 pitches, with at least 10 of them being taken by Jose Lopez, who fouled off a bazillion pitches, including one which bounced in a large section of empty seats in left, and ended up back on the field, much to Jason Bay's surprise.
The Pirates also went down 1-2-3 in the top of the second, this time on 9 pitches, Ryan Doumit striking out for his first time of the evening. After the inning, they had a salute to the US Army up on the board and had all past and present Army members stand up and be applauded.
Jose Guillen led off the second with a single, and even got to second on a Beltre groundout that was executed a bit like a hit-and-run, since it would have been an easy double play otherwise, but he was stranded there.
In the top of the third, the Pirates finally got a hit when Jack Wilson hit a ball that hooked fair, then ended up in the corner along the foul line, for a double. The rest of the inning was outs and still only took 7 more pitches for a total of 22 through 3.
Ichiro, wearing high socks, had the sole Mariners hit in the third, a double to left. In comparison, Van Benschoten threw 49 pitches through three innings.
Nate McLouth led off the top of the fourth with a single and was advanced by a Freddy Sanchez groundout, but Felix struck out Adam LaRoche and Jason Bay after that, this inning taking 16 pitches. After that half of the inning, they played yet another Quick Flix spotlight on Ken Griffey Jr, eliciting more cheers from people who actually lived here in the 90's.
Kenji Johjima, NOT wearing high socks, had the sole Mariners hit in the fourth, a single up the middle. After the fourth inning, they showed Today's Groups up on the scoreboard, and I finally remembered to take pictures of a few choice ones that had been there all week. In case you were wondering where half of the Pirates fans in the stadium came from, these might give you a good idea:
Friends, Cousins, Canadians, lend me your ears...
Ryan Doumit led off the 5th inning by striking out for the second time of the day, in front of his extended family. Poor guy. After that, the Pirates actually managed to chip into Felix for a bit. Xavier Nady hit a ball towards second, and Lopez charged it but the ball took a weird bounce and rather than him grabbing it, it rebounded off his legs, so Nady got an infield single. Jose Castillo singled cleanly to right, advancing Nady. Jumpin' Jack Wilson hit into a fielder's choice which he ran out and minorly escaped being a double play. With runners at first and third, Jose Bautista walked, but then Felix struck out Nate McLouth to end the bases-loaded threat. Despite all of this action, it only took him 22 pitches to get through that inning, putting him up to 60 through 5.
At this point the blonde girls behind me, who had been yelling "GOOOOO HERNANDEZ... COME ON HERNANDEZ, YOU CAN DO IT, SHOW US WHAT YOU'VE GOT, HERNANDEZ" and other various things all inning, started yelling "HEY CAMERAMAN, WE WANT TO BE ON TV", and so they ended up on the big screen. Immediately after that, they called their friends like "Are you watching the game? Were we on TV? We were on the board here! Were we on TV?" I almost turned around to point out that there'd be commercials on TV between innings, but didn't bother. It was kind of weird to me since I'm pretty sure I've rarely ever heard anyone yell anything other than "Go Felix" at the park, anyway.
Since the Pirates had a "big inning" in the top of the 5th, the Mariners had their "big inning" in the bottom of the 5th, only they were a bit more effective. Richie Sexson started off with a walk, and Vidro hit a fly out. Yuniesky Betancourt singled to left, and then so did Ichiro, scoring Richie. 1-0. Right when I was thinking that Jason Bay did a really good job fielding the ball and holding both Ichiro and Yuni to only one base on the play, Jose Lopez hit a shot to left field which took a really weird bounce off of the wall and so Jason Bay had to go chasing after it, and by the time he got the ball back in Lopez had managed a bases-clearing double. 3-0. Raul Ibanez walked after that, but Jose Guillen and Kenji Johjima both popped out after that to end the inning. Van Benschoten threw 35 pitches that inning alone, and was up to 95 through 5.
Freddy Sanchez hit a long fly ball to right which was caught by Jose Guillen in a dramatic running catch, and Jason Bay singled in-between Adam LaRoche and Ryan Doumit striking out (his third of the day, if you're counting). Masumi Kuwata started warming up in the bullpen during that inning, and when the Japanese people sitting one section over saw that on the board, they all started yelling excitedly in Japanese about it. Some of the non-blonde people behind me were like "What are they making such a big fuss about?" and I turned around like, "Do you know who Greg Maddux is?" They replied in the affirmative, and I said "Imagine if you were stuck in Japan for several years, and you were at a baseball game, and suddenly Greg Maddux was coming out to pitch. You'd be pretty excited too, wouldn't you?" "Well, yeah..." "That's about the equivalent of what's up with Kuwata. He's finishing up a long and illustrious career here."
Kuwata came out to pitch the bottom of the 6th, and he started out by striking out Adrian Beltre for his first MLB strikeout! After that, Richie Sexson grounded out, at which point Kuwata had thrown 9 pitches, all strikes. Jose Vidro hit the ball up the middle, and Jose Castillo made a diving stop, but couldn't get up in time to throw to first, so he flicked it to Jack Wilson, who made the throw, but it wasn't in time even to get Vidro. Kuwata struck out Betancourt after that, though, throwing 2 balls and 14 strikes on the inning.
What's funny is that I'd brought my Kendall #18 Pirates shirt with me, and right as Kuwata came out I realized it conveniently doubled as a Kuwata shirt, from the front at least, so I put it on during that inning, right as Betancourt was coming to the plate.
K is for Kuwata and that's good enough for me.
Felix set down the Pirates 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th. He was up to 91 pitches.
Ichiro led off the bottom of the 7th, and Kuwata struck him out swinging, which I'm sure caused about a hundred Japanese journalists to burst with joy over finally having their headlines for the evening. Jose Lopez also struck out, and then Raul Ibanez hit a buntish sort of ball that bounced towards the mound; Kuwata charged towards the baseline, scooped up the ball and threw it to Adam LaRoche who made the out. I know that Gold Gloves are mostly popularity contests in Japan as well, but there's a reason the guy won eight of them, and this showed it. Kuwata threw a total of 26 pitches in 2 innings and struck out 4. Not bad for an old rookie!
Freddy the DH Sanchez got a single in the top of the 8th but that was it for the Pirates in that inning. LaRoche's strikeout to end the inning brought the strikeout count up to 9. Felix threw 107 pitches through 8 innings.
Jonah Bayliss came in to pitch the bottom of the 8th, and despite his cool high socks and all, he was a little wild, though only Beltre managed a hit off him, a huge shot to dead center which missed clearing the fence by about 5 feet, and instead bounced in for a double. LL hero "Red" was shown on the scoreboard with his "I ♥ Beltre" poster. A wild pitch advanced Adrian to third, but Richie Sexson popped out to end the inning.
Putz in, game over. Jason Bay singled, much to the joy of the Trail BC clan, but Ryan Doumit struck out (for the FOURTH time, if you are counting, in front of all of his friends and family), and then Xavier Nady grounded into a really anticlimactic double play to end the game.
The scoreboard operators were running out of room to add K's.
You know what kind of sucks? They made such a big deal over how Ryan Doumit is Willie Bloomquist's cousin, and thus the Bloomquist-Doumit clans were out in force at the stadium cheering them on, but Willie basically only saw one inning of action for the whole Pirates series, as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning on Tuesday. I'm not necessarily arguing that Willie deserves more playing time, but I bet it was sort of disappointing for him and his family. Putting him in against the Pirates is at least a better bet than putting him in against a stronger team.
(I guess this is one time it's nice to figure that nobody actually reads these long game reports, because there's some unwritten rule in the blogosphere that you're not allowed to ever insinuate that Willie Bloomquist should get to play more.)
I kept my Kendall #18 shirt on while walking out of the park. I got to the bus stop at 1st and Union, where I waited for my bus back to Ballard, and an older guy says to me, "Now, see, to me number 18 is Andy Van Slyke," and I'm like "Heh, well, that's slightly before my time, I moved to Pittsburgh in the 90's," and we get into a conversation about the Pirates of the 90's, and it actually comes out that he was originally also from Philly, and was a kid back in 1964, and was even at the game that Bunning lost to drop the Phillies out of first place, and it turns out we were both at a game of the 1983 World Series, and we talked some about the Pirates-Braves debacles of 91 and 92, and the Phillies in 93, and then my bus showed up.
I get on the bus and I hear some guy saying something about "that loser Kendall", and I'm like "What?" and it turns out the guy's from near Torrance and says he played baseball for some rival high school when Kendall was there. Strange world.
In case anyone's counting, not that I am, of course, the Mariners are now 11-4 with an ERA of 2.60 in games I've attended. No, I'm not making that up.
I don't expect to go to any of the Reds games this weekend; I'm not really part of Griffeymania, and I'm a little burnt out after going to three games in a row this week. We'll see.
I didn't bother getting to this game all that early, basically arriving at the end of Pirates batting practice. I got Jose Castillo to sign my ticket and once more failed to get Masumi Kuwata. Jason Bay was out again continuing to be the nicest guy on the planet.
