Thursday, October 1, 2009

Thirsty Thursday

Honestly, I've been enjoying these Thursday off nights as of late. When the Yanks don't play, it means that I don't have to stay up late to write a recap of the game and instead can get a head start on content for the morning. Or not and just get drunk. Which is probably what I am going to do tonight since I have secured about a dozen different kinds of Oktoberfests, Autumn and Pumpkin ales. Possible review in the morning, but no promises.

In any event, this Thursday doesn't have a whole lot to offer. Had the Twins won last night, there might have been an intriguing baseball game to watch. But they didn't. (Damn you, Carl Pavano!) It would be nice if there was an entertaining college football game on TV, but Colorado vs. West Virginia most certainly isn't. It would be nice if I was a hockey fan, since the season begins tonight with a doubleheader on Versus, but I'm not. If I lived in Brooklyn I might go to the Joe Posnanski book signing at JLA Studios, but I don't.

A few more items from the "not so much" department:

OMG, Kate Hudson is pregnant! Except if she isn't. Her publicist denies said rumors but that doesn't stop the Post from reporting those two things in the same headline.

OMG, Joe Mauer is stealing signs! The Twins say he wasn't, but they obviously aren't going to cop to being nabbed by some couch vigilante. What I found enjoyable were some of the things the conspiracy theorist who uploaded the video to YouTube was trying to infer (1:54):
Very ironic statement by Bert about trusting your catcher... talking about Mauer?"
Yes, Bert Blyleven is dropping hints about sign stealing so cryptic that only you can pick up! Makes for a hell of a broadcast if you're listening from the Grassy Knoll. Rolemodel2008 also talks from the omnisicent viewpoint, dropping gems such as (3:30):
Verlander is pissed off and pretty much everyone IN the game knows what's happening...
and (4:00)...
You can tell the Twins know this happened... Cuddyer knows about it... Leyland knows about it...
I mean, do they really? You can tell by looking at the screen?

The guy seems to be going a bit overboard with his "insight", yet this has been addressed by everyone from Deadspin to the Bats blog on the New York Times' website. Did anyone bother to look at the last time Mauer was on second base? It's happened a lot of times this year, you know. Am I the only one with the MLB.tv package?

The clip is interesting, but I think the allegations merit further investigation, which no one (to my knowledge) has bothered to do. Welcome to the internet, where we just link and comment.

/dismounts soapbox

Okay, some other links...

More alleged cheating, but these accusations come without much evidence.

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who has the clutchiest bullpen, of them all?

Attendance is down at Yankee Stadium this year, but by how much?

The MLB Postseason announcing pairs have been, well, announced. Courtesy of, um, Awful Announcing.


And we're probably the last Yankee blog to link to this, but here is Tom Verducci's piece on Mariano Rivera from the upcoming Sports Illustrated.

Good night and good luck. I'm out.

4 comments:

  1. He's abviously joking with the "Leyland knows about it" stuff etc. Your sarcasm meter is broken

    ReplyDelete
  2. Didn't look like he was joking to me, in all seriousness.

    I hope Post Road makes your list, Jay.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the back up, Jersey.

    Also, at the 4:06 mark, when the camera pans to the dugout, he again says "You can tell the Twins knew this happened."

    Interpreting sarcasm via text is a dicey proposition, but I think it's pretty clear that this guy is SURE he's on to something and can see it on the player's faces.

    And Re: the Post Road, Jersey... I've had it before but it's not included this time around. All parties involved have agreed to a second round of tasting because there are a good amount that I didn't pick up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What I don't get is why the Mauer thing is so controversial, if he was doing it. It's not like he was tipping pitches; he was stealing signs. He's obviously a really talented catcher so he's used to giving/reading signals himself, and if a team's signals are so early and obvious that someone on the other team can pick them up and use them to help his team...

    If it means he gets discarded at MVP voting and they vote Tex or Jeter, though, that'd be cool. ;)

    ReplyDelete