Chicago Defeats Boston? Dewey Defeats Truman?

This afternoon, the Chicago Cubs had a 1948 throwback game. The Cubs wore their 1948 jereseys and the Atlanta Braves wore their 1948 Boston Braves jerseys. In the end, the Cubbies won in 10 innings with Reed Johnson's walk-off Hit By Pitch! (I'm sure that HBP felt pretty good!)

The most interesting part of this game was the WGN throwback broadcast. The Cubbies broadcasters (Len & Bob) dressed up in their 1940s suits and hats. For the first few innings, WGN broadcast the game in black and white and only used the camera angles that were common at the time. In the 9th inning when Jim Edmonds (I still can't believe he's on the Cubs!) smacked a home run to left field to tie the game, WGN displayed some old school "Hey Hey!" graphics as Len did his best Jack Brickhouse imitation. And finally, when the Cubbies won the game in the bottom of the 10th, he let out Harry's famous "Cubs Win! Holy Cow!". I really wish I could have seen this game! What an awesome day at Wrigley!

Here's a few clips over at MLB's website that give a good taste of the game:

• Jeff Francoeur smacks a 2-run Home Run in the 2nd inning (black and white)
• Jim Edmonds ties the game with a Home Run to left field (HEY HEY!!)
• Reed Johnson's game winning Hit-By-Pitch (OUCH!)

Enjoy!

More Crazy Baseball Telecast Tidbits

I just finished up watching the Cubs beat up the Cardinals 9-3 this afternoon. YAY! Of course Soriano was worthless again, but that's old news. The rest of the Cubs lineup has been on fire this season - and that's just fine with me.

So, just as I noticed in last night's Red Sox game, FOX was using that same zoomed out camera shot from center field for their broadcast today. I'm wondering - is this some sort of new directive from the MLB offices? The only reason I can see them switching to this new angle is to display more advertisements behind home plate. With this new angle, you can see BOTH of the rolling ads that are displayed behind the batter - instead of just one.

I'm not too sure if I like this new angle. One cool bit, though, is that you can see the break of the pitches much better. Other than that, I'm not convinced I like this new angle. We'll see if its permanent.

The other bit that I noticed was that in the 6th inning FOX somehow predicted Mike Fontenot's 3-run home run! Granted, I don't think it was a prediction - but it was a pretty big production error. While Fontenot was batting, the right-hand side of the scoreband across the top displayed "HOMERUN - Cubs" and the score switched from "3 - 0" to "6 - 0".

At first I thought this was just some "hypothetical" thing FOX was trying to relay to its viewers. I thought to myself: "Oh - so FOX is telling me that if the Cubs hit a home run here, the score will be 6 to 0. Well, thanks FOX, but I can do math just fine in my head." But right after that, the HOMERUN text faded back into the current pitch speed and the score flipped back to "3 - 0". And then, something funny happened. On the next pitch, Mike Fontenot ripped a 3-run home run on the next pitch!

So, my questions are:

• Does FOX have the godly power to change the course of a baseball game?
• Are the folks at FOX able to see into the future?
• Is FOX secretly trying to influence baseball games and pulling for the Cubs to win the World Series?

I think my third bullet is the right answer. That's gotta be the answer. They knew Fontenot was going to hit a home run before it happened!

It couldn't possibly be a simple production error due to the fact that the game telecast is on a broadcast delay...

Bill Buckner

It was great to see Bill Buckner throw out the first pitch for today's game. Its great to see that Red Sox fans can put the whole 1986 debacle behind them. (well, most fans)

So, with the 1986 World Series fading from memory, I'm hoping you all can enjoy this reenactment of the infamous game. Its not just any reenactment. This has been completely reenacted using RBI Baseball on the old 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System with the radio audio in the background.

(Note: This is by far one of the coolest things I've ever seen)



I love RBI Baseball

UPDATE: Here's the link to the story of this recreation.

Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown

Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown. How cool of a name is that?!? Not only does he have his own Wikipedia page, he's even got his own web site too!

This guy's name has been in my head all day long. He was a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs back on their 1908 team. That happens to be the last Cubs team to win the World Series.

You don't hear too many kids these days named "Mordecai". I guess the name has gone out of style since the 19th century. :-)

MLB Gamecast

I'm a big fan of the MLB gamecast thing-a-ma-jig. I can keep up with all the afternoon games the Cubs play (and the Red Sox too!) while I'm sitting at work.

They've added a nifty feature to it this season - video replay of scoring plays. If you scroll back through the innings, there's a blue 'play' icon next to scoring plays. Clicking this link will show the video replay of the score. I think its pretty cool. Once the game is over, you can even go back through the archives of the game through the gamecast tool and catch all the replays.

Nice job MLB.

Baseball is Back!

Hooray. Baseball is back. Thank you ESPN for showing non-stop baseball all day today. And yes, thanks for letting my watch my Cubs blow a dramatic 9th inning comeback in the following inning.

And, to Kosuke Fukudome: Welcome to the MLB! In his first MLB game as a Chicago Cub, he went 3 for 3 with the game tying 3-run home run in the bottom of the 9th inning. So far, he's batting 1.000 -- that's pretty good for a MLB debut.