1) Before going to tonight’s game, I was watching ESPN’s coverage of the Cubs/Brewers game…and Orel called Craig Counsell “a professional hitter.” The other announcers pinned him down and made him answer the “How can you call him a professional hitter when his batting average is so low?”

Orel said, “I can call him a professional hitter because when he’s up at the plate, he does all the things you want a hitter to do up there…all except get hits.”

It almost made me miss Vidro.

2) I am one of those people who always goes to Fan Appreciation Day…and never takes home any of the much, much more. Never.

3) Did they show our first base coach’s EPIC FAIL on his attempt to throw a ball into the crowd? Hilarious…and embarrassing…and it made me feel better about…

4) …when Valbuena was fouling off a series of pitches on his way to getting the first hit of the game, I was on my CrackBerry trying to dial up USS Mariner to share some of the Bedard information with my wife–when one of the foul balls was hit DIRECTLY AT ME. (In Section 331, we rarely get foul balls hit our way.) Since I hadn’t seen the pitch or the swing, I could only react to the sound of the crowd–and I panicked and covered my face with both of my elbows…

The ball hit the protective barrier right in front of me and clattered into the 100 level.

I had nightmares of being shown endlessly on SportsCenter–like those Cowboys fans who missed while trying to high five each other…until I remembered that no one at ESPN would be paying attention to the feed of an M’s/A’s game.

Still embarrassing though…and for the rest of the game, I only checked out this site while between innings.

(I just bought a television and this is the first game I’ve watched all season)

So with Lopez hitting his career high in home runs and since the announcers think he is playing “stellar” defense at 1B, are we to assume he’s the new 1B next year?

when asked that in the pregame Blowers thought maybe they might move him between 1B & 2B depending on R/L pitching matchups….

huh. looking back (contrary to my memory) the M’s have done pretty well on Fan Appreciation Day.

maybe my memory is colored by the fact that I have never won anything, even when there is much, much more.

There’s and article on cbssportsline.com about the Ms possibly hiring Kim Ng…