The one good thing about Fox games is that you get to read all the great McCarver-bashing on the blogs the next day.

Today, Tim's biggest travesty was calling Trot Nixon's baserunning a mistake, when he did exactly the right thing, going halfway on a fly ball that easily could have been caught. Then he said that Trot was "surprised" that a runner went to second on a ball down the right field line, implying that Trot was lazy in the field on the play, when in reality, he once again did exactly what he was supposed to do: Waiting to see if the ball hit the boxes, instead of rushing toward the line, which would have been a disaster if the ball had gone down into the corner, before picking up the ball and immediately firing it to second base. Then Tim brought up the baserunning non-mistake again later, just to make sure we knew how he felt about it.

Even if it had been a mistake, it wouldn't have mattered anyway in the end. McCarver wasn't nearly as concerned with the two balls that Vasquez ole'd, neither of which was scored an error, but both of which really cost the team.

If Renteria's gonna sit, why have him do it on a day when Jason sits? And why put the two backups back-to-back in the lineup, virtually killing any chance of an extended rally?

(As I write, Minnesota just hit a three-run homer, which is doubly funny, because Sterling jinxed it in his pre-game interview with Torre, who responded to Sterling's "You know Wang hasn't given up one home run?" with "Shut up, Jon." Ha.)

Yeah, so why can't Edgar play every day? You get a day off when the team has a day off. Other than that, you're young, you're healthy, you're making millions...you're on the field. And to bring in Captain Cheese (who, with all the holes in his performance lately, is Captain Swiss Cheese) is to just throw the game away at this point.

I will say that I made a pretty good prediction today. After Millar's double off the wall, I predicted he'd hit two homers into the monster seats. When he got an out in the third, I said, "He's still got a chance, 5th and 7th." He got one in the 5th and one in the 8th. When bragging about "my" accomplishment, especially the fact that he hit them right where I said he was, my dad pointed out, "Where else would Millar hit a home run?" Good point. And he actually predicted before the game that this would be a break out game for Kevin. But we both would have traded our correct predictions for a win today.

I really can't stand the rigidity of the Fox telecasts. They've got all the times of their interviews pre-planned, so that there might be a play that deserves a replay, but we don't get one, because they've already decided to show something else at that moment. Today, one of Millar's homers was shown in a little tiny square, without sound, because a pre-taped interview with the Angels' pitching coach was being shown in a bigger square. It's an interview. We don't need to see the guy talking, any more than we need to see the announcers talking during the game. Fox is like the Buck Showalter--in 1995, at least--of broadcasting, with their overmanaging. Just show the game. That's job one. Did anybody wake up today and say, "I am dying to know what the Angels' pitching coach has to say about today's game. But I won't be happy unless I personally witness the dude talking, and I'll be damned if Fox has the audacity to interrupt the interview with something as petty as the game itself!"

And Connecticut may get screwed next Saturday. The CT Fox station will have a choice of Sox-Cubs or yanks-Cards. Last year, they chose yanks every time (due to "popularity," as they told me by e-mail). So if you live in CT, even if you have NESN, you don't get the game if they choose the yanks. I did notice that our game has top-billing next week, so maybe that will force Fox-61 to choose us. That and the fact that it's the World Champs playing in Wrigley Field for the first time. (The Cubs' home games in the 1918 World Series were played at Comiskey Park, rather than Weeghman Park--later named Wrigley Field--because of Comiskey's larger seating capacity.

Great job by Bronson today. He wasn't nervously jumping off the mound like last time. Too bad Tito Cheesed him over. Also, we got to see Bronson singing and playing guitar on top of the Monster before the game. The Fuel song he played is actually one I like, despite my usual ripping of late-90s almost-rock. I remember working at Borders when that tune came out. This hippie girl, Kate Z., whose brother's middle name was Obodeodo, saw me buying that single, and admitted that she liked it as well, despite hating the rest of the radio hits of the era. I told her I was in the exact same boat. Weird how a person from a punk background can find a mainstream song that they and a person from a hippie background can both like. She was cool, that Kate Z., but it wasn't to be for us, as we were from different worlds...and she was into chicks.