Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

I was promised a recession.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

We still have time to mess this up!

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

The next time the wall wtreet journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

This fight is for everything.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The revolution will be supervised.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Not all heroes wear capes.

I really should read my own blog.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / World Series Open Thread

World Series Open Thread

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Sorry Elon.

Does anyone actually like Tim McCarver? Does anyone know anyone who likes Tim McCarver? Why does he have a job? Why must he ruin every World Series?

It’s been cold and wet and shitty all day today so I broke out the SAD light for a session and then made chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas, but even that and a bathrobe and two pets on my lap can’t get the cold out of my back or shoulder or knees. Grumble.

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  1. 1.

    YellowJournalism

    I’ve had that cold shiver since last night. Felt like shit all day, and there’s a big project going on at work with just one day to go, of course.

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    Which two pets?

    Details, please.

    Trader Hound on TCM tonight, from 11:43 p to midnight.

    Dogs in costume, long before Wishbone.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    Thank bloody god you posted a WS open thread. I was afraid it would fall to me to attempt it on this iPhone. I hate using an iPhone to post!

  4. 4.

    Josie

    You didn’t use the chicken properly. You should have had some of Mama’s chicken and dumplings. I could have fixed you right up.

  6. 6.

    Jennifer

    You didn’t say, but hope you’re using your SAD light first thing in the morning. It works better then, both to help you wake up and so as not to disrupt your circadian rhythms. (Said as a long-time SAD light user who built her first SAD light way back in the dark ages 25 years ago when they were absurdly expensive to buy.)

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    The Obama administration said Wednesday night that it will give Americans who buy health insurance through new online marketplaces an extra six weeks to obtain coverage before they risk a penalty.

    The revised rule means that those who buy coverage through the exchange will have until March 31 to sign up for a plan, according to an official with the Health and Human Services Department.

    Washington Post.

  12. 12.

    drkrick

    I don’t hate McCarver as much as most people, but I don’t suppose that counts. It may be residual affection from his days as the person catcher of that nutcase Steve Carlton, who would be a moderate in the current House GOP. Joe Morgan didn’t bother me so much either, so maybe I just don’t expect much from baseball analysts. I can pretty much tell what’s going on without them anyway.

  14. 14.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @schrodinger’s cat: IIRC, Mark Sanford’s wife and mistress are both brunettes.

    Speaking of blondes.. Tweety found his semi-regular nut today, he was all over this and other instances of the GOP disrespecting Obama, saying he believes Durbin

    Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) is sticking with his story that a House GOP leader told President Obama “I cannot even stand to look at you” during a meeting over the federal government shutdown earlier this month.

  15. 15.

    JPL

    @schrodinger’s cat: I saw that. She mentioned that Cruz is on her plan and it doesn’t cost the government anything. I presume that means Goldman’s doesn’t deduct health care from their costs. If they do, who makes up the several thousand they save on their taxes?

  19. 19.

    cmorenc

    @John Cole:

    Sorry Elon

    Um…who is Elon, and what the Hell have you done that you need to apologize? Hopefully nothing to do with interrupting one of your nude mopping sessions to answer the door.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    I like Pedroia, but he looks foolish in that beard. He can shave it off after the Red Sox win the series.

  23. 23.

    Mike in NC

    Jennifer Rubin’s latest column denounces JimBob DeMint for destroying her beloved Heritage Foundation and bringing down ruin on the GOP.

    Love those circular firing squads.

  29. 29.

    Hungry Joe

    Nobody has ever been worse at baseball than Howard Cosell. I remember a Series game in the late ’70s; Yankees led the Dodgers, I don’t know, 4-0, 5-0, something like that, in the late innings. Cosell proclaimed, “The Dodgers have GOT to get on the board.”

    Sound OFF, radio ON.

  34. 34.

    Jacel

    I liked McCarver 30 years ago, when he was teamed with Ralph Kiner for Mets games on the radio. This was immediately after his playing career, and he had interesting observations based on what a catcher learns about different pitchers and batters. But the more years he’s been away from playing the game, the less he knows and the more he says.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    @raven

    On just his 3rd show? Doubt it. Expecting a fluffing fest.

    Probably has already been taped, as Baldwin’s first show with DeBlasio was.

  40. 40.

    Gravenstone

    @efgoldman: I hate very few people in sports. Hawk Harrelson is at the absolute top of my short list. I understand announcers tend to be homers, be he takes it to levels of absurdity.

