Geez, counselor- Hunter crushes a Lester mistake, Lackey sucks it up and pitches a gem, and all you have to say is thunderstix are passe? The umpiring did bite, (on both sides) but how about a little credit where credit is due?

I’ve been reading Shyster a while now, Jim, and I can tell you that ain’t the priority.  At least not for non-ATL teams.  Can’t believe John freakin Lackey shut them out.

Curious, what did you all think of the broadcast for BOS-LAA?  Particularly play-by-play man Don Orsillo (Buck Martinez - no desire to discuss him)?

I think someone even mentioned—I can’t remember where—that they weren’t even waving the white towels when the Holliday play was happening.  More generally, it strikes me as a first class whine.  You don’t want to play Game 2 in a hostile land?  Finish with the better record.

Thinking more about it, does anyone remember back in the mid to late 80s when NFL quarterbacks used to be able to step out from behind center and get an official time out if the crowd was too loud?  I have this image of Steve Fuller doing this, like, ten times in a row when he played for the Bears. Even got an official to warn the crowd to be quiet.  Thankfully, football got past that, put on their big boy pants and started to deal. I think baseball players should do the same thing.

It wasn’t just a time out for crowd noise Craig.  If the crowd “ignored” the “warnings” to be quiet, the home team was assessed a delay-of-game penalty.  Stupidest rule ever.

By the way, I know it meant nothing - really, nothing - but that call on Youk’s “non-tag” of Morales was maybe the worst call ever.  Not the biggest blown call - obviously, not even on the radar - but the most obviously factually wrong call ever.  What in the world was the ump looking at?

craig, the umpiring was terrible. west’s strike zone was all over the place the entire game on both sides.

one of the more critical calls came late in the game for boston with 2 out and 1 on and youkilis batting. after walking martinez on 4 straight lackey threw 3 straight balls to youk. then he threw a 4th… but it was called a strike. it was 4-6” off the plate in the same spot 2 of the previous 3 balls had been called. he wound up grounding out (i think) and then ortiz did something crappy and that was that. should’ve been bases loaded 1 out.

but the buckner calls were terrible and did lead to at least 12 extra pitches in those particular innings.

there was also a strike 3 to hunter not called in which he wound up walking to load the bases. lester followed up by striking out vlad rather easily.

the fact that they didnt score speaks to lester’s ability to make good pitches (the ball he put on the tee to hunter outstanding). it also does make bad umpiring OK.

not the end of the world but they were obvious calls that gave anaheim additional outs to play with.

on a side… i found the commentary by buck martinez to be interesting. he went on and on all evening about how the prescence of abreu has magically changed the anaheim hitters approached pointing out the number of walks they had last night.

anaheim walked 5 times… 4 of them were abreu’s. i dont know if that’s giving a team a facelift in their batting approach or one guy doing it really well like he always has and everybody else doing exactly that they always did.

Since this observation can’t be catagorized, I’ll just throw it in here:
Where do those Blue Network “Slide Shows” come from- People magazine or TMZ? Baseball action- Kate and Jay-Z, back and forth for 204 frames. Sabathia hat tip- reverse aperature, he’s blurry, crowd is crisp, then done a few more times with other players.
NYT today has story on MLB archives and a newly-found 1928 home movie of Babe Ruth striking out that’s a much better baseball pictorial even taken from upper deck of OYS.
The whole mess looks like it was taken with a GE 5 MP digital recently purchased at Walgreen’s and found on Getty Images cutting room floor.
Now I feel better- save my Posada-Molina rant for MMIE.

@Wooden: 65 degrees IS chilly by SoCal standards.

I used to live in San Diego.  When it would hit 85 at the beach—and that didn’t happen often—people would faint from heatstroke.  And rain?  Rain was the lead story on the news.  Not the *weather*, the *news*.

“This is Dave Bigjaw for Action7 News.  Our top story tonight: rain in the southland (cue fancy graphic).  Jim Takanawa’s live on the scene, interviewing some of the victims.  Jim?”

And so on.

As a guy who grew up in the Chicago area (and, consequently, who doesn’t stop wearing shorts until the snow starts), I really never stopped laughing during the 10 years I lived out there.

@Chris H.

Agree totally. Hence, the reference to “L.A. Story”

Gail, News Anchor: And what a surprise this weekend when the weather turned unseasonably low. Here’s Harris Telemacher, our “wacky weatherman” with a report.
Harris: And when the weather dropped down to 58 degrees this weekend, how did you cope?
Man: I went to make sure all the windows were shut.
Harris: And, what about your pets? Were they outside? What happened?
Man: Well, the cats were out till around ten. But it got a little too cold for them and they came in.
Harris: The cats were out till around ten. But it got a little too cold for them and they came in! Well, that’s how L.A. coped with that surprise low of 58 degrees that turned the weekend into a real weenie shrinker!

The umpiring in the Angels-Sox game was embarrassingly bad, but it’s amazing to me that Sox fans would bother to bitch about it. The team got beat; the Angels deserved to win. I will say this: it was kind of a dull game without many memorable moments. I’m not sure what else Sox fans would have to talk about besides the umpiring.