Buck Showalter Teaches Backpedaling 101

Have you ever been trying to pick up someone attractive, and suddenly said something that pretty much dooms your attempt, but then, rather than bailing out tried pathetically to save the situation? You end up sounding like "You know, I usually don't go for blondes like you. My ex was a blonde, and she was batshit crazy. (pause) Not that I think you're batshit crazy. (pause) And not that I'm still thinking about my ex! I was just noticing how nice your hair is, that's all. (long pause) You have really pretty eyes." See how well that worked? Ugh. Douchechills. And that brings us to Buck on Baseball Tonight yesterday.

(The scene- Red Sox vs. Orioles.)

Karl Ravech: Top 9, Boston within one, no outs, full count, and it's David Ortiz...

(Ortiz strikes out on a fairly obvious failed check swing.)

Eric Young: Buck, did he go?

Buck (taking the bait): Well, it's all about intent.

Karl (confused/disdainful): He didn't "intend" to swing?

Buck: Well, he didn't INTEND to swing... It's a matter of whether or not you................ (suddenly changing to a much brighter and friendlier tone) You know, Laz Diaz is a good umpire.

Oof. Just abandon ship next time, buddy. Nothing you say is going to bring him back at that point.

Also, I hate it when blogs make too big a deal out of this, but I feel it's worth mentioning that FireJay is officially one year old as of this morning. If you'd like, feel free to go back through the archives and read some of our shit from last May. Several things become clear when you do so- PNoles still hates Mariotti with a passion that not even my Simmons bashing can match, Dan-Bob and Chris W should post more often because they are funny dudes, and I've gone from being a shithead who doesn't use capital letters to a shithead who does.

Also also, this is the last you'll hear from me until next Tuesday, as I'm taking off on a vacation to the current murder capital of the country. I'm so glad the Saints made it to the NFC championship game two Januarys ago. As far as I learned at the time from ESPN/FOX/CBS, in doing so they saved the city and proved that there were absolutely no lingering effects from Hurricane Katrina. Awesome! Geeeeaaaauuuuuuxxxxxxxxx Saints!

Hola, Amigos. I Know It's Been a Long Time Since I Rapped At Ya

Anybody on that reference? No? No one? OK, Forget it.

Since we never pick on low-hanging fruit here at FireJay, today I've decided to write something about William Simmons from the Anchorage Daily News. His nickname is "The Never A Pompous Dickhole Guy." (It used to be "The Anchorage Never A Pompous Dickhole Guy," but then he got syndicated.) In this column, he speculates on some "what if(s)?" from recent NBA history.

14. What if Jason Williams never crashed his motorcycle?

It has been so long, I feel like I have to add this disclaimer: We're talking about the Jason Williams from Duke (who later shortened his name to Jay Williams) -- not Jason "White Chocolate" Williams or Jayson "The Guy Accused of Killing A Chauffeur" Williams. Anyway, not a week goes by without some troublemaking reader sending us a "bad" prediction from my archives to make me feel stupid -- at least, I think that's the goal -- and one of the leading "somethings" comes from 2003, when I predicted Williams (the No. 2 pick in 2003) would be a better pro than Yao Ming (the No. 1 pick).

Use your imagination for a second. Pretend you're William. Are you in that mindset? Open a window to make your house or apartment colder. You're in Alaska, after all. Now are you in that mindset? Good. OK, so, you're a popular national sports columnist. You write dozens upon dozens of columns every year. Often, as is common practice in the industry, you make predictions about things that haven't happened yet in these columns. Some of these predictions will undoubtedly end up being right. Others will end up being wrong. And the rest will end up in a greyish area, where they are neither right nor wrong. Now, if some obnoxious readers (whose presence, keep in mind, you are in no way forced to acknowledge) want to harass you via email about such a prediction, what is your response? I mean, besides to email them back with a flash video of someone being hit with a snowball from first person perspective!

Think about it. I'll give you a second.






What's it going to be? Well, I hope you said "Take the low road and desperately cling to my unprovable stance which would probably be wrong if it were somehow testable."

Well, you know what? I was right. I was DEAD right.

Is that a joke about the other Jayson Williams's aforementioned chauffeur? I hope not. That would be tacky. And no, William. You were not right. You were let off the hook by Williams's injury. And had he never stepped onto that fateful motorcycle, it's unlikely you'd have been right when all was said and done. Make your case, and then I'll tell you why you're wrong. Then I'll make fun of you for living in an igloo!

