MLB: July 2022

They don’t explicitly say so – they don’t say every home game. I might guess that they say “every team’s home games” to indicate that it’s the feed from the home team’s broadcasters, but I could be mistaken.

That seems to be a reasonable assumption.

So, if you’re a fan of the Rocket City Trash Pandas, and they are in Savannah playing against the Bananas, you could watch the game but only from the perspective of the Savannah team’s announcers.

(Not made-up teams, but they are in different leagues so they would be unlikely to ever play each other.)

Mike Trout will captain the USA for the World Baseball Classic, so it already has my attention.

An all star game tied after 9 innings will be settled with another home run derby?! I haven’t had a drink yet, but definitely need one now.

I’m perfectly fine with calling it a tie if the game ends that way after 9 innings, that way you don’t run out of players. How the hell does setting up for a second home run derby make sense over playing another inning of baseball?

I mean, if you’re fine with a tie, then just go home or turn off the TV. An 18 swing HR Derby sounds like a pretty quick endeavor, and fun to watch.

Ah, yes, the baseball equivalent of a shootout.

What’s wrong with putting a runner on second? It’s good enough for regular season games.

What will they do when World Series games end in a tie? Have the team mascots run a footrace around the bases?

Announcer: With the 2nd selection in the 2024 MLB draft, the Rangers select Kyle McQuicky!
Pundit: What a great pick, the Rangers have a known weakness at mascot since Bill Smith, the current Rangers Captain hurt his knee falling off the dugout during the 7th inning stretch back in May. Kyle will certainly bring some badly needed speed to the position.

Even though he didn’t win, Julio dominated the HR Derby. Not bad for a rookie!

He also got more than 30 HRs in two rounds, the first time that has ever been done.

Another first, both finalists were so young (23 and 21).

Congrats to Soto on the win, too!

OK I tried to watch the Some-Star Game and lasted two-thirds of an inning. They have the pitcher miked and he put forth such pearls of wisdom as “My Bad” after serving up ball four and “Hey Bro”. Very annoying and not a little distracting. I switched back to the women’s bowling championships.

Yeah, the mics are very distracting.

I’m watching in a bar with no sound. There is a pretty cool classic rock playlist for background music

So close. Clase strikes out the side in the bottom of the ninth with one pitch more than an immaculate inning.

The mic’ed up pitchers was fun as hell.

I agree with Rick - Alek Manoah on a microphone was tremendous fun. Taking pitch requests from John Smoltz in the booth wasn’t entertaining, are you kidding me? He got dared to strikeout the side on back door sliders - and did it!

If you can find a phone booth, you can hold a convention of all the people who miss Joe Buck. These guys are so much easier on the ears. But then, so is the nails on the chalkboard scene from Jaws. One thing I miss is seeing all the different uniforms in one place, I thought it lent an air of majesty to the event. I enjoyed the mics on Cortes and Trevino as they let us know what was coming. One thing I wish they’d do away with- the Stand Up To Cancer intermission. Fine, raise money somehow during the game. But this is a gimmick that simply takes way too much time out of a game that starts way too late in the first place.

I didn’t last much longer. Had been looking forward to it, but lost interest immediately. I think because the game is mostly meaningless. There’s also the fact that I hate, hate, hate every baseball announcing team other than Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Gary Cohen.

Manoah is impossibly likeable. Everyone in Toronto loves him. Of course, it helps he’s an absolute beast of a pitcher.

He was a VERY good choice for the experiment.

I lasted 20 seconds. What came on-screen was somebody (David Ortiz?) cavorting around a dugout doing interviews, while something like a baseball game was going on unseen and unheard in the background.

No all-star games are worth a crap in any sport. Get athletes together for skills competitions and schmoozing, fine. Don’t bother with pseudo-games which no one takes seriously and which pose some threat of injury.

I guess I don’t actually miss Joe Buck, but I certainly don’t understand the loathing for him. Are there better baseball announcers? Certainly. Are there worse? Absolutely. He’s no Vin Scully or Jon Miller, but he’s not that terrible, either.

I enjoyed the players being miked last night. And the game was close, so while it was meaningless, it was fun to watch.