One Swing.
That was all the difference in a rain soaked and delayed game between the Reds and the Pirates.
Fortunately,the swing was by Pittsburgh's Jason Bay,who slammed a 430 foot homer in the sixth inning for the games only run in a 1-0 Pirate win.
I only got to watch a few innings between the Suns (more later) and catching the Devils game after my return,but did see the homer and it was quite a shot.
Paul Maholm was removed after the final rain delay and that was unfortunate,but smart for Maholm's arm.
Nothing is worse than having to warm up several times,but Maholm was cruising through the Red lineup in an excellent performance.
The bullpen used three pitchers and only allowed one hit in their best work of the year.
John Grabow got the win (1-0) and Matt Capps earned his second save.
Same two tonight at 7.
Pitching Matchup
Cincinnati:Bronson Arroyo (0-1) at Pittsburgh:Ian Snell (1-0) 7:05
One Review
The New Jersey Devils battled the New York Rangers on even terms for over two periods before allowing two goals in 23 seconds and then watching as various errors were
called by the video idiots in Toronto and the on ice arbiters led to a 2-1 loss and a 2-0 deficit in their Eastern Conference series.A John Madden goal was disallowed by the Toronto gang that would cut the lead to 2-1 and therefore would have meant overtime when Madden scored later.
Zach Parise lost several teeth on a crosscheck earlier in the game and the player was not ejected and near the games end,Parise was clearly crosschecked and the officials refused to call it.
Of course,45 seconds earlier they had no problems calling holding on Jamie Langenbrunner for a light grab and the imbeciles cost the Devils momentum by calling a late icing during the Langenbrunner penalty.
The problem there of course is that when you are a man down you are allowed to ice the puck!
And then the face off was held in the Devils end to boot!
Simply awful.
The Devils still can only blame themselves for the loss and it does not look good for the series considering the next two games are at MSG with Game 3 scheduled for Sunday at 7.
One Decision
I tried to give the Hagerstown Suns a clean slate for this season,but it only took 2 hours to muddy the book after the cancellation of their game vs Lake County.
Between opening the ticket window just 15 minutes before the game and then the familiar tactic of drawing out the gates opening,I was already wondering about the new start.
But after a tremendous downpour that left the field unplayable,the management drug their feet for over an hour following the storm to call the game.
I had no problem with that at all,but it was clear that the game was not going to get in and they drew the process out.
This from the same crew that was so quick last year to call the infamous "tarp" game because it was a "feed your face" day.
Sorry to sound cynical,but it is tough to give them the benefit of the doubt.
We will try though and chalk last night up to opening night jitters as a mulligan of sorts and try again.
Double dose of baseball tonight at the Muni at 5:35.
We did get to talk to Erik Arnesen a bit during the delay and thank him in person for the interview over the winter.
Erik has pitched 6 innings thus far without allowing a run and looks to be down a good 20+ pounds in weight as well.....
I plan on trying to do some extra stuff over the next few days such as Pirates top 10 prospects and where the players that we follow here were assigned to for 2008..
Until then
Photo Credit
Bay-Don Wright-AP Photo
Parise-Mel Evans-AP Photo
3 comments:
I say give them the benefit of the doubt as I have seen very competent and capable teams do the same. Opening night is often the first night for more than half staff, so I'm sure they wanted to use this as a training for future rainouts/delays.
And if the Suns are reading... have a sense of humor and schedule a giveaway of rain ponchos next year on Opening Day. That's what the North Shore Spirit did in 2004 after having nearly half a dozen rainouts (including Opening Day) in their first three homestands.
I think Suns management could be improved. Heck, you had to ask for magnet schedules today. They replaced the Utz chips at the concessions stands with the Martin's generic kind. They are headed downhill! Though that may be their intent.
For such a beautiful day, today's crowd was anemic. I very much fault the General Manager for that. They're mainly marketing on the station which already carries the Suns games. Their TV ad is stupid and isn't very effective. They *should* run something like this:
"Do you remember a time before the gimmicks. Before everything started to look the same? Before cable? And before replays? You can go back to that time. Come watch a baseball game at historic Municipal Stadium. Watch future major leaguers while reliving the past. Tickets start at $7."
They have to identify what makes them different, and pitch that. As long as they're playing at Municipal Stadium, they're never going to cut it by trying to be a cheap imitation of what's in Frederick. But Frederick can be too sterile. It's the same as most Comcast parks. By emphasizing their differences, they can attract people who are looking for something else at an affordable price.
Also, what's with renaming the beer garden "Downtown Live," but not changing the signs? And what's with the white sign in the right-field corner? If they can't sell the sign they could paint it over in green! Did they run out of paint?
I agree that the crowd was less than desired yesterday and I rap Suns management a lot,but for the crowd yesterday-I will give them a mild pass.
The Suns have never grasped the power of Little League here and many leagues opened yesterday.
I am on the the dish,so I have not seen the new spots,but I have heard they are bad.
I like Frederick to watch a game and Keys management puts Hagerstown to shame,but it is kinda 90's cookie cutterish.
As far as the Suns running this into the ground on purpose.......
I cannot comment,but you may be on the right track........
Post a Comment