Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Another Glorious Day in the Baseball Season

We're barely a week into the season and my two teams (the Marlins and the White Sox) are in first place. Yes, it's very early. But it's still a lot of fun. I had zero hopes for either team this year. So the fast starts have certainly been fun.

It was also fun to finally catch the new White Sox radio team of Ed Farmer (a holdover) and Steve Stone. I've heard the new Marlins team a number of times throughout the spring and regular season, but the White Sox team had been harder for me to catch (due to the Sox being on the road and other spring training vagaries).

Of course I've heard Farmer for years on Sox broadcasts and nearly anyone who's listened to or watched baseball has heard Steve Stone (of WGN and ESPN fame) call a game or two. But I'd never heard the two together before yesterday's home opener for the Sox. I was a little pessimistic about the team, as both are former pitchers and that can often lead to an overly technical description of the game.

But this call by Stone won me over (I'm recalling it to the best of my memory, but it's not exact): "This is the exact situation where you want to see Juan Uribe come to bat. He's so patient and disciplined as a hitter that it's just a joy to watch... and here's the pitch... Uribe swings for the fences. It looks like his jersey came untucked. And I'm not sure, but I think the force of that swing must have broken a few vertabrae."

It was a fun call of an at bat.

It's early to tell for sure, but the Sox radio team seems to be a nice mix of homers and realists. Not too over the top and not too balanced. I like that mix. Farmer and Stone seem to get along, so they should make the dog days and the blowouts move by a little faster than last year's team.

Man, I love baseball on the radio. Listening to part of the game in my backyard, laying on a hammock was nice... especially when Crede hit the tie-breaking grand slam.

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