Moose Milligan
12-26-2007, 09:26 PM
So my buddy gave me the Ripken DVD set for Christmas and I couldn't have been more thrilled. I'd been meaning to pick it up for awhile but hadn't gotten around to it. Totally caught me by surprise.
I watched the first couple innings of the Orioles vs. Indians playoff game before falling asleep last night and thought it could be kinda cool to do a game blog about these games, similar to what Bill Simmons does for ESPN. Basically I've been looking for something to do other than idle trade banter. Orioles news has been pretty boring lately and I thought this might stir up some good memories.
First, the lineups for Game 1:
Cleveland Indians
Kenny Lofton, CF
Kevin Seitzer, DH
Jim Thome, 3B
Albert Belle, LF
Julio Franco, 1B
Manny Ramirez, RF
Jeff Kent, 2B
Sandy Alomar, C
Omar Vizquel, SS
Starting pitcher: Charles Nagy
Baltimore Orioles
Brady Anderson, CF
Todd Zeile, 3B
Roberto Alomar, 2B
Rafael Palmeiro, 1B
Bobby Bonilla, RF
Cal Ripken, SS
Eddie Murray, DH
BJ Surhoff, LF
Chris Hoiles, C
Starting pitcher: David Wells
First of all, what amazing lineups. You've got two guys who have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame (Ripken, Murray) and others that have a shot in Thome, Ramirez, Vizquel, Roberto Alomar, Rafael Palmeiro...perhaps Jeff Kent and Albert Belle have outside shots. Two 50 homerun men in Brady and Belle, a pair of brothers in the Alomars, a lineup where every player has at least 20 homers, a ton of Gold Gloves, two 500 homerun men (Murray, Thome) two 400 homerun men (Ramirez, Ripken) three 3,000 hit men (Murray, Palmeiro, Ripken)...what a ton of talent. Unbelievable.
Second, Jon Miller is on the mic. It gives me chills to hear him calling an O's game again, even though it's a nationally televised game. He's joined by Dave Campbell from ESPN (who I definitely don't miss) and Kirby Puckett.
So it's the ALDS Game 1 between the Indians and the O's from Oriole Park at Camden Yards!
The O's take the field to the theme from Rocky! No O-R-I-O-L-E-S Magic Magic Magic, apparently.
David Wells is on the hill, he looks somewhat slimmer than he does now. Which isn't really slim at all.
They just showed the graphic of the O's defense. Hoiles threw out 18% of baserunners in 1996, placing him third worst in the AL. Who threw out baserunners at a worse clip than Chris Hoiles that year??
And it's Mike Hargrove in the Indians dugout! Miller and Dave Campbell are talking about how Hargrove is slightly underrated.
The camera flashes to Davey Johnson, looking ultra relaxed in his shades, arms folded. Davey Johnson rules. Miller talks about how the O's had a good stretch to make the playoffs and how Johnson said he wanted to make the playoffs more than anytime else during his managerial career. Yep, we fired him. Thanks Pete!
Top 1st:
Lofton leads off and David Wells quickly gets him 0-2. They're showing the JUGGS gun and saying that David Wells throws hard...I really don't remember this, he's up to 93! Strike three! Lofton goes down after failing to check his swing on a high fastball.
Seitzer to the plate. I hate Kevin Seitzer. I remember going to an O's game at Memorial in the late 80's when he was with the Royals and he charged the mound. He also is wearing one of those annoying Terry Steinbach helmets with the face flap that comes across. Seitzer pokes a seeing eye ground ball between Zeile and Ripken for a base hit.
Thome to the plate, and he looks the same then as he does now. Monster season with a .450 on base percentage and 38 homers. Wells quickly gets ahead and it's 0-2 for the third straight batter. Campbell's talking about how pitching coach Pat Dobson might be calling the pitches. Totally forgetting about Pat Dobson being our pitching coach. Thome's fouling off pitches and it's a 2-2 count....Kirby Puckett pipes up for the first time talking about his hitting strategy and how he'd try to put the first pitch in play. Definitely an awkward dynamic between the three men in the booth. Thome goes down swinging for the 2nd out.