A semi-stupid thing happened: while waiting in my usual spot in section 148 for the pitchers to come out and do long tosses, I got stopped by an usher. Most of the ushers recognize me and my camera by now and know that I have a 16-game ticket plan in section 143, and I always move to my seat by game time, but this guy actually wanted to see my ticket and was going to kick me out of the section... and unfortunately, this time my actual ticket was in the upper deck. For some reason, I never seem to get asked for my ticket when I actually have one in Field, and do get asked for it on the rare times when I don't. I told him I was just going to take pictures and would leave by 6:50, but then John Van Benschoten ended up throwing towards the field instead of the stands anyway, so I just got up and wandered down to the bullpen. The Mariners' side of the bullpen was horrendously crowded for the Felix, so I went over to the bullpen pub instead, and this is what I saw:
Through the Looking Glass, or is that a Doughnut Hole?
John Van Benschoten is one of those guys you've probably heard of if you follow the Pirates minor leagues, mostly for being what Chris Snelling would be like if he was a pitcher, since he's spent most of his time having reconstructive surgeries done on his shoulders and rehabbing from them. Once upon a time, though, he was a first-round draft pick, back when I was still living in Pittsburgh and didn't really pay attention to the draft. Hopefully he'll manage to accomplish something at the major league level before he gets traded to some other team and becomes awesome, which is the typical fate for Pirates players.
Much like the rest of the charming young men playing for the
Pirates these days, this guy looks too nice to defeat you.
I didn't even spend that much time in the bullpen, going up to the 300 level during the national anthem. I bought garlic-free chicken tenders and fries from Grounders, which was a patently bad idea -- I think they sort of depend on the overwhelming garlic to distract patrons from noticing that the chicken strips are dry and tasteless while the fries are soggy. Blech. I think next time I try a food experiment at Safeco, I'll go for the Mexican food, which I've been curious about but not adventurous enough to try yet.
I was sitting in row 9 in section 329, with a gigantic family all sitting to my left and a bunch of loud blonde girls sitting in the row behind me. One section over there were a few people with Pirates hats in row 9, and a whole bunch of loud Japanese people in row 11. I wasn't actually wearing a Pirates shirt at this point, since it was too hot out to wear two shirts. I just sat there quietly with my scorecard, watching the game unfold. Sometimes I wonder why I go to the park now that I have cable at home and can actually watch the game on TV; though I was right behind home plate, I was way too far up to get any sense for how Felix was pitching besides just watching the batters and some of the radar gun readings.
The Pirates went down 1-2-3 in the first inning on 6 pitches. The scoreboard informed us that we could get "Griffey Returns" commemorative baseballs for $100 starting at 10am Friday in the team store, autographed by Griffey, with proceeds going to Children's Hospital.
The Mariners also went down 1-2-3 in their half of the first inning, though it took 20 pitches, with at least 10 of them being taken by Jose Lopez, who fouled off a bazillion pitches, including one which bounced in a large section of empty seats in left, and ended up back on the field, much to Jason Bay's surprise.
The Pirates also went down 1-2-3 in the top of the second, this time on 9 pitches, Ryan Doumit striking out for his first time of the evening. After the inning, they had a salute to the US Army up on the board and had all past and present Army members stand up and be applauded.
Jose Guillen led off the second with a single, and even got to second on a Beltre groundout that was executed a bit like a hit-and-run, since it would have been an easy double play otherwise, but he was stranded there.
In the top of the third, the Pirates finally got a hit when Jack Wilson hit a ball that hooked fair, then ended up in the corner along the foul line, for a double. The rest of the inning was outs and still only took 7 more pitches for a total of 22 through 3.
Ichiro, wearing high socks, had the sole Mariners hit in the third, a double to left. In comparison, Van Benschoten threw 49 pitches through three innings.
Nate McLouth led off the top of the fourth with a single and was advanced by a Freddy Sanchez groundout, but Felix struck out Adam LaRoche and Jason Bay after that, this inning taking 16 pitches. After that half of the inning, they played yet another Quick Flix spotlight on Ken Griffey Jr, eliciting more cheers from people who actually lived here in the 90's.
Kenji Johjima, NOT wearing high socks, had the sole Mariners hit in the fourth, a single up the middle. After the fourth inning, they showed Today's Groups up on the scoreboard, and I finally remembered to take pictures of a few choice ones that had been there all week. In case you were wondering where half of the Pirates fans in the stadium came from, these might give you a good idea:
Friends, Cousins, Canadians, lend me your ears...
Ryan Doumit led off the 5th inning by striking out for the second time of the day, in front of his extended family. Poor guy. After that, the Pirates actually managed to chip into Felix for a bit. Xavier Nady hit a ball towards second, and Lopez charged it but the ball took a weird bounce and rather than him grabbing it, it rebounded off his legs, so Nady got an infield single. Jose Castillo singled cleanly to right, advancing Nady. Jumpin' Jack Wilson hit into a fielder's choice which he ran out and minorly escaped being a double play. With runners at first and third, Jose Bautista walked, but then Felix struck out Nate McLouth to end the bases-loaded threat. Despite all of this action, it only took him 22 pitches to get through that inning, putting him up to 60 through 5.
At this point the blonde girls behind me, who had been yelling "GOOOOO HERNANDEZ... COME ON HERNANDEZ, YOU CAN DO IT, SHOW US WHAT YOU'VE GOT, HERNANDEZ" and other various things all inning, started yelling "HEY CAMERAMAN, WE WANT TO BE ON TV", and so they ended up on the big screen. Immediately after that, they called their friends like "Are you watching the game? Were we on TV? We were on the board here! Were we on TV?" I almost turned around to point out that there'd be commercials on TV between innings, but didn't bother. It was kind of weird to me since I'm pretty sure I've rarely ever heard anyone yell anything other than "Go Felix" at the park, anyway.
Since the Pirates had a "big inning" in the top of the 5th, the Mariners had their "big inning" in the bottom of the 5th, only they were a bit more effective. Richie Sexson started off with a walk, and Vidro hit a fly out. Yuniesky Betancourt singled to left, and then so did Ichiro, scoring Richie. 1-0. Right when I was thinking that Jason Bay did a really good job fielding the ball and holding both Ichiro and Yuni to only one base on the play, Jose Lopez hit a shot to left field which took a really weird bounce off of the wall and so Jason Bay had to go chasing after it, and by the time he got the ball back in Lopez had managed a bases-clearing double. 3-0. Raul Ibanez walked after that, but Jose Guillen and Kenji Johjima both popped out after that to end the inning. Van Benschoten threw 35 pitches that inning alone, and was up to 95 through 5.
Freddy Sanchez hit a long fly ball to right which was caught by Jose Guillen in a dramatic running catch, and Jason Bay singled in-between Adam LaRoche and Ryan Doumit striking out (his third of the day, if you're counting). Masumi Kuwata started warming up in the bullpen during that inning, and when the Japanese people sitting one section over saw that on the board, they all started yelling excitedly in Japanese about it. Some of the non-blonde people behind me were like "What are they making such a big fuss about?" and I turned around like, "Do you know who Greg Maddux is?" They replied in the affirmative, and I said "Imagine if you were stuck in Japan for several years, and you were at a baseball game, and suddenly Greg Maddux was coming out to pitch. You'd be pretty excited too, wouldn't you?" "Well, yeah..." "That's about the equivalent of what's up with Kuwata. He's finishing up a long and illustrious career here."
Kuwata came out to pitch the bottom of the 6th, and he started out by striking out Adrian Beltre for his first MLB strikeout! After that, Richie Sexson grounded out, at which point Kuwata had thrown 9 pitches, all strikes. Jose Vidro hit the ball up the middle, and Jose Castillo made a diving stop, but couldn't get up in time to throw to first, so he flicked it to Jack Wilson, who made the throw, but it wasn't in time even to get Vidro. Kuwata struck out Betancourt after that, though, throwing 2 balls and 14 strikes on the inning.
What's funny is that I'd brought my Kendall #18 Pirates shirt with me, and right as Kuwata came out I realized it conveniently doubled as a Kuwata shirt, from the front at least, so I put it on during that inning, right as Betancourt was coming to the plate.
K is for Kuwata and that's good enough for me.
Felix set down the Pirates 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th. He was up to 91 pitches.
Ichiro led off the bottom of the 7th, and Kuwata struck him out swinging, which I'm sure caused about a hundred Japanese journalists to burst with joy over finally having their headlines for the evening. Jose Lopez also struck out, and then Raul Ibanez hit a buntish sort of ball that bounced towards the mound; Kuwata charged towards the baseline, scooped up the ball and threw it to Adam LaRoche who made the out. I know that Gold Gloves are mostly popularity contests in Japan as well, but there's a reason the guy won eight of them, and this showed it. Kuwata threw a total of 26 pitches in 2 innings and struck out 4. Not bad for an old rookie!
Freddy the DH Sanchez got a single in the top of the 8th but that was it for the Pirates in that inning. LaRoche's strikeout to end the inning brought the strikeout count up to 9. Felix threw 107 pitches through 8 innings.