A lightning-quick, physical 6-footer who would have been unstoppable after they changed the hand-check rules in 2004,

This might be true. But when it comes to offensive centers, Yao is on many nights the very definition of unstoppable. He's usually five inches taller than everyone else on the court, and frequently gets entry passes less than twelve feet from the basket. I don't even think a polar bear could guard him in that situation!

Williams had his moments as a rookie, including the 26-14-13 he slapped on J-Kidd and the Nets.

Former Detriot Tiger Chris Shelton had his moments, such as the 10 home runs he hit in April 2006. He now coincidentally owns a cross country ski lodge just outside of Amchorage!

He would have been a stud. There's no doubt in my mind.

To some degree, that may be true. I have no problem with that assertion. This post is really more about how fucking ridiculous it is to act like Yao isn't one of the 15 best players in the league. He's a minor liability on defense if the Rockets' opponent has a center who can step out and hit jumpers. But barring that, he's great. He's fucking great. He's an offensive force who commands double teams like Shaq did six-plus years ago. (I'm not saying he's as good as turn of the century Shaq, I'm saying defenses have to focus on him in a similar way.) He rebounds and passes extremely well. He was averaging 22, 10, and 2 blocks this year until his injury. If all the players in the league had their contracts cancelled tomorrow and the teams had to re-draft them all from scratch, where do you think Yao would be taken? Even with the injury concerns, there's no way he falls out of top 20. And you think you're "DEAD right" about Williams ending up as a better pro if he doesn't get hurt? Although it's tough to compare a PG to a C, odds are, even if Williams turns into everything he could have been him and Yao are roughly equally valuable on the court for most of their careers. Sounds like you've got frostbite in your brain!

(And while we're here, I wasn't sold on Yao for the same reason I'm not sold on any guy taller than 7-foot-2 -- other than Kareem, there's no track record of super-tall guys being able to stay healthy and effective while playing between 82-100 games per season at the NBA level.

I like this 7'2" cutoff. So being 7'1", like Shaq or Tyson Chandler, is no problem. But once you add that extra inch, watch out. Injury city. Being right at 7' even, like many recently great centers (Olajuwon, Ewing, Robinson), means you are completely immune to anything up to and including the common cold. Being 6'11", like Dwight Howard or Tim Duncan, means you have negative injury risk. You can actually heal other players on your team who suffer injuries with the touch of your hand.

Bill Walton, Rik Smits, Shawn Bradley, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Tom Burleson, Gheorghe Muresan ... all of those guys had major problems staying on the court, right?

Walton is a fair point. (Looking at his numbers, Jesus, the guy wasn't even that good! I guess he's better known as a college player.) Smits played 70 games in 9 of his 12 seasons. Ilgauskas has cleared 60 in all but one of seasons so far. He missed nine games total from 2002-03 to 2006-07. Burleson is a fair point. And Muresan stunk anyways. Insert "My Giant" joke here. So, no, wrong. Not all of them had/have major problems staying on the court.

It's not a game designed for freakishly tall guys who weigh 300-plus pounds.

It's not a game designed for 6 footers who weigh less than 200, either. Everyone gets beat up out there on the court. Maybe large centers are a bit more susceptible to getting hurt, but it's not like you can bank on any player of any size as a non-concern. I won't bother to list all the point guards throughout recent history who have had their careers affected to some degree by time spent in a suit on the bench, but there are plenty. T.J. Ford. Baron Davis. Even Sam "Simmons is all over my nuts, like, it's barely a figure of speech, he's practically grabbing them" Cassell. Hey, I guess that's what they do up in Alaska when it's cold out! Help keep each other's genitals warm! Dick joke!

That's what worried me about Yao, along with the whole "everyone will be going out of their way to dunk on him" thing

Although it's partially meant as a joke, that's one of the stupidest things I've ever read.

and all the requisite cultural adjustments.

The seriousness of that statement is why the dunking thing should be taken as only a partial joke. And as absolutely buttfucking ridiculous. Oh no, you wouldn't want your super-tall center to get dunked on! If it happens that's worth 50 points for the other team. The league reviews the footage, too, and usually suspends the center for a few games.

If Williams hadn't bought that freaking motorcycle, I would have been right on this one. So there.)

