Baseball Needs Replay, ESPN Needs Better Commentators

The Cubs lost Friday and Saturday's games against the Dodgers in part due to horrendous officiating. Well, Saturday wasn't as bad as Friday, but still, we have the means to make these calls correct and we should be using them.

Kosuke was safe by over a foot on Friday night in a play that had it been called correctly would have tied the game. Instead, Darryl Cousins clearly just wasn't paying attention to the play and got the call wrong. There is no other explanation for missing this play, because Kosuke was already past the bag before the ball got there.

The bad call resulted in a huge shift of momentum for the Dodgers.

Saturday, Jeff Kent should have been called out at first, but I'll give you that it was only when we saw it in super slow motion that the correct call became clear.

But since we can do that (look at the plays and make sure they're correct), and do it quickly, shouldn't we?

Yesterday, thankfully, the Cubs regained their spot as BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL and kept the streak alive as the only team in baseball this season not to have lost more then two games in a row.

However, the game was damn near unwatchable thanks to Jon Miller and Joe Morgan.

The worst part was the top of the eighth inning when Joe Morgan asked Jon Miller a "trivia question".

Now, to me, the term "trivia question" signifies that it will be a question that has a verifiable fact for an answer.

Well, judge for yourselves. Here was Joe Morgan's trivia question.

"Who hit hardest line drives consistently throughout their career?"

Is this a question with a verifiable answer? Or is this a question that 20 different people could conceivably come up with 20 different defendable answers?

I'm going with the second part. Jon Miller called him out on it a little bit, but Joe Morgan wouldn't budge and rather then fight the good fight, Jon Miller just decided to agree with him.

I demand better commentators if you're going to be the Leader in Sports ESPN.

A Winning Streak and Joe Morgan Opened His Mouth

That's right, the Cubbies won two in a row (as well as 3 out of 4) and took their first series of the season.

Big Z was on again, this time staying through 7 innings and earning his first win of the season. Apparently the bannanas worked as there was no cramping his style this time around.

(100 Years Later would like to appologize for Josh Man's horrible use of a pun in that last sentence. He has been warned not to do so again.)

Alfonso Soriano, who has been struggling mightily at the plate thus far made an amazing play in the outfield in the first keeping the Astros from scoring.

After Bourne led the game off with a single and Hunter Pence followed with a double, at least one run seemed inevitable. With runners at second and third with no one out, Zambrano dug down deep and forced Erstad to strike out. Carlos Lee stepped up to the plate and hit a fly ball to left.

Soriano got himself in a perfect position in order to catch the ball and then fire it home in one smooth powerful motion. The throw was perfect and Bourne was out at home for an inning ending double play.

Soriano also homered later in the game hopefully a sign that his bat will soon awaken.

D Lee was on fire again, this time 3-4 with another homerun. His only out was a fly ball at the wall in the deepest part of the ballpark.

K Dub (aka Kerry Wood) got his third save in as many opportunities with a three up three down ninth despite facing the 3-5 batters in Houston's lineup.

Today, the Cubs head out on the road for the first time this season as a battle of lefties takes place at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

Ted Lilly will take the hill for the Cubs, Tom Gorzelanny goes for the Bucs.

The game starts at 12:35 CST and will be on WGN.

Other games I watched in part yesterday...

TEX 10 LAA 4 F

The Rangers got their first series win of the season yesterday as well, and are a team that will suprise a lot of people if their pitching staff continues to excell like they have so far this season.

CWS 13 DET 2 F

I'll have a lot more on this game in our INTERESTING COMMENTARY section further down.

Other games yesterday...

TB 0 NYY 2 F

BOS 4 TOR 7 F

SEA 2 BAL 3 F

KC 3 MIN 1 F

CLE 2 OAK 1 F

PIT 9 FLA 2 F

PHI 2 CIN 8 F

NYM 1 ATL 3 F

SF 0 MIL 7 F

WSH 0 STL 3 F

ARI 5 COL 2 F 10

LAD 3 SD 2 F

Before we get onto INTERESTING COMMENTARY (patience young jedi) here are the Standings after week one.