Jonah Bayliss came in to pitch the bottom of the 8th, and despite his cool high socks and all, he was a little wild, though only Beltre managed a hit off him, a huge shot to dead center which missed clearing the fence by about 5 feet, and instead bounced in for a double. LL hero "Red" was shown on the scoreboard with his "I ♥ Beltre" poster. A wild pitch advanced Adrian to third, but Richie Sexson popped out to end the inning.
Putz in, game over. Jason Bay singled, much to the joy of the Trail BC clan, but Ryan Doumit struck out (for the FOURTH time, if you are counting, in front of all of his friends and family), and then Xavier Nady grounded into a really anticlimactic double play to end the game.
The scoreboard operators were running out of room to add K's.
You know what kind of sucks? They made such a big deal over how Ryan Doumit is Willie Bloomquist's cousin, and thus the Bloomquist-Doumit clans were out in force at the stadium cheering them on, but Willie basically only saw one inning of action for the whole Pirates series, as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning on Tuesday. I'm not necessarily arguing that Willie deserves more playing time, but I bet it was sort of disappointing for him and his family. Putting him in against the Pirates is at least a better bet than putting him in against a stronger team.
(I guess this is one time it's nice to figure that nobody actually reads these long game reports, because there's some unwritten rule in the blogosphere that you're not allowed to ever insinuate that Willie Bloomquist should get to play more.)
I kept my Kendall #18 shirt on while walking out of the park. I got to the bus stop at 1st and Union, where I waited for my bus back to Ballard, and an older guy says to me, "Now, see, to me number 18 is Andy Van Slyke," and I'm like "Heh, well, that's slightly before my time, I moved to Pittsburgh in the 90's," and we get into a conversation about the Pirates of the 90's, and it actually comes out that he was originally also from Philly, and was a kid back in 1964, and was even at the game that Bunning lost to drop the Phillies out of first place, and it turns out we were both at a game of the 1983 World Series, and we talked some about the Pirates-Braves debacles of 91 and 92, and the Phillies in 93, and then my bus showed up.
I get on the bus and I hear some guy saying something about "that loser Kendall", and I'm like "What?" and it turns out the guy's from near Torrance and says he played baseball for some rival high school when Kendall was there. Strange world.
In case anyone's counting, not that I am, of course, the Mariners are now 11-4 with an ERA of 2.60 in games I've attended. No, I'm not making that up.
I don't expect to go to any of the Reds games this weekend; I'm not really part of Griffeymania, and I'm a little burnt out after going to three games in a row this week. We'll see.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Game Report: Mariners vs. Pirates - Leave it to... Weaver?
In lieu of a "short version" recap, since the game really was amazingly short, I'll just mention several awesome things about this game:
1) Kenji Johjima wore high socks
2) Jason Bay complimented my photography, proving he is the nicest guy on the planet
3) Ian Snell said his hand is fine
4) Richie Sexson hit a home run into the left-field bleachers
5) Raul Ibanez hit a home run INTO THE HIT IT HERE CAFE
6) Oh, and uh... Jeff Weaver got his first win as a Mariner. A complete-game shutout. Where the heck did THAT come from?
There was something pretty odd while watching warmups. Weaver and Maholm have both sort of sucked this year, and they also both sort of have about the same pitching repertoire. But did you know that they even both wear the exact same glove model by Rawlings? I only noticed this afterwards while looking at pictures, that the lefty-righty mirror image might have been even more uncanny than I realized:
Maybe two pitchers wearing the same model glove meeting each other is like two
wizards with the same wand core in Harry Potter, see. One's got to give.
I think that explains everything. One or the other of these two was going to pitch a complete game shutout today, and the Mariners happened to luck out in that it was Jeff Weaver.
I got to the game pretty early again, wearing my Bay #38 shirt. I managed to find the Say Bay Eh? group down by the front row, and I decided that there was no way I'd miss Jason Bay if he came out to sign stuff again, because that would make me sad. I'd actually printed out on photo paper a few pictures I took on Tuesday; namely the Kuwata and Bay ones, hoping to get them signed.
So we watched Freddy and Jason and Doughnut take batting practice. Some guy tells me that Brandon Morrow is signing stuff over on the Mariners side. I go over and look; I get halfway there and realize that it's actually Willie Bloomquist. I wonder if the guy was pulling a prank or just honestly didn't know. Pretty funny either way.
I go back and stand amidst the Jason Bay fans. We've actually got a pretty large contingent of crazy people wearing Bay jerseys and shirts, holding up various signs.
This is the kind of new math they teach in Pittsburgh nowadays.
Jason eventually finishes up his batting practice and sees the huge group of fans there. I half-expect him to get scared and run away, but no, he comes over with a huge smile and just starts signing things and shaking hands and posing for pictures and talking to kids. Now, I've observed a whole lot of teams in batting practice before, and usually the biggest star on a team is going to be the hardest one to get to sign stuff, or will seem impatient with fans and all. But no, the reputation Bay has as being one of the nicest guys in baseball is for real. Maybe it's just because he's a local guy (lives in Kirkland, grew up in BC, went to Gonzaga), but I swear he stayed for at least 10 minutes going down the line talking to people.
When he came to me, I had just lent my pen to a little kid to get their glove signed as usual, and then I got Jason to sign my picture.
Me: Can you sign this picture of mine?
JB: Sure. This is a really nice shot! Did you take this?
Me: [babbling] Yeah, I took it of you during warmups yesterday, actually, and printed it up...
JB: [smiles] Wow, that's a quick turnaround!
Me: Thanks so much, Jason! Good luck today!
I get out of the way and step up a few rows waving the picture to let it dry, and I've got this gigantic grin on my face like "Jason Bay just complimented my photography! Holy crap!" Yeah, I'm a dork, and I'm sure he was just being nice, but that made my day. Seriously. I've been a Jason Bay fan for several years and had never met him at PNC Park, so this was pretty special.
This actually helped me a lot when Kuwata came over to sign stuff and yet again he just stayed in one spot so the only way to get to him would have been to elbow into the big throng of people and thrust stuff at him, and I just don't do that. I was sad, but then as I replaced the picture in my scorecard I saw the Jason Bay picture again and started grinning like an idiot.
Ian Snell was over by the dugout signing things so I got him to sign my ticket. After he threw it back I called out, "How's your hand? Are you okay now?" and he just said "don't worry, it's fine." In my brain I was yelling "THEN WHY WERE YOU NOT PITCHING HERE IN SEATTLE, YOU MADE ME SAD", but outwardly I just said "Thanks Ian," and walked off.
Oh, and speaking of "by the dugout", here is a picture I took of Ryan Doumit. Does he look like Chris Snelling or what?
I may have to start calling him Doylenut instead of Doughnut.
I watched Maholm and Weaver warm up, as I mentioned. It seems that in the last few days, rather than doing long tossing out by the bullpen in center field, the Mariners starters are now doing long tossing over on the grass by first base, nearer to the dugout and the stands, which is why the opposing pitchers have been warming up in center field. Maybe they've seen me taking pictures over by the foul pole and are now on to me, and that's why they moved over. Hmm.
An usher actually came up to me and was like "Are you sitting here?" and I explain that I have a ticket for Field, but not here, I'll move over after the warmups are done, really, and he's like "Oh, no, that's not why I'm asking. If you really ARE sitting here, I have to explain to you all of the rules about interfering with balls in play. Are you aware of them?" and I'm like "Oh! Actually, yes, I know the rules, but I'm not staying here during the game, honest, so don't worry about me."
The Mariners' side of the bullpen has really become the place to be for both current relievers and DL'ed relievers, I think. I swear I saw Chris Reitsma, Jon Huber, Arthur Rhodes, and even Mark Lowe hanging out there. I took a few pictures there too, but then Brandon Morrow spied me and my Pirates shirt and actually pointed at me and shouted something, so I ran off. Oh, and Eric O'Flaherty carried the pink backpack to the bullpen, if anyone's counting.
The Pirates relievers are sadly nowhere near as interesting.
Bobby Cuellar probably wishes he was a Mariners coach again.
So yeah, there was a game. Freddy Sanchez, in case you are wondering, is pretty good. Infact, when you think about it, the Pirates actually do have several good players, and one wonders why they lose so much. It's probably due to the pitching; the four guys who have started most of their games average 24.5 years old and are mostly left-handed. On the hitting side, Adam LaRoche has been pretty bad this year relatively, and Xavier Nady still can't hit righties. Jason Bay has been down a little from his normal awesomeness but is still pretty awesome, and Ryan Doumit has been hitting more like a catcher ever since he started getting a lot of playing time at that position, but yeah, in general, it's not like this lineup is regularly starting a whole bunch of .150 hitters like certain other teams I could name.
Which of course, makes it all the funnier that they were four-hit by Jeff Weaver, I guess.
But yeah, since there's not much to talk about on the Pirates offense for the evening, let me give props to Freddy for getting two hits when nobody else could muster any aside from the 8th and 9th hitters, Ronny Paulino and Jack "You can't bench Jumpin' Jack Flash" Wilson. And Jumpin' Jack Flash got himself picked off first base, too.
