The Million-Dollar Arm / Ten-Cent-Head Club

Members: Calvin 'Nook' LaLoosh and Daniel Cabrera.

There are certain things that you just can't do on a baseball field, and Cabrera stepped way over that line last night. Not even the Orioles broadcasters* were prepared to defend Cabrera after he threw behind Pedroia. The whole thing looked like it was going to get ugly, but in the end it didn't, thanks in part to...Julian Tavarez?? (Was that really him I saw out there talking to Cabrera and calming him down? It was 2.30am and I'm not sure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me...)

The Sox eventually took the high road, led by Pedroia himself:

"It just made him look even more stupid doing that. I was hoping he stayed in the game. I was just concentrating on hitting another line drive off him."

In the end, it didn't really matter, because by the time Cabrera was ejected, the game was all but over and the magic number down to 15, thanks to some good pitching from Jon Lester and some timely Sox hitting.

Speaking of timely hitting, I'd like to point out that MLB.com has this graphic up on the game recap page:
I've been giving J.D. Drew a hard time lately - I think at some point in an IM conversation with Beth this week I suggested trading him for a new lawn-mower - so it is only fair that I do point out when he makes a valuable contribution. I just hope it's more than just a statistical anomaly.


*Given that I have to watch the non-NESN TV feed around half of the time, I have to say that the Orioles team (Gary Thorne and Jim Palmer) come top of the list of broadcast teams I like to listen to. They're not too intrusive, are knowledgeable about the game (outside of the occasional 'Manny being Manny' generalisation, and there isn't a broadcast team in the country not guilty of that) and although they root for the Orioles, they don't do it in a Hawk 'You can put it on the board.....YES!' Harrelson manner.

As an ex-player, Palmer is insightful without drifting off into nostalgia for the good ol' days or pointless musings on nothing at all. I love me some NESN, but - and forgive the heresy here - Don and Jerry can be a little too, erm, 'distracted' from time to time. Not so with the Orioles team (at least from my limited experience). Watching the Orioles has not always been a lot of fun recently, but their broadcast team makes the experience as enjoyable as possible.

Thumbs-up to MASN from the Baseball Desert.