So allow me a quick rant here...
I'm on my way home from a day at work and time at the gym. This being Washington, and the Nats game in a rain delay, there was absolutely no coverage of the major league baseball draft on the radio on my way home (that happened to be about 20 minutes longer than usual because Washingtonians apparently don't know how to drive through the occasional rain despite the fact that we do live in an area that ever-so-often has MASSIVE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS).
I get home. I run upstairs to the shower to get the gym reek off me. At this point I'm pretty desperate to find out whether the Nats have drafted Strasburg or not. I mean, fellow Nats fans (all eight of you) will understand - we look for any little miniscule sign of hope - with the full knowledge that this kid may end up being Ben McDonald. I hop out of the shower and turn on the TV. No coverage of the MLB draft on ESPN. Our local sports station, Comcast Sportsnet, is replaying the ACC Womens Championship Soccer Game (so you see how highly the Nats rank when they choose to replay this rather than cover one of the most important moments in the franchise's brief history). So finally I flip over to ESPN2.
I look down at the ticker at the bottom of the screen and see that I'm just missing the end of their coverage about the MLB Draft. So we all know what that means. A full cycle before I see what I need. All the American League scores and pitching probables come up. All the National League scores and pitching probables come up. Lots of sentences about Game 3 of the NBA Finals scroll across the ticker. Something about NASCAR. Then, the "MLB" is highlighted meaning that the ticker has finally refreshed. And what do I hear at the same time? The ESPN2 WNBA Theme music informing me that we were going to commercial, meaning that when we came back, we'd be somewhere in neverneverland with the ticker.
And I come back to my greater point. I was so desperate to find out news on the Nats draft that I was subjected to watching the WNBA. Seriously. How in the name of fuck is this league still in operation? It was painful. Truly wretched. Apparently the Seattle Storm were visiting the Indiana Fever. Perfect. Not only does your league SUCK, but both teams playing violate the cardinal rule of sports nicknames - a mascot that is an amorphous concept rather than a thing (see Seattle Mariners versus Seattle Storm). And isn't Indiana supposedly basketball crazy? There were maybe 1000 people in Conseco Fieldhouse. I'd love to know what percentage of those people were related to the players and what percentage had actually paid for their tickets.
So now we have a happy ending. I fired up the old Comcast Internets, got on ESPN.com, and saw that my Nats drafted Strasburg. I won't have to watch the WNBA ever again. And maybe Strasburg will turn out like Nolan Ryan and not like Brien Taylor (if you know who he is, I am impressed by you).
June 9, 2009
More Proof That God Hates Nats Fans (or why Comcast should carry ESPNNews)
Summer is here and there's never been a better time to try your hand at online sports betting. Place your bets on your favorite horse with horse racing or even try your luck with your favorite football team. Enjoying sport is just a click away!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 Responses:
Strasburg will be a very nice addition to the Boston rotation after Boras parades him through the independent leagues.
Uh....SportsTalk 980 cut in live to Selig making the pick and replayed him making the pick every other 10 minutes during my drive home... You just gotta switch the channel...
As to J-Reds comment, of course he'll end up on the Sox, just like Weiters will end up on the Yankees, because MLB has no salary cap is an absolute joke.
Just keep Strasburg out of the bars and maybe he won't end up like Brien Taylor.
Great pick, heard it on 980. Now the Lerner's have to take the crow bar to the wallet to fork over at least 20 million to sign him. They have two months to get this done.
Nice pull Bill.
And by the time I got in the car, it was 7:05, and ESPN980 was re-airing PTI, I believe. At least that's what I remember hearing.
And after reading about that ridiculous talent in last week's Sports Illustrated, I'm now praying for two things:
(1) The kid goes to JuCo so he is eligible for the 2010 Draft (likely from what his parents and coaches were saying)
(2) The Nats finish with the worst record again and grab a kid who can pitch 96mph, has already hit 500-foot home runs with wooden bats (granted, not off major league pitching), and when playing catcher, can throw base stealers out from his knees. (likely from their performance)
Of course this kid is also represented by Scott Boras.
There's a lot of hope riding on this pick but first round pitchers are always risky. I think the Nats are going to need a lot more than one starting pitcher to turn it around. Boras is going to try to milk every dime from DC to make up for the lost endorsement revenue as a result of playing there. By the way, I bet it's been a long time since Brien (The Brawler) Taylor was tagged in any article.
Well the Nats already have a couple of young pitchers that are coming along. If he's a top of the line #1 starter and the other young arms get better they could be playoff competitive in 2-3 years... and then all those guys will be up for big contracts and get bought by the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers, and Angels... Such is life in a crappy league like MLB.
Yea. I really don't like a lot of where baseball is going in terms of money. I honestly hope the economy stays in the tank for a couple more years such that the spending on players is hopefully curbed more significantly.
Hopefully the Braves' attendance problems are matched in other teams in the league.
JRed had the modest proposal article about 6 months ago with the luxury tax. I honestly think something needs to be done to balance the playing field in terms of finances.
Or someone could remove Boras from the playing field. That would be nice too. Good luck signing Strasburg without breaking the bank.
This is the post gpb is referring to.
It doesn't have anything to do with Boras. The agents aren't the problem the leauge office that us too chickenshit to stand up to the Yankees and the Red Sox is the problem. Baseball will die within the next 50 years if they don't level the playing field. If the NFL chose to play games in the summer (giving a sporting outdoor alternative) it would already be dead.
Post a Comment