Here's Albert Belle who led the league with 148 rbi. ESPN's in game graphics from 1996 are pretty primitive. They don't even have a diamond to show you who's on base. Belle lashes the first pitch to Zeile at third who boots it for an error. Seitzer to second, Belle safe at first.
Julio Franco at the plate, he hit .322 in 1996 and he lofts the first pitch to RF to Bonilla for the third out.
Bottom 1st:
Miller talks about how the O's are the sluggingest team in ML baseball history, hitting 257 homers, obliterating the all time record for a team in a season.
*sigh*
Brady takes the first pitch for a ball...the in game graphic shows that he slugged .637 in 1996. 50 homers, previous high was 21 in 1992. And Brady promptly puts one onto Eutaw Street! Orioles lead 1-0!
Can't get enough of Millers homerun call "High drive! Headed for Boog's Bar-b-que! 1, nothing Baltimore! Onto Eutaw Street!" We miss you, Jon.
Camera shows Brady being greeted in the dugout by Devereaux and others. I miss Brady and Devo.
Fans still on their feet cheering when Todd Zeile steps in. Sends a shot to the warning track and Albert Belle hauls it in.
Roberto Alomar is up third and gets a big cheer and some scattered boos. Apparently the week prior, he hocked a loogie into an umpires face. He had a weird batting stance, hunched over butt sticking way out, doesn't look comfortable at all. Grounder up the middle, Vizquel deflects it but it counts as a base hit.
Raffy comes to the plate who had a whopper of a season too. Nagy falls behind 3-0 and seems preoccupied with Roberto Alomar on first. Campbell talks about how Davey tried to make the O's a hit and run team in the first half but abandoned that strategy in the 2nd half. Alomar takes off for second, Raffy grounds to Kent at 2nd and his only play is to first. Alomar gets to 2nd, 2 out and Bobby Bo is up.
I loved Bobby Bo, and Miller talks about how the O's "had so much offense it defies logical discussion." Must have been nice, right? Bonilla looks fearsome at the plate, sporting the high top Nikes and Nagy walks him.
Here comes Cal, looking trim and fit. Miller talks about how "this is the part of the team that hearkens back to their 1983 team, Ripken at the plate, Murray on deck." Cal grounds to Vizquel who throws out Cal at first.
Top 2nd:
As Miller brings the audience back from commercial, you can clearly hear Rex Barney in the background announcing Manny Ramirez coming to the plate. This game is conjuring up all sorts of good memories and I hope I'm doing it justice. Rex Barney's voice makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Here's Manny, looking...small. Manny looks thin, almost, skinny legs. Looks really young too. Hell, he WAS young in this game. No dreadlocks, skinny but looks wiry strong. This was before Manny was being Manny. He DRILLS a line drive out to LF that barely stays fair. Miller doesn't even give it a homerun call, it seems to catch him by surprise that it got out.
Up next is Jeff Kent. I don't have much to say here as I don't really like Jeff Kent, either. I bet Jeff Kent was that annoying kid on your Little League team. I don't even have to describe him, but you know who I'm talking about. Jeff Kent was that kid....and he grounds out to Zeile.
Campbell takes a moment to talk about the Baltimore defense and how good defense has been a tradition...over the last 8 years they have 55 less errors than any other team in the majors.
Here's Sandy Alomar, who I always thought was vastly overrated. Always injured, not much power for a guy his size, low on base percentage...just meh. Towering fly ball to third and Zeile settles under it for the 2nd out.
Wells falls behind 9th place hitter Omar Vizquel 2-0...fights back to 2-2, then behind to 3-2 and walks him which turns the lineup over to Lofton. Vizquel tries to steal second base and would have been successful if he didn't slide past the bag. Cal holds the tag while Vizquel slides past, third out.
Bottom 2nd:
Murray to lead off and grounds weakly back to Nagy for the first out. The O's traded Kent Mercker to Cleveland for Eddie Murray in 1996...think they would have made that trade if they knew they'd be facing us in the first round of the playoffs?
Nagy is working pretty quick and gets BJ Surhoff even at 1-1 and then Surhoff takes him into the bleachers right next to the out of town scoreboard for a solo shot. Hargrove has a look on his face that says "WTF IS GOING ON OUT THERE!" If only he seemed to care as much when he managed us.
