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!

Bizzaro Night at Fenway

For some reason, tonight is bizzarro night at Fenway Park! Its not a full moon tonight, so I'm struggling to explain this chain of events:

• Manny smacks (slams! CRUSHES!) home run 503
• Parking attendant on Lansdowne Street gets his 30 seconds on TV for finding the ball
  
• Coco Crisp hit by pitch, charges mound, throws a few punches, and then takes quite a few more
• 3 players ejected
• Carter takes over in left field, Elllsbury moves to center
  
• Ellsbury makes a great catch and rolls up on his right wrist
• Ellsbury taken out of game
• Drew moves to center field, Youkilis plays right field (for the first time in his career!)
• Youkilis and Manny get into a fight in the dugout! WTF?!?!
• Remy and Don get into a (hilarious) scrum in the broadcast booth
  
• Manny tweaks right leg checking his swing , ends up with a walk, and trots to first base
  
• Francona checks on Manny, says he's OK, and returns to dugout
• 30 seconds later, replaces Manny with pinch runner Kevin Cash
• When not playing DH, Cash runs back out to bullpen to help warm up pitchers
• Lester, Timlin, and Aardsma limit the Rays to 1 run and win the game

Tom Caron on NESN sports desk says its all because of Stephen King was on the pre-game show. I can't think of a better excuse, can you?

I have to watch the post-game show and interview with Francona just to see what the heck happened tonight!

Sports Karma?

So, a bit of history: I'm a born and bred Cubs fan from Illinois. My grandma started taking me to Wrigley Field for Cubs games when I was 8 years old. As a result, I've come up with this fuzzy sports karma for the night.

• Bachelor in Porter watches Oakland vs. Boston baseball
• Oakland defeats Boston in baseball
• Boston defeats Detroit in basketball
• Detroit defeats Pittsburgh in hockey
• Pittsburgh defeats Chicago Cubs in baseball

So, that must mean

• Chicago Cubs watches Bachelor in Porter blog

In Soviet Massachusetts, baseball watches you!

What the heck does this even mean? Does this make any sense? Have I had too much scotch tonight? Are pigs flying? What time is it?

Eh, I know the answer. I blame Global Warming! (Even the NFL is concerned)

Celtics or Red Sox

Well, deciding which game to watch tonight started out as a tough decision. But, after bits and pieces of the first half of the Celtics game, it was obvious that I had to tune into Tim Wakefield's gem tonight. He pitched an incredible game tonight. He merely pitched eight innings, gave up a meager 2 hits, 0 runs, and struck out six. I always enjoy watching classic Wakefield.

Now, to make things even better, the Sox game was a quick 2 1/2 hours. So I can watch the rest of the Celtics playoff game -- let's hope that the 2nd half is much better than the first.

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...

NESN Camera Angle

Is it me, or is the camera angle from the outfield at a higher elevation than usual? I can't quite figure out what's different about NESN's broadcast of the Red Sox game tonight. It seems as if they've zoomed out the typical camera shot from behind the pitcher.

I hope I'm not going crazy!

I Lost My Train of Thought

I was in the middle of writing a great blog post, but then this damn Celtics game grabbed my attention and I totally lost my train of thought!

What a great game! (so far - its still the 4th quarter).

Once the Celtics are through, then its even more sports with the rain-delayed Red Sox game! Maybe hanging around my place on this Friday night isn't so bad....