The Chris Moeller Archives

Deadlines and deals

My chest is heavy with baseball thoughts, and just as "the Baseball Show" suffers yet another pre-emption this weekend, too. (Our third in 15 weeks.) And, alas, it's a great baseball weekend. Hall of Fame inductions take place Sunday afternoon, with the trade deadline arriving that evening. To the former, Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs, Boston beat writer Peter Gammons, and Padres' broadcaster Jerry Coleman will all speak in Cooperstown tomorrow, none with any St. Louis ties whatsoever. To the latter, a Manny Ramirez deal by the Red Sox will drown out any other MLB front office activity.

Ramirez seems a strange egg. On one hand, his haircut inspires snickers. (Whose your Daddy? More like-- Whose your barber? Am I right, people?) He urinated inside the Green Monster between pitches earlier this month, and claims his life is a living hell in Boston, a town in which he's lavishly paid and widely beloved. He's always been easily distracted, and there are times in left field when it seems like his forehead gets more defensive action than the pocket of his glove. Putting it all another way, I suspect he's been watching some programs that aren't listed in the TV Guide.
On the other hand, he can rake, as we say in a business peripheral to the business. He's a .313 career hitter, who's already driven in 92 runs this year. If the three team deal involving Ramirez goes down, and it may have by the time you read this, the ground beneath the baseball world will shake.

Regardless, my most cherished moment of Ramirez's career will always be this-- Game 4 of the World Series last year, the Red Sox have a 3-0 series lead, and a lead in the 5th or 6th inning of the clincher. Ramirez walks to the batters box, where he's greeted by the Cardinals' rookie catcher Yadier Molina. The baby-faced Molina gets in Ramirez's face and tells the slugger that he disapproved of the way he had been tipping pitches from his lead off second base the last time through the order. Here we have a 22 year old rookie telling an 8-time All-Star the proper way to play the game, less than two hours before the veteran player would be named the World Series MVP. That was the precise moment that Mike Matheny, the Cardinals' incumbent catcher for the last half decade, became the former incumbent, and within two months, a San Francisco Giant.

---

A victory tear by the Houston Astros in June and July has apparently resulted in the further thinning of some already thin skin at Wrigley Field. I can't tell a LaTroy Hawkins story better than Jay Mariotti, so enjoy for yourself. But I will say these two things-- 1) Fans should have the right to boo whomever they choose guaranteed on their ticket stub (especially if the player being booed is on another team, but still being paid by the first team,) and 2) Why do we always have to wait so long to find out which players have been "dropping trou" in public settings, and when are we finally going to get to hear all the really good Kyle Farnsworth stories?

---

Trivia question of the day: I just bought two DVDs off my Top 50 Movie List, "Sunset Boulevard" and "Mulholland Drive." If you can tell me what key ingredient these two movies share, you will win a complete company set of virtually "priceless" baseball cards from the early 1990s. The answer below.

---

Curses! What have they done to my beloved Dodger Stadium? I know I've harped on this before, but the aesthetic beauty is quickly eroding. I haven't been to the ballpark in ten years, but it's always been enjoyable to experience even on television. Until now. Turn down the speakers!! And stop blasting rotten garage band music!!
The Cardinals returned to LA this weekend for the first time since the playoffs, and I had hoped that the absence of Adrian Beltre, and that percussion-driven chant of M-V-P, would serve to turn down the amplitude thundering across the ravine. It hasn't. And meanwhile, their ballpark organist is on tour in Des Moines.
And another note to Jim Tracy and the classy Dodgers, put the players' names back across the shoulders of the uniform. If the Giants jumped off a cliff, would you do that, too?

---

Five years ago this past Thursday, Kathie Lee Gifford walked off the Regis and Kathie Lee Show and possibly out of our lives forever. I hope the kids are alright.
It's also been seven years and change since Tom Snyder left the Late Late Show. And now his twice a month on-line blog is leaving us, come Monday. Health and happiness from one of your loyal viewers.

----

Trivia answer: They're both named after streets in Hollywood, dummy.

posted by CM @ 1:26 PM