April 19, 2004
A Night at Shea: Replays, Pop-ups, Ass-less Chaps and the Red Flag
While I wouldn't trade the experience of actually being at the ballpark for anything, there are a few things you lose out on by watching the game in person as opposed to watching it on TV. One of the things you lose out on is a lot of money (note to self: when presented with a choice between buying two dollar tickets and 23 dollar tickets at Shea, choose two dollar ones and then move to the 23 dollar seats). But that's just my bitterness at my own idiocy speaking. My real complaint about attending a game in person has to do with replays, and specifically, the age old (and brutally antiquated) tradition of not showing the replay of a great play made by the visiting team. In the second inning on Thursday night, Braves' shortstop Jesse Garcia made a once-in-his-lifetime play, laying out fully extended into the hole at short to pick up a ball on one hop (a short hop, mind you), springing to his feet and firing to first from deep short for the out. Just an awesome play. I, the Braves fan, turned to my friends, the Mets fans, and we all gave the play a collective "wow."
Instinctively, I looked over to the sparkly new jumbotron for a replay, and I waited. Nothing. It didn't take me long to realize that there wasn't going to be any replay. They don't show replays when something bad happens to the home team. But of course, when Mets' left fielder Joe McEwing caught a routine fly ball along the left field line, we saw that on the jumbotron immediately -- the replay crew couldn't rack it up fast enough. What gives? Are the powers that be afraid that if the Mets were to show a replay of a great play that just so happened to have been made by a Braves' player, the crowd would be so offended and horrified that it would storm out in droves? I hope not, because there weren't that many people in attendance in the first place. Whoever's running the show needs to realize that baseball fans want to see great baseball plays, no matter who makes them. It's that simple.
Some other observations from a Thursday evening at Shea:
-Speaking of antiquated practices, where in the rulebook is it written that a pitcher should under no circumstances be allowed to catch an infield pop-up? I understand that the idea is to protect a pitcher from injuring himself while stumbling around on the mound, but it's pretty ridiculous that the moment a ball is hit in the air near the pitcher's mound, the pitcher, who normally makes every effort to field the ball when it's hit on the ground or on a line (including attempting to catch it with his bare hand), puts his hands at his sides and looks up at the ball above him as though it were suddenly made of feces, as if to say, "I'm not catching that thing." Meanwhile, the first baseman and third baseman are madly scrambling towards the mound to try to get to the ball, nearly colliding with one another while the pitcher stands idly by, apparently too good for the coarse task of catching a pop-up. Befuddling.
-If you don't like Braves' manager Bobby Cox, you really should at least give yourself a chance to enjoy his antics. On Thursday night, he was ejected in the fifth inning for arguing a called strike against Braves' outfielder Eli Marrero. This, in and of itself, is not shocking -- Bobby Cox gets ejected all the time. What made this particular ejection great was that Bobby was arguing about strike two. Usually, when a manager or a batter gets ejected for arguing balls and strikes, it's over the third strike, for obvious reasons -- there's a lot more at stake there. I can't remember the last time I saw a manager get tossed over strike two. Let's just say it's a rare occurrence, and Bobby Cox is a rare breed of manager. Of course, the best thing about a Bobby Cox ejection is seeing him run/waddle out of the dugout to argue with the umpire. Bobby has had reconstructive surgery on both knees and moves with all the agility of a penguin. One of my good friends once said that he runs like he's wearing ass-less chaps. Now, I've never seen anyone wearing ass-less chaps, so I don't know what someone wearing them looks like when they run, but I'd have to guess that it probably looks something like Bobby Cox on the move.
-Remember that Seinfeld episode where George takes a book into the restroom at a bookstore, and he is forced to buy it because it has been in the bathroom and is thus "red flagged"? (The idea of course being that just by having been in the bathroom, the book is permanently tainted in some way.) I bring this up because on Thursday night, as I was standing in a quite rancid bathroom holding a beer while emptying my bladder, I found myself wondering if there might not be some truth to this whole "red flagging" business. As a general practice, should we not be taking our beers into the bathroom with us? When I go to the movies, is it a bad idea to buy my popcorn before I go to the bathroom? Was the filth that was sitting in the toilet and on the bathroom walls somehow emanating into my cup of beer while I stood there urinating? You know what -- don't answer that last one. In fact, let's forget we had this conversation at all...
-Matt Stroup Copyright ©2004 instant-replays.com
