Wednesday, August 09, 2006

While I pondered, weak and weary

I'm still recovering from last night's disastrous double feature--The Ice Harvest and the Yankees back-to-back. I'm still trying to figure out which was worse.

Baseball first: handing Mariano Rivera a lead and not getting the win always sucks. Okay, so we know he isn't perfect--the guy got beat by Tony freaking Womack in the biggest game of his career after all--but it's still genuinely surprising to see him give up a run.

Speaking of Mo, why do managers still bunt off of him? Ever? First, Rivera's entire genius is for just missing the sweet spot of the bat. It's impossible for hitters to center the ball off him, which, I imagine, would make bunting quite difficult. Then there's the fact that he's probably the best-fielding pitcher in the league, and loves--LOVES--nailing the lead runner. Pierzynski's failed sacrifice was utterly predictable.

It needs to be said that Chicago almost killed themselves with smallball, but were ultimately saved by the longball. That's their 2005 to a tee, as well.

A-Rod can't catch a break. He has great at bats all night, hits a huge home run, a big single in the eighth, then steals second off Bobby Jenks...and all people can talk about is how he didn't catch that foul ball. Train in Vain, Alex. Train in Vain.

A few words on The Ice Harvest. It always bugs me when a great cast comes together for a bad movie. While The Ice Harvest can't rival The Island for biggest waste of talent ever, it was still hugely disappointing. The plot was an absolute mess, the resolution haphazard, and the whole "...so falls Wichita Falls" line...what was its significance, other than the writer thinking it sounded clever? Ugh.

And for a movie whose premise was that the criminals had to stay in town for a few hours because the roads were too slippery to drive on, there certainly was an awful lot of driving going on.

I'm tired and looking forward to getting home for another double feature. It can't possibly be as bad as last night's.

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