That's more like it.Tom Glavine had no-no stuff today in the Mets 7-4 victory against Florida. There, I said it. And when the Marlins are the opposition, as talented as they will be someday (I'll talk more about that soon), you always have to think that if there ever was a chance at a Met no-hitter, a game against the baby Marlins would ping the radar at least faintly.
But this is the Mets we're talking about. So add another stool at the bar for Reggie Abercrombie.
Figures that in the bottom of the sixth inning, when I start to think of the steps Tommy needed to take to get to that elusive no-hitter...how he's going to get past the best efforts of Brian Bannister and Rick Reed, then Pedro Martinez and Rick Reed...then David Cone and Gary Gentry, before finally getting to the plateau of Tom Seaver...standing toe-to-toe with the greatest ever to don Met colors ever so briefly before getting those final two outs to stand alone in Mets history...does it all fall apart.
Face it, when Tommy huffed and puffed around the bases in the sixth, you knew it was over. You knew those next few dead fish out of his hands would be just a bit too alive for the Marlins hitters to pass up. You knew that the names you heard in addition to Seaver and Cone wouldn't be Reed, Gentry and Petey...but the familiar list of Mike Scott, Hideo Nomo, A.J. Burnett, Dwight Gooden and Nolan Ryan...all those players who threw no-hitters after they left. That's who Kenny Albert dredged out of our shattered memory as Abercrombie lined a clean hit to left field off of a newly aerobicized Glavine.
And speaking of FOX announcers, Lou Piniella made his debut in the booth today. At one point. he gushed about the job Ramon Castro did as the every day catcher last year for the Mets, but that he's relegated to back up duty this year behind Paul Lo Duca.
Albert, not wanting to pull a muscle rescuing his partner from the deep waters, only went so far to say that Castro (202 at bats in '05) split time with Mike Piazza (398 at bats in '05) last year. Obviously, the Enron people did the splitting (One for you, one for me. Two for you, one...two for me. Three for you, one...two...three for me...)
I understand that national guys shouldn't be expected to immerse themselves in every nuance of the teams that they are announcing for. And I know it's Piniella's first time. But for crying out loud when you totally omit from your consciousness a future hall of famer...it's Mike Piazza! Is it too much to ask that the person that's painting pictures for me over the television screen have heard of Mike Piazza?
This Saturday FOX Baseball Rant of the Week was brought to you by...nobody.
8 comments:
Meanwhile, in Southeast Virginia, FOX aired Braves-Cubs instead of Marlins-Mets or Nats-Pads, even though DC and NY are both much closer to VA than is either Atlanta or Chicago.
That's weird. You should have at least gotten the Nats.
Meanwhile, check this out. It has a relation to your quandry.
Little known fact is that Jim Bibby threw a no-no for the Bucs after he head departed the Mets grasp. Check it out!
Good call! Bibby was in the Mets clubhouse in 1969 and was actually interviewed after the World Series even though he never pitched for them.
I actually think it's kind of good that Jim Bibby never threw a no-hitter for the Mets.
"They had Ryan and Seaver and Gooden, but the Mets have never thrown a no-hitter" is a lot more interesting and intriguing (not to mention less embarrassing) than "They had Ryan and Seaver and Gooden, but the only guy ever to throw a no-hitter for the Mets was Jim Bibby."
It sounds like a frigging poncy drink! "I'll have a Jim Bibby, with extra pink vermouth, please. And whipped cream."
Another FOX pet peeve - the theme music. Can they use something other than that tired hard rock jingle (with that awful guitar lick at the end) which they use for NFL broadcasts?!?
Glad to see Willie's blog is making us aware of the fight against breast cancer with his choice of template color.
I'm guessing a Jim Bibby is Willie's drink of choice.
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