I listening to today's game on WTAM Cleveland. Sometimes I like to listen to the Pirates through the eyes of the other team's broadcasting crew. The guys who do the Tribe are as partisan as they come, too, which is always a treat. Every second ball prompts "oh boy he didn’t miss by much." Ron Santo, with all his sighing, has nothing on these guys.
LHP Cliff Lee threw three balls to Randall Simon in the second inning. This got Mike Hegan and Tom Hamilton a long giggling chuckle. "I don’t know that we’ve ever seen Randall Simon with a 3-0 count," Mike Hegan said. Simon flipped the bat away on strike one, certain it was ball four. More laughter. "Randall Simon looks like he had a few sausages this winter—he’s put on some weight."
Simon walked on a good fastball that was "just off the plate." Good things happen when a guy draws a walk: Lee threw the next pitch away – wild pitch – and was more erratic against the next hitter, J.J. Davis, walking him too.
Now they are singing the praises of Rob Mackowiak as a "good utility player." They never pronounce his name the same way twice. He is having a good at-bat against this left-hander. Mackowiak has taken Lee to a 3-2 count. He's called out on another low strike - like Simon, he also broke into the I'll-take-my-base jog.
... a few innings later, Simon goes up hacking and they laugh at the huge cut on pitches out of the strike zone. "If you looked in the dictionary for the definition of a free swinger, Randall Simon’s picture is in there." Simon strikes out, and Hamilton says "but the Tigers scored a run, so it’s 1-1" (emphasis mine).