  41. 41.

    KG

    I really don’t like either team, so I’m mostly skipping the World Series (total sports hate, not real hate). I despise the Cards and the whole “greatest fans in the world” stuff. And I have so much hate for the Red Sox that I can’t even put it into words… The pink hats, the start of the -Nation fan base shit. Thankfully basketball starts next week, though I am slightly worried about what will come of this season for the Lakers.

  42. 42.

    gian

    Vin scully got his break calling a football game while freezing his rear off at Fenway. Wish he could be doing this game there

  43. 43.

    Joshua Norton

    can’t get the cold out of my back or shoulder or knees.

    Get one of those Home Shopping electric fireplaces. They’re pet safe and flames look absolutely real. It ups the cozy factor by about 100%. I put one in my bedroom and really like it.

  44. 44.

    Gravenstone

    @raven: Always liked Steve Stone, before he jumped ship and moved to the White Sox broadcasts. Great insights into the game, especially from the pitching perspective.

  47. 47.

    Hungry Joe

    I hate/have always hated/will always hate the Dodgers, but you can never tell who’s winning from the tone of Vin Scully’s voice, or from anything that he says other than the score. I think his approach is that he’s a baseball announcer who every night just happens to be assigned a Dodger game.

    Homers suck. All of them. By definition.

  49. 49.

    KG

    @gian: Vin has said that next year will be his last… bright side: one more season of Vin. dark side: only one more season of Vin. Hopefully the Bums can get to the Series next year so he can call one last one.

    I was blessed growing up in Southern California, Chick Hearn and Vin Scully. Besides my parents, they probably had more to do with me being a sports fan than anyone else. Laker games haven’t been the same without Chick, and while Vin doesn’t do a lot of road games anymore, it’s going to be really weird without him for any games in two years…

  51. 51.

    opiejeanne

    Nobody I know likes McCarver, and I spend a lot of time on a pretty large baseball site, where we discuss the games while we watch them.

  52. 52.

    WereBear

    I fixed my “cold bones” with CHELATED MAGNESIUM.

    Do not get the other kind. It’s a laxative.

    But chelated supplies what has been missing from our soils, and thus, our foods, since it got noticed in the 1930’s.. and has had nothing done about it.

  55. 55.

    Tractarian

    I like McCarver but only because I’m a Mets fan and I associate his voice with positive memories from the ’80s.

  56. 56.

    Violet

    @WereBear: Thanks for the link. I’ve tried a variety of magnesium tablets, but can’t find anything that works. Everything causes intestinal distress.

  59. 59.

    KG

    @Hungry Joe: there are two times that I remember Vin getting really excited – Gibson’s home run and when Dennis Martinez threw a perfect game against the Dodgers. But really, what he’s said is that in a city like LA, with so many transplants, you are always going to have fans of the other team watching and it wouldn’t be fair to them.

  60. 60.

    EthylEster

    I used to like him. But that was when he was a catcher. He was a pretty good catcher.
    I have never liked him as an announcer.

  61. 61.

    Redshirt

    I’m spared the horrors of Buck-McCarver, due to not having a TV. Baseball is really a great sport on the radio – you can pay attention to it while doing other things, and the announcers tend to stay on subject, rather talking about stupid McCarver stuff.

  63. 63.

    opiejeanne

    @gian: Scully is the bomb. I grew up in LA and remember listening to him on the radio on Saturday afternoons in the ’50s while Dad and I played with his radios.

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack

    Eh, Tim McCarver, while not at all a favorite of mine, doesn’t bother me as much as, say, Brent Musburger or Al Michaels doing football. And McCarver is actually fairly good at analyzing situations and predicting plays. He just sounds like a douche doing it. Here’s a bracing thought: just imagine if Jon Gruden did baseball . . .

  66. 66.

    Tractarian

    By the way, there are several sites where you can watch (unauthorized) streams of the MLB-produced international feed. Gary Thorne and Rick Sutcliffe are in the booth – big improvement over Buck/McCarver.

    (and with Thorne I can still get my 80s Mets nostalgia)

  67. 67.

    Cailte

    @drkrick: As a kid growing up in Memphis, I idolized McCarver when he was at the Cardinals. That died completely the first time I saw him do a World Series. Haven’t been able to stand him since.

