Saturday, July 08, 2006

Snippet

You look up and you haven't posted all week. Part of it's the holiday, another part the post-holiday crush that comes from having to do the week's work in three days.

So I had to see last night's game in condensed version, MLB.tv-style. It's amazing to see a whole ballgame reduced to something that's less than 10 minutes long, and even more interesting when the game is a pitching duel, that was short enough to begin with.

Two moments in this game really left me impressed with Jaret Wright (or should that be, Condensed Jaret Wright?). In the first, the Rays got players on second and third with no outs, and it looked like you might have a replay of Wright's ill-fated start against the Mets. Instead, Wright froze the runners with a hard lineout (assist to the Captain) a pop-out, and a strikeout, running through the heart of the Tampa order. Aside from the assist that the Captain gets for keeping the game scoreless, a big assist to Bubba Crosby, who seems to have properly decoyed Julio Lugo on a ball that was clearly over his head--this kept Lugo from scoring from first base, and held the batter, Carl Crawford, to a double.

Later, in the fourth inning, Aubrey Huff hit a lead-off double, and made it to third with only one out. Again, Wright turned it up a notch (with apologies to Mr. Lagasse) striking out Yankee-Killer Johnny Gomes and Russel Branyan.

Offensively, there wasn't much going on on the Yankee side, beyond Bernie Williams' two-out RBI single that scored a lumbering Jason Giambi. But that's all you need when you win, 1-0.

NOTES:

Dioner Navarro might have given some clue why he's on his third team in three years with his strikeout in the bottom of the fifth. Navarro seemed to be either sulky or inattentive when he struck out swinging in the fifth inning, on a ball that got away from Posada. As Posada frantically tried to get the ball back to tag out Navarro, Dioner was head down, walking back to the dugout. Seemed oblivious.

Aaron Guiel on a $200+ million roster? I'll take the caviar, the foie gras appetizers...and the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. I'm sorry, where are my manners, I should call it by its French name, Royale with Cheese.

Short verdict on Superman Returns. Have you ever cooked something from a recipe, gotten to the end and tasted it, and there's something missing? It's not like the meal is ruined, it still tastes OK, but it just doesn't taste like it's supposed to. That's this Superman flick. It's a good film, Brandon Routh's performance is great (in Brother T's words, he seemed not to be acting so much as "channeling Christopher Reeve"), the action scenes all work. Just something's missing, and as a result, the movie was short on exhiliration. Mild recommend, maybe more on this later.

The schedule going forward? Don't know if I'll have time to post tomorrow. On Monday we'll have a Week In Review, and I'm shooting for a First Half in Review by Wednesday.

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