HotCuts & Bridges

At 10:20 central daylight the HotCut rolled on:  NorthSideHotCut.  Did you know?  This is the Yankees' first HotCut of 2017?  How-da-ya like that? I listened to the lion's share of the first game of today's slate as I did the camp unpack (air out, shake out, put away) and then did a few housework and gardening odds and ends.  I also listened to some of the game on my phone via headphones and LTE as I sat outside in my lounge chair marveling at this incredible blue-skyed day.  We saw a rogue, seemingly lost flock of six dozen  snow geese, tilting and lilting in the high sky to the west, very bright and visible when the sun hit their white backs just right but then appearing to disappear when they angled back away in their skysong marionette's dance.  I saw the Mississippi kites, which I wondered at last summer, never having seen one before.  I feared their presence here last year was just a fluke, but they have returned.  I watched chim...

There is once again no HotCut.  I was in contact with you—you said you were overwhelmed with a new promotion at work and also that you were feeling down in the wake of you grandpa Heiman's passing.  If there was to be a 'Cut it would probably be the game going right now on a chilly North Side of Chicago:  Yanks at Cubs.  I tuned in a little late and missed the game's one run so far: a Kris Bryant home run off of Michael Pineda. The Yankees had men on in the top half of this 6th inning but couldn't scratch.  Now Schwarber loses one.  " Boy, this thing turned around quickly," says John Sterling. Post-script.  At 16:09 central daylight the 'Cut was reborn:  MileHighHotCut.  B and I were pulled over in North County in a Steak-n-Shake parking lot.  I was flummoxed by Friday traffic and a camp plan endangered by flood waters.  I couldn't tell if the route I wanted to take was open, I hadn't done my due diligence.  We took a round...

UnCut again and I'm starting to wonder and worry.  Rats - Reds was to start at 11:35 but it has been delayed by this omnipresent rain.  D'Backs - Nats has begun in a sunny D.C.  Scherzer for Washington promptly fans Pollock.  The crowd is again sparse.  The Nats are in their star-spangled whites, where the big curly W has star and is blue and white, not solid red; same twist on the hats.  Owings, K.  85 to Goldschmidt, who's out in front.  He doesn't miss 95 in the same spot but it doesn't travel far enough, 8. The just-recalled Braden Shipley takes the hill for Arizona.  He was 20 K to 8 BB in AAA Reno.  Turner, 4.  The Snakes sent HaZelbaker down.  Goldy could have caught a Werth foul but it was tricky for sure.  Strangely, Chris Hermann—the catcher—is out in left.  Werth, K.  Harper, to the wall...but 8.  Wind held it up? Lamb walks.  Hermann now, .588 OPS.  He goes 9.  The Nats 'W' on ...

I'm missing the 'Cuts, two blank spots in a row but the show goes on.  C.C. is getting roughed up in the Bronx, 4-0 Jays, mostly on a 3-run Steve Pearce homer—this after he hit two yesterday.  D'Backs at Nats on MLB.TV.  Owings went deep.  He has made many errors but he has been a dynamic offensive contributor.  Robbie Ray deals to Trea Turner.  96 heat from Ray, fouled off.  It's Stroman for Toronto.  97 on the outside corner and Trea must've been looking for something else as he flails at it, K.  John S references three NYY super-subs:  Aaron Hicks, Ronald Torreyes, and Austin Romine.  My sense is that the Yankee pitchers like throwing to Romine.  Werth caught looking.  Harper swings through 96; fails to check on an 87-mph curve in the dirt; ball outside; slice foul on 98 away; 88 in the dirt, no swing but it was close; 96 high; full count:  Harp swings at 97 up and in—ugly.  Meanwhile, Holliday 3-run shot: ...

I'm like a rudderless ship.  Games, games everywhere but not a game to sink my teeth into.  I've got Jays at Yanks on the radio—Yanks are up 5-0.  Snakes at Nats in the Capitol, which I figure would be the 'Cut.  It's 1-1 bottom two, a grind.  Walker - Roark.  Then there's Klublander in Detroit.  Those two are like a couple of neutron stars, unavoidably linked, gone pulsar. Correction: I've been spelling Suzyn Waldman's name wrong.  I knew the spelling was unorthodox but I really jazzed it up going "Suzynne".  Nah, it's just "Suzyn".  One of the podcasts I listen to—"Short Hops" with Derek van Riper and Bernie Pleskoff—referenced her today in a positive light.  Judge homers.  He is Aaron, Judge, and jury.... And it's Judgment Day.  I liked the "Here comes the Judge" call from earlier in the season.   Latos.  The Cardinals couldn't touch him but the Yanks are up 6-0 on three homers. D'Backs are in th...

At 14:51 pacific daylight, word came down:  KerCut.  It's his fourth 'Cut.  Chavez Ravine, Johnny Cueto and the Giants visiting.  Cueto's first 'Cut.  19:10 pdt, tonight. I had been thinking about the 'Cut.  It has been coming out a little later.  I have fretted a bit: will there be no 'Cut today?  You're the P.T. Barnum of naming games of the day.  I was listening to a podcast, fantasy-focused... There is another podcast that is not fantasy-focused but just about baseball and they give each other trivia...it is a lot of fun to listen to. We were watching O's a Red Sox.  B said the guy behind home plate looked like the guy who used to host a daytime reality show where people came on with "ridiculous problems".  She said the guy had blond hair.  I was stumped.  There was a guy in the crowd behind home plate with silver-ish hair.  I guessed Maury Povich and then Jerry Springer, which is who she was saying it was. ...

At 12:40 central daylight word came east:  HoustonHotCut.  The rain finally stopped not long after.  I got out and began to clean up after the Rain-a-Thon.  I was listening to the 'Cut:  Keuchel at Hahn.  The game was somewhat close for most of its breadth but three Astro runs in the 8th sealed it.  Keuchel went 7 2/3 IP, 99 pitches, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K.  Game score 82.  Hahn's ERA sits at 2.25 after 6 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6K, 98 pitches, game score 54.  Keuchel's 2 BB were both of K-hris Davis.  There was another catcher's interference against Stephen Vogt with Reddick batting—third of the series apparently. I've been texting you about Anthony Rendon's INSANE day against the erstwhile, woebegone Mets (Noah's start truncated a la bicep barking.)  Rendon is 6-for-6 with 3 HR and 10 RBI.  Orioles at Yanks rolls on, in extras, the sun peeks out here, Yanks were down 4-2 but tied it in the ninth.  We love John S. and S...