  69. 69.

    the Conster

    If singing Three Little Birds for Victorino isn’t one of the coolest fan things ever, then I don’t know what is.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    @Tractarian:

    Occasionally I’ve thought about watching the TV with the sound off and listening to my Sirius radio, but I’ve never gotten around to it. During the regular season Sirius does most, or maybe all, of the MLB games and utilizes the home team’s broadcast. Those are sometimes fun to listen to.

  71. 71.

    Punchy

    Someone needs to explain to me why the pop up to Wainwright’s feet that dropped was not scored an error. How in hell is that a “hit”?

  73. 73.

    batgirl

    @kc:

    Does a SAD light really help?

    It really helps me. I keep it at my work desk and use it every morning. I also use a dawn simulator that slowly brightens my room just before I need to wake up during the winter. Also find it a big help.

  74. 74.

    Valdivia

    @Elizabelle:

    There’s been some confusion on this. There is time for enrollment until march 31 so people will have until then. Made no sense to have one deadline for the fine earlier than the deadline for enrollment. They are just lining everything up.

  75. 75.

    Gravenstone

    @Redshirt: Beltran was fully extended to reach it. He also slammed the wall rather hard and spent the rest of the half inning feeling his ribs and working his shoulder. Wouldn’t surprise me if he leaves the game early if all that stiffens up in the cold.

  76. 76.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mike in NC:

    Jennifer Rubin’s latest column denounces JimBob DeMint for destroying her beloved Heritage Foundation and bringing down ruin on the GOP.

    I actually thought about frontpaging her little hissy-fit, but I could bear to give her any clicks!

  80. 80.

    schrodinger's cat

    @cathyx: Was not making a point about First Ladies at all. Just that the wives of Republican politicians cultivate a certain look and blonde hair seems to be a part of the uniform, more often than not. Cruz’s wife reminded me of Paul Ryan’s wife.

  81. 81.

    Eric S.

    If I didn’t have a kitteh on my lap I’d be drinking heavily after all the Cardinals stupid errors. WTF

  82. 82.

    Yatsuno

    @opiejeanne: The city of Seattle has disappeared. I’m 20 stories up and the fog has gotten so dense the ferries are having to honk their positions because there is zero visibility. The boat riders might get to go home early. Lucky stiffs.

  83. 83.

    cathyx

    @schrodinger’s cat: Most caucasian people are either blonde or brunette. Very few are red head or other. And as a woman gets older, which is most politician’s wives, they color their hair, and it can change from month to month.

  84. 84.

    Steeplejack

    Okay, you guys have sensitized me to Tim McCarver, and now he’s getting on my nerves. Just listened to his detailed technical analysis of how banging into the outfield wall gives you an owie. Thanks a lot.

  92. 92.

    trollhattan

    @cathyx:
    wife.gov and myself are/were blonde, from families with a smattering of redheads and our offspring is redhead.edu. Odds are against (recessive gene) but there ya go. IIRC they’re circa 1.5% of the world’s population. Nevertheless, half of them dye/bleach their hair to something else. What’s amusing is the women who gasp at the very sight of a headfull of red, curly hair.

    Her infant photos are a dead ringer for my mom’s, so I can’t leverage any accusations out of this peculiarity.

  94. 94.

    Anne Laurie

    @cathyx:

    And as a woman gets older, which is most politician’s wives, they color their hair, and it can change from month to month.

    Also, for us paleskins who color our hair, the older we get the ‘paler’ we need our hair to be. Over the thirty years since my first grey hairs came in my mid-twenties, I’ve downshifted from my inborn “medium auburn” down to “strawberry blond”. Even women who start out with very dark natural hair may end up as blonds, just so their age-bleached skin tones won’t look so garish — the Morticia Addams effect.

  98. 98.

    kc

    @Mike in NC:

    Jennifer Rubin’s latest column denounces JimBob DeMint for destroying her beloved Heritage Foundation and bringing down ruin on the GOP.

    This makes me happy.

  101. 101.

    Judge Crater

    McCarver is awful. Always has been. Somebody commented recently that “If you ask him the time, he’ll tell you how a watch works.” Perfect. He’s pathologically verbose and always sounds like he’s lecturing on quantum mechanics, not baseball.

    He really takes the fun and spontaneity out of the game. Just listening to him now is depressing.

  102. 102.

    Anne Laurie

    @raven: Hah! My next brother was born with tons of pure-silver hair; it turned gold by the time he was a toddler, and eventually darkened through ginger to auburn as he reached adulthood.

