Buster Posey's good friend Hunter Pence!
Hall of Fame broadcaster Jon Miller: With two on in the 8th, Giants CF Denard Span dropped a bunt toward third. Dodgers pitcher J.P. Howell tried for the force at third, but Gregor Blanco beat the throw. "Safe at third!" Sometimes when Miller makes a big safe call, he flattens the 'f' while raising his voice, so it's like "saaAEEF at third!".
First Miller credited Span with an excellent bunt, then said Howell couldn't have fielded it any better, and decided correctly to make the shorter throw to third instead of turning around to get the speedy Span at first. But the real hero on the play, said Miller, was Blanco, who got a sufficient jump off second.
"Well described", said his broadcast partner David B. Flemming, who detailed three parts of Blanco's 90-foot trip. Shit, I thought, I've agreed with Flemming two times in four games.
A minute later, RF Hunter Pence was at bat against Pedro Baez in relief of Howell. Pence didn't have an RBI yet, said Miller, but he could get one or two or three or four right here. Then Pence smoked one, and Miller called "There's a high drive to left center!. It's on its way! It's gone! Adios pelota! A grand slam for Bus…"
Somewhere between syllables, his voice changed a bit as he realized he was using the wrong player's name. "…Ter Po…", and his voice changed again while he fixed his call in midstream: "…sey's good friend Hunter Pence!"
One-eighth-mile north of Saratoga Ave. on 280, I laughed.
I once asked Miller - by way of Gary Radnich proxy on the KNBR morning show - if there were any memorably bad calls. During his Baltimore Oriole days, a hitter fouled one off to the right, and he said: "I said something like, 'Hit down the line… slicing…' and then I remembered that slices go to the left and hooks go to the right, so then I said, '…hooking, hooking… foul.'" He said he imagined some listeners envisioning a foul ball heading for left, then changing direction toward right.
If I get another chance, I'll ask him where "Buster Posey's good friend Hunter Pence!" goes in his list of memorably fixed-in-midstream calls. (I volunteered to write Miller's biograph for the Society for American Baseball Research - one of these winters, maybe I won't be sick in bed.)
First Miller credited Span with an excellent bunt, then said Howell couldn't have fielded it any better, and decided correctly to make the shorter throw to third instead of turning around to get the speedy Span at first. But the real hero on the play, said Miller, was Blanco, who got a sufficient jump off second.
"Well described", said his broadcast partner David B. Flemming, who detailed three parts of Blanco's 90-foot trip. Shit, I thought, I've agreed with Flemming two times in four games.
A minute later, RF Hunter Pence was at bat against Pedro Baez in relief of Howell. Pence didn't have an RBI yet, said Miller, but he could get one or two or three or four right here. Then Pence smoked one, and Miller called "There's a high drive to left center!. It's on its way! It's gone! Adios pelota! A grand slam for Bus…"
Somewhere between syllables, his voice changed a bit as he realized he was using the wrong player's name. "…Ter Po…", and his voice changed again while he fixed his call in midstream: "…sey's good friend Hunter Pence!"
One-eighth-mile north of Saratoga Ave. on 280, I laughed.
I once asked Miller - by way of Gary Radnich proxy on the KNBR morning show - if there were any memorably bad calls. During his Baltimore Oriole days, a hitter fouled one off to the right, and he said: "I said something like, 'Hit down the line… slicing…' and then I remembered that slices go to the left and hooks go to the right, so then I said, '…hooking, hooking… foul.'" He said he imagined some listeners envisioning a foul ball heading for left, then changing direction toward right.
If I get another chance, I'll ask him where "Buster Posey's good friend Hunter Pence!" goes in his list of memorably fixed-in-midstream calls. (I volunteered to write Miller's biograph for the Society for American Baseball Research - one of these winters, maybe I won't be sick in bed.)