AL EAST W L GB
Balt 4 1 -
Tor 4 2 .5
TB 3 2 1.0
NYY 3 3 1.5
Bos 3 4 2.0

AL CENTRAL W L GB
CWS 4 2 -
KC 4 2 -
Cle 3 3 1.0
Min 3 4 1.5
Det 0 6 4.0

AL WEST W L GB
LAA 4 3 -
Tex 3 3 .5
Oak 3 4 1.0
Sea 2 4 1.5

NL EAST W L GB
Atl 3 3 -
Fla 3 3 -
Wsh 3 4 .5
NYM 2 3 .5
Phi 2 4 1.0

NL CENTRAL W L GB
Mil 5 1 -
StL 5 1 -
Cin 4 2 1.0
ChC 3 3 2.0
Pit 3 3 2.0
Hou 2 5 3.5

NL WEST W L GB
Ari 4 2 -
LAD 4 2 -
SD 4 3 .5
Col 1 5 3.0
SF 1 5 3.0



INTERESTING COMMENTARY

In honor of the great website/blog Fire Joe Morgan, I'm going to go do a little FJM on a couple of the things Joe Morgan said last night in the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the White Sox v Tiger game.

First, the first quote in full....

"I played on teams where, you know, you're at home, the fans expect so much and even a little booing we heard yesterday and, I mean, uh, getting on the road sometimes will just relax you, let you concentrate strictly on baseball, no family issues, nothing, and all the sudden you'd be surprised how well guys start to play."

Now, FJM style...

I played on teams where, you know, you're at home

Really, you played on teams that had home games. Man, Joe, you bring so much to a broadcast. Thank you for that.

The fans expect so much

Fans are demanding. They want you to earn the multi millions you're making by, I don't know, trying.

and even a little booing we heard yesterday

If you're worried about booing, don't go on the road, because if you think that home fans can boo, wait till you get around the fans that DON'T like you. But it's not like you were going to say something stupid like the road will be better, right?

and I mean, uh, getting on the road

Oh, crap, that's exactly what you were about to do.

sometimes will relax you let you concentrate strictly on baseball

As opposed to when you're at home and you're thinking about what comes on Skinamax later that night or what you're having for dinner. Because everyone knows professional baseball players aren't concentrating on baseball when they're at home. Hopefully everyone knows sarcasam when they read it too.

No family issues, nothing

Hey, Joe Morgan's family, did you know that when he's on the road he doesn't think about you at all? Out of sight, out of mind, baby. That's the Joe Morgan philosophy.

And all the sudden you'd be surprised how well guys start to play

They're going to have to be awfully amazing to surprise me with how well they start to play when they've got an amazing team that has underperformed so far. I'm surprised with how poorly they've played. If they play well, like they're expected to, it isn't called "surprise" it's called "meeting expectations".

Quote Number Two in full....

"There's an old saying in baseball, when your game, ga, uh, when you're losing you're never as bad as you look, when you're playing well, you're not as good as you look, and right now, it just looks bad for the Tigers, but that's because they're losing."

Now, FJM style...

There's an old saying in baseball

Ohh, let me guess, let me guess, um, "Baseball is the only thing you can succeed at only 30% of the time and be considered a Hall of Famer?", um "Good pitching will always beat good hitting?", um, "Everybody wins 50 games and loses 50 games, it's what you do with the other 62 that matter?", um, there's a million of these...

When you're losing you're never as bad as you look, when you're playing well you're not as good as you look

And I have never in my life heard that one.

Right now it just looks bad for the Tigers, but that's because they're losing.

I honestly don't even know what to say to that. This is supposed to be helpful commentary? Really?

In the inning when he made that quote, the Tigers made an error allowing the first guy to get on base, then gave up a couple of hits to load the bases. The tigers then hit a guy to let in a run, gave up a passed ball, had a chance to get a double play, but screwed it up resulting in everyone being safe. I think that maybe the Tigers are losing because they're playing bad, not looking bad because they're losing.

But that's just me.

Well, the Tigers can't lose today, they have a day off.

Here are today's games.