Wednesday night on YES, Michael Kay and Ken Singleton got all over Rays’ shortstop Jason Bartlett for trying to bunt his way on. At the time, the Rays led, 7-2, top of the eighth, man on second, none out.
Kay and Singleton’s disregard for Bartlett, in this regard, was complete, mocking. At 7-2 in the eighth, Bartlett should be swinging away, they said. After all, said Kay, not even a grand slam could beat the Rays. Singleton accused Bartlett of trying to improve his .245 batting average.
Come on, fellas. The Yankees, at home, had six more outs. Five runs in two innings are out of the question? Why shouldn’t Bartlett, with none out, do whatever it takes to make it a six-run lead?
The Rays won, 10-6, thus, it seemed, the Yankees were capable of scoring only four runs, over the next two innings.
The next day, however, the Braves scored seven runs in the ninth to beat the Reds. The very next day.
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How can Dave Winfield as an ESPN studio panel baseball analyst be so bad, yet, this past Thursday with Michael Kay on 1050 ESPN, be so good? That’s the problem when you’re part of a panel, and you get only two or three shots to be heard; the pressure to sound good can make a mess of you.
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There’s a first time for everything. ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, Thursday, delivered an on-site report without using the word “I” or “me.”
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In the days following the appearance of those surreptitious hotel room videos, ESPN aggressively characterized Erin Andrews as a serious broadcast journalist who was a sexually objectified victim of a horrible crime. Then came that GQ photo spread, then “Dancing With the Stars.”
Ya think, if ESPN knew what was coming, it would have left out the “serious journalist” part?
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An ESPN graphic on Thursday noted that the Braves’ Brooks Conrad, earlier that day, hit his “first career walk-off grand-slam.” That led reader Brian Curran to ask how many walk-off grand slams ESPN thinks would be about right over a major league career.
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Sometimes Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman seems as if she’s putting us on. During Friday’s Byron Nelson, she said this of 16-year-old amateur Jordan Spieth, who, at -3, made the cut: “His dad said that if he gets off to a good start he can stay in the moment very well.”
There’s no end to PSL shenanigans
More Tales From The PSL Crypt: This one from a prominent New Yorker and longtime Jets’ ticket subscriber. Last year his four seats were the priciest they’d ever been — $105 per, for 10 games (including two that don’t count), a total of $4,200.
This season those four seats are $700 per ticket, a total of $28,000. The PSL for each seat is $20,000, for a total of $80,000. His total bill: Up from last year’s $4,200, is $108,000.
“They told me I could pay it off over time, but at a 6½ percent interest rate.”
His other option was to take lesser seats at roughly four times what he paid for tickets last season, plus the cost of the four PSLs.
What’s that? Of course he’s gone.
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Will new PSL Stadium be the site of the 2014 Super Bowl? NFL Network carries the announcement, live, Tuesday at 3 p.m. Hey, the 2014 Super Bowl might be the first time an NFL games sells out PSL Stadium.
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MSG’s Varsity channel recently televised a Lafayette HS baseball game. The Brooklyn school’s nickname is the Patriots, in lasting tribute to the Marquis de Lafayette. The team logo depicts a Revolutionary War era soldier wearing a red coat. Class, can anyone tell us which soldiers, back then, actually did wear red coats?
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Back in the sulky again: Dave Johnson‘s harness racing show — “Saturday Night at the Races” — debuted on Sirius XM last night. It’ll be heard for the next 10 weeks on S 126 and XM 243 at 10 p.m.
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Is it mere coincidence that the PED era has been accompanied by injuries once never heard of — torn triceps — and the proliferation of certain medical procedures — hip surgeries — once not nearly as common?
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The rotunda near left field in Pittsburgh’s PNC Park includes an iron casting of Ralph Kiner‘s hands holding a bat. Neat.
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Lookalikes: Jenna DiSpirito, West Nyack, N.Y., submits Mets’ pitcher John Maine and the Verizon salesman on the Verizon Fios commercials.
Francesa muzzles another caller
You don’t need another driver to give you road rage. Mike Francesa on the car radio will do it.
Thursday, a fellow called to say that Mets’ hitters are so bad that batting coach Howard Johnson should work with them “24 hours a day.”
Francesa cut him off, began to talk down to him, then bully him, then dumped him off the line. Next, Fran-say-so delivered a long, scolding lecture on how Johnson shouldn’t be blamed for the Mets’ problems.
But the caller who set Francesa off never said that he should. And if that caller intended to blame Johnson — and that didn’t seem to be the case — Francesa didn’t give him time to do so. He just jumped the guy and beat him up for saying something he never said.
But if you don’t by now know that waiting to speak to Francesa is like lining up for a beating, that’s your fault. Still, there are enough folks willing to risk it or the only calls we’d hear would be from telemarketers.
In just under 2½ minutes, Friday, Francesa, on WFAN and YES, interrupted Ron Darling’s answers to Francesa’s questions 13 times. But Francesa’s questions seemed designed for Francesa to answer.
Apparently, by then, His Highness had warmed up since the top of the show, when he threw a hissy fit because the air conditioning was set too low in his Citi Field booth.
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There’s not enough techno-vandalism on the Internet, so one of our sports networks has invited more. Versus’s website has a viewer/reader interactive element entitled “Start Talking Smack.” Apparently, trash talk represents Versus’ sense of sports. Charming.
Incidentally, the expression “trash-talking” is a lot older than most would guess. In his 1965 hit single, “I’m In With The In Crowd,” Dobie Gray sings:
“Any time of the year, don’t you hear?
“Spendin’ cash, talkin’ trash . . .”