Hoiles skies one to RF and Kent and Manny almost collide but Kent makes the catch. 2 out.
Brady flies out to Lofton in center and after two innings its 2-1, Baltimore.
After commercial ESPN plugs the 4 pm game, Padres Joey Hamilton vs. the Cardinals Todd Stottlemyre.
Lofton leads off the top of the third. Wells is really dealing, getting ahead of almost every batter and has Lofton 0-2. He lifts a flyball to Surhoff in left for the first out.
Here comes Seitzer and Seitzer's facemask for his 2nd at bat. Part of me hopes that Wells tests out that flap to see how sturdy it really is but IIRC, that doesn't happen in this game, unfortunately. Seitzer, like Bobby Bo, is also rocking the high top spikes. He grounds to Zeile in the hole and Zeile makes the long throw to first. Two quick outs.
While Thome and Wells battle it out, Miller gives a very brief overview of how the Indians were built, that most of these players were in Cleveland when they were bad and grew up together. Thome lines one in front of Brady for a base hit and that brings Belle to the plate.
Puckett talks about how Albert Belle has to "keep that edge" because "once you lose that edge, you won't be that good anymore." Dynamite insight there, Kirb. Belle fouls out to third for the last out.
Bottom 3rd:
Miller plugs other games, talking about how Chris Berman and Buck Martinez will be calling the Pads vs Cards game. Man, I wish I could listen to that one! :rolleyes: The Yankees and Rangers have David Cone and Burkett going head to head later on that night.
Zeile leads off with a single. He hit it deep in the hole, Omar gets to and knocks it down. Apparently Omar has a bad shoulder and his throwing arm isn't up to par.
Nagy falls behind Alomar 2-0. The camera pans to Mark Wiley in the Indians dugout...remember him? Zeile inexplicably tries to steal 2nd, Roberto hits a dribbler in front of home plate...Sandy throws out his brother at first.
Raffy to the plate and they talk about Davey liking the NL style of ball in reference to making Todd Zeile run on the previous play. Camera flashes to him and Davey still looks cool in the dugout like everythings under control. And everything is under control, you know why? Cause Davey Johnson was the man! Raffy drills a double to the right field gap, Zeile scores easily. What a nice swing.
Campbell makes a dumb comment about "you hear the word elevation used a lot when talking about Denver baseball, but it's also true for Charles Nagy at sea level basically here because he's elevating the baseball and these Orioles hitters are not missing it." huh?? Who brought Denver baseball into the conversation here? Meanwhile, Mark Wiley comes out to offer his guidance and wisdom to Charles Nagy.
Bonilla and Nagy battle it out to a full count and Bonilla grounds weakly back to Nagy. Raffy stays at 2nd and Miller talks about how he has a bad ankle sprain suffered in a late season series with the Yankees. Raffy is a tough guy, playing through pain. Wonder if HGH would make him recover faster? Hmm...
Here comes Cal and Puckett talks about his new batting stance. "He's got a thousand of them," says Miller. Puckett goes on to say how Cal could get three hits and come back the next day with a new stance, which would seem to go against the notion of Cal being a smart ballplayer. I don't believe you, Kirby. Ripken swings and hits weak liner over Omar Vizquel's head that scores Zeile and it's now 4-1! Still, it's great to see Cal getting a hit and an rbi again.
There's a soft "Ed-EE" chant going on as Murray comes up and Nagy gets an even count. He's thrown a LOT of pitches and Danny Graves starts warming in the bullpen. Murray lines out to Franco at first and that's the inning.
Top 4th:
Miller plugs the other games again, reassuring us that Joe Morgan will be back on the espn broadcast tomorrow because he's calling the game for NBC tonight. Whew, I was really worried about that.
Franco leads off the inning... and swings and misses, sends his bat helicoptering into the Indians dugout. Charles Nagy is sitting in the dugout with a look on his face that seems to say "I wish he hit me so I wouldn't have to go back out there." Franco grounds out to Robbie Alomar for the first out. Wells is cruising.
Manny's up for a 2nd time and he's sporting the high top spikes too. I'd like to see him sport the high top spikes again if it means he'd get rid of his Hammer Pants that he's wearing these days. He lines a sharp grounder back up the middle that Wells has to dodge, marking the fastest reaction time ever from David Wells.
