For a recap of today's 5-2 win over the Braves (including 7 SO in 5 IP by Jeremy Hefner and a HR by The Duda), head over to Rising Apple. Today's Mets Legacy Photo is of arguably the greatest catcher of all time, whose career was unfortunately cut short.
I'm not sure who started this, whether it was the announcer Matt Vasgersian or just a hashtag that took off, but I kinda LOVE IT. I also LOVE how pumped Sgt. Felix Perez gets.
I like that this is when I can root for J-roll, 'cause let's face it. If he were on our team we would LOVE him. He's a good villain, but for now, keep drivin' him in, Captain America.
You would think on the day Pitchers and Catchers reported I would want to talk about that. But I actually want to talk about how awesome it was that MLB Network put actual baseball on the telly Saturday in the form of Game 2 of the Australian Baseball Championship.
The Perth Heat v. the Canberra Cavalry
The Cavalry were up by 1 in a best of 3 series at home. I wasn't able to watch the whole game, but the Cavalry were up by 4 or so when I left. (Looks like they eeked out a 7-6 victory for the Championship.) The 7,000 or so who made up the full stands sure did like their Cavalry. Baseball must be quite the subculture down under. The announcers were Australian, and they certainly knew what they were talking about, though at some point they explained "for our Australian viewers" why the catcher changes signals with a runner on. This said to me that the game isn't there yet but growing strong. Some other things I came away with after watching the ABL is that the pitching isn't very good and most of the teams are made up of scrappy blue-collar types you wouldn't mind stealing a job away from somebody in the Spring.
And Graeme Lloyd is the Cavalry pitching coach. And the Cavalry Stadium plays the standard "Ba-da Ba-Da Ba-DAAAAAAAA......CHARGE!" but the fans don't say that at the end. They say, "Oi!" Which is ironic.....since they're the Cavalry...
And they have a knack for the facial hair (though the mullet is apparently in...)
Yesterday morning on Rising Apple, I asked what is up with the lack of love for the reigning National League Cy Young Award Winner. On MLB Network, "The Shredder" pumped out it's computerized Top 10 Starting Pitchers RIGHT NOW and left off our former 20-game winner. Though I quarrel with the humans who left him off their lists as well, "The Shredder" is where I want to focus this time around.
MLB Network normally gets a bunch of their people together to argue these lists they make (and there are, entertainingly, a lot of the lists), including past years "Right Now" countdowns. This year, they decided Clubhouse Confidential's "The Shredder," which Brian Kenny and his folks normally use to see whether or not our perception of one thing might be another, should pump these lists out.
A countdown segment should always stir up arguments and conversations, but the beauty of it all is that they normally are provoked by human thought, emotion, reasoning and bias. Arguing with "The Shredder" is a lot less fun.
Clearly, I love computers and I love this age my life has entered into.
It has expanded my world beyond unimaginable horizons.
But when is it all a little too much?
Though "The Shredder" and Top 10 lists are the least of our problems while living in this era, they have inspired the Song of the Night.
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