After the Red Sox lost thanks to a ball lost in the roof that may or may not have hit or gone over effing catwalks, I switched to MLBN and saw the last two pitches of the Yanks game. And to add insult to my still-aching injury, I see this pitch called a strike to end the game:


And I was about to make a video about 2001 and 2004 ULTIMATE CHOKER Mariano Rivera's Kardashian-butt-sized strike zone and how if the MLBN hosts had any guts they'd say what a travesty it was, they went and did just that! Or at least Billy Ripken did. He did a great job of letting the pain of seeing such bullshit come out loud and clear in his voice. Let's listen and watch:



I'd say "unbelievable" but I've seen it so many times I totally believe it. There was no K-Zone or whatever, but you didn't even need it on this one. To see the catcher set up slightly outside and have the pitcher hit the glove is one thing, but to have him miss even that target, with the ump positioned right behind the glove, that's a total joke.

Back to our game, did you notice how NESN, after the pop-up landed, cut away before we saw whether it rolled foul or not? And then on the replay, again they cut away early! It wasn't till later that obviously former major league infielder Jerry Remy and Don had someone whisper in their ear that it would have been a foul ball had it rolled foul without anyone touching it. Only then did they show us the full replay with Pedroia waiting on it and it stopping just shy of the foul line. Don called the play as if as soon as it landed fair, it was a fair ball and that was that. We should have been shown Pedroia waiting on the ball as it rolled, with the announcer saying "and it's rolling, rolling...". You know, something like that, but in an excited tone.

And we all know about the "Locked NESN Monster," which is what NESN sometimes turns into after a ball is hit. They stay on the pitch camera, meanwhile the fielder is fielding the ball and we're still seeing the hitter. I once saw a batter take 6 steps to first before they cut to the other camera so we could see where the ball was. Tonight it happened, granted, on a hard line drive, but if you can't show us the fielder catching the ball, can you at least show us a replay so we know if it was a routine catch or he lunged for it or....

Is this the first time Ellsbury's sleeve-thing was black/navy?

And can someone tell Don Orsillo that the host of The Gong Show was Chuck Barris, not Chuck Berry? (I almost linked to this pic for that second one, but I didn't think people would get the Marvin Berry reference.)