Rick Krivda alert! Miller talks about how Krivda pitched the biggest game of the season last week facing a red hot Red Sox team and beat Wakefield. I didn't know Krivda ever pitched a good game. Sadly, he's not on the postseason roster. The camera pans along the bullpen in the outfield where Rocky Coppinger seems to be taking up a lot of space.
Meanwhile Wells 1-1 to Jeff Kent and he lines a double down the left field line which sends Manny to third. Did I say Wells was cruising?
Sandy Alomar lines a single over Roberto's head which scores a run. Bobby Bo overthrows the cutoff man to home plate which allows Sandy Alomar to get to 2nd base, keeping us out of a double play scenario. Jeff Kent to third and its now 4-2.
Vizquel fouls one off and a fan makes a catch. Rex Barney in the background goes "Give that fan...a contract!" Man, I miss that. It never got old no matter how many times you heard it. All of a sudden Wells has 72 pitches in the 4th inning and Vizquel is battling, fouling off a bunch of pitches in this at bat. Campbell can't shut up about Wells not throwing his changeup, and Vizquel keeps fouling off pitches and this is turning into one hell of a battle. 22 pitches in this inning and every one is a fastball, according to Miller. Vizquel finally keeps one fair and lines out to Bonilla in RF who loads up and uncorks a throw to Hoiles at the plate who can't corral the throw off the bounce and Kent is safe. The throw was there in plenty of time but he just couldn't hold on.
Lofton swings on the first pitch and lines out to Cal for the third out.
Bottom 4th:
Surhoff pops up to Lofton in CF and Miller explains something about the umpires showing up late to the park and how they've agreed to call this game and the following days game but nothing more and they'll be having some sort of hearing. Something about that loogie incident with Alomar, I don't think they're too happy.
Hoiles gets hit by a pitch and that turns the lineup over to Brady Anderson who promptly lines one to left and Albert Belle comes racing in and makes a nice sliding catch.
Zeile sends Hoiles to second on a hit between Kent and Franco, and Miller announces that both bullpens are busy here. Alomar grounds sharply back to Nagy who goes on to first for the third out.
I watched the first couple innings of the Orioles vs. Indians playoff game before falling asleep last night and thought it could be kinda cool to do a game blog about these games, similar to what Bill Simmons does for ESPN. Basically I've been looking for something to do other than idle trade banter. Orioles news has been pretty boring lately and I thought this might stir up some good memories.
First, the lineups for Game 1:
Cleveland Indians
Kenny Lofton, CF
Kevin Seitzer, DH
Jim Thome, 3B
Albert Belle, LF
Julio Franco, 1B
Manny Ramirez, RF
Jeff Kent, 2B
Sandy Alomar, C
Omar Vizquel, SS
Starting pitcher: Charles Nagy
Baltimore Orioles
Brady Anderson, CF
Todd Zeile, 3B
Roberto Alomar, 2B
Rafael Palmeiro, 1B
Bobby Bonilla, RF
Cal Ripken, SS
Eddie Murray, DH
BJ Surhoff, LF
Chris Hoiles, C
Starting pitcher: David Wells
First of all, what amazing lineups. You've got two guys who have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame (Ripken, Murray) and others that have a shot in Thome, Ramirez, Vizquel, Roberto Alomar, Rafael Palmeiro...perhaps Jeff Kent and Albert Belle have outside shots. Two 50 homerun men in Brady and Belle, a pair of brothers in the Alomars, a lineup where every player has at least 20 homers, a ton of Gold Gloves, two 500 homerun men (Murray, Thome) two 400 homerun men (Ramirez, Ripken) three 3,000 hit men (Murray, Palmeiro, Ripken)...what a ton of talent. Unbelievable.
Second, Jon Miller is on the mic. It gives me chills to hear him calling an O's game again, even though it's a nationally televised game. He's joined by Dave Campbell from ESPN (who I definitely don't miss) and Kirby Puckett.
So it's the ALDS Game 1 between the Indians and the O's from Oriole Park at Camden Yards!
