May 27, 2013

Talkin' Baseball: Coffee's For Closers

49er16: I was listening to I believe Brian Kenny talking about Mariano Rivera and basically saying, "What makes Rivera such a good player is that he's been a good player this long as a closer." And I thought about it for a second and he's right. Closers are such volatile players. They're here today, gone tomorrow. Look at Brian Wilson for example. Look at current closers Jim Johnson and Fernando Rodney. Last year both Johnson and Rodney look spectacular, this year they can't close out games.

The Colonel: The examples you stated is why I wouldn't give any reliever more than a two-year deal. There's a reason why there are very few relievers in the Hall of Fame. It's a hard position to stay consistently great at. I will say though I'm annoyed that whenever someone talks about Rivera they don't talk about how he blew the 2001 World Series and the 2004 ALCS. He especially doesn't get enough blame for blowing the 2004 ALCS.

49er16: He's a Yankee and supposedly a "nice guy" so of course him blowing the 2004 ALCS will be ignored. It's Mickey Mantle syndrome. As long as you play for the Yankees, your faults will be ignored or be excused by Bob Costas.


The Colonel: This reminds me of an interview between Costas and Billy Crystal and they spent five minutes just making an excuse after excuse for Mantle. And look even Mantle near the end of his life realized that he was a drunk asshole, but he never made excuses for himself like Costas and Crystal.

49er16: What always bothered me about Costas is that he's a hypocrite. He becomes outraged over Bonds, but will excuse Mantle's bad behavior. Of course this is the same guy that spoke out about gun control but kept his mouth shut when Al Michaels was arrested for a DUI so I shouldn't expect anything different.

The Colonel: The umpiring in baseball is becoming worse and worse. Saturday's Giants-Rockies game was just another example of these officials needing some type of instant replay. I don't care how it's implemented anymore as long as it become a part of the game.

49er16: I don't know how MLB can keep trotting out the "human element" excuse when there's mistakes being made game after game. Implement replay and get the call correct. I'm actually shocked Bochy didn't rip off Marquez's head on Saturday.

The Colonel: Bochy was unusually calm. If that was Bobby Cox or Earl Weaver, Marquez would have been murdered on the field.

49er16: I'm back to not paying attention to the AL Central. The White Sox are only 4 games behind the Tigers for first place and they only have a .500 record and a negative run differential.

The Colonel: "What is run differential? I seriously have no idea."- Harold Reynolds, MLB "analyst".

49er16: Don't get me started on that Network as a whole. Okay I'll get this off my chest. The MLB Draft is coming up in two weeks. The MLB Network is promoting the fact the first round will be shown on their network. So then let me ask you this, why don't they have pre-draft shows on their network like all the other sports only channels? Especially in a sport like baseball where a pre-draft show is needed. MLB owns their own network, they can't have Mayo and Callis host a week's worth of shows getting people familiar with the draft prospects?

The Colonel: Well when you're paying the likes of Kevin Millar and Harold Reynolds then you just have to keep them on air every week for every day. In all seriousness, you know some idiot thought the MLB Draft would be followed like the NFL and NBA draft by casual fans so they decided to just air the first round without even thinking that almost everyone has never heard of a kid from the University of San Diego.

49er16: That's what I always figured. Whoever is running the MLB Network thought droves of people would just show up and start watching the MLB Draft despite not knowing who any of these players are. And that's why they need a draft show but of course they have to have Harold Reynolds in front of the camera admittedly acknowledging he doesn't know anything about run differential.

The Colonel: Well at least the MLB Network has eye candy on the network mediating these shows. I mean how else would I get through Intentional Talk without a visit from Alana Rizzo?

6 comments:

  1. I used to have a thing for Alana Rizzo, until I read her Twitter bio wherein it reads "Lover of Colorado sports teams." #majorturnoff

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    1. Was she at least a good reporter or basically Amy G?

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    2. She was better than what Root Sports RM has now as a sideline reporter, but from what I remembered she was probably more Jaymee Sire than Amy G.

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    3. Well that's good.

      It didn't take the MLB Network long though to replace her on the Rundown show with a younger lady so now she's reduced to hosting Quick Pitch on the weekends and doing that 1 segment with Rose and Millar on Intentional Talk.

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  2. Honestly, I'm becoming less and less of a fan of replay. All it's going to do is slow the games down even more. Umpire have been blowing calls since 1839, it's just more noticeable because of all the technology used on today's broadcasts. Do incompetent umpires need to be let go? Yes. Do officials in all sports need to be younger & in better fitness? Absolutely.

    Also, Kristina Akra over any other MLB Network eye candy.

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    1. NBA games have also started to crawl along because of replay. The day and age of games ending in an hour and a half is over.

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