Twofer Tuesday here on the Buzzy Blog, so let’s talk a little baseball as in relief pitchers.
This past Saturday night, Orioles’ reliever Craig Kimbrel notched his 422 save tying him with Billy Wagner for 7th on the All Time Save List. Last night he picked up Number 423 to move ahead of Billy on the list. (Other than Mariano Rivera, I bet that you could not name any of the top 6 relievers ahead of Craig.)
Craig is now chasing John Franco at 424 saves and should manage to pass him by since John is retired. However, in the 5th spot on the All Time List is Kenley Jansen who is still pitching for the Red Sox and just got his 425 save also this past Saturday night. It might be fun to watch how Craig and Kenley do or don’t fare throughout the rest of the season to see who ends up with the most saves. (Money on Craig.)
As for Billy Wagner, he had crossed my mind recently when I overheard some baseball dudes on the radio discussing intro songs played for guys when they come to bat. While the focus was on batters, I immediately thought of Billy and him entering as a relief pitcher with Metallica’s Sandman blasting out over the loud speakers.
Brady and I were in Houston several years ago when Billy came into the game with Sandman playing and I’ll never forget how cool that was. (Found this video with some highlights of Billy’s career that gives you some idea of what it was like when he entered the game (click here.)
Unfortunately for Billy, Mariano Riveria also used Sandman as his intro song and being from New York, Mariano got the notoriety for it being “his” song. It was just another reason to hate the Yankees and anything having to do with them. (Like someone once said “I was raised thinking ‘Damnyankees’ was one word.”) Rivera couldn’t even get his own song and had to copy Billy.
As for best intro songs of all time, this ranking of them has Sandman as Number 1:
Since it’s a Twofer Tuesday I have two video’s for you – one baseball related and one musical.
This baseball one is a relief-pitching-video that proves the old saying “It is not how you start that matters most, but rather how you finish.” (There are some other valuable lessons to be learned from this video too, such as not showboating before you have a reason to actually do so!)
Second video is back to intro songs and is based on Craig Kimbrel using this one as his intro song when he was with the Dodgers in 22. At the time, it seemed to help him for awhile (click here.)
However, I don’t know if he still uses it as an Oriole when he enters the game; but I sure hope that he does not. For an old fart, baseball lovin’ rock n roller like myself, all I can say is “That ain’t right Craig, even if you chose it because your wife suggested that you do so!” Go back to Sweet Child of Mine.
Speaking of finishing, JW is putting the finishing touches on the new Buzzy counter-top. Will let you know when it is ready for Buzzy prime time. Christening details to follow. I’m thinking Kentucky Derby Day (4th) and/or Cinco de Mayo.