The Mariners, on the other hand, started laying into Paul Maholm in the second inning. Johjima singled to third, kind of, and Bautista made a crappy throw that bounced off into the stands, so Johjima took second. He faked a steal or two, and then Adrian Beltre singled to left. Johjima ran home on that, and the ball got away from Paulino at the plate, so Beltre kept running. Adam LaRoche had come around to back up the play, so he got the ball and threw it to third, where Jack Wilson was covering, but Beltre slid in safe and Wilson didn't get the ball anyway. Bautista was backing up the play though, and so that's all that happened. I marked it down as Beltre taking third on a 7-2-3-6 play.
I also couldn't help but notice that Johjima was rockin' the high socks. When he was at-bat I couldn't quite tell because he had a shin guard on, but then standing at second it became a lot more obvious. And then when he ran home he looked just like Ichiro in a flurry of dirt!
Johjima slides into home plate with his high socks for the first Mariner run.
Ichiro wanted to score a run too, so when he singled in the 3rd inning, he ran to second on a wild pitch, immediately stole third, and then was able to score on a Lopez groundout. Ibanez added another run that inning to make it 4-0, and when Richie Sexson slammed a funk blast into the leftfield bleachers to lead off the 4th inning, that made it 5-0.
The music trivia of the day was Flashdance, by Irene Cara, which I immediately got (and the year, 1983 -- which isn't hard to remember if you know when the movie came out). So they ask who won the World Series that year and I very bitterly say, "Baltimore ORIOLES," and the lady in front of me is like "Sounds like you really know that one, huh?" and I explain that it was the only World Series I ever got to go to.
In the meantime, the people behind me have been talking about Jeff Weaver the whole game, saying how sucky he is, things like "Give me 8 million dollars and I'll go out there and be that bad too," and such. Suddenly, it dawns on them that Weaver hasn't actually given up a run yet.
The top of the fifth starts, and one guy's like "So do you think today it'll happen? Jeff Weaver's first win of the year?"
I turn around like "Hey, do you guys think it'll happen right now? Jeff Weaver's first strikeout of the game?"
About 10 seconds later Xavier "I can't hit righties, even bad ones" Nady struck out. And then Paulino whiffs two batters later. And then somehow Jeff Weaver goes on to get 5 strikeouts in the last 9 innings and get that complete-game shutout after all, getting through most innings 1-2-3, allowing 6 runners all game.
And despite the Mariners getting hits, Paul Maholm actually works fairly fast and there's only one pitching change for the Pirates, when Danny Kolb comes out for the eighth, and Raul Ibanez launches that aforementioned monster of a home run which actually goes into the finally-aptly-named Hit it Here Cafe. The 7th inning stretch started at 8:44pm and the entire game is over at 9:20pm.
Jeff Weaver got a standing ovation when he left the mound in the 8th and an even bigger one when he came out to pitch the ninth, with strains of "Stayin' Alive" playing in the background. Despite that I'm sitting there in a Pirates shirt and cap, I've got this dorky grin on my face as I'm watching Jeff Weaver actually finish out the game, and I even stood up for the last out as I usually do, thinking how ironic it is that I had been joking that my winning record at Mariners games (now up to 10-4!) was mostly due to having skipped all of Weaver's starts. The board briefly flashes "Leave it to Weaver" and they play "Dream Weaver" as well as Mariners are high-fiving on the field. I'm sure the scoreboard folks have been waiting ALL YEAR to use that!
Afterwards one person, the lone female in the group sitting behind me, is like "Why were you guys saying Weaver was so bad, if he just pitched a whole game shutout? Was that really his first win?"
I'm packing up my scorecard and camera and I look up and remark, "It's 9:20 now? I think this is the first time this season he's left the mound with an ERA lower than the time."
"...oh."
1) Kenji Johjima wore high socks
2) Jason Bay complimented my photography, proving he is the nicest guy on the planet
3) Ian Snell said his hand is fine
4) Richie Sexson hit a home run into the left-field bleachers
5) Raul Ibanez hit a home run INTO THE HIT IT HERE CAFE
6) Oh, and uh... Jeff Weaver got his first win as a Mariner. A complete-game shutout. Where the heck did THAT come from?
There was something pretty odd while watching warmups. Weaver and Maholm have both sort of sucked this year, and they also both sort of have about the same pitching repertoire. But did you know that they even both wear the exact same glove model by Rawlings? I only noticed this afterwards while looking at pictures, that the lefty-righty mirror image might have been even more uncanny than I realized:
Maybe two pitchers wearing the same model glove meeting each other is like two
wizards with the same wand core in Harry Potter, see. One's got to give.
I think that explains everything. One or the other of these two was going to pitch a complete game shutout today, and the Mariners happened to luck out in that it was Jeff Weaver.
I got to the game pretty early again, wearing my Bay #38 shirt. I managed to find the Say Bay Eh? group down by the front row, and I decided that there was no way I'd miss Jason Bay if he came out to sign stuff again, because that would make me sad. I'd actually printed out on photo paper a few pictures I took on Tuesday; namely the Kuwata and Bay ones, hoping to get them signed.
So we watched Freddy and Jason and Doughnut take batting practice. Some guy tells me that Brandon Morrow is signing stuff over on the Mariners side. I go over and look; I get halfway there and realize that it's actually Willie Bloomquist. I wonder if the guy was pulling a prank or just honestly didn't know. Pretty funny either way.
I go back and stand amidst the Jason Bay fans. We've actually got a pretty large contingent of crazy people wearing Bay jerseys and shirts, holding up various signs.
This is the kind of new math they teach in Pittsburgh nowadays.
Jason eventually finishes up his batting practice and sees the huge group of fans there. I half-expect him to get scared and run away, but no, he comes over with a huge smile and just starts signing things and shaking hands and posing for pictures and talking to kids. Now, I've observed a whole lot of teams in batting practice before, and usually the biggest star on a team is going to be the hardest one to get to sign stuff, or will seem impatient with fans and all. But no, the reputation Bay has as being one of the nicest guys in baseball is for real. Maybe it's just because he's a local guy (lives in Kirkland, grew up in BC, went to Gonzaga), but I swear he stayed for at least 10 minutes going down the line talking to people.
When he came to me, I had just lent my pen to a little kid to get their glove signed as usual, and then I got Jason to sign my picture.
Me: Can you sign this picture of mine?
JB: Sure. This is a really nice shot! Did you take this?
Me: [babbling] Yeah, I took it of you during warmups yesterday, actually, and printed it up...
JB: [smiles] Wow, that's a quick turnaround!
Me: Thanks so much, Jason! Good luck today!
I get out of the way and step up a few rows waving the picture to let it dry, and I've got this gigantic grin on my face like "Jason Bay just complimented my photography! Holy crap!" Yeah, I'm a dork, and I'm sure he was just being nice, but that made my day. Seriously. I've been a Jason Bay fan for several years and had never met him at PNC Park, so this was pretty special.
This actually helped me a lot when Kuwata came over to sign stuff and yet again he just stayed in one spot so the only way to get to him would have been to elbow into the big throng of people and thrust stuff at him, and I just don't do that. I was sad, but then as I replaced the picture in my scorecard I saw the Jason Bay picture again and started grinning like an idiot.
Ian Snell was over by the dugout signing things so I got him to sign my ticket. After he threw it back I called out, "How's your hand? Are you okay now?" and he just said "don't worry, it's fine." In my brain I was yelling "THEN WHY WERE YOU NOT PITCHING HERE IN SEATTLE, YOU MADE ME SAD", but outwardly I just said "Thanks Ian," and walked off.
Oh, and speaking of "by the dugout", here is a picture I took of Ryan Doumit. Does he look like Chris Snelling or what?
I may have to start calling him Doylenut instead of Doughnut.
I watched Maholm and Weaver warm up, as I mentioned. It seems that in the last few days, rather than doing long tossing out by the bullpen in center field, the Mariners starters are now doing long tossing over on the grass by first base, nearer to the dugout and the stands, which is why the opposing pitchers have been warming up in center field. Maybe they've seen me taking pictures over by the foul pole and are now on to me, and that's why they moved over. Hmm.
An usher actually came up to me and was like "Are you sitting here?" and I explain that I have a ticket for Field, but not here, I'll move over after the warmups are done, really, and he's like "Oh, no, that's not why I'm asking. If you really ARE sitting here, I have to explain to you all of the rules about interfering with balls in play. Are you aware of them?" and I'm like "Oh! Actually, yes, I know the rules, but I'm not staying here during the game, honest, so don't worry about me."
The Mariners' side of the bullpen has really become the place to be for both current relievers and DL'ed relievers, I think. I swear I saw Chris Reitsma, Jon Huber, Arthur Rhodes, and even Mark Lowe hanging out there. I took a few pictures there too, but then Brandon Morrow spied me and my Pirates shirt and actually pointed at me and shouted something, so I ran off. Oh, and Eric O'Flaherty carried the pink backpack to the bullpen, if anyone's counting.
