Watching Baseball

I wonder what Pete Sark would think. Pete was an old sportscaster who used to sit at the end of the press box at Tiger Stadium and listen to as many out-of-town games as he could through a single earphone he had attached to a small, portable radio. Since the press box was 90 feet in the air, Pete could pull in a lot of those AM signals and he could keep track of a lot of games. He'd call out updates for our benefit throughout the night. He'd say, "(Jim) Rice just homered so the Red Sox are ahead 4-0 in the 6th." Things like that. So we'd know the score in the pressbox faster than anybody else since it would take a five minutes for the score to come across on "SportsTicker" and ten or fifteen minutes more for the updated score to appear on the center field scoreboard. In fact, one of Pete's claims to fame is that on the September night the Tigers cinched the pennant in 1968, he was the first person in all of Detroit to know the Tigers had won the pennant, scoring a "beat" of fifteen minutes or so over anybody else at the stadium. Tigers fans will remember Don Wert singled in a run in the bottom the 9th that night to complete a Detroit comeback over the the Yankees and win the game which gave the Tigers their first American League pennant since 1945, but few remember (if they even know this bit of trivia at all) that Wert's hit was, in fact, anti-climatic. Heading into play that night, either a Tigers win or a Baltimore loss meant a pennant for Detroit. Well, Pete was listening to that Orioles game that night on that little radio of his and he knew that the Orioles game (they lost) had gone final while the Yankees were batting in the top of the 9th, a fact which rendered the outcome of the Detroit game moot. The Tigers won the pennant just as soon as the game in Baltimore was over, not when Wert singled home the game-winning run. Pete told the boys in the pressbox, so they knew too, but the Tigers elected not to post that final on the scoreboard, lest fans rush the field in celebration before the game in Detroit was over.

I think about Pete--he died two or three years ago and was buried holding a regulation American League baseball in his hands--on nights like this when I'm sitting at my computer watching baseball. They've got this deal where for fifteen bucks a month you can watch the games, all the games , live on your computer. Pete would be in heaven. Of course, I hope and trust that's precisely where he is now, but he would just love this setup. As do I.

Right now I've got the Cleveland at Cincy game on the computer (the Reds, starting some teen-aged phenom in what's being billed as the biggest debut for a Cincinati pitcher since Tom Seaver's first-ever game in 1977, lead 3-2 in the 6th which is good because the Indians are the team the second-place Tigers are chasing in the AL Central) and I've got the Tigers-Mets game on the TV with the sound muted as usual since I am not a big fan of the announcers here and, as such, have not had the volume turned up during a Tigers game for at least the last two years. It is not a problem for me. I know as much about the game as they do, so why go through the aggravation of listening to them?

Now, a little later, I'll switch over and catch the Dodgers game in LA or the Giants game in SF. In a bit of a paradox, since I can't stand to listen to the broadcasters in Detroit, it's an absolute treat for me to listen to Vin Scully call the games in LA. He may be the best of all time. What amazes me about Scully is that he works alone. No color guy at all. No mindless, inane chatter like you get with the announce crews here in Detroit, and, unlike here in Detroit, there is no cheering for the home team. I can't stand the cheer leading. It's why I keep the sound down. It is so unprofessional. If you want to root, root, root for the home team, fine. Grab yourself a pom-pom and go sit in the goddamn stands. Cheer your ass off. Just get the f--- out of the pressbox. You don't get the rah-rah crap from Scully and it's the way baseball should be broadcast. I think sometimes in the back of my mind that I could do that job when Scully retires and he's bound to sometime. He's been in the booth for the Dodgers since they were the Brooklyn Dodgers. I mean, I can easily sit there and talk for two or three hours by myself--especially if there happens to be a baseball game going on. It is not a problem for me.

People have been asking me, of course, what I think of the Wings getting knocked out of the playoffs, rendering still another 100+ point season a complete, total, and utter waste and I tell them, invariably to their surprise and chagrin, that I was delighted to see Detroit eliminated. I did not want to see Todd Bertuzzi's name on the Stanley Cup. That, to me, would be a blasphemy. It was Bertuzzi who ran that guy Steve Moore of Colorado from behind and broke his neck in March, 2004. It remains the most gutless, the most chickenshit hit in the history of the NHL. Moore has not played a shift since. While I don't think the NHL should have banned Bertuzzi for life, I do think they should have prevented him from playing until Moore could return to the ice. If Moore could not come back--and it looks like he will never come back--too bad for Bertuzzi. So, I say screw him and screw the Detroit Red Wings for signing him. I saw Moore interviewed on the CBC a while back. Remember the weepy press conference Bertuzzi gave a couple of days after sending Moore to the hospital? "That's (sob) not me. I'm (sob) soooo (sob) sorry. (Sob), etc..." In that CBC interview, Moore said Bertuzzi has never called him to apologize in person. He never once reached out. So, like I said, screw Todd Bertuzzi.

Denny McClain has a new book out. It's called, I Never Told You I Was Perfect. Give me a break and do us all a favor and f--- off, okay, Denny? You never told us you were an asshole, either. But you are. You have to say this, though. It's been 39 years since anybody won 30 games in a season like McClain did in '68 and there are precious few baseball records of any kind that last for 39 years, so you have to tip your cap to the guy in that regard. But he screwed over a lot of people in his time, a lot. He's a thief and he's a felon. And that's a bigger deal than winning 30 goddamn baseball games.

Peace out.