IGT Mets vs. Braves Friday, April 6, 2007

[Benjamin Grimm]

Many hours until game time, but I figured I'd kick off the pre-game discussion.

I won't be participating in the IGT tonight because I plan to watch the game tomorrow morning on TiVo delay. It'll be the 2007 premiere of Saturday Morning Baseball, a wonderful new tradition that I initiated last season.

Anyway, if the Mets can somehow sweep the Braves like the did the Cardinals, it'll be a heckuva statement. And it may result in the Mets going "wire-to-wire." A loss tonight, however, and the Mets will be in second place.

The thing I'm most looking forward to is seeing Oliver Perez pitch for the first time this year. I'm hoping he doesn't turn in one of his 5 innings, 6 runs, 8 strikeouts performances. If he can give us 7 strong innings or so, it will really be a good sign for this season. If he reverts to the Perez we saw through most of 2006 I can see us spending the next few months longing for Pedro Martinez. Or Philip Humber. Or, gasp, Dave Williams.

[metirish]

I'm really looking forward to this season and like Yancy looking forward to Perez,had good stuff in spring training so lets hope it carries over,not going to say anything disparaging about Redman lest he makes like Kip Wells.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Never give up hope in Perez if he's still getting his strikeouts.

[metirish]

Barry Bonds in 2002 said he thought Perez had "the best stuff of any left-hander in the game.",that quote came from Peter Gammons insider blog on ESPN ,he was blogging about the Mets.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Asking for a lot of innings from Perez is asking a lot. I'll trade length for fewer runs.

[Benjamin Grimm]

True.

Six innings and two runs would make me plenty happy.

[Centerfield]

Brutal schedule to start the season...Cards, Braves, and then the self-annointed team to beat in the NL East.

[Guest GYC]

I don't get to see it because I'm flying out of Tampa at 7:15 and landing in Newark at like 10:15ish... Kinda sucks. I'm going to have to follow it via ESPN bottom line updates.

[Elster88]

Centerfield wrote: the self-annointed team to beat in the NL East.

LOL you never know. They're in good shape. 3 games into the season and they're only three back of TWO teams.

They got us right where they want us.

[TransMonk]

I'll be tuning into TBS tonight...watching some of my least favorite announcers drool over how the Braves are back after their sweep of the Phils.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Did I read somewhere that TBS won't be carrying the Braves after this year? (Or maybe next year?)

I'm hoping that I'll be able to get the SNY telecast over Extra Innings. (I haven't watched a game with Gary, Ron and Keith yet this season.) It would be much better than watching those bozoes on TBS.

(Oh, and since I won't be around this evening, can someone else please step in and kick off the Schaefer thread? Thanks.)

[Guest Edgy DC]

TBS without the Braves? Impossible!

Stand and cheer!
For our great nation!
Super sports!
On the super station!

[metirish]

TBS start doing post season games this year,Cal Ripken in the studio and Tony Gwynn doing the game,I assume the regular TBS guys will do commentary,Gwynn was a great player but is a terrible color commentator.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I like Tony as an announcer. Once you get past the "Black people aren't supposed to talk that way" hump, he's a great source of detail about how the game is played, without having that Morgan stubbornness that there's only one way or the McCarver cognitive dissonance when things don't occur exactly like he explained it.

Of course, some might feel that nobody's supposed to talk that way, but not everybody's a baritone.

[metirish]

You know what,you're right,it's his voice .

[Benjamin Grimm]

From a Google news search. I couldn't read the whole article, but here's what showed up in the search results:

]The Ledger Domain MLB's 7-Year-Hitch to Fox and The All-Star Game Subscription - Baseball Prospectus - Jul 17, 2006 Due to The shift with Turner, starting in 2008, TBS will no longer carry Braves games nationally, but instead will show 45 games locally on WTBS. ...

[Centerfield]

It's been mentioned by someone before that Tony sounds like Eddie Murphy's "white person" voice.

[Frayed Knot]

Centerfield wrote: It's been mentioned by someone before that Tony sounds like Eddie Murphy's "white person" voice.

Bernard, one of Imus's sidekicks, always insists that Gwynn sounds like Urkel.

]Due to The shift with Turner, starting in 2008, TBS will no longer carry Braves games nationally, but instead will show 45 games locally on WTBS. ...

