Man that shit was so true that I hear it in my head every time I see his sorry ass now.

Not enough baseball players recognize that trying to entertain is part of the job out there.

I don't know why they wouldn't because let's face it the sport is boring enough without you basking in it.

***aw shit, I'm too tired to make it out tonight & now I feel a rant coming on*

I was up in Sonoma County for about five or six days over Memorial Day Weekend.

Got a couple of lifelong friends I've been running with since I was six growing up in South Jerz who each have made lives for themselves 'off the grid' up there so it seemed like a good time to get out of LA, take a nice scenic drive and go check em out for a few.

Up there where there's a lot of Redwood trees, wineries, rolling hills, lack of cell reception, good weed, people that like to work outside but are never on any particular time table.

It made sense to sit around & watch baseball in dark bars or out in the backyard of a friends house who built an outdoor kitchen plus owns a greenhouse.

And the Giants & A's are good too so that helps.

But down here in the Southland?

After I just got done battling traffic?

When I saw some new girls lingering by the door of my corner bar?

Isn't it House of Vibe night?

And it's beautiful outside?

Are the Dodgers ever gonna settle this cable-carrier stalemate?

Nah man, fuck sitting thru nine or even five innings in that case.

Somewhere along the 101 South heading home, I passed the line of demarcation and exited the kind of craft-beer/homegrown/green-builder/organic-foods where the bar owners talk about how bad they feel for Buster Posey as he labors thru a two-week-and-counting slump.

Like he's one of their son's friends on the local high-school team who threaten to win sectionals this season.

It was cool.

Made me sorta re-appreciate the game I grew up playing and the languid pace & the wordsmiths who bring you the descriptions to go along with the visuals or provide both if you're out going to get more ice, charcoal & grillables.

But back in Philly as we slowly bleed out of a great five-year-stretch of competitiveness that made that new ballpark feel more alive than the Linc on a home Sunday sometimes?

Nah Dude.

If the team is mediocre & the lineup/field is filled with aging old friends or Ben Revere/Cody-Asche types who do nothing but bore?

Fuck y'all, we'll just head down the shore.

>Him trashing Ben on The Fanatic w/Mike was pure high
>hilarity.

It was cute when Ozzie Smith & Vince Coleman formed the Punch-n-Judy Club in the mid-80s to poke fun at their own lack of power at the plate.

Because those guys were perennial All-Stars who won games for their teams in a myriad of other ways.

But this motherfucker can't even get on base with a walk let alone a hit nor reach the cut-off man from mid-center on less than three hops.

And the corny-ass booth the Phillies have nowadays conspired to party over this for days on end while it happened in a game we had already lost on a team that struggled to stay .500 even tho they've been completely healthy until Lee went down and the old guys have actually performed about as well as could have been expected at this point.

They might actually be worse than the bullpen and the bench.

McCarthy sucks. Moyer is aural paint-drying. I would rather have Todd MacCullough doing color again (he was kinda dry-funny with Tom McGinnis on the radio Sixer games for a couple years after his feet failed him) then listen to the struggle-barbs & forced laughs this Canadian Beer-Leaguer brings to the table.....a table he got to for literally one at-bat in a Phillie uniform.

Mitch Williams now needs a job.

Lenny Dykstra needs money & a clean record while on parole.

They got unresolved & long-simmering beef.

Toss 'em in the broadcast booth together with a Harry Kalas hologram and see what happens.

If there needs to be a booth referee, then they can call Hugh because after he went at Michael Smith's corny ass at the Disney party, he needs some redemption too.

At least give us Philles fans something to do this summer.