Almost definitely not. You are petty, unfunny, and stupid. William Simmons, I hope you get slowly crushed to death by a glacier!

Alright Everyone, Back To Your Basements

We're not welcome in the Dallas Mavericks' locker room anymore.

Mark Cuban is the only blogger allowed in the Dallas Mavericks locker room.

At Cuban's direction, the Mavericks have created the first blogger-free policy in the NBA, perhaps in all of pro sports. As a blogger himself, he believes people writing for blogs don't need behind-the-scenes access to do their jobs, even if those blogs are run by newspapers.

Cuban said his point is that if he allows one blogger in, then out of fairness he would have to allow all of them, even if it's just a suburban teenager who runs a fan site. Instead, he said it's better to keep them all out.

"My choice, my decision," Cuban said, adding that he hasn't discussed it with the league office. "We brought it to their attention after the fact. I think they recognized, look, it wasn't a blogging issue, it was a space issue. If you run out of space, you've got to put the velvet rope somewhere. So what do you do? Do I say, `Oh, you're major media, you can get in and little mavsforum and mavstalk and mavswiki, you can't get in?' I'm not going to do that."

Well, you should do that. At bare minimum. I mean... that is, if you don't want to be labeled as insensitive, backwards-thinking, and possibly racist.

Does anyone out there have any experience with forming special interest groups and subsequently getting desperate politicians into back pockets? Our rights as bloggers are in jeopardy. We need to stand up for ourselves. This decision sets a dangerous precedent; before long, we won't be allowed in mall food courts or comic book stores. Not that we like going outside anyways, but it's always nice to know you have the option in case you want to check out girls through binoculars, right? Next, the powers that be will start restricting our content. We'll be prevented from using made-up statistics like OPS or making fun of David Eckstein. And eventually... I shudder to even think of it... our parents will make us move out. You heard me. No more free food. No more free rent. No more not having a job. No more playing 19 hours of Sega Genesis a day. This is the world we face, people.

In protest/response to this development, I will no longer blog about the Mavericks. I ask all the rest of you out there to join me in this boycott.

This Is Nitpicking. Or Is It?

I like reading things that have a nice, smooth flow to them.

It's hard to explain what I'm talking about.

I mean, I'm not (nor will I ever be) a good writer.

But I can tell you that when an article contains too many one sentence paragraphs, it becomes annoying to read.

Choppy formatting is distracting.

When two sentences are about the same general idea, it's ok to let them touch each other.

They're not going to cancel each other out or something.

Do you know what I mean?

Bill Plaschke sure doesn't.

Five minutes into spring cleaning, and Matt Kemp and I are already having a fight.

"I'll buy," I said, holding out my credit card to the man working the cash register at Mack Daddy's, a soul food place next to his gym on a cluttered street.

"No, no, no," he said, pulling out a large bill to pay for his food.

"Listen," I said. "I buy for young players. I always have. When you make the big money, you can buy mine."

"No, dude," he said, firmly. "I can pay my own way."

He gets a plate full of catfish nuggets. I get a side dish of insight.

Five minutes into spring cleaning, and already I like Matt Kemp better than last year.

What seemed like clubhouse defiance is now calm confidence.

That deer-in-the-headlights look has become an unfettered focus.

"Last year when I heard that trade talk, I got really scared," Kemp said. "I wanted to call Ned Colletti and say, 'Please, please, let me stay.' I love the fans. I love my friends. I love the Dodgers.' "

He shakes his head with a relieved smile.

"Now that I'm still here, it's time to show Los Angeles how much fun we can have by staying together," he said. "It's time to make some history."

The Dodgers listened. The Dodgers bought. Now the entire Dodgers nation will be watching.

Matt Kemp will pay his own way?

The Dodgers' season depends on it.

Their unwillingness to deal him prevented them from obtaining this winter's top traded pitchers -- Johan Santana, Erik Bedard or Dan Haren.

The Dodgers believe that by keeping his cannon in the middle of their lineup, Kemp would blow enough smoke to shroud the hole at the top of their rotation.

"The Dodgers had an opportunity to move him," said Dave Stewart, Kemp's agent. "But they see the value."

Kemp saves them money. He saves them angry questions from fans who want to see the Dodgers kids grow together.

Now Matt Kemp has to save the season.