The Pirates relievers are sadly nowhere near as interesting.
Bobby Cuellar probably wishes he was a Mariners coach again.
So yeah, there was a game. Freddy Sanchez, in case you are wondering, is pretty good. Infact, when you think about it, the Pirates actually do have several good players, and one wonders why they lose so much. It's probably due to the pitching; the four guys who have started most of their games average 24.5 years old and are mostly left-handed. On the hitting side, Adam LaRoche has been pretty bad this year relatively, and Xavier Nady still can't hit righties. Jason Bay has been down a little from his normal awesomeness but is still pretty awesome, and Ryan Doumit has been hitting more like a catcher ever since he started getting a lot of playing time at that position, but yeah, in general, it's not like this lineup is regularly starting a whole bunch of .150 hitters like certain other teams I could name.
Which of course, makes it all the funnier that they were four-hit by Jeff Weaver, I guess.
But yeah, since there's not much to talk about on the Pirates offense for the evening, let me give props to Freddy for getting two hits when nobody else could muster any aside from the 8th and 9th hitters, Ronny Paulino and Jack "You can't bench Jumpin' Jack Flash" Wilson. And Jumpin' Jack Flash got himself picked off first base, too.
The Mariners, on the other hand, started laying into Paul Maholm in the second inning. Johjima singled to third, kind of, and Bautista made a crappy throw that bounced off into the stands, so Johjima took second. He faked a steal or two, and then Adrian Beltre singled to left. Johjima ran home on that, and the ball got away from Paulino at the plate, so Beltre kept running. Adam LaRoche had come around to back up the play, so he got the ball and threw it to third, where Jack Wilson was covering, but Beltre slid in safe and Wilson didn't get the ball anyway. Bautista was backing up the play though, and so that's all that happened. I marked it down as Beltre taking third on a 7-2-3-6 play.
I also couldn't help but notice that Johjima was rockin' the high socks. When he was at-bat I couldn't quite tell because he had a shin guard on, but then standing at second it became a lot more obvious. And then when he ran home he looked just like Ichiro in a flurry of dirt!
Johjima slides into home plate with his high socks for the first Mariner run.
Ichiro wanted to score a run too, so when he singled in the 3rd inning, he ran to second on a wild pitch, immediately stole third, and then was able to score on a Lopez groundout. Ibanez added another run that inning to make it 4-0, and when Richie Sexson slammed a funk blast into the leftfield bleachers to lead off the 4th inning, that made it 5-0.
The music trivia of the day was Flashdance, by Irene Cara, which I immediately got (and the year, 1983 -- which isn't hard to remember if you know when the movie came out). So they ask who won the World Series that year and I very bitterly say, "Baltimore ORIOLES," and the lady in front of me is like "Sounds like you really know that one, huh?" and I explain that it was the only World Series I ever got to go to.
In the meantime, the people behind me have been talking about Jeff Weaver the whole game, saying how sucky he is, things like "Give me 8 million dollars and I'll go out there and be that bad too," and such. Suddenly, it dawns on them that Weaver hasn't actually given up a run yet.
The top of the fifth starts, and one guy's like "So do you think today it'll happen? Jeff Weaver's first win of the year?"
I turn around like "Hey, do you guys think it'll happen right now? Jeff Weaver's first strikeout of the game?"
About 10 seconds later Xavier "I can't hit righties, even bad ones" Nady struck out. And then Paulino whiffs two batters later. And then somehow Jeff Weaver goes on to get 5 strikeouts in the last 9 innings and get that complete-game shutout after all, getting through most innings 1-2-3, allowing 6 runners all game.
And despite the Mariners getting hits, Paul Maholm actually works fairly fast and there's only one pitching change for the Pirates, when Danny Kolb comes out for the eighth, and Raul Ibanez launches that aforementioned monster of a home run which actually goes into the finally-aptly-named Hit it Here Cafe. The 7th inning stretch started at 8:44pm and the entire game is over at 9:20pm.
Jeff Weaver got a standing ovation when he left the mound in the 8th and an even bigger one when he came out to pitch the ninth, with strains of "Stayin' Alive" playing in the background. Despite that I'm sitting there in a Pirates shirt and cap, I've got this dorky grin on my face as I'm watching Jeff Weaver actually finish out the game, and I even stood up for the last out as I usually do, thinking how ironic it is that I had been joking that my winning record at Mariners games (now up to 10-4!) was mostly due to having skipped all of Weaver's starts. The board briefly flashes "Leave it to Weaver" and they play "Dream Weaver" as well as Mariners are high-fiving on the field. I'm sure the scoreboard folks have been waiting ALL YEAR to use that!
Afterwards one person, the lone female in the group sitting behind me, is like "Why were you guys saying Weaver was so bad, if he just pitched a whole game shutout? Was that really his first win?"
I'm packing up my scorecard and camera and I look up and remark, "It's 9:20 now? I think this is the first time this season he's left the mound with an ERA lower than the time."
"...oh."
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Game Report: Mariners vs. Pirates - Dunkin' Doumit
I spent several years living in Pittsburgh, before I moved to Seattle, and man, did the Pirates suck when I was there. People here talk about 2001 with a tone of wistful awe, and I think of 2001 as the year we got that amazing new stadium and then proceeded to lose 100 games in it.
Either way, last night my college (Carnegie Mellon) had organized an alumni event at Safeco, and despite that I had a feeling it wasn't going to be a very good alumni event (it wasn't), they'd gotten a block of 40 tickets in Field Seating, and I couldn't really turn down a $24 ticket to sit in a $38 area -- especially since at the time I thought Ian Snell was pitching, but then he had to go burn his hand grilling over the weekend.
I showed up around 5:50pm, wearing my red Sunday Pirates shirt, with a big Sanchez #12 on the back, carrying my camera. I started running around taking pictures immediately, of course, watching some batting practice, watching the relief pitchers warming up, etc. There was a SURPRISING number of Pirates shirts around, mostly Bay #38, but also a lot of Clementes, and even a couple of Doumits.
This isn't such a weird thing when you realize that Ryan Doumit is from Moses Lake, is Willie Bloomquist's cousin, and grew up watching the Mariners in the Kingdome and was a gigantic Buhner fan. Jason Bay lives in Kirkland, is from Trail BC, and went to Gonzaga. Both of these guys had huge groups of family and friends at the stadium for the game apparently (I am pretty sure I saw part of the Doumit-Bloomquist family by the dugout, and in left field there was a huge section of fans with signs like "Trail BC Loves Jason Bay", "Say Bay, Eh?" and such).
I was standing with a whole bunch of people along the left field line when the relief pitchers came by to do some running, and about five of us spotted a particular Japanese pitcher and all shouted "KUWATA!!! GANBARE!!!!" at about the same time. I doubt he was all that surprised at the number of Japanese fans in the stadium, but he looked up and smiled and waved at all of us.
Masumi Kuwata
That was pretty cool. It had occurred to me a few days ago that the Pirates pretty much called him up just in time to face the AL teams with Japanese players on them. Given the big deal that the media made over Kuwata chatting with Ichiro after BP, or just the sheer number of Japanese fans that were there watching him warm up, I think it was a good call on their part, regardless of whether it was done deliberately.
Conveniently, Jim Colborn is currently a pitching coach for the Pirates, and he used to be the Japan scout for the Mariners, and supposedly speaks fluent Japanese. (Reportedly, Kuwata's English is really good, though I haven't actually heard him speak.)
After BP, three Pirates came over to sign stuff. I didn't even catch who one of them was because I was more interested in trying to get Kuwata, who was one of the others. Chris Duffy was the third. Sadly, Kuwata signed for a while, but he never actually moved down the wall, he just stood there and so people kept coming up and pushing in and shoving stuff out to be signed, and those of us who waited patiently for a while got screwed. I was standing with a guy with an oldskool Yomiuri jersey, a lady with a Japanese autograph paperboard, and a guy with a "桑田がんばれ" sign. Alas. Kuwata ran off, apologizing as he went, "gomen ne, gomen ne". Duffy, on the other hand, was having a long conversation with some guys in the stands, so I ended up getting his autograph instead.
桑田さん,これをサインお願いします...
Chris Duffy!
The odd part was when some guy got Duffy to sign a Freddy Sanchez card. No, I'm not making that up. I wonder if it was the only Pirates card he had.
A little while after that I saw a few people who were there for the alumni event, but I was wearing my big camera and running off towards the field corner, so I didn't stick around. I ran into Bretticus, who had put a "Free Adam Jones" sign up in left field. And then I sat around watching Tom Gorzelanny warm up. Sadly, unlike most visiting pitchers, who pitch towards the infield stands during warmup, Gorzelanny threw towards the outfield, mostly doing long tosses. I'm not even sure I saw Miguel Batista warming up at all on the field before the bullpen, and maybe that's why.
