Big Lead Sports Bar

8/07/2008

KARSTENS, BAY, FAVRE, TX TECH BELL RINGER AND TOURETTE'S GUY

That's a title that you wouldn't expect to see while my brother was here. No? Let's get to the morning nonsense.

*That had to be one of the ugliest perfect game attempts I've ever seen. Jeff Karstens had a number of balls that were hit very hard that his outfielders had a beat on. I wonder if the Yankees and their fans think that trade was such a slam dunk now that Joba Chamberlain got hurt? Good luck spending $14 mil trying to get Jarrod Washburn through waivers.

*Belated Thoughts on Jason Bay

The Good - During his stay in Pittsburgh, Jason Bay was an upstanding citizen doing tons of work for Pirates Charities, among other organizations. He was never anywhere close to anything resembling a police report or any sort of domestic disturbance. Some people might call him boring, which is fine by me. You’ll never have any problems or turmoil with a locker room full of twenty five “boring” guys. He was a true professional and for that the city appreciated his presence. Oh yeah, he also put up some All-Star caliber numbers for a couple years.

The Bad - For the better part of his tenure, Bay frustrated the living hell out of me. Whether it was his low batting average with RISP or his inability to get the ball to the infield in a timely matter, Bay’s play wore on me. Sure, we all love a three run homer when we’re up or down by a dozen, but I’d rather have players that make a habit out of doing their damage when the score is close. I know there are examples of him either tying or winning a game with one swing of the bat, but for someone who’s batted in the middle of a lineup for nearly five seasons, I don’t think it’s out of line to have expected it a little more frequently.

The Ugly - I root for the name on the front of the jersey and not on the back, and to that end, there isn’t a team in professional baseball that I loathe as much as the Red Sox. The Cubs and their idiot fans are putting up a nice showing as always, but Boston sits atop my Hierarchy of Hatred.


“I’m so excited! Jason Bay tripled off the ‘monstah’ and scored the winning run in the 12th!” Are you kidding me? That wasn’t a quote from a Red Sox message board, that was an actual quote I heard at a bar…in western Pennsylvania. Let’s get serious people, Jason Bay plays for the enemy now.

*I’m REALLY glad this Brett Favre nonsense is at least somewhat in the rearview mirror. If only that moron from Florida would tell us where her daughter is, I might be able to enjoy cable at midnight again. From my point of view, the best thing about Favre going to the Jets is that he has a chance to play New England twice a year. The Pats, like their baseball brethren, also sit atop my Hierarchy of Hatred.

*This guy is ringing a bell at a Texas Tech football game. I know this is a few years old, but my good friend Jason B. reintroduced this to me other night and I got a cramp from laughing so hard. Thought you would all get a good laugh out of it. Here's the link since a number of people have told me the video isn't working.




*My friend Pete D. introduced me to Tourette’s Guy at his waffle ball tournament. If you’re at work, don’t open this, unless you want written up, suspended, fired, etc. I must not be any good at embedding video, since this one isn't working for some of you as well. Here's the link for T-Guy.


7 comments:

HotDog_Zanzabar said...

BOB SAGET!

Unknown said...

I was a fan of Bay for the same reasons you list here, Mondesi, but the one thing that always frustrated me was Bay's Jose-Hernandez-like 130+ strikeouts per season average.

AJ said...

I heard rumor that the Tourettes Guy passed away last year.

dave said...

The Bay not being clutch thing is just negative confirmation bias. The truth is nobody really hits appreciably better or worse in garbage time vs. close games, and you probably wouldn't even say he wasn't clutch if you hadn't heard it from a sports journalist somewhere.

And the Red Sox are hardly a top enemy. If anything you should hate the Yankees for creating the precedent for spending so much. I can't really blame Pirates fans for living vicariously through Jason Bay, we've watched him progress for years and now he's in a playoff race. I don't see what's wrong with cheering him on, you don't have to be so bitter.

ManBearPig said...

Hey Ramon,

I have one of those ABC TV, NASA- type countdowns mounted on my monitor. I'm counting the seconds until Raul gets back.

Good Lord man, you put up a masturbator and a tourettes guy for your features when the greatest living man in history just changed his mind again?

Yes the inmates truly are running the asylum this week!

Deaner said...

I'm happy to hear that we have similar hierarchies of hatred. For me it's 1) Red Sox, 2) Cubs, 3) Yankees

Mr. Pinsky said...

I'm curious to know why the Red Sox are your most hated baseball team. The only history they've got with the Pirates are the 1903 World Series (Did the Tessie song really grate on you that much?) and the handful of games they've played in '03 and '05.