Kiddie booth

First time I ever heard children in the radio booth during the game. Marty Brennaman had his grandkids in the booth with him and Jeff Brantley for the 9th inning of today's Cleveland - Cincinnati game from Riverfront (I know, I know). We missed a bit of the action, but the Reds nailed it down for a sweep of Cleveland.

Let me say again - Jeff Brantley is the worst play-by-play man in the NL. He's a very good analyst, so I don't mind, but jeez he gets tongue-tied, he forgets to add little details like (e.g. 'it's in for a base hit' or 'that ball was booted' or whatever). You really have to use your imagination and try to interpret the crowd noises in order to know what's happened sometimes.

Rule 6.07

I know this is almost unbelievable, but yesterday evening I was just thinking to myself about all the rules in baseball and how there are some you NEVER see. The rule that leapt to my mind was the batting out of order rule. Howie immediately called it and then said he saw it at Shea in 1967 when Pittsburgh was in town. It was the same day that they filmed the scene from The Odd Couple. I love how Howie knows these things.

I checked with WLW to see what Marty Brennaman & Jeff Brantley had to say about the whole thing. Brennaman announced that it was going to be Patterson, Ross & Freel at the top of the inning. He didn't notice when Ross led off and only noticed when Willie came out to question the order. Pretty funny as it dawned on Brennaman that Willie was right. Both broadcast teams thought that would mean two outs, which of course the umps didn't call. I wondered at the time if Randolph played under protest when they only gave the Mets one out.

Anyway, a weird ending to what was a normal, easy-feeling game. A solid start by Perez. He wasn't outstanding, but he didn't implode, which is progress, right? Strong game from the offense.

Howie was also amusing when he was offering advice to aspiring announcers about how they should respond to their wives when they ask how they're doing during a road trip. Never let on that you're having a good time. All part of Howie's acknowledgment of Mother's Day.

Nightcap - Mets miss bedtime.

Howie wasn't doing the second game so I decided to listen to the Reds' broadcast, something I rarely do. I kind of like Marty Brennaman and Jeff Brantley. They're definitely rooting for the Reds, particularly Brennaman, but they're honest too. Brantley's not a bad analyst, but he's terrible as play-by-play, which he does for a few innings each game.

Brennaman praised the Shea cleaning crew for getting the stadium ready for the night game. Later, however, Brennaman described Shea as "the biggest dump in baseball" as he introduced my favorite sportswriter, John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer. That cost Brennaman brownie points with me.

Anyway, the Mets sure did not show up to play in the second game, did they? Uggh. Getting only 1 run of Arroyo, who's been like BP for the rest of the league this year.

Brantley described Keppinger as a "hitting machine" early on and did he ever live up to that with is 4 hits during the game.