Tom Gorzelanny, one of the Pirates' many lefty starters
I took more pictures and then I finally went to sit up with the CMU group. I really thought it wasn't such a great idea for an alumni networking event, and if they were going to do it as such, they should have either gotten seats in the upper deck where it's okay to goof around and switch seats, or maybe gotten the beer garden, or something like that. But no, we were in Field on the third-base side because the lady in the alumni office at CMU insisted that "it's where foul balls go". I didn't even bother trying to explain how where foul balls go mostly depends on the handedness of the pitcher, but whatever.
The group was about half people who graduated in 2006-2007, and then a couple of us people who graduated several years before that. As a result, I don't think anyone actually talked to anyone who they didn't already know. I pretty much spent the whole time talking to two of my friends who sat next to me, and to another friend and his family who were sitting behind us.
So, we were all cheering for the Pirates, due to the Pittsburgh connection.
Surprisingly, so was a lot of the rest of the stadium, relatively.
The Trail BC Jason Bay fan club was sitting in left field. Unfortunately for them, Jason Bay was DHing, and so they were treated to an evening of Xavier Nady fielding instead.
In the left-field bleachers, I saw a whole bunch of guys in Steelers jerseys waving Terrible Towels. That was pretty funny. In our section we saw a few more Steelers jerseys, even a Roethlisberger. I swear that I don't even remember seeing that many Phillies fans out when the Phillies were here two years ago, honestly.
Also, while I don't think this was the first time they've played it before a game, it was particularly ironic that they were playing the Pirates of the Caribbean music in the time space between the national anthem and the game beginning.
Oh, so the game. The Pirates mauled Miguel Batista in the first inning. Batista struck out Bautista (heh), but then Nate McLouth reached base on a fielding error by Richie Sexson. Freddy Sanchez popped out foul to Beltre, and then Adam LaRoche, who hasn't been hitting significantly better than Richie Sexson, singled to right to bring in McLouth. 1-0. Jason Bay singled to left to advance LaRoche, and then Xavier Nady walked the bases loaded. And then... Miguel Batista also walked Ryan Doumit, scoring LaRoche. 2-0. Ronny Paulino struck out, but Batista threw 34 pitches in a ridiculously long inning. I realized there was a pretty good reason I had not been to a Batista start yet.
Gorzelanny let up a few scattered hits in the first few innings, though the Mariners only scored a run in the second, when Johjima was hit on the foot by a pitch, advanced by Beltre, and singled in by Ichiro. Xavier Nady also made a "web gem" diving catch of an Ibanez hit to left field, though it's unclear whether he would have had to dive if he'd gotten an earlier jump on the ball. Still, it looked cool.
Amidst my jokes of "Hey, remember when Jack Wilson was good?", the score stayed 2-1 until the top of the 5th, when Bautista singled off Batista, stole second on a close call, and was doubled in by Freddy Sanchez, making it 3-1. They added another run in the top of the 6th, when Nady walked and Doumit singled. Paulino hit a long fly to right, and Nady tagged up and ran to third, also on a close call, which then turned out to mean nothing as Jack Wilson walked to load the bases. After 105 pitches the Mariners finally took out Batista and threw in Sean Green, and Bautista immediately grounded out but scored Nady. 4-1.
The top of the 7th was pretty crazy. Freddy Sanchez singled, and Adam LaRoche walked. That was the normal part. After that, Jason Bay hit the ball up towards the left side, and Betancourt managed to stop it, but his throw to second was either late or timed poorly, either way when LaRoche got there the ball bounced away from Lopez, so when the dust cleared, Bay was on second, LaRoche was on third, and Sanchez had scored. 5-1. Xavier Nady struck out, and then Ryan Doumit was intentionally walked, loading the bases for a double play. And then the Mariners pulled off a 5-2-3 double play. I'm not making that up. Paulino grounded to third, Beltre threw home for the force on LaRoche, and then Johjima threw to first in time to get Paulino, who just isn't all that fast.
Despite the fact that Gorzelanny was up to 100 pitches at the end of the 6th, they didn't take him out, and the Mariners scored a run in the 7th, Betancourt leading off with a double into the gap that McLouth had trouble chasing down, advancing on an Ichiro grounder and scoring on a Vidro sac fly to right, which Doumit actually fielded pretty well and it was a close play, but Yuni was safe. Gorzelanny was up to 121 pitches after that, and they still had him go out in the 8th inning to retire Raul Ibanez, before finally pulling him after 123 pitches. Yow. I looked it up and Gorzelanny's been averaging 111 pitches his last 7 starts.
Jonah Bayliss (high socks!) came in to pitch, and Richie Sexson took the second pitch he saw and BASHED it 404 feet into the left field bleachers. It was just a monster of a funk blast. Bayliss did manage to strike out Johjima, but after Beltre singled and Lopez walked, the call went to the bullpen again, for Masumi Kuwata! Kuwata got a pinch-hitting Ben Broussard to ground out, and that ended the inning. It was only one batter, but it was still really cool to get to see Kuwata pitch a little.
JJ Putz struck out the side, LaRoche/Bay/Nady, in the top of the 9th. He is good.
Damaso Marte came out to pitch the 9th for the Pirates, and wasn't as good, walking Ichiro, but then Vidro hit a pop fly to center. Shawn Chacon, much to my friend's family's chagrin, came out to pitch after that, but he struck out Guillen and Ibanez and that ended the game, the Pirates winning 5-2.
I don't know whether to count this as a win or a loss for my record, since technically, I went to the stadium, rooted for a team, and they won, except it wasn't the Mariners.
We started calling Doumit "Doughnut" about halfway through the game. It was kind of funny. I ask, does this guy look like he's related to Willie Bloomquist? He's too cool to be, honestly.
Dunkin' Doumit!
And while I'm at it, here's an adorable smiling Jason Bay. I love Jason Bay.
Say Bay, Eh?
I'll put up a photo set after the series, I think, since I intend to go at least tonight and take more pictures, and then possibly on Thursday as well, we'll see.
Either way, last night my college (Carnegie Mellon) had organized an alumni event at Safeco, and despite that I had a feeling it wasn't going to be a very good alumni event (it wasn't), they'd gotten a block of 40 tickets in Field Seating, and I couldn't really turn down a $24 ticket to sit in a $38 area -- especially since at the time I thought Ian Snell was pitching, but then he had to go burn his hand grilling over the weekend.
I showed up around 5:50pm, wearing my red Sunday Pirates shirt, with a big Sanchez #12 on the back, carrying my camera. I started running around taking pictures immediately, of course, watching some batting practice, watching the relief pitchers warming up, etc. There was a SURPRISING number of Pirates shirts around, mostly Bay #38, but also a lot of Clementes, and even a couple of Doumits.
This isn't such a weird thing when you realize that Ryan Doumit is from Moses Lake, is Willie Bloomquist's cousin, and grew up watching the Mariners in the Kingdome and was a gigantic Buhner fan. Jason Bay lives in Kirkland, is from Trail BC, and went to Gonzaga. Both of these guys had huge groups of family and friends at the stadium for the game apparently (I am pretty sure I saw part of the Doumit-Bloomquist family by the dugout, and in left field there was a huge section of fans with signs like "Trail BC Loves Jason Bay", "Say Bay, Eh?" and such).
I was standing with a whole bunch of people along the left field line when the relief pitchers came by to do some running, and about five of us spotted a particular Japanese pitcher and all shouted "KUWATA!!! GANBARE!!!!" at about the same time. I doubt he was all that surprised at the number of Japanese fans in the stadium, but he looked up and smiled and waved at all of us.
Masumi Kuwata
That was pretty cool. It had occurred to me a few days ago that the Pirates pretty much called him up just in time to face the AL teams with Japanese players on them. Given the big deal that the media made over Kuwata chatting with Ichiro after BP, or just the sheer number of Japanese fans that were there watching him warm up, I think it was a good call on their part, regardless of whether it was done deliberately.
Conveniently, Jim Colborn is currently a pitching coach for the Pirates, and he used to be the Japan scout for the Mariners, and supposedly speaks fluent Japanese. (Reportedly, Kuwata's English is really good, though I haven't actually heard him speak.)
After BP, three Pirates came over to sign stuff. I didn't even catch who one of them was because I was more interested in trying to get Kuwata, who was one of the others. Chris Duffy was the third. Sadly, Kuwata signed for a while, but he never actually moved down the wall, he just stood there and so people kept coming up and pushing in and shoving stuff out to be signed, and those of us who waited patiently for a while got screwed. I was standing with a guy with an oldskool Yomiuri jersey, a lady with a Japanese autograph paperboard, and a guy with a "桑田がんばれ" sign. Alas. Kuwata ran off, apologizing as he went, "gomen ne, gomen ne". Duffy, on the other hand, was having a long conversation with some guys in the stands, so I ended up getting his autograph instead.
桑田さん,これをサインお願いします...
Chris Duffy!
The odd part was when some guy got Duffy to sign a Freddy Sanchez card. No, I'm not making that up. I wonder if it was the only Pirates card he had.
A little while after that I saw a few people who were there for the alumni event, but I was wearing my big camera and running off towards the field corner, so I didn't stick around. I ran into Bretticus, who had put a "Free Adam Jones" sign up in left field. And then I sat around watching Tom Gorzelanny warm up. Sadly, unlike most visiting pitchers, who pitch towards the infield stands during warmup, Gorzelanny threw towards the outfield, mostly doing long tosses. I'm not even sure I saw Miguel Batista warming up at all on the field before the bullpen, and maybe that's why.
