Remembering Shea: A Sunday evening with Baseball Tonight

I felt like storing up on some real baseball before the circus comes to town. So I lowered my standards and decided to listen to Joe Morgan for the evening. This week's feature game is the Rockies vs. the Mets. So naturally, the subject of a new Shea stadium came up. This is the second time I've heard the news today. I had not know previously that they were building a new Shea. I started to wonder and it turns out the Mets are entirely local news. According to google the new Shea story didn't get much reach, especially when compared to the mega-story of the New Yankee Stadium.

Anyway, here are some notable Shea Stadium moments, courtesy of the Baseball Tonight crew on ESPN. Oh, by the way that's the New stadium as seen from the current Shea.

Beatles Perform in 1965 &1966

Jets beat Raiders in AFL Championship 1968

Mets win World Series 1969 & 1986

Pope John Paul II 1979

Burgh

So I'm in Pittsburgh for a couple weeks, and last night I made it to PNC Park. Upper deck, behind home plate. Basically, everything I've heard about this park is true - it's a fantastic place to catch a baseball game, and the view is probably the best in baseball.

The game itself was...pretty good too. Starting pitcher was a AA callup, and was giving up runs pretty much constantly. By the 7th the Pirates were down by six. But then they tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, scoring 3 off Isringhausen. The crowd quickly shut up as Glaus got a go-ahead HR it the top on the 10th, but Jason Michaels (weren't the Sox looking at him some years ago?) got a two-run HR in the bottom of the 10th to win it. Pretty wild - I've never been so excited about a game I couldn't care less about.

It's official: the Pirates are now my NL team. Fifteen years of losing seasons gives you som,ething to root for.

Random notes:
- Both the Cards and the Bucs bat their pitchers eighth. Someone explained to me that La Russa does it because Pujols gets a tiny bit more at-bats (2.84 vs 2.83) by having three real hitters in front of him. That makes no sense to me since La Russa hates numbers; but also, why not just bat Pujols fourth?
- La Russa had his pitcher bat in the top of the 10th rather than use a PH. But then in the bottom of the 10th he took out the same pitcher after one batter. Now, I know nothing about NL baseball, but that seems completely, utterly stupid to me.

What a dushbag

Okay, so the A-Rod/Madonna/Lenny Kravitz thing is pretty awesome. But this is way, way, WAY awesomer. (Baseball sideshows sure are fun when they involve non-Boston teams!!!)

Update on CC

Revisiting a previous post. Apparently, my prediction of C.C. coming to Boston was just WRONG.

Imagine that... IBID's prediction wrong?! Like that ever happens.

Desperate for pitching

The Yanks should sign Chacon. Lord knows they need the help. And A-Rod could use the company of another known choker.

Schilling end of an era?

Curtis Montague wasted no time announcing his end-game for his career. But in my mind, we ever there is loss there is opportunity.

how soon do we start talking about C.C. coming to Boston?

Celtics

So as you know I'm of two minds about Boston's ridiculous sports dominance as of late, but this is pretty damn funny:

Boston: our sports teams are so good that 18-1 football teams are considered historic failures.

A question, which I'm sure will be in tomorrow's papers: has a city ever done so well in sports in a single year? (The Revs made the finals as well.) Pittsburgh had a nice run in the late 70's, but that was "only" in 2 sports...

End of an era, part II

Mets finally fired Willie Randolph. It's wild that a year ago they were the best team in baseball, and essentially suck now. Even wilder that he lasted three years. Check out our post (and comments) from Pedro's first Spring Training Start in 2005: Mets = Disaster Waiting To Happen. (The followup post is pretty good too.)

[Dudes: this website is dying.]

End of an era

Sad to report Hazel Mae is leaving NESN. This could single handily result in traffic to this site dropping 50% or more.

So for old times sake (or maybe new times sake when she shows up in a new city and users want to see more of Hazel Mae..... "Hazel Mae Naked"

At one time Earl had the links for all the Hazel Mae Boobs search results, including one that I will always remember "Boobs of Hazel Mae." I think we still do well enough on Google to be on the first page for these searches.

Sorry to anyone late to the party.

Oh yeah, and "Jeff Passan sucks". Still.

Great rant

"But … this is Derek Jeter. And so, well, you know what’s coming. The Yankees radio crew — and these are good folk, hard workers, they’re just lost in the Jeter flood like so many — basically sang Hosanas to Derek Jeter for getting caught in a rundown. I’m not kidding here. They went on for five minutes about how the Captain willed those runners to second and third. They kept talking about how not only did Jeter stay in the rundown but he WAVED THOSE OTHER RUNNERS to the bag while he was doing it. Imagine. I was sitting there in the car absolutely stunned. This was Jeterating on a whole new level."

The whole thing is worth a read.