The O's take the field to the theme from Rocky! No O-R-I-O-L-E-S Magic Magic Magic, apparently.
David Wells is on the hill, he looks somewhat slimmer than he does now. Which isn't really slim at all.
They just showed the graphic of the O's defense. Hoiles threw out 18% of baserunners in 1996, placing him third worst in the AL. Who threw out baserunners at a worse clip than Chris Hoiles that year??
And it's Mike Hargrove in the Indians dugout! Miller and Dave Campbell are talking about how Hargrove is slightly underrated.
The camera flashes to Davey Johnson, looking ultra relaxed in his shades, arms folded. Davey Johnson rules. Miller talks about how the O's had a good stretch to make the playoffs and how Johnson said he wanted to make the playoffs more than anytime else during his managerial career. Yep, we fired him. Thanks Pete!
Top 1st:
Lofton leads off and David Wells quickly gets him 0-2. They're showing the JUGGS gun and saying that David Wells throws hard...I really don't remember this, he's up to 93! Strike three! Lofton goes down after failing to check his swing on a high fastball.
Seitzer to the plate. I hate Kevin Seitzer. I remember going to an O's game at Memorial in the late 80's when he was with the Royals and he charged the mound. He also is wearing one of those annoying Terry Steinbach helmets with the face flap that comes across. Seitzer pokes a seeing eye ground ball between Zeile and Ripken for a base hit.
Thome to the plate, and he looks the same then as he does now. Monster season with a .450 on base percentage and 38 homers. Wells quickly gets ahead and it's 0-2 for the third straight batter. Campbell's talking about how pitching coach Pat Dobson might be calling the pitches. Totally forgetting about Pat Dobson being our pitching coach. Thome's fouling off pitches and it's a 2-2 count....Kirby Puckett pipes up for the first time talking about his hitting strategy and how he'd try to put the first pitch in play. Definitely an awkward dynamic between the three men in the booth. Thome goes down swinging for the 2nd out.
Here's Albert Belle who led the league with 148 rbi. ESPN's in game graphics from 1996 are pretty primitive. They don't even have a diamond to show you who's on base. Belle lashes the first pitch to Zeile at third who boots it for an error. Seitzer to second, Belle safe at first.
Julio Franco at the plate, he hit .322 in 1996 and he lofts the first pitch to RF to Bonilla for the third out.
Bottom 1st:
Miller talks about how the O's are the sluggingest team in ML baseball history, hitting 257 homers, obliterating the all time record for a team in a season.
*sigh*
Brady takes the first pitch for a ball...the in game graphic shows that he slugged .637 in 1996. 50 homers, previous high was 21 in 1992. And Brady promptly puts one onto Eutaw Street! Orioles lead 1-0!
Can't get enough of Millers homerun call "High drive! Headed for Boog's Bar-b-que! 1, nothing Baltimore! Onto Eutaw Street!" We miss you, Jon.
Camera shows Brady being greeted in the dugout by Devereaux and others. I miss Brady and Devo.
Fans still on their feet cheering when Todd Zeile steps in. Sends a shot to the warning track and Albert Belle hauls it in.
Roberto Alomar is up third and gets a big cheer and some scattered boos. Apparently the week prior, he hocked a loogie into an umpires face. He had a weird batting stance, hunched over butt sticking way out, doesn't look comfortable at all. Grounder up the middle, Vizquel deflects it but it counts as a base hit.
Raffy comes to the plate who had a whopper of a season too. Nagy falls behind 3-0 and seems preoccupied with Roberto Alomar on first. Campbell talks about how Davey tried to make the O's a hit and run team in the first half but abandoned that strategy in the 2nd half. Alomar takes off for second, Raffy grounds to Kent at 2nd and his only play is to first. Alomar gets to 2nd, 2 out and Bobby Bo is up.
I loved Bobby Bo, and Miller talks about how the O's "had so much offense it defies logical discussion." Must have been nice, right? Bonilla looks fearsome at the plate, sporting the high top Nikes and Nagy walks him.
Here comes Cal, looking trim and fit. Miller talks about how "this is the part of the team that hearkens back to their 1983 team, Ripken at the plate, Murray on deck." Cal grounds to Vizquel who throws out Cal at first.
