L.A. goes to school

Time's tight - we are supposed to prepare a meal for 40 people on Saturday, but those plans are obviously in limbo with the looming storm. We're working on Plans B and C tonight. [I wrote that this morning, and I think we're up to plans L through Q, but we're going to get it done as long as I can manage to stay on my feet.]

Meanwhile, here's an interesting catch by phillyburbs.com about a college professor who had Larry Andersen speak to his journalism class.

Christine and I are jealous. Our journalism professor brought in some good guest lecturers -including me once - but L.A. would have been something else. Click the Andersen link to read it all, but here are my favorite tidbits:

- He is a fan but he tries to not get too excited on air. He says that he mutes his microphone sometimes so he can jump around and scream without being distracting to the audience.

- Because he works for the team, he can't divulge all the crazy stuff he knows about the players. Especially not on air.

- When Harry Kalas passed out in the broadcast booth in Washington last year, Larry gave HK CPR until the paramedics arrived.

That's it for now - please let the forecasters be wrong about this weekend.

Farewell Little Professor

We take a break from the stupidity of modern athletes to mourn one of the all-time great Red Sox: Dom DiMaggio.

Connected to and overshadowed by both premier outfielders of his generation, teammate Ted Williams and brother Joe DiMaggio, he had a stellar, yet underrated, career.

From his Boston Globe obituary:

The author David Halberstam described Mr. DiMaggio as "probably the most underrated player of his day." Playing in the shadow of the era's two biggest superstars made that inevitable, perhaps. But neither of his great contemporaries failed to appreciate Mr. DiMaggio's talents. Williams considered him "the best leadoff man in the American League," and his older brother called him "the best defensive outfielder I've ever seen."

Bill James' 2001 Baseball Abstract rated him the 24th best centerfielder of all time.

And I'm pretty sure he was 100 percent clean.

For some reason, this death makes me madder about the drug-infested era we're living through. It's also sad that there's only one left of the Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky trio.

I have a nice picture of them somewhere. I should go find it. (It's too big to scan in for the blog.)

And didn't mention yesterday because of Manny Ramirez and lack of sentimental attachment, but former Phillies manager Danny Ozark died.

J-Roll's an idiot: First Jimmy Rollins said he was retired from the prediction business. Then, he predicted a .400 month. (Although it's an improvement over April's .207, May's .222 is a far cry from Ted Williams.) Now, we learn he had predicted a Phillies-Yankees World Series. I guess hitting isn't the only thing J-Roll is struggling with this year.

Phillies: We bumped into a friend at the grocery store and talked for a while, so we were later than usual coming home. The Phillies were already three innings in when we tuned in the car radio, just in time to hear Cole Hamels give up his first hit, and to hear Larry Andersen say he's not into "Spacebook or Myface" when Scott Franzke asked if he Twitters.

Hamels pitched his first decent game of the year: six innings, two runs on three hits and two walks. Seven strikeouts. Things got a bit dicey in the 9th when Brad Lidge, who hadn't pitched since Tuesday, was summoned to protect a seven-run lead. He did, but gave up three runs in the 10-6 win over the Braves.

Red Sox: Brad Penny pitched into the 7th (two decent starts in a row) in a 7-3 win over the Rays (finally!). Jonathan Papelbon needed 11 pitches to quickly end the game in his non-save situation.

[Photo: Boston Globe files]

Oh sheet - times two

Many pooh-poohed the notion that Chase Utley's World Series potty mouth would be a bad influence on the youth of Philadelphia. Turns out they were right. But Utley didn't taint youngsters - he tainted Larry Andersen.

The Phillies were muddling through another zombie-like game. We listened on the radio because the television broadcast was pre-empted. Christine sighed a lot.

But in the 9th, trailing 3-0, the Phillies woke up and took the lead on Shane Victorino's grand slam. I had stepped out of the room, but Christine swears she heard L.A. say "oh shit" on the air before the ball landed in the seats. When I returned, I heard L.A. say "holy cow," but I bet Christine heard correctly. WWHS? (What would Harry say?) The 7-3 win gave Clay Condrey his team-leading third win of the season. Cole who?

Big comeback win over the first place Marlins. Let's hope this is the start of something.

I wonder if Jerry Remy echoed Andersen tonight when Jason Bay hit a two-run homer off Mariano Rivera to tie it in the bottom of the 9th. Manny who? I'm an old fogie, so I'm turning in before this one ends. Hope to have more good news tomorrow.

All in all, we've had worse days

Despite the Phillies' worst loss of the season, a Brad Penny implosion and the Harry Kalas ceremony getting pre-empted for the Flyers game, it was still a pretty good day at SoxandPhils.

With the Phillies booted to Comcast Network (unavailable on Verizon FIOS), I called a sports bar Thursday to make sure it would be playing the game because Christine was upset about having to miss the pregame memorial for Harry. A convenient coincidence with my work schedule allowed me to get my normal Friday errands done in the morning and us seated in the bar by game time.

Unfortunately, there were just a few TVs showing the Phillies - I guess Flyers playoffs are more important than Harry - but we did get to see his sons throw the first pitches to Michael Jack Schmidt, John Kruk and Jimmy Rollins. Then, Harry's son Kane sang the national anthem. I got chills watching some of the players, such as Jamie Moyer, break up during the ceremonies.

The bar had sound for the Flyers game only, so we couldn't get the full effect of the Phillies' half-inning silent broadcast.

We had a nice meal and headed home to "watch" the game on the radio. Larry Andersen explained at length about the ugly tie he wore (Christine picked up on L.A.'s odd look when the TV broadcast showed him). In a nutshell, it was one of Harry's ties, and Andersen has a connection to his paisley ties.

As we listened at home, the Padres slowly chipped away at Cole Hamels and the Phils' 7-1 lead and wound up winning 8-7. Christine was a little vocal during the game. However, the Red Sox did the reverse to the Orioles. Brad Penny was awful tonight and put the Sox down by seven runs after two innings. But the Sox struck back and won 10-8.

Another game Christine won't see: Monday. That's because I won another prize from the Inquirer. It's not the tickets for suites at the 76ers or Flyers playoff games we'd been hoping for, or the Daily News Home Run Payoff, but something Christine has wanted: tickets to an advance screening of Earth.

It's not all-you-can eat wings and beer, but I'll take a free show featuring bears.

Games on

Spring games finally started today. I got caught up in something and didn't get to watch the beginning of the Sox as planned (I watched an inning so far and will try to watch some more after posting this), but I did hear the last couple innings of the Phillies game on the radio.

I liked this exchange for some reason:

Scott Franzke: How's that pretzel?

Larry Andersen: Salty.

Salty indeed.

The Phillies dropped their first game of the spring; the Red Sox beat Boston College in the afternoon but are losing to the Twins tonight. I don't put much credence in spring results. We're still about 190 regular-season wins and 14 postseason wins away from the SoxandPhils World Series.

Wake me in October.

{Boo! I liked October 2008, but I want this spring and summer to last for a nice long time.}

[Photo credit: NaturalNews.com]