I'll cut him a break for the dialog he shared with Kemp because that exchange is best captured with multiple paragraph breaks. But even if you exclude that little segment, you've still got ten paragraphs with exactly one sentence in this part of the article. Most of the other paragraphs have two. (The rest of the article isn't much different.) As my extremely obnoxious and over the top intro demonstrates, that's a pain in the ass to read. I have no idea why Plaschke gets paid to put his thoughts into words. I guess the world needs both Gods and clods. Plus, someone on Around The Horn has to occasionally out-moron Mariotti, right? Feel free to leave comments in
Bill Plaschke's style.

Peter King vs. His Readers In a Terrible Mailbag Showdown

Gregg Easterbrook's TMQ column was surprisingly inoffensive this week, so I'm skipping it. Maybe he's been reading my angry diatribes and is changing his ways. Probably not. Anyways I'll check back with him in 6 days or so. For now, let's move on to something else.

Sometimes I feel like making fun of a mailbag column for a post is cheating. Instead of just dealing with a dumb journalist like Peter King, I get to shit all over both the journalist and his (usuall) even stupider readers. It's the closest thing there is to a guarantee in this hardcore anti-sports media blogging business. It's completely impossible for the column to not end up being a giant piece of crap. There are too many idiots involved. Because of this, are they really fair game for FireJay? I'm not sure. However: it's late, I know people will want to read something tomorrow, and TMQ let me down. Subsequently I need to find somebody to make fun of in a hurry. Peter/Peter's readers, thanks for being that somebody.

(Before he starts answering questions, King launches into a disaster of a mini-column about where teams should look for RB talent)

Did you notice the rushing leaderboard for Week 10? And did you notice the inactives last night for the Seahawks? There's a correlation. And the moral of the story is that running back is the last position I'd ever spend big free-agent money on if I ran an NFL franchise.

Check out the weekend's top five rushers, and how they entered the NFL:
1. Clinton Portis, Washington, second round.
2. Jesse Chatman, Miami, undrafted.
3. Ryan Grant, Green Bay, undrafted.
4. Selvin Young, Denver, undrafted.
5. Willie Parker, Pittsburgh, undrafted.

All this is mediocre (but not necessarily bad) analysis. Sure, it's interesting to note that some good NFL running backs have come from unlikely places. Same as some good QBs... or offensive linemen... or anyone from any position. So this is pretty vanilla but it's not stupid. I mean, I wouldn't spend a lot of money on a free agent RB. But King's also trying to make a point about RBs that are picked early in the draft. This is a problem.

Running backs are the curse of the NFL. Look at Chicago, which in the last 13 drafts has taken Rashaan Salaam, Curtis Enis and Cedric Benson in the first round and been disappointed by all three.

So 4 of the top 5 rushers from last weekend's games were undrafted? Awesome. Great. But one game seems like a pretty small sample size. What if we look at the top rushers from this entire season, and what round they were drafted in?

Peterson, 1
Parker, undrafted
Portis, 2
Addai, 1
Lynch, 1
McGahee, 1
Tomlinson, 1
Westbrook, 3
James, 1
L. White, 2
T. Jones, 1
R. Brown, 1

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Yeah, now things look a little different. Where's your Ryan Grant and Jesse Chatman now, Peter? Just to further prove my point, I went 5 years back (in order to allow for some turnover) and looked at the season rushing leaders in 2002 and their draft position.

R. Williams, 1
Tomlinson, 1
P. Holmes, undrafted
Portis, 2
T. Henry, 2
McAllister, 1
Barber, 2
J. Lewis, 1
Taylor, 1
Dillon, 2
Bennett, 1
A. Green, 3

In conclusion: shut up, Peter King. Yes, there are exceptions to this rule, but in general drafting a running back early looks like a pretty fucking good idea to me.

Parker, Chatman, Grant and Young are hungry. Downright starving, probably, after being stuck behind good backs like Jerome Bettis, Ronnie Brown and Tiki Barber. With the injuries that ravage teams every year, it's smart to have a good second and third back, but it's just as smart not to pay a first-teamer the big dough.

Paying "big dough" to big name free agent RBs like Edge James looks kind of silly, and King correctly says so a part of the column I haven't included here. But paying "big dough" to 1st round draft picks like Adrian Peterson or the 20 year old version of Edge James that the Colts took back in 1999 looks really, really smart. I mean, as long as you define "smart" in the game of football as "having guys on your team that play extremely well."

You can find guys on the NFL street to gain 1,200 yards for you. Happens every year.