Top 2nd:
As Miller brings the audience back from commercial, you can clearly hear Rex Barney in the background announcing Manny Ramirez coming to the plate. This game is conjuring up all sorts of good memories and I hope I'm doing it justice. Rex Barney's voice makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Here's Manny, looking...small. Manny looks thin, almost, skinny legs. Looks really young too. Hell, he WAS young in this game. No dreadlocks, skinny but looks wiry strong. This was before Manny was being Manny. He DRILLS a line drive out to LF that barely stays fair. Miller doesn't even give it a homerun call, it seems to catch him by surprise that it got out.
Up next is Jeff Kent. I don't have much to say here as I don't really like Jeff Kent, either. I bet Jeff Kent was that annoying kid on your Little League team. I don't even have to describe him, but you know who I'm talking about. Jeff Kent was that kid....and he grounds out to Zeile.
Campbell takes a moment to talk about the Baltimore defense and how good defense has been a tradition...over the last 8 years they have 55 less errors than any other team in the majors.
Here's Sandy Alomar, who I always thought was vastly overrated. Always injured, not much power for a guy his size, low on base percentage...just meh. Towering fly ball to third and Zeile settles under it for the 2nd out.
Wells falls behind 9th place hitter Omar Vizquel 2-0...fights back to 2-2, then behind to 3-2 and walks him which turns the lineup over to Lofton. Vizquel tries to steal second base and would have been successful if he didn't slide past the bag. Cal holds the tag while Vizquel slides past, third out.
Bottom 2nd:
Murray to lead off and grounds weakly back to Nagy for the first out. The O's traded Kent Mercker to Cleveland for Eddie Murray in 1996...think they would have made that trade if they knew they'd be facing us in the first round of the playoffs?
Nagy is working pretty quick and gets BJ Surhoff even at 1-1 and then Surhoff takes him into the bleachers right next to the out of town scoreboard for a solo shot. Hargrove has a look on his face that says "WTF IS GOING ON OUT THERE!" If only he seemed to care as much when he managed us.
Hoiles skies one to RF and Kent and Manny almost collide but Kent makes the catch. 2 out.
Brady flies out to Lofton in center and after two innings its 2-1, Baltimore.
After commercial ESPN plugs the 4 pm game, Padres Joey Hamilton vs. the Cardinals Todd Stottlemyre.
Lofton leads off the top of the third. Wells is really dealing, getting ahead of almost every batter and has Lofton 0-2. He lifts a flyball to Surhoff in left for the first out.
Here comes Seitzer and Seitzer's facemask for his 2nd at bat. Part of me hopes that Wells tests out that flap to see how sturdy it really is but IIRC, that doesn't happen in this game, unfortunately. Seitzer, like Bobby Bo, is also rocking the high top spikes. He grounds to Zeile in the hole and Zeile makes the long throw to first. Two quick outs.
While Thome and Wells battle it out, Miller gives a very brief overview of how the Indians were built, that most of these players were in Cleveland when they were bad and grew up together. Thome lines one in front of Brady for a base hit and that brings Belle to the plate.
Puckett talks about how Albert Belle has to "keep that edge" because "once you lose that edge, you won't be that good anymore." Dynamite insight there, Kirb. Belle fouls out to third for the last out.
Bottom 3rd:
Miller plugs other games, talking about how Chris Berman and Buck Martinez will be calling the Pads vs Cards game. Man, I wish I could listen to that one! :rolleyes: The Yankees and Rangers have David Cone and Burkett going head to head later on that night.
Zeile leads off with a single. He hit it deep in the hole, Omar gets to and knocks it down. Apparently Omar has a bad shoulder and his throwing arm isn't up to par.
Nagy falls behind Alomar 2-0. The camera pans to Mark Wiley in the Indians dugout...remember him? Zeile inexplicably tries to steal 2nd, Roberto hits a dribbler in front of home plate...Sandy throws out his brother at first.
Raffy to the plate and they talk about Davey liking the NL style of ball in reference to making Todd Zeile run on the previous play. Camera flashes to him and Davey still looks cool in the dugout like everythings under control. And everything is under control, you know why? Cause Davey Johnson was the man! Raffy drills a double to the right field gap, Zeile scores easily. What a nice swing.
