I’d like to point out that the words I came up with were:
Boone! Here comes the Boone!
Ready or not
Here comes a ball that’s caught.
That is all.
People who touch balls in play shouldn’t get reseated — they should be ejected and have their season tickets donated to charity (I’m a charity, right?). Gave your tickets to someone? It’s your responsibility to ensure your guests behave themselves, so boo-hoo. Those seats aren’t owned by season ticket holders (and I can’t imagine that’s the case)? You get to clean out the Moose’s costume at the end of a long, hot game.
I didn’t want to have to do this, but because the music is so stale (and useless anyways) I’ll point out that their choices make for easy mockery. Like Boone:
Boone! Here comes the Boone!
Ready or not
I strike out a lot
I said Boone! Here comes the Boone!
Ready or not
Hit a ball that’s caught…
Blame Jason for part of that.
I also think that if you want to live a long and happy life, you should follow Pat Gillick around, and marvel at the disasters that happen to those unfortunate locations and people you’ve just left.
Do you think his days are microcosms of his baseball career? He goes to the salad bar and gets the last scoop of lettuce before the greens catch fire, crosses the street before a meteor strikes the corner, gets the last unpoisoned coffee from a street vendor…
Strained right hamstring for Ibanez? oooooh, if Ibanez has hamstring troubles this year… (wincing) maybe we play him at first.
Boy, if Ibanez is injured, this offense is going straight to H-E-double hockey sticks. On-fire Ichiro’s been the best hitter on this team, but Ibanez isn’t far back. Without him, the team has one — one — player above-average for their position, and a bunch of hitters who aren’t performing any better than random schleps you could sign to minor league deals.
Also, Ron Fairly’s endorsement of the new logo over the old one seals my opinion of the previous one as the better of the two.
So reader Glenn Peterson wants me to forgo making fun of the announcers, as it’s too easy, but I’m sorry, I can’t resist.
When you watch or listen to the game, pay attention to how often they’re really saying nothing of any value. Reciting the pitch counts by innings is one thing, and even “that’s the first time I’ve seen this….” is os some potential value. But “He’s a player up from the minor leagues who is now getting a chance in the major leagues” — couldn’t Fairly just not say anything and let us enjoy the silence?
Woah, Josh Phelps got a hold of that pitch.
I note the stands are looking a little sparse. It’s June, it’s a beautiful, beautiful day, and while the Jays aren’t a particularly exciting matchup, seeing all those green seats is a little jarring.
Super Reader Paul Covert speculates that Meche’s 1999 also might not count as an option year because once up Meche did not go back down.
He also agrees that Aurilia’s defense is pretty bad, and offers this: “My ears had heard of it / But now my eyes have seen it / Therefore Bavasi ought to despise himself / And repent in dust and ashes.” (Or however that quotation goes.)
7:24 edit — Tom Wylie offers that if his contract was purchased in 1999, that’s not an option year. However, the only thing I can find about this is that he was “recalled from Tacoma” in July, which implies his contract had already been purchased and he was in Tacoma on an optional assignment, which would make 1999 an option year. This one remains open to speculation, though.
On Meche being optioned —
I heard two things, and I asked (as did David, and probably Jason) people who know this stuff and people in front offices. I got two answers —
[editing this next couple of paragraphs as I get more info]
First, that there was no way he had options left — once you have three years as a pro (Meche: 1996-1998, in the minors) you have to be put on the 40 man roster (he was). Then each player has three option years, where they can be sent up and down as much as the team cares to. 1999, 2000 he split time. Even if you don’t count 2002 (and why wouldn’t you? I’m not sure, but ignore it for now), you’ll remember the Mariners sent him down to Tacoma last year (though he never played down there) as part of their roster shenanigans — but that doesn’t count, because apparantly there’s a sub-sub-rule that says optional assignments don’t count against option years if they’re of a duration shorter then 20 days. That leaves an open question about what happened with his DL time and 2002 — I’m assuming at this point that by keeping him on the 40m and nominally in either the majors or minors, they’d have preserved his option years.
So that’s only two years where they moved him up and down. So to be sent down, Meche would have to clear waivers — and that may well have happened and we just don’t know that yet, though it seems unlikely that no one would claim him.
There was a second opinion that Meche had options left, though I couldn’t get a good explanation of why (see above), but that he would have to be designated for assignment to be sent down. I think Dave understood the explanation for this, but I didn’t.
If you told me that they’d screwed up and someone had protested and claimed him, I wouldn’t be surprised, but I can’t imagine they didn’t clear it with MLB first.
The problem is that we don’t know. Baseball’s transaction rules are byzantine and they keep them secret for reasons unknown (would it be so bad if David and I could look them over and argue this out like everything else?) and the rules, right now, might include one that says “Gil Meche has an extra option year” that we just don’t know about.
More details as we figure them out.
Teams have incorrect option information all the time. Every spring, a team or four that believed a player was out of options is informed that they do, indeed, have one left. Why Meche still has one is a giant mystery, but no complaints here.
For what its worth, I still think Meche is best served in the bullpen long term. I’d like to see him get some work in relief while he’s in Tacoma. Of course, at this point, we really have to wonder about the long term future he’s going to have in this organization. He’s already been through arbitration, and his salaries are going to stay north of $2 million until he hits free agency. There’s a decent chance he could be non-tendered after the year.
By bringing up Bocachica, they’ve essentially swapped him for McCracken. They got Bocachica on a minor league contract, and paid $2 million for McCracken. Think anyone in the front office might learn the value of replacement level talent from this?
Regardless, these are just small shots across the bow. The big overhaul is still coming.
Meche optioned to Tacoma, Hiram Bocachica up.
If this is true, I seriously have no idea how this can be true.