Quotes of 2010

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Manuel on Pelfrey, postgame yesterday:

Some Guy Who Writes Down What JM Says wrote: "I think it started towards the end of Spring Training... he doesn't have to be power every night. He's now developing a lot of... pitchability."

[MFS62]

From Baseball Prospectus, about the imperfect game:

"From here we salute Armando. The umpire was wrong ... but, well, the umpire is the umpire." �Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Steve Serby and Jerry Manuel, talking this year's team:

SS: Is Mike Pelfrey a gangsta? JM: (Laugh). Pelfrey is a gangsta, no doubt. Serious gangsta. SS: How many do you have? JM: One, two, three, four, five. . . . I got about seven gangstas in there. SS: Is that enough to win the division? JM: Oh, no question.

1. Pelf
2. Johan
3. Wright
4. Reyes?
5. Um... Davis? Pagan? Rodriguez? PedroDos? The Animal?

[Guest Edgy DC]

If Carter isn't gangsta, I don't want to meet whoever is.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Carter's sorta gangsta. But he's more of a Marine-with-untreated-mental-illness-who-blacks-out-when-he-drinks.

I think of Bay more as a Mountie.

[Frayed Knot]

Carter's the guy the ganstas run away from.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Frayed Knot wrote: Carter's the guy the ganstas run away from.

"Fill my hand... with that home run ball."

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ms Edgy:

Why did they hire this guy (Hagin)? He seems to be openly rooting for the other team.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Tim McCarver on the 1967 All Star Game.

Tom Seaver got the save in that game following Perez's hit in the top of the inning. He threw harder in that inning than any pitcher I caught in that game, including Bob Gibson. Gibson is mainly responsible for my deformed thumb on my left hand. But when I took my glove off after catching Seaver, my left hand was badly swollen and black and blue under the index finger. I was doing pretty well the first half of that season, but I went into the tank the second. I've told Tom he ruined my left hand with that inning of work.

[MFS62]

From Baseball Prospectus:

"I was trying to make pitches. Bottom line is I just didn't get it done. That's all you can say. ... I thought that I could have gotten out of it with any one pitch. That's my game�making the hitters hit balls. They just hit it kind of hard." �Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin on the Rockies' nine-run comeback in the ninth inning of last Tuesday's game at Coors Field.

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

On Thole.

Adam Rubin quoting Jerry Manuel wrote: �What I have to do is I have to justify a young catcher being here,� Manuel said. �When he continues to get those big hits, regardless if he�s playing or not, I think it helps us here at the major league level. But, at the same time, maybe if we can create some versatility, play him a little at first and see what he looks like -- not play him, but at least take balls at the position ...

Read it a couple of times, it makes your head buzz. Read it one hundred times, it clears your mind. It's like three Jerry koans in one.

[Guest Edgy DC]

"If I can create versatility with my mind, it's all good."

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ms Edgy: Why did they hire this guy (Hagin)? He seems to be openly rooting for the other team.

Paul Lukas has been collecting Wayne's foibles for awhile at UniWatch and is now chronicling them on a separate website.

I think the whole "Fire _________ " is an ugly concept that's been done too much, but Paul is right on target with his analysis of Hagin ("His brain writes checks that his mouth can't cash"). He's miscast as Howie's partner, and way too often bungles his descriptions. Just tell me what's happening, I'm trying to run out here!

http://firewaynehagin.blogspot.com/

[TransMonk]

I've only listened to Hagin one or two times since he was hired...but the dude is a journeyman who has been in Oakland, San Fran, Colorado and St. Louis. It's no wonder that it sounds like he is rooting for the other team.

All other Mets announcers have/had some direct tie to the Mets/New York. Hagin is just a gun-for-hire filling a seat.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

To be fair to Hagin, he's objective: I don't want my announcers rooting for anyone, necessarily. BUT, he's got a Midwest sensibility that's just not working here.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Fuck the Midwestern sensibility... my problem is that he often makes no sense.

At the risk of flattering myself (which I already do a couple of times a night, once the baby goes to sleep), I'm a pretty good listener-- pretty good at subtext, and not so bad at figuring out what someone wants when they are speaking a foreign language.

That said, there are moments in each Hagin-called game-- in a good game, a handful or two; in a bad game, every half-inning, at least-- in which I don't know what is going on. I literally don't understand what he is saying or what is happening; at these moments, if not for crowd noise, I wouldn't have any clue. Sometimes it's hilariously bad (as Lukas chronicles). Most of the time, it's as painful as having someone take 100 words-- most of them ill-chosen-- to describe a successful sacrifice bunt. Do you know how I have that in my analogue repertoire? It's thanks to Wayne Hagin.

[MFS62]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Fuck the Midwestern sensibility... my problem is that he often makes no sense. At the risk of flattering myself (which I already do a couple of times a night, once the baby goes to sleep), I'm a pretty good listener-- pretty good at subtext, and not so bad at figuring out what someone wants when they are speaking a foreign language. There are moments in each game-- in a good game, a handful or two; in a bad game, every half-inning, at least-- that Wayne Hagin calls where I don't know what is going on. I literally don't understand what he is saying or what is happening; at these moments, if not for crowd noise, I wouldn't have any clue. Sometimes it's hilariously bad (as Lukas chronicles). Most of the time, it's as painful as having someone take 100 words-- most of them ill-chosen-- to describe a successful sacrifice bunt. Do you know how I have that in my analogue repertoire? It's thanks to Wayne Hagin.