    Both my parents were ‘black Irish’ , with really dark chestnut hair; Dad had green-blue eyes and Mom’s were siamese-cat blue. They ended up producing two redheads, one medium chestnut, and three ash blondes/light brown kids. I got Dad’s eyes, three of us got Mom’s pure blue, and two (the identical twins) have grey-green eyes. Mongrel genetics, we haz them…

  103. 103.

    Yatsuno

    @trollhattan: I read an article awhile back that redheads are in danger of becoming genetically extinct. I think that shan’t be true as long as there’s an Ireland or a Scotland even though red hair is a double recessive.

  104. 104.

    trollhattan

    Quiz: Whose rights were being protected/violated in this event?

    Police in California say a 13-year-old boy who was killed by sheriff’s deputies raised a pellet gun that looked like a high-powered rifle before sheriff’s deputies opened fire.

    Santa Rosa police said Wednesday that the deputies were on patrol Tuesday when they spotted the boy with the gun and repeatedly asked him to lower it. Instead, he raised it in their direction.

    After shooting the teen, the Sonoma County deputies found that the gun was a replica that looked similar to a real AK-47 assault rifle.

    The boy, Andy Lopez, is described as a popular eighth-grade student who played trumpet in his school band.

    http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/23/5845091/sonoma-sheriffs-deputies-shoot.html#storylink=cpy

  105. 105.

    Comrade Jake

    I’m watching, but the set is muted. I have ESPN radio on for commentary. Even with a delay they’re a million times better than the clown show that is Buck and McCarver.

  110. 110.

    Wally Ballou

    @Redshirt: Hershiser took a while to grow on me, but I’ve actually come to like him a great deal as an analyst. And he and Shulman are much, much easier to listen to when John Kruk isn’t with them.

    Main problem with ESPN Radio is having to hear the insufferable Colin Cowherd every commercial break. Oh, and that damn Barbasol jingle.

  111. 111.

    Redshirt

    @Wally Ballou: LOL. I’m so glad to have new commercials! It’s all Mike & Mike, nearly all the time! I’ve listened to the WEEI commercials for 7 months now. I’m so sick of them…. I’ve memorized them all… Help me…

  112. 112.

    LAC

    @opiejeanne: I call him “ferret face”. Jaysus,World Series with an asshole team growing beards , another team I could care less about and Tim McCarver. Thank god for football.

  114. 114.

    Turgidson

    Can’t stand either of these teams. Hate the Cardinals because I’m a Cubs fan (it tears me up inside that I share this trait with George effing Will), and hate the Red Sox because they, and a certain contingent of their fans (present company excluded, of course) quickly became insufferable after finally breaking their dry spell. Gooooo injuries!

  118. 118.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    Was there a rain delay or something? It’s only in the sixth inning.

    As for announcers, my personal favorite was the late Bill King of the A’s. Ray Fosse, on the other hand…

    Also, agree with others about McCarver, and in particular Harrelson, who’s really, really godawful.

  123. 123.

    Steeplejack

    I hate the post-9/11 ritual of “God Bless America” in the seventh-inning stretch. And Sarge was trying to break Bleeding Gums Murphy’s record for the national anthem.

  125. 125.

    hells littlest angel

    I loathe baseball (and all sports) but Tim McCarver has such a good time talking about it, he almost redeems it. Nice voice, cheery demeanor, what’s not to like?

  128. 128.

    hells littlest angel

    @efgoldman: I’m afraid I was being completely sincere. To me, he just seems like a Mr Rogers for adults (which is a good thing).

  130. 130.

    different-church-lady

    @Judge Crater:

    “If you ask him the time, he’ll tell you how a watch works how he thinks a watch works, which is usually close to how a watch works, but not really.”

  134. 134.

    Phineas

    @opiejeanne: I guess I don’t know too ,any people here. I actually lile McCarver Nd I think Fox’s baseball coverage will be the poorer for his retirement next season. Unlike most announcers he seems to actually give a shit about the game he’s watching.

  137. 137.

    Missouri Buckeye

    @Steeplejack:

    Has anyone commented on the offensiveness of a member of the US Military, inn uniforming, singing a religious song at a supposedly secular event?

  138. 138.

    Gus

    I realize I’m typing to a cold, dead thread, but back in the late ’80s, Jim Kaat worked as a color guy for the Twins, and he was great. He went for the money and wound up with the Yankees, though.

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