So how would that work ... If your system still carries TBS would they start blacking out all the games?

What's happening is that, in addition to the post-season games which TBS will carry (starting NEXT season, not this one) they'll also be carrying a Sunday afternoon GotW. I don't think it'll be an exclusive package like FOX has on Saturdays, just an addition to whatever local games you get.

I'll miss the Braves games if they do go away. Not that I watched them every night, but I liked the fact that they were there when I did have the time, particularly during times when we were fighting them for pennants.
I also never minded their announcers. Yeah they used "we" too often in ways that we New Yorkers like to think our announcers are above. But they never (IMO) tried to tell you that black was white if things weren't going well for the Braves and were always respectful of the game and the opponent. IOW, they may have occasionally been homers but were never really biased.

[metirish]

You may well be correct FK but Neil Best from Newsday has this....

] Turner bought the rights to the four Division Series and NLCS this fall and will debut a regular-season slate of national games next year. For now, Ripken and Gwynn are signed for only this season.

I'm reading that as post-season games this season.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, you & Neil are correct; it's post-season starting this year and the Sunday GotW starting next.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Frayed Knot wrote: So how would that work ... If your system still carries TBS would they start blacking out all the games?

I remember back when I was first able to watch TBS it was a local Atlanta station. We'd see ads for car dealerships and the Georgia lottery and stuff like that. There might have even been local Atlanta newscasts, where we'd be able to see burning apartment buildings in Georgia as opposed to our local news, where we'd see burning apartment buildings in Queens or New Jersey.

For the longest time, though, TBS has been a national station with no local Atlanta flavor. I wonder if there's still a local WTBS on Channel 17 in Atlanta and a different TBS that's a national cable station.

(I remember that it was Channel 17 because of the "nickname" of CHANNEL that Andy Messersmith, I think, wore on his back above his uniform number 17 as a promotional stunt dreamed up by Ted Turner.)

[Frayed Knot]

]I remember that it was Channel 17 because of the "nickname" of CHANNEL that Andy Messersmith, I think, wore on his back above his uniform number 17 as a promotional stunt dreamed up by Ted Turner

A stunt which Bowie Kuhn slam-dunked real fast.

Turner originally bought the Braves as a way to provide programming for his station back when buying a middling sports franchise was relatively cheap. The team is probably now worth more than the station which has gone from living off of Gomer Pyle, Mayberry & Leave it to Beaver reruns to living off of Seinfeld, Cheers & Home Improvement reruns.

[stevejrogers]

This was a move one could see coming several years ago when TBS decided to change the whole marketing campaign of the baseball broadcasts. Instead of The Braves on TBS, it became generic MLB on TBS. While they weren't fooling anyone considering all the games they aired had the Braves in them, and the Brave broadcasters were calling the game, it certaintly seemed TBS was doing something to make it seem less regional and much more of a national network.

[Gwreck]

New York Mets
Reyes SS
LoDuca C
Beltran CF
Delgado 1B
Wright 3B
Alou LF
Green RF
Valentin 2B
Perez P

=red]Atlanta Braves
Chris Woodward 2B
Edgar Renteria SS
Larry Jones 3B
Andruw Jones CF
Brian McCann C
Jeff Francoeur RF
Craig Wilson 1B
Matt Diaz LF
Mark Redman P

[Guest GYC]

I am going to be SERIOUSLY disappointed if the Mets lose to a team with Chris Woodward batting lead off and Mark Redman pitching. SERIOUSLY disappointed.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If Perez does his job, the Mets should be able to win.

Don't put it past Oliver to give up eight runs, though.

[Gwreck]

Strange lineup. The Matt Diaz/Ryan Langerhans left field spot appears to be a straight platoon, and I guess Cox is doing the same with Scott Thorman/Craig Wilson at first base.

Kelly Johnson is the usual leadoff hitter/2B, I guess this a day off (?).

[Theoldmole]

First Reyes triple!!!

Talk about triple happiness.

And nice to see the Braves dropping popups this early in the season.

[Guest GYC]

Delayed flight = I get to see beginning of the game via GameChannel on Yahoo! because Tampa Int'l has wireless.

Woo Reyes!

[Theoldmole]

Nice SF by LoDuca, ripped double by Beltran...so far, very nice.