Well, by now you are all aware of Stephen Strasburg's amazing debut for the Nationals last night against the Pirates. A truly amazing performance. He more than lived up to the hype and didn't succumb to the hysteria surrounding the event.
I watched the Pirates telecast on FSN last night rather than the MLB Network broadcast, and was glad that I did when I switched to the MLB post-game coverage and heard Bob Costas ask Strasburg to compare himself to Walter Johnson. What? Are you being just a bit premature there, Bob?
Generally speaking, I like Bob Costas. He obviously loves baseball, but he does tend to get very self-important when he speaks on the subject. Apparently, the references to Walter Johnson were frequent during last night's MLB telecast. I refer you to this article from deadspin.com today:
Well, I certainly wish the kid well in his major league career, although I was tickled to think that the Pirates just might beat him last night when they grabbed that 2-1 lead. Interestingly enough, Strasburg did not appear to know who Walter Johnson was. The lack of historical knowledge of the game of today's players is another subject for another day.
Today, some less heralded, but no less important, from a Pirates point of view, debuts will take place when both Brad Lincoln and Jose Tabata will join the Pirates. Somehow, I don't think that Bob Sheiffer and David Gregory will be on hand at Nationals Park tonight for the occasion, nor do I think Bob Costas will be there to ask Brad Lincoln if he considers himself the second coming of Babe Adams.
Some follow-up comments:
ReplyDeleteFrom Bob Smizik's blog: Did a veteran Nats player come up to Strasburg ab=fte the game last night and say "they won't all be this easy, kid." ?
A poster to Smizik's blog: if Strasbrg was a Pirate, Neal would no doubt have him in Indy working on some perceived kink.
Good headline in the Beaver County Times this morning:
ReplyDelete'Burg 1, 'Burgh 0