Campbell makes a dumb comment about "you hear the word elevation used a lot when talking about Denver baseball, but it's also true for Charles Nagy at sea level basically here because he's elevating the baseball and these Orioles hitters are not missing it." huh?? Who brought Denver baseball into the conversation here? Meanwhile, Mark Wiley comes out to offer his guidance and wisdom to Charles Nagy.
Bonilla and Nagy battle it out to a full count and Bonilla grounds weakly back to Nagy. Raffy stays at 2nd and Miller talks about how he has a bad ankle sprain suffered in a late season series with the Yankees. Raffy is a tough guy, playing through pain. Wonder if HGH would make him recover faster? Hmm...
Here comes Cal and Puckett talks about his new batting stance. "He's got a thousand of them," says Miller. Puckett goes on to say how Cal could get three hits and come back the next day with a new stance, which would seem to go against the notion of Cal being a smart ballplayer. I don't believe you, Kirby. Ripken swings and hits weak liner over Omar Vizquel's head that scores Zeile and it's now 4-1! Still, it's great to see Cal getting a hit and an rbi again.
There's a soft "Ed-EE" chant going on as Murray comes up and Nagy gets an even count. He's thrown a LOT of pitches and Danny Graves starts warming in the bullpen. Murray lines out to Franco at first and that's the inning.
Top 4th:
Miller plugs the other games again, reassuring us that Joe Morgan will be back on the espn broadcast tomorrow because he's calling the game for NBC tonight. Whew, I was really worried about that.
Franco leads off the inning... and swings and misses, sends his bat helicoptering into the Indians dugout. Charles Nagy is sitting in the dugout with a look on his face that seems to say "I wish he hit me so I wouldn't have to go back out there." Franco grounds out to Robbie Alomar for the first out. Wells is cruising.
Manny's up for a 2nd time and he's sporting the high top spikes too. I'd like to see him sport the high top spikes again if it means he'd get rid of his Hammer Pants that he's wearing these days. He lines a sharp grounder back up the middle that Wells has to dodge, marking the fastest reaction time ever from David Wells.
Rick Krivda alert! Miller talks about how Krivda pitched the biggest game of the season last week facing a red hot Red Sox team and beat Wakefield. I didn't know Krivda ever pitched a good game. Sadly, he's not on the postseason roster. The camera pans along the bullpen in the outfield where Rocky Coppinger seems to be taking up a lot of space.
Meanwhile Wells 1-1 to Jeff Kent and he lines a double down the left field line which sends Manny to third. Did I say Wells was cruising?
Sandy Alomar lines a single over Roberto's head which scores a run. Bobby Bo overthrows the cutoff man to home plate which allows Sandy Alomar to get to 2nd base, keeping us out of a double play scenario. Jeff Kent to third and its now 4-2.
Vizquel fouls one off and a fan makes a catch. Rex Barney in the background goes "Give that fan...a contract!" Man, I miss that. It never got old no matter how many times you heard it. All of a sudden Wells has 72 pitches in the 4th inning and Vizquel is battling, fouling off a bunch of pitches in this at bat. Campbell can't shut up about Wells not throwing his changeup, and Vizquel keeps fouling off pitches and this is turning into one hell of a battle. 22 pitches in this inning and every one is a fastball, according to Miller. Vizquel finally keeps one fair and lines out to Bonilla in RF who loads up and uncorks a throw to Hoiles at the plate who can't corral the throw off the bounce and Kent is safe. The throw was there in plenty of time but he just couldn't hold on.
Lofton swings on the first pitch and lines out to Cal for the third out.
Bottom 4th:
Surhoff pops up to Lofton in CF and Miller explains something about the umpires showing up late to the park and how they've agreed to call this game and the following days game but nothing more and they'll be having some sort of hearing. Something about that loogie incident with Alomar, I don't think they're too happy.
Hoiles gets hit by a pitch and that turns the lineup over to Brady Anderson who promptly lines one to left and Albert Belle comes racing in and makes a nice sliding catch.
Zeile sends Hoiles to second on a hit between Kent and Franco, and Miller announces that both bullpens are busy here. Alomar grounds sharply back to Nagy who goes on to first for the third out.