Total 1,200 yard seasons in the NFL from 2002-2006: 59
Number of those compiled by players who were not drafted: 4 (2 by Priest Holmes, 2 by Willie Parker)
Number of those compiled by players who were drafted in the 4th round or later: 5 (1 by Chester Taylor, 1 by Stephen Davis, 3 by Rudi Johnson)
Number of those compiled by players who were drafted in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd round: 50

You are wrong. Stop telling your readers lies. It didn't happen as recently as 2004. And the overwhelming majority of 1,200 rushers in today's NFL are not just draft picks (as opposed to "guys off the street"), but 1st or 2nd round draft picks.

The lesson should ring out in every front office in the league over the next few years: Don't pay big money for a back who's been a star in the league.

Again, fair enough. Free agent backs are not a good idea. BUT-

Instead, develop your own later-round finds.

As long as they are named Rudi Johnson, yeah, sure, go ahead and develop them. If they are named anything else, I don't like your odds.

They come in all shapes and sizes.

What the fuck does that even mean? They are NFL running backs. Almost every single one of them is between 5'10" and 6'2", and somewhere in the neighborhood of 220 lbs. This is like saying "If you're like me, you like cans of soda. They come in all shapes and sizes."

MCNABB'S FUTURE. From Peter Hale of Woburn, Mass.: "Two quarterback-related questions: Any chance Donovan McNabb goes to Baltimore, and would it be a waste if the growing consensus proves true and Brian Billick isn't back next year?

Here's where the readers start stepping up to the plate and competing with King in the dumbass department. I know how everyone likes to hype him up as an offensive "guru", but given what a disaster the Ravens' offense has been for Billick's entire tenure and that he's been unable to turn former 1st round pick Kyle Boller into anything that resembles a non shitty quarterback, I'd say it would be a waste if McNabb came to Baltimore and Billick was still there.

DOWN ON RIVERS. From Rick Betourne of Chesapeake, Va.: "The Chargers are toast. Even as emotional as they were Sunday, how can they legitimately be called a playoff team? Philip Rivers is AWFUL! I kept saying to my son, 'Who is he throwing to?'

"Consistently, he was throwing to receivers who were covered, double-covered, even triple-covered. People wonder why LT is not having the same year -- Philip Rivers."

First of all, Rick, the Chargers can be legitimately called a playoff team because they reside in the AFC West and the other three teams there are a collective joke this year. (I'm a Broncos fan, I would know.) Second, rather than just looking at LT's down season, maybe we should look at why neither LT nor Rivers is having the kind of year they expected. Hmmmm... what changed for the Chargers between 2006 and 2007? Were there any moves made regarding the coaching staff? Did they fire a coach with an excellent (regular season) track record and hire one who's never done anything but suck? Did they lose their offensive coordinator? Maybe we should look in that direction and see if we can figure out why both LT and Rivers are plummeting back to Earth, rather than simply pointing fingers at a one specific single cog in an underperforming offense.

MORE QB QUESTIONS. From Mike Kearney of Burlington, Ontario: "I raise my green tea to you this morning

I know green tea is good for you and all, but by putting that in your email you have identified yourself as a pretentious ass.

and ask "Who is the No. 3 NFC quarterback in the Pro Bowl?" Favre and Romo are one and two. For No. 3, is it Garcia, Brees or Hasselbeck? The whole world needs to know.

And by putting Hasselbeck on that list and omitting Jon Kitna, you have identified yourself as dumb.

VINATIERI FALL-OUT. From Jay of Trenton, N.J.: "Hey Peter, do you think Adam Vinatieri's missed "gimme" vs. San Diego tarnished his HOF resume at all?"

That might be the single worst question I have ever seen published in a mailbag column. Ever. This is the stuff of legends, folks. People as ignorant and clueless as Jay from Trenton don't just get their shitbag ideas published on a major sports website every day.

No. I respect the question.

Why? That question is so bad, I almost wonder if it was sent in as a joke. I really hope that's the case and that Jay in Trenton and his friends are laughing as hard as I am at King's answer. When is all is said and done, this one miss against the Chargers during a regular season game in November will have about as much impact on whether or not Vinatieri gets in to the HOF as who his favorite Spice Girl is. (Mine is Baby!)

But one blown regular-season game hardly tarnishes the resume of the best clutch kicker in NFL history.

