Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Ways to Make a Blow Out Entertaining

When it is 9-2 in the 6th, and your Minnesota Twins offense has not looked particularly strong all year (aside from that 12-5 abberation against the Sox), you might start to flip around on the old TV remote hoping to find something more compelling.  But then you miss the absolute fun that is Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven when they no longer have to talk about the game at hand.  I offer up two verbal recaps (without the express written consent of MLB or the Twins):

1.  Dick, I think in the 5th or 6th inning, mentioned that everyone was wearing #42 for a reason.  It was because, of course, the annual celebration of Jackie Robinson.  The lads then went into a little bit of well-intentioned specious reasoning--namely, talking about great African-American players who we would not have seen if Jackie Robinson hadn't broken the color barrier.  Famous names were thrown out there--Reggie, Kirby, Ricky, etc.  (Of course, almost all of those guys would have played in the Majors--if it wasn't Jackie, it would have been Larry Doby, or Satchel Paige, or someone else before 1950.)  But their hearts were in the right place.  And then they talked about the inclusion of African-Americans helped open the game to all nationalities--I'm Paraphrasing here:  

Dick:  "Cubans, Venezuelans, all these players from different  people."
Bert:  "A number of great players from many different countries."
Dick:  "There's been some talk about retiring Roberto Clemente's number retired like Robinson's has been."
Bert:  "And don't forget the Dutch!"
Dick:  "That's just you and Jim Kaat."
Bert:  "Jim Kaat was from Holland, New York Michigan."  (corrected via miwacar's recall)

2.  Right about the same time, just before or just after, there was a dugout interview with last night's winner, Glen Perkins.  Bert handled most of that interview, and they hit upon Bert's FAVORITE THING--which is pitching inside.  I'm in total agreement with him on that, but pitching inside is, without doubt, one of Bert's favorite things (right up there with farting).  After some discussion about Perkins' game the previous night, the discussion turned to Baker's rather poor outing tonight.

Bert and Dick both asked questions about how Perkins talks to his fellow pitchers, what he gets from them, what they give to him, etc.  It was mildly humorous work from the Fox Sports director to get shots of Perkins talking about giving his fellow pitchers some space before he talks to them, intercut with shots of fellow pitcher Kevin Slowey practically interrogating Scotty Baker in the dugout.  

But what really sold it, after a good 5 minutes of interview, in which these two shots were intercut throughout, was the final shot, with Perkins talking about how it is important to get the feedback from other pitchers, and how a pitch of your own might strike you as a good pitch until your fellow pitchers tell you that no, that isn't a good pitch.  As Perkins is discussing how he would talk with Baker at some point, but wanted to give him space (the cuts showed us, yet again, Slowey in the midst of a heavy convo with Baker)  the camera pulled back a bit, and the final joke was revealed--not three feet to Perkins' right was Baker, who must have heard everything Perkins had said.  Hilarious!

2 comments:

Jess said...

On the one hand, I'm sad to have missed the hilarity. On the other hand, I'm glad I was at yoga instead of watching Scotty Baker implode. (My coworkers are actually discussing last night's game right now and have proclaimed the Twins as sucking.)

The Twins had better shape up. Leaving Dick and Bert little to talk about gamewise (especially Bert, with his f-bomb dropping and double entendres) is a recipe for disaster. Dirty, hilarious disaster, but a disaster nonetheless.

Miwacar said...

BBM your recall is worse than mine on this, which is shocking. It is of no real concern other than Jim Kaat is from Holland, MI not NY.

Do not get the Dutch mad at you. It only leads to bad things, and I mean bad meaning good. You get chased around by tall, buxom blondes who are trying to pelt you with tulips. And once they catch you...weed and free love!