kingdiggler

Castillo had trouble with a routine popup just behind first base. Morgan said that because he had spent so much time in the american league he wasn't used to playing at wrigley.....what about the 7 years he spent with the marlins???Friggin idiot. This guy is a joke.

kingdiggler

i need to short bus my on thread...saw this in the IGT I knew it wouldn't get past you guys.

NickPapagiorgio

I almost punched the TV when I heard that. They have been making a ton of mistakes during the game today.

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NeilAllen

Nevermind that you'd think he might have been paying attention during a certain 4 games he played there in 2003

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Nate126

rofllllllll

gregjefferies09

I was impressed with Miller when he was talking about how Dempster was not supposed to be the closer according to Lou when he took the mound in the 9th..... I was like.... he isn't, you have to have the lead to be closing.

Green Must Go

Did you hear their take on which is hardest to achieve, 3000 hits, 300 wins or 500 HRs?

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manatwo

Did it have something to do with high definition?

kingdiggler

i found this article from some blogger through cnnsi.com

The 10 SpotA unique take on sports news, updated several times throughout the day.More SI Blogs Maybe Joe Morgan is nuts after all
about 3 hours ago :: 4413 Views
Frankly, broadcasters (with the occasional exception of Brent Musburger) just don't bother me very much. It's a hard job, to be talking so much over a three-hour span, and even a well-prepared and reasonable fellow is prone to some slip-ups. I tend to give them a lot of leeway.

So while I was aware that ESPN broadcaster Joe Morgan is so vilified that he single-handedly inspired the popular blog FireJoeMorgan.com, I've held my fire. The Web can be a temperamental place; one blogger titled a post "Pete McEntegart deserves a pantsing," for instance, which caused me to buy the domain name FirePeteMcEntegart.com just in case. (Well, the first part is true.) Phil Mushnick of the New York Post also rips Morgan relentlessly, but then again Mushnick is sports media's reigning curmudgeon, forever returning to his favorite memes (the save stat is lame, John Sterling/Mike & the Mad Dog/ESPN are evil, nobody runs hard to first base anymore, etc.). Besides, I don't actually watch Sunday Night Baseball that often, since I've usually watched about six hours of sports that day already. Morgan did strike me as a bit of a dinosaur who, like many baseball traditionalists, seemed to have an unhealthy and often irrational distaste for whomever they lumped into the Moneyball crowd, but that's about it.

That was before, however, I watched the Mets' Tom Glavine win his 300th game on Sunday night against the Cubs. In the bottom of the third, Cubs pitcher Jason Marquis came to the plate. Morgan's partner, Jon Miller, introduced him as an excellent hitter. "Well he was," said Morgan. "He's struggling a little bit now." ESPN displayed a graphic that showed that Marquis hit .302 combined in 2004-'05, but only .175 so far in 2006-'07. Morgan explained that opponents began to approach Marquis differently once they realized he wasn't an easy out like most pitchers, and thus exposed him as not being that great a hitter after all.

But Marquis kept fighting through what would be a 10-pitch at-bat, causing Morgan to rethink his position. Said Morgan after Marquis fouled off a tough two-strike curveball, "Well, you can see that he's a pretty good hitter because he fights it off." Miller went along with his partner, adding, "He's battling."

After some more foul balls, Morgan completed his about-face, leading to the following conversation.

Morgan: "I take that back, Jon, he is still a good hitter, he's just not having good luck."

Miller: "Wait a minute, I thought he was no longer a good hitter?"

Morgan: "Well, this at-bat has proven he's a good hitter."

Miller: (laughs) "Maybe he's found himself again."

Morgan: "A lot of times you hit into tough luck. He may have hit a lot of line drives at people."

So in one at-bat, Marquis went from an overrated batter to a guy who had simply been hitting a lot of "at-‘em" balls. The most interesting part, though, is while Miller was obviously tweaking his partner good-naturedly for his quick about-face, Morgan seemed dead serious and absolutely humorless.

Still, that was no cardinal sin. That came in the bottom of the fourth, when new Mets second baseman Luis Castillo chased a pop-up off the bat of Aramis Ramirez toward the foul line. The wind -- it was a gusty, humid night in Chicago -- then blew the ball back toward the field of play, forcing Castillo to backpedal quickly and nearly stumble before coming up with the ball. Morgan jumped into action.

"Jon, that's one of those situations where he's been in the American League all his career," Morgan said. "If you play here in Wrigley Field, when you go that way as a second baseman, the ball always comes back. Watch [ESPN was showing the replay], he'll have to reach back. And it's not just the wind, there's something in that area where the wind always pushes it back. You watch, any time the ball goes there tonight it will always work its way back. And of course Castillo hasn't played many games here in Wrigley Field, he wouldn't know that. But most second baseman who have played here in this league know the ball always works its way back."

Morgan: "He's been playing at the Metrodome."

Morgan: "Where the wind doesn't have any effect."

Interesting story, that. Surely this was some analysis right in Morgan's wheelhouse as a Hall of Fame second baseman who played all but one of his 22 seasons in the National League. This must be where he earns his money, with insight like that.

Except the point was complete nonsense. Because while Castillo did come to the Mets from the Twins just last week, he played the first 10 seasons of his career for the Marlins, including seven seasons as the starting second baseman, before signing with the Twins for 2006. He wasn't some anonymous backup, either, but a three-time NL All-Star. Just counting the seven years in which he was Florida's primary second baseman, moreover, the Marlins played 25 games in Wrigley Field. That's not counting the 2003 NLCS, when Castillo lofted the flyball that made Steve Bartman an unwilling household name.

In the top of the fifth, Miller did gently note that Castillo had played in Wrigley before, but Morgan either didn't hear him or pretended not to. (Mushnick, predictably, did not miss the exchange.) Maybe it wouldn't have mattered anyway. It seems that Morgan knows what he knows and isn't about to let facts get in the way.

But I still don't think he should be depantsed. That's just mean.

LZATbassist1567

Miller=Howe?

CharlieH

Anybody else wanna throw a plate through their TV screen when Miller was verbally fellating John Smoltz & the Braves?

To his credit, Smoltz would have none of it.

Miller: "Well, with the acquisition of Texiera and all the bullpen arms you've picked up...wow...you guys just can't be beat!"

Smoltz: "Well, we have to play the games. We're still in second..."


I also found this curious:

At the end of the game, Miller said, "Tom Glavine has won his 300th game. Will it be the last...?" I'm sure he meant will Glavine be the last 300-game winner, but he made it sound like Glavine was either going to retire tomorrow or just not win another game the rest of the year...

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MrHat

Ya know I hate the Fox announce crew, but Miller and Morgan make those guys look great.

Wright 5

the Times did a piece on all three milestone games - essentially the point was that all three sets of announcers sucked.

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NeilAllen

Until, of course, the next time you have to watch a game on Fox.

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MrHat

True so true.... Where's Fran Healey when ya need him?