R.I.P Harry Kalas

So what if I'm a full two days late with this? Work is once again crushing my ass, and I haven't even had the time to get this post up despite having mostly put it together sometime on Monday night. But, I figure, better late than never, right? It's not like Harry Kalas is urgently waiting for me to post this thing. What's he got to be rushing for at this point, right?

So, Long Live Harry Kalas, legendary Phillies announcer from 1971 to 2009:



And while we're on the subject of baseball, did anybody happen to catch Chien-Ming Wang's line from his second start of the season earlier this week? How's about 8 runs in 1.0 innings pitched for the two-time 19-game winner and someone who the team is counting on to contribute similar numbers again this season? With all the question marks surrounding CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Andy Pettitte, Wang has been viewed by the Yankees brass and Yankees fans in New York as somewhat of a foregone conclusion for the 2009 baseball season, and yet so far he has been anything but that. So far in two starts, Wang has pitched a total of 4.2 innings, which right there alone is enough to tell you his whole story, but throw in the 15 earned runs he has given up in those 4.2 innings, along with 15 hits, 6 walks and just one strikeout in those 4.2 innings. It's not good. At all. Wang's ERA currently sits at 28.93, and his WHIP is a lofty 4.50. 4.5 walks and hits given up per inning pitched is definitely not gonna cut it in New York, or really anywhere in the major leagues at this point. So far the Yankees are off to a 4-4 start, but the only real bright spot to the team has been newly-acquired starting pitcher AJ Burnett, who so far has busted out with two stellar starts -- both wins -- in pitching 13.1 innings while recording 15 strikeouts and just one walk. Now that's how to come to New York and make some friends in a hurry. But at 4-4 though, sports talk radio is once again my best friend these days, as you simply cannot imagine without living here how much fun it is to listen to the pussy New Yorkers calling in and complaining about their baseball teams, and not actually caring at all since my team are the current World Champions of baseball.

And speaking of whining, pussified fans in New York, the Yankee fans don't even come close to where the Mets fans have sunk so far this year. Despite the city spending mostly public funds to build an $800+ million stadium for the Mets -- bearing the name of Citi, no less -- the sports talk callers cannot stop bitching about how crappy the new stadium is. The complaints range from it being a drab, nondescript and "convention-like" edifice, to having green seats and grey walls but none of the Mets' traditional blue colors, and that the stadium itself is more of an homage to the Brooklyn Dodgers -- the favorite team of Mets owner Fred Wilpon as a boy growing up in the area -- with little mention of the Mets and their team history, including two world titles in 1969 and 1986. But far and away the most common complaint being voiced all over the airwaves and newspapers in New York these days about Citi Field is the apparently large number of seats from which you actually cannot see the ball in play. With one of the largest outfield areas in the league, and with seats that are said to be lower to the field than in most older parks, there are as many as a few thousand seats in the new Citi field from which a viewer cannot see the ball in play if it is hit to the corners of the outfield, on either side. Sheer brilliance. And with the Mets already starting off at a 3-4 clip, it's like sheer heaven getting to listen to the whiners dialing in all day long to air their grievances about their favorite local baseball team.

Here's hoping we're at the start of the second straight Major League Baseball season without any New York teams in the playoffs.