Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Postseason Banter

I miss this sight.

A couple of nights ago, in bed and on my iPhone, I watched a condensed Marlins game from May or June, in which Dan Uggla hit his 100th home run. I realized late in the season that the Florida announcers say of him every time he goes long, "And his name is DAN UGGLA!" One announcer starts the sentence and the other joins to say the name. I kind of fell in love with this tomfoolery*. It's reminiscent of Hawk's White Sox home run cheers, except Steve Stone doesn't join him for the "yes! yes! yes!" part like Darrin Jackson used to. Anyway, my point is that I miss the days where I had a choice of which crappy teams to fall asleep to in condensed game format.

I was hoping for a Freeway Series where LA would be the focus of the World Series. Initially, exhausted from fantasy drama, I wasn't interested in the postseason teams. But then I decided I had the most interest in the Angels because of Nick Adenhart. Alas, the World Series will be divided along the east coast, and as of now, I can only really root for individual players: Jenni's Cano, former White Sox Swisher, Japanese Matsui, CC "He's 300 pounds, he can pitch all day!"** Sabathia, and J-Rolls only because I saw adorable childhood photos in those "Beyond Baseball" commercials. But then it looks like I'm basically rooting for the Yankees, which I guess in a sense I am since I want to see many of them do well. But I also don't feel like I'm genuinely rooting for the entire team, either, which would be unfair--to the Yankees, real Yankees fans, my preferred teams, and so on. I think at this point I'm just thankful that baseball is still going on, even if it means setting Glee aside for two weeks.

Though, I will say in defense of the Yankees that accusations of them having "bought" the World Series are trite. The Yankees are the Kraft of baseball; I thought this was an obvious axiom in sports and it's so obnoxious that it comes up again and again, whether the Yankees win or lose. But along with those who are tired of seeing the Yankees succeed over the course of baseball history (or many of the same teams reappearing in postseasons as of late), I will say that I can't wait until some buster team blows up in the second half of a future season and surprise us all by taking the World Series. Pirates, Reds, Marlins anyone?

GO BASEBALL! And Jenni's awesome postseason journalism!

*"Right before Uggla's first season with Florida in 2006, the Marlins had a dinner/banquet function to introduce the players for the upcoming season (and to raise money). Upon introducing Uggla, the speaker mispronounced his name. Immediately, Dan's brother stood up from the back and shouted 'His name is Dan UGGLA!'" (sufficient source)
**Writing this phrase out doesn't do it justice. Please ask me in person to impersonate a man named Amit claiming, in a heated argument with Joe, that CC Sabathia is a better pitcher than Tim Lincecum and I will gladly comply.

2 comments:

  1. Can't help but notice you've chosen a day on which the White Sox and the Mets won and the Twinkies and Yanks lost.

    But seeing as that the Phillies also lost, I'm okay with this.

    I'm not posting separately about this bc I'm still BUMMED, but in the spirit of "journalism" here is a blurb on Game 1 of the World Series: hey everyone, we lost last night but we're gonna win tonight. And then I'll put up 5,000 photos of A-Rod and Teixeira open-mouthed and screaming with joy-rage and Jeter smiling contently. Phillies, be afraid.

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  2. I remember hitting the left arrow button a million times and landing on September 11. Somehow I didn't feel like taking that screenshot, so I went back to the 12th. I did notice the White Sox victory, but I think I was more concerned with the Cubs losing to the Reds and yes, Phillies losing to the Mets, which I thought was funny. (Sorry Mordecai.) The Yankees must have had a day off, like yesterday. And today, JayZay and AKeys will perform by Robinson Cano-land, John Legend will sing the national anthem (twitter better be right this time) and Shane Victorino will magically disappear mid-game and to go live on Mars forever.

    Oh, and an aged, not-Cliff Lee will pitch. Go Jenni!!!

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