Hagin gets you in the general vicinity of the play that's developing, then leaves you in the middle of a cross-walk with details speeding at you, 100mph.

Words being thrown in that shouldn't be there; the play developing and finalizing as he continues to ramble -- the staple has always been the crowd reaction, prior to him getting halfway through his call.

I�ve enjoyed a few of the parodied Hagin calls that I've seen on a few other message boards. (IIRC, one was Scout. com) These are from memory, but close enough.

"And the 1-2 pitch to Wright, ripped down the left field line and the left fielder is coming over and he strides towards the ball and he goes down and he reaches out his glove. Into his glove goes the ball, as it just avoids touching the grass to become a base-hit. David Wright with a lineout to the leftfielder, who went over and stretched out to make a wonderful play."


"Groundball up the middle. The shortstop Reyes shuffles to his left, scoops it up with the glove contained within his left hand, transfers to his throwing arm to prepare for what surely will be a close play (crowd applauds out), glares towards the first base bag, fires across the diamond to a waiting Daniel Murphy. And with a stern stretch, Daniel Murphy sees the ball into his waiting mitt in which he looks to the umpire in anticipation of his arm gesture which will indicate whether the runner is safe or out, and with a glimmer in his right eye, the umpire raises his right arm in a motion that indicates that the ball has reached the first baseman's mitt before the runner has touched the base. What we have just witnessed is out number one."


Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

MFS62 wrote: "Groundball up the middle. The shortstop Reyes shuffles to his left, scoops it up with the glove contained within his left hand, transfers to his throwing arm to prepare for what surely will be a close play (crowd applauds out), glares towards the first base bag, fires across the diamond to a waiting Daniel Murphy. And with a stern stretch, Daniel Murphy sees the ball into his waiting mitt in which he looks to the umpire in anticipation of his arm gesture which will indicate whether the runner is safe or out, and with a glimmer in his right eye, the umpire raises his right arm in a motion that indicates that the ball has reached the first baseman's mitt before the runner has touched the base. What we have just witnessed is out number one."

"... the only out the pitcher has pun--recorded in this inning... so far."

[Ceetar]

MFS62 wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: "And the 1-2 pitch to Wright, ripped down the left field line and the left fielder is coming over and he strides towards the ball and he goes down and he reaches out his glove. Into his glove goes the ball, as it just avoids touching the grass to become a base-hit. David Wright with a lineout to the leftfielder, who went over and stretched out to make a wonderful play."

Then he'll go on for a bit, and toss in a "Reyes tagged up and scored from third" way too long later when besides "caught" is the only thing I wanted to know.

I like Hagin as a color guy more. He does seem to have a good sense of what's happening and why. He does seem good, although I don't have examples and could be way off, at setting the scene between pitches.

[Guest themetfairy]

To be honest with you, I didn't even know his funeral was (Thursday),'' said Jeter, who has insisted a tape recording of Sheppard introducing his home at-bats be played as long as he wears the pinstripes. "Having said that, I don't necessarily think you have to go to a funeral to honor someone.

No - why ruin a good day off to go to the funeral of a man you supposedly admire?

[Ceetar]

themetfairy wrote: To be honest with you, I didn't even know his funeral was (Thursday),'' said Jeter, who has insisted a tape recording of Sheppard introducing his home at-bats be played as long as he wears the pinstripes. "Having said that, I don't necessarily think you have to go to a funeral to honor someone. No - why ruin a good day off to go to the funeral of a man you supposedly admire?

He seriously said that? seriously?

Where's Michael Kay? This spin must be funny.

[Guest themetfairy]

Ceetar wrote: themetfairy wrote: To be honest with you, I didn't even know his funeral was (Thursday),'' said Jeter, who has insisted a tape recording of Sheppard introducing his home at-bats be played as long as he wears the pinstripes. "Having said that, I don't necessarily think you have to go to a funeral to honor someone. No - why ruin a good day off to go to the funeral of a man you supposedly admire? He seriously said that? seriously? Where's Michael Kay? This spin must be funny.

He did. Seriously.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Derek Jeter wrote: "Having said that, I don't necessarily think you have to go to a funeral to honor someone."

You know, even though he's Derek Jeter, he's right.

[Guest Edgy DC]

You don't need to go to a funeral to honor someone, but I think if honoring is your game, you'd do well to know when that funeral is, and make an informed decision, and make it your business perhaps as captain to let the other players know.

Even though he's right, he's Derek Jeter.

[Zvon]

"Whew, this is a tuff room"
*Adjusts tie*

[Guest The Second Spitter]

"For the last 10 years, I've tried to emulate Alex Rodriguez in both my professional and personal life."

[Guest Edgy DC]

Carlos Beltran on the 2010 Mets:

"Our time will come as a team,. My time will come."

Jeff Francoeur, on hearing that Wainwright had said he was trying walk old Jeff with two on and first base open, when he instead gave up a three run bomb to center-right-center:

"If anybody knows me, it's pretty tough to walk me."

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Edgy DC wrote: Carlos Beltran on the 2010 Mets: "Our time will come as a team,. My time will come."

NOO YAWK METS AHR TEAM AHR TIME

[metirish]

Carlos Beltran speaking to the Irish Voice

Tiocfaidh �r l�

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Miguel Batista makes some midwestern enemies after doing his best Strasburg impression, with the most refreshingly honest sorta-sexist analogy since Julian Tavarez:

"Imagine if you go to see Miss Universe, then you end up having Miss Iowa, you might get those kind of boos."