Mike Burke
Big night Thursday as our favorite baseball team, the Cleveland Indians, and our favorite pitcher, the Indians’ Aaron Laffey, come to Baltimore to face the Orioles.
Laffey will start the series Thursday night for the Tribe against the Orioles and rookie David Hernandez, and while we like what we’ve seen from Hernandez in his time in the O’s rotation, we like this match-up more for Laffey, even though pitchers insist they’re not pitching against one another. Technically, they’re not, but let’s just say I feel better knowing the Orioles aren’t going to acquire CC Sabathia or Josh Beckett and send either one of them out there on Thursday.
It will mark the closest Laffey will have pitched to his hometown since he reached the majors, and he enters the series as one of the hottest starters in baseball as well as, in my eyes, the ace of the Cleveland staff. Since seeing his ERA climb to as high as 4.27 (which in the American League still ain’t bad) on July 19, Laffey has been lights out since, peeling off a 4-0 record in his last six starts, pitching to a 2.90 ERA the last 30 days and a 2.00 ERA in August to get his season ERA down to 3.42, and his record for the season up to 7-3.
The game, of course, can be viewed locally on MASN (channel 47 on your Atlantic Broadband dial), but, of course, it can also be viewed live by simply climbing into your car and making the leisurely two-hour drive to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, where I can assure you many good seats will be available.
Naturally, this area has been Orioles and Pirates country forever, but blood is thicker than water. So, with the circumstances being what they are these days, I think it’s safe to say there will be a lot of Indians fans from Cumberland at Camden Yards on Thursday.
I won’t say Aaron will be glad to see us, because, well ... would you be glad to see us? However, you can be sure he appreciates the support he receives from his friends and his hometown.
And, yes, of course he’ll be glad to see us. Just don’t bother him during the game.
DON’T KNOW if you’ve been watching any NFL preseason football — of course you have ... it’s late August and we follow the Orioles and the Pirates — but after just two weeks it appears Monday Night Football is going to be a lot easier to watch and listen to now that former coach Jon Gruden has been added to the broadcast in place of former sportswriter-turned-ESPN person Tony Kornheiser.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved to read Tony Kornheiser’s columns when he wrote them, whether they were in the sports section or the Style section of the Washington Post. He’s hands-down the funniest sportswriter I’ve ever read, with his 1987 column about why then-Orioles manager Cal Ripken Sr. ended the consecutive-innings streak of one Cal Ripken Jr. being one of my favorites.
I also like Kornheiser very much on the radio and I watch him on Pardon The Interruption, because, as the great Brain Billick would say, it is what it is. For my own personal tastes, though, Kornheiser didn’t work on MNF. He just didn’t seem to be a fit, and it seemed he sensed that more than anybody.
No crime in that. Who wouldn’t take a shot at being on Monday Night Football? But once he took it, Kornheiser appeared uncomfortable and didn’t seem to enjoy it.
As for Gruden, so far I’ve liked his blunt delivery and his early ability to foreshadow. Before the Jets-Ravens game Monday night, he said he would like to see Jets rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez throw an interception early, then bounce back and take his team down the field on a couple of offensive drives to find what kind of resiliency he has.
Well, that’s just what Gruden got as on the second play from scrimmage Sanchez forced a pass while being hit by Ray Lewis, with the ball being intercepted by Haloti Ngata, who took it 25 yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0 52 seconds into the game.
The thing is, Sanchez obviously was of the mind he was simply getting rid of the ball. But Ngata made2 one of those Ngata plays Ravens fans are growing more and more accustomed to seeing and the Ravens were on the board just like that.
Sanchez would go on to have a tough night against the Ravens first defense, but he did bounce back nicely against the second unit, and Gruden, presumably, saw what he went to Baltimore to see.
Until he returns to coaching, Gruden appears he is going to be the missing fit in the MNF booth. And like his predecessor, his on-air body language indicates he knows it.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Write to him at mburke@times-news.com.
