 For over 20 years, Dick Stockton has been one of the primary play-by-play men for NBA and NFL action on CBS and Fox. He's done some baseball in his career, with his most notable accomplishment coming in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series for his call of Carlton Fisk's home run.
With Joe Buck's lighter workload on Fox Saturday baseballe, Stockton occasionally pops up as broadcaster for the secondary Fox Saturday games of the week. Let's just say it might be wise to avoid calling Stockton in from the announcer bullpen in the future (same goes for you, playoffs on TBS).
Paired with Leo Mazzone for the Cardinals and Braves this past Saturday in St. Louis, Stockton referred to All Star Ryan Ludwick as "Aaron Ludwick", originally called Albert Pujols' homer that barely inched over the wall in centerfield an upperdeck shot, claimed the Cardinals retired the side with only two outs and mentioned that Cards rookie reliever Kyle McCellan jumped from AA Springfield straight to the big club out of Spring Training. Nothing wrong with that factual nugget with the exception that Stockton said the Cardinals double-A team was located in Springfield, Texas as opposed to Missouri. We looked it up and found that there is, in fact, a Springfield, Texas located in Jim Wells County.
Springfield is at Farm Roads 625 and 3087, about three miles southeast of San Diego and seven miles northwest of Alice in west central Jim Wells County. The community was established when the Texas-Mexican Railway built across the county in the early 1880s. A post office was established at Springfield in 1909, and in 1910 the community's population was estimated at about 100, though by 1914 the number of residents had decreased to eight. The post office closed in 1918. A county highway map made in the 1930s showed Springfield with a school and scattered dwellings. During the late 1980s it was a dispersed rural community.
Those scattered dwellings, though no longer standing, would have made for awesome baseball training facilities.
To be fair to Stockton, he attempted to redeem himself with a snappy line about Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus making "a glossy play", but that line was beaten to death a few weeks ago. Not even a good snapper was enough to get back in our graces. Safe to say it's best if Stockton keeps his inaccurate name-calling to football and basketball.
And yes, as the picture indicates, we still think Stockton fits the mold of drunk high school English teacher quite well.
Crap that actually came from somebody's mouth
"It's not that, it's the little things (that get a team a win)." - Steve Phillips, on Braden Looper's sacrifice bunt being more important than Albert Pujols' homer
If we didn't know any better, we'd assume Joe Morgan jumped into Steve Phillips' body.
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"These guys are athletes. You create ways to win when you're athletic." - Mark Grace
Whichever team lands Alicia Sacramone when free agency hits this winter will likely open up a pinata of created-victories.
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“Milwaukee has a much easier schedule than the Cardinals do, but sometimes, you’d rather play a winning club or somebody who has something at stake like you do than to play the weaker ones.” - Al Hrabosky
Makes perfect sense. Why would you want to play a team that's been crappy all season when you could try to gain those all-important victories over teams that have been good all season?
The Beat Writer Who Hit it Big
If there’s one type of General Manager that is likely going to get gushing reviews from the mainstream media regardless of results, it’s one who used to be a part of it. Perhaps that explains a little of the irrational love for Dodgers GM Ned Colletti who has been responsible for a healthy dose of moronic moves from his post the last few seasons.
He has long been a favorite of Bill Plaschke and now MLB.com’s Hal Bodley is ignoring Colletti’s path of destruction and instead looking at a fellow beat writer who made it big and beaming like a proud father.
“When I first met Ned Colletti in 1980, he was covering the Flyers for the Philadelphia Journal, a colorful newspaper that had a short life…I mention this background because, even back then, Colletti seemed more absorbed by baseball than the sport that was his beat. That he is now the respected general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers shouldn't come as a surprise.”
 Not surprising at all, hockey beat writers from failed Philadelphia newspapers go on to become GM’s of Major League Baseball franchises all the time.
“Colletti has seemingly been at his best this summer, wheeling and dealing in an attempt to fill in the gaps in a battle with Arizona for the National League West crown. He energized the clubhouse, landing third baseman Casey Blake from Cleveland and pulled off a blockbuster three-team deal for Boston's disgruntled future Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez.”
Manny is off to a roaring start in LA, but everyone wants to assume that the Dodgers have been on fire since he invaded the clubhouse. In reality, since the trade, the team has gone 11-12 and has actually lost ground in the NL West. Dreadlocks are cool and all, but they don’t necessarily mean the team is performing any better.
Oh, I almost forgot one of Colletti's most important coups -- landing another future Hall of Famer during the offseason: manager Joe Torre.
Amongst the “coups” that Bodley fails to mention are the 2-year $32 million deal for Andruw Jones this offseason, the 3-year $47 million contract he gave to Jason Schmidt and, if those two weren’t bad enough, he was also the author of what is widely regarded as one of the worst free agent signing of the past few years when he inked slap singles hitter Juan Pierre to a $44 million deal over 5 years.
With all that dead weight on the roster, convincing Joe Torre aboard probably was a coup.
Finishing ahead of the multi-talented Diamondbacks will be no easy task. They have excellent pitching and a maturing lineup that has quickly learned how to win under pressure. One thing is for certain: If it's in Ned Colletti's power to make a move that will help the Dodgers he won't sit on his hands. That's just not his style.
If only there were any horrible overpriced free agents still left to pluck, Mr. Colletti would have enough magic to get his team over .500. The other beat writers will be so proud.
Anyone Else Want to Register an Opinion on Instant Replay?
Safe to say that the stable of MLB.com writers had their marching orders when word was announced of the league’s decision to proceed with instant replay. Their job – stick a mic in someone’s face and see how many articles can be squeezed out of the topic in under 24 hours…
Gonzalez supportive of instant replay
Reds react to use of instant replay
Nationals happy about instant replay
Teahan undecided on instant replay
Piniella not that sweet on instant replay
Other sports embrace instant replay
Yankees back instant replay on homers
Wedge not a fan of instant replay
At least they made it easy for the headline writers.
Bob Carpenter Memorial Snappy Line
We've documented at length Bobby's penchant for celebrating cultural diversity, especially when a snappy line is involved. Veteran snapster John Buccigross knows this and sought to sprinkle his finishing-move catchphrase with the appropriate dose of cultural know-how.
 "Winner, winner: chicken dinner?" Not today, my friends. Not when Hawaii wins the Little League World Series.
"Winner, winner: mahi mahi dinner."
It's a unanimous thumbs up and wink from the Bobber. In fact, Robert C is so happy he's probably going to head to the fish market and celebrate with a Hawaiian feast, which means plenty of Don Ho blaring in the Carpenter household.
The Media Circus is written by Josh Bacott and Patrick Imig. They swear this stuff is real. Email them at info@joesportsfan.com |