What? It's baseball season already. Well, the Lounge follows baseball, albeit with a quick glance now and then. For the Lounge, the baseball season officially begins after the National Hockey League has completed the draft in June.
That's also the time the cable system turns off the tap on it's MLB Extra Innings package, so it's odd that my full attention to baseball begins only once my access is limited to local broadcasts of the Mets and Yankees and the Fox/ESPN/TBS games of the week that do not feature the Yankees or the Mets.
Some background? Well, the NHL Center Ice package shares a bank of channels with the MLB cable package. Usually not a problem. Major League Baseball's regular season is pretty much down to a few games when the NHL begins, so there's little cross traffic in October.
But from now through June, there's free baseball to go with the final week of the NHL's regular season. Center Ice stays on for the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs so we can keep track of those games not covered by the local channel, NBC or Versus.
The final clincher is that the NHL Network is part of the Center Ice package. Because it is cruel to give your most loyal fans the brush off by denying them the NHL Network halfway through the playoffs, the Center Ice package stays on the air to keep the NHL Network going for those fans who would not otherwise get the channel. And the NHL Network covers the NHL Draft, so it looks like free baseball through the middle of June.
Now should they change this policy and pull the plug on Center Ice in May, well the Lounge is still covered. I pay a little more to get the NHL Network the year round. But of course, you knew that already.
Now, on to the Lounge's little baseball feature called the Catch of the Day, where we will try to identify the best overall performance by a catcher.
The first one's easy. There was only one game on Sunday.
The New York Yankees' Jorge Posada looked a little slow in getting down to snare a few pitches. In fact, he reached for the pitches rather than jump in front of them. One went down as a wild pitch, but the other was a passed ball. On the plus side, the box score shows no stolen bases by the Red Sox. (But maybe they would rather wait to advance on all those doubles and home runs. Hmm, so we need more data here.)
Posada was 3 for 4 (with a home run) and had two runs batted in. The Boston Red Sox' Victor Martinez? He was 1 for 5 (with a home run) and had no passed balls against him. And yes, the pitcher always seems to dodge this bullet, but there were two stolen bases against Martinez. Could Josh Beckett done a better job holding them on? Maybe, but the box score is the final word and for this reason, the Lounge selects Jorge Posada as the catch of the day.
Beefs? Recounts? Send them in to the Lounge. And remember we're trying to follow every game in the NHL, all the junior hockey playoffs and now Major League Baseball. The East Coast Hockey League playoffs start this week, too, and the NCAA men's Frozen Four hockey tournament is this week.
So be firm, but kind, in your suggestions, votes and/or complaints about the catch of the day.
The Lounge thanks you.
No comments:
Post a Comment