Monday, March 16, 2009

¿por qué no te callas?

Yes, I just made an Hugo Chávez reference. (Actually, I guess it's more a Juan Carlos I reference. Ha ha!) At any rate, it's really just a reaction to the announcers spending Magglio Ordoñez' entire first plate appearance talking about the fact that the Venezuelan fans hate him because he has recently publicly endorsed the middlingly unpopular president of Venezuela (and his ambitions).

Why don't you just be quiet?

Sure, baseball players can be political. Sure, fans can boo them for it. But do we have to hear about it for 10 minutes? (Besides which, his hair is much in need of some discussion and yet no one ever seems to notice it.) Come to think of it, you probably don't want to read about it either.

Moving on.

Anybody else really hate Bobby Abreu? I mean really really? Huh. (Yeah, keep chicken-walking, you... something-or-other. What? It's late.)

I'd also like to take this opportunity to congratulate baseball on an amazingly disastrous new rule. Pardon me for a minute, I'll be yelling.

What a FABULOUS WAY to disrupt the FLOW of a GAME!!!

What a BRILLIANT METHOD to make the UMPIRES the focus of ALL THE ATTENTION instead of THE PLAYERS and--good grief!--THE GAME!!!

Players get to SIT ON THEIR THUMBS for a FULL FIVE MINUTES while the officials DISAPPEAR FROM THE FIELD!!! Pitchers get to LOSE THEIR RHYTHM and let their ARMS COOL DOWN!!!

I CANNOT BELIEVE they didn't think of this NONSENSE SOONER!!!

If I wanted to watch a game dictated by TECHNOLOGY and INSTANT REPLAY, I'D WATCH FOOTBALL!!!

Umpires should blend into the background. They should be invisible. They are there to quietly guide the game and nothing else. When they take center stage and have the entire stadium waiting and watching them, something is terribly, horribly wrong. I was against this idea from the start, but now that I've seen the thing in all its depravity, I can't believe there isn't more outrage.

Seriously folks, we've seen the BEAST, and it is video review. What a mockery.

Am I just bitter because of the loss? No. In fact, I wrote most of this in my head while it was actually happening, which is to say before PR lost so dreadfully to Venezuela.

Here's what else:

The runner (whoever the heck he was) was out when Yadi threw to second. You know what I'm talking about, don't act like you don't.

Henry Blanco is a freak.

Puerto Rico may turn out some great catchers, but Venezuela has the pitching market all locked up.

I'm happy about Yadi's at-bat in the ninth. It was a little scary to see him up first against K-Rod in such a serious situation, but I knew he wouldn't strike out and he didn't. He continues to amaze me with his patience and composure at the plate. 10 WBC points

I'm going to bed now (instead of watching the Mexico-Cuba game) to cry myself to sleep because I don't get to watch the PR-US game.

Oh, and I invented a word. I'll bust it out for you in the near future.