“Two of Granderson’s Grand Slams have come with the bases loaded”

This was uttered by Ford C. Frick Award winner and Hall Of Famer, Tim McCarver during today’s Yankees-Red Sox broadcast on Fox.

I..I..What?

It’s not like he’s a broadcaster who never played the game of baseball. The man played the sport for years. Does he think the viewers are really that stupid? Did the guys in the truck die laughing? Did Joe Buck turn and look at him as if to say, “What the hell?”

Fans should be used to Tim McCarver saying silly things because it’s become a bit of a tradition but this one was taking things a bit too far. Wow.

Joe Buck and Tim McCarver

There were some things in life I was certain about: the sun rising in the east, the sky being blue on a nice day and my disdain for Joe Buck.

On TV, Buck sounds bored and I – along with most fans – was convinced he hated all things New York. He never sounded happy when the Yankees hit home runs but his voice always seemed to perk up when their opponents did. And during New York Giants games, the Giants would score a touchdown and he’d sound ‘ho-hum’ but the opponent would do the same and he’d wake up from his coma.

And then Joe Buck joined Twitter and everything changed…

I’ll admit I resisted following him but after seeing what he was tweeting I found myself smiling at his tweets. I thought, “Who is this guy and what did he do with Joe Buck?”

» Continue reading “I Love Joe Buck?”

As I was sitting here, waiting for the second game of the Subway Series to start, I wondered: What on earth did Yankees fans do to deserve so many Saturday games on FOX this year?

It feels like we’re forced to watch one almost every single week (So I’m exaggerating a tad. The last one was two weeks ago against the Chicago Cubs) and to add insult to injury, Joe Buck has been battling a throat problem all season so we’ve been forced to listen to his bland game calling complete with a disinterested rasp!

Listening to the nearly senile Tim McCarver isn’t much of a picnic either but at least his voice is fully functioning.

Can’t Joe Buck take some time off to recover? Believe me, he won’t be missed. If fact, Joe feel free to take the rest of the season off – playoffs too – Thanks!

Today’s game at Wrigley Field was long, frustrating and did I mention long? Thank goodness the Yankees bounced back from yesterday’s loss with a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

Let’s talk about the good stuff first
Thanks to a Curtis Granderson tie breaking, sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth, AJ Burnett won his seventh game of the year. Burnett only pitched into the sixth inning but only gave up two runs, four hits, walked three and struck out eight. His only mistake was a fastball that Carlos Peña deposited into the right fielder bleachers.

And speaking of Carlos Peña, he tried to score on a shallow fly ball to the left in the bottom of the sixth. Big mistake. Big. Huge. Brett Gardner threw a strike to Russell Martin who blocked the plate and Peña – who was on third – barreled into Martin who fell to the ground but held onto the ball for the third out. It turned out to be the biggest play in the game. The bases were loaded – after two errors, one by Eduardo Núñez and one by Robinson Cano – and there was only one out. The play at the plate ended Chicago’s scoring threat and it helped Burnett pick up the victory.

And speaking of Núñez, his RBI single in the top of the ninth helped give the Yankees a two run cushion and with Mariano Rivera coming in, it would be a quick, scoreless bottom of the ninth, right? Wrong. Reed Johnson started it off with a solo home run to cut the deficit to one run…

…And speaking of the Reed Johnson home run:

Dear FOX Sports,

Joe Buck is awful. Please get rid of him. Oh and Joe 2 + 1 = 3, not 4. Ugh…

Thanks,
Everyone

The next batter, former Yankee Alfonso Soriano singled to right center. Thankfully Mo got Giovanny Soto to ground into a double play and then struck Jeff Baker out to end the game. Phew. Crisis averted and Mo picks up save #17 of the season.

Now onto the bad stuff
The Yankees’ offense left thirteen men on base. They had Chicago’s starter Ryan Dempster on the ropes in nearly every single inning and were only able to score two runs. With the way they were getting on base they should have scored at least ten runs. It was pretty frustrating but would have been a lot worse had they ended up losing the game.

The aforementioned errors by Núñez and Cano didn’t lead to any runs but they made things a lot scarier than they needed to be in that bottom half of the sixth inning.

The Yankees just need to play better baseball: Make smarter decisions on the base paths, make clean plays in the field and they need to play like a team that is eleven games over .500.

Tomorrow night’s game is an 8:00PM Sunday Night ESPN game. Get your mute buttons ready!