Tom Gorzelanny, one of the Pirates' many lefty starters
I took more pictures and then I finally went to sit up with the CMU group. I really thought it wasn't such a great idea for an alumni networking event, and if they were going to do it as such, they should have either gotten seats in the upper deck where it's okay to goof around and switch seats, or maybe gotten the beer garden, or something like that. But no, we were in Field on the third-base side because the lady in the alumni office at CMU insisted that "it's where foul balls go". I didn't even bother trying to explain how where foul balls go mostly depends on the handedness of the pitcher, but whatever.
The group was about half people who graduated in 2006-2007, and then a couple of us people who graduated several years before that. As a result, I don't think anyone actually talked to anyone who they didn't already know. I pretty much spent the whole time talking to two of my friends who sat next to me, and to another friend and his family who were sitting behind us.
So, we were all cheering for the Pirates, due to the Pittsburgh connection.
Surprisingly, so was a lot of the rest of the stadium, relatively.
The Trail BC Jason Bay fan club was sitting in left field. Unfortunately for them, Jason Bay was DHing, and so they were treated to an evening of Xavier Nady fielding instead.
In the left-field bleachers, I saw a whole bunch of guys in Steelers jerseys waving Terrible Towels. That was pretty funny. In our section we saw a few more Steelers jerseys, even a Roethlisberger. I swear that I don't even remember seeing that many Phillies fans out when the Phillies were here two years ago, honestly.
Also, while I don't think this was the first time they've played it before a game, it was particularly ironic that they were playing the Pirates of the Caribbean music in the time space between the national anthem and the game beginning.
Oh, so the game. The Pirates mauled Miguel Batista in the first inning. Batista struck out Bautista (heh), but then Nate McLouth reached base on a fielding error by Richie Sexson. Freddy Sanchez popped out foul to Beltre, and then Adam LaRoche, who hasn't been hitting significantly better than Richie Sexson, singled to right to bring in McLouth. 1-0. Jason Bay singled to left to advance LaRoche, and then Xavier Nady walked the bases loaded. And then... Miguel Batista also walked Ryan Doumit, scoring LaRoche. 2-0. Ronny Paulino struck out, but Batista threw 34 pitches in a ridiculously long inning. I realized there was a pretty good reason I had not been to a Batista start yet.
Gorzelanny let up a few scattered hits in the first few innings, though the Mariners only scored a run in the second, when Johjima was hit on the foot by a pitch, advanced by Beltre, and singled in by Ichiro. Xavier Nady also made a "web gem" diving catch of an Ibanez hit to left field, though it's unclear whether he would have had to dive if he'd gotten an earlier jump on the ball. Still, it looked cool.
Amidst my jokes of "Hey, remember when Jack Wilson was good?", the score stayed 2-1 until the top of the 5th, when Bautista singled off Batista, stole second on a close call, and was doubled in by Freddy Sanchez, making it 3-1. They added another run in the top of the 6th, when Nady walked and Doumit singled. Paulino hit a long fly to right, and Nady tagged up and ran to third, also on a close call, which then turned out to mean nothing as Jack Wilson walked to load the bases. After 105 pitches the Mariners finally took out Batista and threw in Sean Green, and Bautista immediately grounded out but scored Nady. 4-1.
The top of the 7th was pretty crazy. Freddy Sanchez singled, and Adam LaRoche walked. That was the normal part. After that, Jason Bay hit the ball up towards the left side, and Betancourt managed to stop it, but his throw to second was either late or timed poorly, either way when LaRoche got there the ball bounced away from Lopez, so when the dust cleared, Bay was on second, LaRoche was on third, and Sanchez had scored. 5-1. Xavier Nady struck out, and then Ryan Doumit was intentionally walked, loading the bases for a double play. And then the Mariners pulled off a 5-2-3 double play. I'm not making that up. Paulino grounded to third, Beltre threw home for the force on LaRoche, and then Johjima threw to first in time to get Paulino, who just isn't all that fast.
Despite the fact that Gorzelanny was up to 100 pitches at the end of the 6th, they didn't take him out, and the Mariners scored a run in the 7th, Betancourt leading off with a double into the gap that McLouth had trouble chasing down, advancing on an Ichiro grounder and scoring on a Vidro sac fly to right, which Doumit actually fielded pretty well and it was a close play, but Yuni was safe. Gorzelanny was up to 121 pitches after that, and they still had him go out in the 8th inning to retire Raul Ibanez, before finally pulling him after 123 pitches. Yow. I looked it up and Gorzelanny's been averaging 111 pitches his last 7 starts.
Jonah Bayliss (high socks!) came in to pitch, and Richie Sexson took the second pitch he saw and BASHED it 404 feet into the left field bleachers. It was just a monster of a funk blast. Bayliss did manage to strike out Johjima, but after Beltre singled and Lopez walked, the call went to the bullpen again, for Masumi Kuwata! Kuwata got a pinch-hitting Ben Broussard to ground out, and that ended the inning. It was only one batter, but it was still really cool to get to see Kuwata pitch a little.
JJ Putz struck out the side, LaRoche/Bay/Nady, in the top of the 9th. He is good.
Damaso Marte came out to pitch the 9th for the Pirates, and wasn't as good, walking Ichiro, but then Vidro hit a pop fly to center. Shawn Chacon, much to my friend's family's chagrin, came out to pitch after that, but he struck out Guillen and Ibanez and that ended the game, the Pirates winning 5-2.
I don't know whether to count this as a win or a loss for my record, since technically, I went to the stadium, rooted for a team, and they won, except it wasn't the Mariners.
We started calling Doumit "Doughnut" about halfway through the game. It was kind of funny. I ask, does this guy look like he's related to Willie Bloomquist? He's too cool to be, honestly.
Dunkin' Doumit!
And while I'm at it, here's an adorable smiling Jason Bay. I love Jason Bay.
Say Bay, Eh?
I'll put up a photo set after the series, I think, since I intend to go at least tonight and take more pictures, and then possibly on Thursday as well, we'll see.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Burninated
Dear Ian Snell,
I was really looking forward to seeing you pitch in Seattle on Tuesday, especially since I didn't get down to PNC Park when I was in Pittsburgh this weekend. You're one of my current favorite Pirates, partially because I drafted you on my fantasy team on a hunch and you've worked out rather well, and partially because you're a complete dork.
But now I find out that you're not going to be pitching because you have a blister on your finger because you had a grilling accident. And apparently the grilled chicken caesar salad you were making wasn't even that good.
I hereby ban you from grilling for the rest of the summer. If you really insist on trying to make another grilled chicken salad, get Zach Duke to do it instead. He could use the rest.
Sincerely,
Deanna the Marinerd
I was really looking forward to seeing you pitch in Seattle on Tuesday, especially since I didn't get down to PNC Park when I was in Pittsburgh this weekend. You're one of my current favorite Pirates, partially because I drafted you on my fantasy team on a hunch and you've worked out rather well, and partially because you're a complete dork.
But now I find out that you're not going to be pitching because you have a blister on your finger because you had a grilling accident. And apparently the grilled chicken caesar salad you were making wasn't even that good.
I hereby ban you from grilling for the rest of the summer. If you really insist on trying to make another grilled chicken salad, get Zach Duke to do it instead. He could use the rest.
Sincerely,
Deanna the Marinerd
Friday, June 15, 2007
Friday Foto: Bat Macros
Okay, this is not my fault. Blame MetsGrrl for planting the idea in my head.
See, for the last two years I've been doing Friday Fotos by putting up random neat baseball pictures that I'd taken but that I hadn't had an excuse to put up before. NOW, I am armed with a mission of finding pictures that I hadn't put up before because I didn't think they were worth it... and adding silly internet meme captions to them. Ahh, Yuni and your invisible golf cart, you had no idea what you started.
This is a picture I took on May 1st when the White Sox were in town. It is Rob Mackowiak, which makes it even funnier, because it is a MACK-ro!
I have to admit I'm not entirely sure I get the meme, so I tried two separate tactics. Which do you think is better?
Yeah, so anyway, I'm heading to Pittsburgh later tonight, and I'll be back here on Sunday night. My trip is mostly for the purpose of watching my cousin get married. The Pirates are in town playing the White Sox, but my guess is that I'm not going to go to a game for two main reasons: one, some big golf event is going on right outside the city and it's supposedly sort of a mess around town, and two... the Pirates are coming to Seattle next week and I'm probably going to all three games of that series anyway. Three, I'm also betting my family will probably keep me pretty busy. Alas.
See, for the last two years I've been doing Friday Fotos by putting up random neat baseball pictures that I'd taken but that I hadn't had an excuse to put up before. NOW, I am armed with a mission of finding pictures that I hadn't put up before because I didn't think they were worth it... and adding silly internet meme captions to them. Ahh, Yuni and your invisible golf cart, you had no idea what you started.
