Okay, so I almost blogged about the awesomeness of Cal Clutterbuck's game last night, but Russo's already done it much better than I could, complete with a link to a goal that should make it into the end-of-the-year highlight reel, so go check that out here.
Watching the end of the Angels season. Ugh. Bitterness descends upon the WBW.
Well, hey, the Pens still won the Cup, and really, if only one of my teams can win a trophy, I want it to be the Cup.
I've noticed something in most of my friends who are big baseball fans: once their team is out of it, they seem to stop caring. Whether I'm talking to my Astros fan friends, my Cubs fan friends, or my Cardinals fan friends, no one seems to care once their own season is over. And I don't believe it's limited to my small sample, either, because I see a lot of message boards or facebook statuses that say something roughly akin to "I don't care anymore, I just hate the Yankees."
As a hockey fan first, football fan second, baseball fan third, this is really, really strange to me. The hockey communities I visit, the fans are passionate about the Cup from opening faceoff until Gary Bettman hands the big silver trophy off to Sidney Crosby. (Er, or whoever wins it, of course) The big-time NFL fans I know can dissect the Super Bowl from just about any angle a week before the big game, and even if they don't care one way or another they all watch the game, saying "I'm just hoping for a good game."
My baseball fan friends...it's just not the same. Admittedly, I can think of two people in my circle I know will be watching the Fall Classic. But that's about it. Everybody else is just as happy, if not happier, with reruns of The Office.
This isn't a dog on baseball fans, not at all. Just an observation. It may just be that it's difficult to maintain interest in a full 162-game season, and then a three-round post-season. It may be frustration at a system in which there are essentially three to five legitimate contenders by the time there is still a half season to play. I can't say for sure, because I don't really consider myself to be a serious baseball fan. And I really don't know who I want to win, the Yankees or the Phillies. I'm not terribly keen on either of them.
Oh, well. I'll have Bat Boy the next two weeks and won't have to worry about it.
That said, kudos to the Angels for putting out such a great season. When you consider the team started the year with two of their best starting pitchers on the injured list, and then you had Nick Adenhart's death on the third day of the season and all the emotional issues the team battled through for the first half of the year, they really came together and had a great year. Just a couple of errors in horrible places put an end to their pennant hopes, which was uncharacteristic of this squad all year, but hey, that's the playoffs!
Oh, one final observation: the guys who called the game tonight on Fox were really, really bad. By the sixth inning, they weren't even saying anything between pitches. It would go like this:
*pitch*
Color: High and inside, ball two.
*forty or so seconds of crowd noise, followed by another pitch*
Color: Two and one.
*forty seconds of crowd noise, followed by another pitch*
Color: Fouled high to the first base side, two and two.
*twenty seconds of crowd noise, followed by a shot of Torii Hunter in the on-deck circle*
Color: Torii Hunter on deck.
*pitch*
Color: Ball three.
Et cetera.
Come on, dude. You're getting paid for this.
I know Harry Carey said some out-there stuff, but at least he kept us all entertained!
