Today’s game in the Bronx, played before thousands of empty seats (imagine the rant that curmudgeonly Clint Eastwood could have delivered to that many empty chairs), should have three certain outcomes: 1) It should wipe that stupid grin off Nick Swishers face, 2) pave the way for replacement umpires to work the rest of the series, and 3) send Kevin Long scurrying for employment elsewhere.

Please, someone, anyone at TBS, tell Ernie Johnson to occasionally shut up, particularly during the pitch. Ernie and the rest of the broadcast team, John “Captain Obvious” Smoltz and Ron “The Irrelevant” Darling have done a fine job adding insult to injury. I’m developing carpal tunnel from using the mute button to turn the sound on only as a pitch is released – and off as soon as another Yankee swings and misses. To be fair, Ron Darling has been broadcasting Mets games all year so he hasn’t seen baseball in months.

In unrelated news, Notre Dame had pulled ahead of Oregon in the really ugly uniform balloting when they wore two-tone helmets with a deformed troll stenciled on the side, but South Carolina stomped on the Irish’s effort with their Confederate States of America battle uniforms in a loss to LSU. 

VK