Saturday, August 10, 2002

CBS.SportsLine.com - Box Score/Recap Reds 9 Padres 0 More excellent,  accurate depiction of baseball by baseball reporters.  Consider as you read the following that in his last start against these San Diego Padres,  Dempster gave up 10 hits and 10 earned runs in 4 innings,  but that wasn't "solving" Dempster,  since their team's own pitching surrendered 15 runs to the Reds,  thus saving Dempster a disgraceful loss.  "CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- The San Diego Padres will have to wait until next year to try and solve Ryan Dempster. Dempster relinquished just four hits in six innings and remained undefeated in his career against the Padres as the Cincinnati Reds rolled to a 9-0 victory" But hey,  baseball fans have absolutley no memory,  and these inane stats can be thrust into headlines ........oh well.  Dempster did do the job today,  for really the first time  (his other non-disasterous start was a 7 inning, 9 hit, 4 run win,  to go with his 4 dreadful ones.   But he put his worst and then his best back to back.  Go Ryan! 9:47:40 PM

Plays with too much announcer Just now,  just a few minutes later,  the SAME guy who made the statement about Sosa,  calls an Andrew Jones play a "sensational" play.  I missed it live as the screen saver had just kicked in on the monitor that displays my TV,  so I reached over and moved the mouse so the screen saver goes off,  and I see the replay.  A good catch running back toward the fence, but an easy catch with his speed.  Again,  someone who has obviously not seen Jones too often,  or played much outfield themselves.  I certainly would class Jones as one of the superior,  if not THE superior outfileders in baseball (as much as I hate the Braves),  but that play was merely one that I'd say "woh, good run and grab" and not "Unbelievable!  Sensational!",  cause lots of quick centerfielders could have made the same play.  Later,  after I see it about 9 more times on Basebal Tonight,  it looks a little better than it did when I first saw it.  I guess the Andrew Jones "ho-hum, so what else is new"- factor kicked in.  It's like its possible anytime his body is within reach and the ball has not hit yet,  you expect to see him climb the wall,  flop on his belly,  or reach over his shoulder.  This one had a little more than a typical backhand over the left shoulder....he had to reach back over his head as well.   Not bad.  3:44:37 PM

A Homerless day is a cold streak? I just heard one of the guys on the Fox crew say that "Sosa has sort of cooled off with the power numbers".  Uh.....Thursday,  TWO days ago, he hit 2.  It's absolutely amazing how little these guys actually watch and pay attention.  I'm not even a Cubs fan,  I just watch Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter,  and I saw that Sosa did that.  In fact,  two days ago,  there were HEADLINES about how Sosa stole the show from Bonds.  Amazing how some of these guys get a job doing baseball. Now,  later that same night,  Sosa has hit 3 more homreuns.  That's 5 in the last 3 games.  But in that middle game,  he was "cooled off".  He was hot Thurdsay,  hitting his 34th and 35th.  COLD COLD on Friday.  NO Homereuns!   Hotter than ever on Saturday.  Now his statements look even dumber.  3:35:38 PM

Reds look for better than horrible from Dempster After a tough week losing to a sub 500 team (an unusual thing for the Reds this year),  The Reds were back in the offensive saddle last night ,  scoring 9 in the first including 2 Aaron Boone Homers (the first two of three),  and then "holding on" to win 12-10.  The previous game with SanDiego at 3com ended with a 5 run Reds 9th off of Trevor Hoffman,  and a 15-10 win.  Today,  the masterful pitching of Ryan Dempster,  author of that 4 inning, 10 earned run masterpiece in SanDiego,  goes today in search of a merely bad start (as opposed to abyssmal).... 3:07:00 PM