This is a picture I took on May 1st when the White Sox were in town. It is Rob Mackowiak, which makes it even funnier, because it is a MACK-ro!
I have to admit I'm not entirely sure I get the meme, so I tried two separate tactics. Which do you think is better?
Yeah, so anyway, I'm heading to Pittsburgh later tonight, and I'll be back here on Sunday night. My trip is mostly for the purpose of watching my cousin get married. The Pirates are in town playing the White Sox, but my guess is that I'm not going to go to a game for two main reasons: one, some big golf event is going on right outside the city and it's supposedly sort of a mess around town, and two... the Pirates are coming to Seattle next week and I'm probably going to all three games of that series anyway. Three, I'm also betting my family will probably keep me pretty busy. Alas.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
When Vidro Takes The Stand
See that Turbo guy
Make that baseball fly
When he takes a run
He's gonna get 'em goin' till he's got it done
Two of my friends were moving to Seattle this week, driving up from Austin. They arrived this afternoon, so a bunch of us made plans this evening to get together for dinner. We chose Hale's Ales as a gathering place, because one of my friends really digs the chocolate porter cheesecake, and another digs the beer.
As we walk in, a bit after 8pm, one friend looks at the TV and says, "Oh, and Deanna can watch the Mariners game, while we're at it, too. Are they winning?"
Me, I'm figuring that they're actually just showing game highlights or something, since I didn't know it was still going on. It had been 3-2 last time I'd checked the score, around 7pm. "They're in Chicago, so the game started at 5, it should have been over by now... wow, extra innings? They're in the 11th, it looks like. Holy crap."
We get seated at a table; I can see the TV to my left, but not directly in front of me. One of my friends looks up at the screen. "Who do the Mariners have pitching? Lefty, number 59?"
"Oh, that's Eric O'Flaherty," I say.
"Is he any good?"
"He's not bad."
The game goes on. We order our food and drinks. I can't help but look at the TV. "Hey, wow, THAT's crazy... Jose Vidro's playing second base."
Our drinks show up. "Zambrano's pinch-hitting? What? I guess he's a righty and Jason Marquis bats lefty, but still..."
The game goes on. We get our food. "Ha, look at that, they're intentionally walking Yuniesky Betancourt... OH, to get to Willie Bloomquist. That makes sense."
I finish my food, and I'm staring at the screen during Willie's at-bat, and that's when I see the funniest thing I've seen in a baseball game in a long time. I start cracking up.
"What's so funny?"
"YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS. WATCH THE REPLAY. THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING EVER."
I'm explaining about Vidro and how he's kind of fat and slow, and they show the replay. It's even better the second time. Willie Bloomquist hits a single to right, and then they show Vidro rounding third hesitantly. Garcia's waving him on nonetheless, and so Vidro kinda "runs" for it, looking doomed the whole way.
Unfortunately, the throw from Jacque Jones gets to the plate before he does.
Fortunately, he avoids the tag.
Unfortunately, he avoids the plate.
Fortunately, Michael Barrett drops the ball.
Vidro runs back and touches the plate and the umpire signals safe, and by that point my entire table of friends, even the ones who don't like baseball, are also cracking up. Our plates get cleared and the waiter asks whether anyone wants anything else. By that point Burke's singled in Betancourt and the game is 5-3. Lou comes out in a fury to change pitchers.
I'm not hungry at all. "Can we see the dessert menu, please?" I ask anyway. I'm trying to stall everyone so I can see how this all ends up.
We order a three-berry crisp to split, and my porter-cheesecake-loving friend orders the porter cheesecake.
"Putz in! Game over!" I say, despite that I know it's a reference that won't go anywhere. Half of the people at my table aren't even aware that we have a pitcher named Putz, and they start giggling over that.
Sadly, it suddenly doesn't really look like Game Over after all. There are runners on first and second with Alfonso Soriano at the plate, and our desserts arrive. "I have a feeling this is going to have one of two outcomes," I'm saying as I grab a spoon. "Either Soriano's going to hit a 3-run homer and the game will be over, or he'll strike out and the game will be over."
The count gets up to 3 and 0. "Or they could WALK him, huh?" says one of my friends.
At this point we realize that the three berry crisp we ordered is totally burnt, not just on the surface, but the entire thing tastes kind of charred. So that sucks. And JJ Putz is out there with the bases loaded and only a two-run lead, and he's nibbling the corners, only they're burnt too. That also sucks. I try to call our waiter over to complain about the burnt berry crisp, except he's staring at the screen watching the game as well.
And then Koyie Hill -- whoever he is -- grounds out towards first, JJ Putz running to the base to make the play. And the game is over. And the Mariners win!
The waiter apologizes for the burnt dessert and takes it off our bill.
Good times.
Now I just have to convert my newly-Seattleite friends to become baseball fans...
(To see the video of the play in question, go to the game recap and click on "Bloomquist's RBI single". I laughed. I cried. It was better than Chicago. I wanted to watch it again and again...)
Make that baseball fly
When he takes a run
He's gonna get 'em goin' till he's got it done
Two of my friends were moving to Seattle this week, driving up from Austin. They arrived this afternoon, so a bunch of us made plans this evening to get together for dinner. We chose Hale's Ales as a gathering place, because one of my friends really digs the chocolate porter cheesecake, and another digs the beer.
As we walk in, a bit after 8pm, one friend looks at the TV and says, "Oh, and Deanna can watch the Mariners game, while we're at it, too. Are they winning?"
Me, I'm figuring that they're actually just showing game highlights or something, since I didn't know it was still going on. It had been 3-2 last time I'd checked the score, around 7pm. "They're in Chicago, so the game started at 5, it should have been over by now... wow, extra innings? They're in the 11th, it looks like. Holy crap."
We get seated at a table; I can see the TV to my left, but not directly in front of me. One of my friends looks up at the screen. "Who do the Mariners have pitching? Lefty, number 59?"
"Oh, that's Eric O'Flaherty," I say.
"Is he any good?"
"He's not bad."
The game goes on. We order our food and drinks. I can't help but look at the TV. "Hey, wow, THAT's crazy... Jose Vidro's playing second base."
Our drinks show up. "Zambrano's pinch-hitting? What? I guess he's a righty and Jason Marquis bats lefty, but still..."
The game goes on. We get our food. "Ha, look at that, they're intentionally walking Yuniesky Betancourt... OH, to get to Willie Bloomquist. That makes sense."
I finish my food, and I'm staring at the screen during Willie's at-bat, and that's when I see the funniest thing I've seen in a baseball game in a long time. I start cracking up.
"What's so funny?"
"YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS. WATCH THE REPLAY. THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING EVER."
I'm explaining about Vidro and how he's kind of fat and slow, and they show the replay. It's even better the second time. Willie Bloomquist hits a single to right, and then they show Vidro rounding third hesitantly. Garcia's waving him on nonetheless, and so Vidro kinda "runs" for it, looking doomed the whole way.
Unfortunately, the throw from Jacque Jones gets to the plate before he does.
Fortunately, he avoids the tag.
Unfortunately, he avoids the plate.
Fortunately, Michael Barrett drops the ball.
Vidro runs back and touches the plate and the umpire signals safe, and by that point my entire table of friends, even the ones who don't like baseball, are also cracking up. Our plates get cleared and the waiter asks whether anyone wants anything else. By that point Burke's singled in Betancourt and the game is 5-3. Lou comes out in a fury to change pitchers.
I'm not hungry at all. "Can we see the dessert menu, please?" I ask anyway. I'm trying to stall everyone so I can see how this all ends up.
We order a three-berry crisp to split, and my porter-cheesecake-loving friend orders the porter cheesecake.
"Putz in! Game over!" I say, despite that I know it's a reference that won't go anywhere. Half of the people at my table aren't even aware that we have a pitcher named Putz, and they start giggling over that.
Sadly, it suddenly doesn't really look like Game Over after all. There are runners on first and second with Alfonso Soriano at the plate, and our desserts arrive. "I have a feeling this is going to have one of two outcomes," I'm saying as I grab a spoon. "Either Soriano's going to hit a 3-run homer and the game will be over, or he'll strike out and the game will be over."
The count gets up to 3 and 0. "Or they could WALK him, huh?" says one of my friends.
At this point we realize that the three berry crisp we ordered is totally burnt, not just on the surface, but the entire thing tastes kind of charred. So that sucks. And JJ Putz is out there with the bases loaded and only a two-run lead, and he's nibbling the corners, only they're burnt too. That also sucks. I try to call our waiter over to complain about the burnt berry crisp, except he's staring at the screen watching the game as well.
And then Koyie Hill -- whoever he is -- grounds out towards first, JJ Putz running to the base to make the play. And the game is over. And the Mariners win!
The waiter apologizes for the burnt dessert and takes it off our bill.
Good times.
Now I just have to convert my newly-Seattleite friends to become baseball fans...
(To see the video of the play in question, go to the game recap and click on "Bloomquist's RBI single". I laughed. I cried. It was better than Chicago. I wanted to watch it again and again...)
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