Astros 11 Pirates 4

Tonight was a laugher. The umps were bad, the Pirates were bad, Craig Biggio and the Astros were good. I swear I remember being in tee-ball and listening to Biggio kill the Pirates, and here I am a sophomore in college and he's still doing it. The Pirates played mindless baseball tonight, with Matt Lawton badly misplaying a flyball and flipping it out of his glove in a weak attempt at a diving catch, Craig Wilson failing to get out of Jason Bay's way on an easy flyout, and Freddy Sanchez's ignorance of a runner moving from first to second when he had THE BALL IN HIS HAND. Not surprisingly Josh Fogg got lit up, but then again he does have a lingering ear infection and he just got off a plane ride, which (as I may have mentioned) messes with your equilibrium just a bit. Sure, Bay crushed a homer and Tike hit one too, but that was well after the horses pulled out of the gate, or something like that, as Bob Walk pointed out.

The most interesting thing I saw tonight was Greg Brown and Bob Walk talking about the game after the fact. The Pirates announcers are employees of the team, this means they give the company line all the time. I remember listening to Lanny and Greg describe plays on the radio as "doubles off the wall," when upon seeing the highlights they were clearly misplayed by the great Wilfredo Cordero, or one of our other stellar outfielders of the last 10 years. Tonight when asked for a positive note on the game Greg Brown said, "You know what, I really don't see one. This was bad," and Bob Walk said, "Well, Craig Wilson had a couple hits, that's about it." Add this into Lanny's obvious distaste for Matt Lawton's defensive "effort" (if you can call it that) throughout the year, and the Pirates announcers are almost as bad as Harry Doyle in Major League. I've never seen them this negative about the team. Maybe it's all the losing boilling over, but when even the annoucers think its bad (and they've seen a lot of bad baseball) things are clearly not going well for the Pirates.

One other curious note from the day. In Ron Cook's column today, he has this quote from Lloyd McClendon:

If Jim Leyland wanted my job, I'd step aside in a minute. I'd work for him
any day. That's how much respect I have for him.

WHAT??? Let me clarify, I am no Jim Leyland fan. Any manager with half a brain takes at least one, if not three of the Pirates teams from the early 90s to the World Series. Leyland won a World Series when he simply had too much talent not to. On a short list of 1,000 people I want to see managing the Pittsburgh Pirates, Leyland doesn't cut it. I've never been impressed by him. I am of the belief that during my entire lifetime the Pittsburgh Pirates have been managed by the ugly red-headed stepchild branch of the Tony LaRussa managing tree, from Leyland to Lamont to Lloyd. That being said, that quote from Lloyd screams to me that even after 4+ years Lloyd's in over his head AND HE KNOWS IT. That makes 90% of the fans, the national media, and LLOYD HIMSELF that knows Lloyd's in over his head. Now if only the local media and ownership picks up on it...