Some things that have annoyed/amused/intrigued me lately:
*Re: The Phillies nice win over the Mets Friday. Nobody I heard mentioned that Johan Santana - who averages 200 innings a year and over 100 pitches a game - left a 2-2 game after eight innings having thrown 95 pitches, with a lefthander, Ryan Howard, leading off the ninth. The night before, the Phillies let Cole Hamels pitch the ninth of a 4-0 game in Atlanta when he had 105 pitches through eight. I’m telling you, they’re overusing this kid, and they’re going to pay for it….
Give Charlie Manuel credit, though, for using closer Brad Lidge in the ninth Friday - the ninth of a tie game is a better time for your best reliever to be in the game than any save situation.
*Mike Schmidt said on “Daily News Live” last week, in reference to Ryan Howard, that he was “embarrassed” every time he, Schmidt, struck out. No wonder he was always so grumpy. He whiffed 1,883 times, seventh-most all time, and led the league four times.
*Comcast-Philly has been a persistent source of annoyance lately. Mark Kram is “Daily News Live’s” house dumper on every local athlete who’s down at the moment- in ripping Brett Myers the other day he said the Phillies “weren’t patient enough,” with Gavin Floyd… Come on. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess Kram wasn’t saying that when Floyd was here, getting lit up every time out and looking like at least as big a head-case as Myers….
Later on the same DNL, they brought Dee Lynam on to talk Sixers. So Dick Jerardi starts railing about the NBA’s “soft” salary cap and how dumb and tedious it is and baffling to the fans, using as evidence the fact that the subject has silenced Kram, like that’s a bad thing. The soft cap can be maddening, but Jerardi advocates a simple hard cap… OK, let’s say you have Tim Duncan on your team and his contract runs out and the team is $5 million under the cap and somebody (the Knicks, say) offers Duncan $5 million and five cents. “We’re screwed for the long haul” is real easy for the fans to grasp….
And then there was Mitch Williams on Phillies Post-Game Live the other night, defending Ryan Howard, saying Howard’s batting average doesn’t mean much compared to his slugging percentage. Take Chipper Jones, the Wild Thing said - he’s hitting .390 but only has 17 homers and 14 doubles.
Ryan Howard’s slugging percentage: .471. Chipper’s: .630. …
*Jack Nicklaus became a superduperstar in the late 1960s. From 69 through his 86 Masters win (at age 46), Nicklaus averaged less than 16 tour events per year. After that, of course, he played less. Tiger has averaged over 17 tour events a year for his career. Yet I heard on talk radio today, for the umpteenth time, that Tiger’s killing golf by not playing the tour enough, and somebody ought to do something about it, because Jack was out there every week in his day. For the rank-and-file callers to say this sort of stuff is one thing, but the hosts? It’s not like, with the Internet, the info is hard to find…
*The best thing about the Marlins’ 18-17 loss at Colorado last night - a game the Fish led 13-4 - was that three Florida pitchers were credited with “holds”.
*I’m at the Barnstormers’ game at York- the Revs have Shea Hillenbrand- remember him? He’s been here for three days, and it’s the first live pitching he’s seen since being released by the Dodgers late last season. No, he was not mentioned in the Mitchell Report….
*One more thing about York- the press-box food here is catered by the Olive Garden - three pasta dishes tonight, including Veal Parmigana and shrimp, salad and breadsticks. Another grueling Saturday night at work….