This simple (and correct) answer is the opposite of respecting the question.

FAVRE-ULOUS. From Mark F. of Worcester, Mass.: "Saw Deanna Favre on last week's Monday Night Game. Is it bad form to note what a babe she is?"

I will relay the message and you can count on two things. One, she'll be very pleased. Two, she'll blush.

That is creepy. I think Eriz has done the best job around here of lampooning Peter's man-crush on Favre, so instead of writing my own material to make fun of it I'll just link to one of his posts. And to this Sports Pickle page (scroll about halfway down, in the middle). Who knew, though, that King also had such strong feelings for Mrs. Favre? I bet he loves them both so much that he'd hurt either if he had the chance.

TOUCHING STORY FROM A 49ERS FAN. From Phil of Toronto: "A story about Dick Nolan: I have been a Niners fan since I was 14, in 1965. In 1972, when the team made its first ever trip to nearby Buffalo following the NFL/AFL merger, I bought tickets. A couple of days prior I decided that it would be even better to drive in the day before and hopefully meet some players. Accordingly, I called the team's headquarters and asked to speak to Dick Nolan. They put me on hold and, a couple of minutes later, Dick was on the line (obviously, this is something that would never happen today).

Phil goes on to describe how Dick got him passes to the Niners' Saturday practice that weekend, and how the two of them met there and how Dick was a super nice guy. Peter, your thoughts?

I'm going to give you the biggest cliché in sports -- the apple does not fall very far from the tree.

Biggest cliche in sports? Oh, so close. Let me make like Bill Simmons and show you the "official" list of biggest sports cliches that I just made up. Then let me light myself on fire.

1. Take it one game at a time
2. Go out their and play their/our game
3. He/they just know(s) how to win
4. You can't say enough about him/this team
5. Go out there and make plays
6. It is what it is
7. They/we believe in their/ourselves and that's all that matters
8. No one believed in us/We shocked the world

.....

693: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Hmmmmm. Maybe Peter was thinking of the biggest cliche in real life, rather than in sports. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" comes in at #28 on that list. So King is still wrong, but he's much less wrong.

That's all I've got. Feel free to submit any questions you'd like us here at FireJay to answer in the comments section, and we can make our own mailbag! Hooray! Or, just leave a comment and tell us who your favorite Spice Girl is/was.

Plea to Sports Producers

I'll come out and say it right now - I'm a Seahawks fan. When it came time to pick a favorite team, I had the choice of my dad's Browns or the local Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Ray Perkins creamsicle Buccaneers at that. So my dad went away to Seattle on business, came back with a Seahawks shirt and I was hooked. It didn't matter that Rick Mirer or Jon Kitna was starting. 3-13 meant that for 3 Sundays out of the season, I could watch Sportscenter and be proud to see highlights. This, of course, was back when Olbermann and Patrick had highlights, Plays of the Week, and the Sunday Conversation and not the NBA 2nite crew talking about the color of the stool left by Kobe Bryant in the 2nd half (I hear it was green.) It was about Warren Moon leading the Seahawks to a win in the 10,000th game in NFL history.

But something bugged me all last night, and it's a pandemic in sports broadcasting.

Showing the crowd too much.

It's fantastic that these people have enough money to have great seats that are in the field of vision of cameras. But I really don't need to see reactions of people in the crowd after a first down. I don't need to see Rockies fans sitting in Coors Field contemplating which overpass they'll trow themselves off of because the Red Sox won the Series in their ballpark. I'm glad that the 500 pound man in a Darrell Jackson jersey made a SEA-Fence sign. I know he's there. He's been there every home game. I'd be willing to bet that Shamu is under doctor's orders to stay in his seat. So please, STOP. SHOWING. HIM.

I'm not saying stop showing the fans altogether. A touchdown, home run, goal, white out, brawl that ends up in the stands after a fan throws something at a moody player... these are all reasons to show the crowd. But if I'm in agony at watching my team lose, I don't need to see other fans that feel that way. It seemed to me that FOX started this back in 2004 when the Red Sox beat the Cardinals. It might have been sooner, but I have no memory of it. I really don't mind the sponsored Fan Cam or the camera guy showing the 2 blonds that showed up at the game together.

crap i forgot how to delete posts

moved my jeff pearlman one to the top- now im stuck with this one which i can edit but not delete. so ill just say... dan reynolds is ugly.