Tonight begins Game 1 of the National League Championship Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Phillies, as Townspeople are well aware, are Mr. Moderator’s team of choice. The Dodgers are the team of The Back Office and Sammymaudlin. A few months ago, who would have thought Rock Town Hall’s East-West loyalties would have been put to test over the 2008 NLCS? But here we are.
In the spirit of All-American fun, we’re going to stage this battle in musical terms, matching the at-bat intro songs of the Phils lineup against the at-bat intro songs of the Dodgers starting 9! In blind fashion and according to usual batting order, we will ask Townspeople to rate the songs and comment on how the musical match-ups might affect the outcome of this series. Beginning tomorrow, you will be able to download each starting player’s intro song, in full. (I know fans of Pat Burrell are psyched!) For tonight, we’re giving you the at-bat intro songs of each of the starting pitchers for Game 1: Cole Hamels of the Phils and Derek Lowe of the Dodgers. It’s up to you to know which song is played for which pitcher’s at-bats. Check them out and tell us how each song rates and how each song might affect the outcome of the game.
Starting Pitcher #1
Starting Pitcher #2
10/8/08, Pre-game meal: cheesesteak with hot peppers, soft pretzel
Mod, you’ll be happy to know that my ESBP tells me the Phils will not only beat the Dodgers, but also the Rays for the World Series. In five games.
Congratulations, and bon appetit!
Geez, Mod — your Phillies are making this awful hard for me. I got mid-Atlantic sympathies, plus a genuine like for you ad your Philly brethren, but…
EXHIBIT A — those ridiculous, space-age, vented batting helmets. Stupid!
EXHIBIT B — That stupid blue button on top of the Phillies cap. Stupid!
EXHIBIT C — The incredibly stupid, *painted on* blue button, on top of the ridiculous, space-age, vented batting helmets. Incredibly stupid!
Have you anything to say in your team’s haberdasher’s defense?
HVB
I really don’t know which video is worse, the bibliophobia of #1 (even if the librarian does get the girl) of the military porn of #2. Btw how sad is it when you’re too ugly to appear in your own video?
Gutsy win by the Phils tonight. Congratulations to all the phans.
HVB, those vented helmets are, sadly, de rigeur across MLB. Don’t blame the Phils for them, but I agree that they’re horrible.
On the other hand, the Phils have one old school helmet wearer of the highest order: Shane Victorino, a switch hitter who wears a regular double-flap helmet. I love it!
The blue button is a weird, not-so-great touch that – I think – was meant to tie back to the 1948 uniforms, which the Phils have now done whole hog with their special day game unis. They’ll probably wear them tomorrow, with the 4:30 start. They’re off white with a healthy amount of blue mixed in with red. I think they look especially good on Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, and Cole Hamels.
I will say that despite Cole’s rough opening inning, the POWER of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”, a rare AC/DC song I like without reservation, I might add, came through as Cole battled, settled down, and then dominated in the middle innings while sweaty Derek Lowe (it was a comfortable 60 degrees tonight in Philly!) slowly got rattled and fell apart. The turning point, you ask? When Lowe was called out on strikes on his first at-bat the camera zoomed in on him and everyone watching the Jumbotron saw him muttering “FUCK!” Come on, dude, you’re a pitcher!
BigSteve, there actually is a video for “Thunderstruck” with AC/DC performing in it, but all the versions on YouTube seem to have been wiped clean. I was surprised to learn that AC/DC is one of those bands that doesn’t do iTunes or other digital downloads. I never would have figured them for some kind of musical purists. The military porn video was the best I could find.
Hrrundi, is it cool that I really like “Thunderstruck”?
AC/DC could have specialized in pre-game NFL and batter/closer baseball themes if they’d wanted to.
We couldn’t help but notice how inordinately sweaty Lowe was, too. By the second inning, he had about seven innings of acceptable head sweat going. Hamels himself is usually pretty sweaty, but I noticed he had his hair trimmed down a little, which helped. Crafty!
I also had no question that Burrell was hitting that homerun. He had that look on his face where he appears to be pissed off at both the bat and the ball that he often gets when he’s going to nail one.
Is Ken Rosenthal really two feet shorter than Burrell?
I can get behind the hate for the vented helmets, but are they really any worse than the shit Manny does to his helmet? The MLB needs to get a David Stern or Roger Goddell kind of guy to fine people for that. It’s unbecoming.
Anyway, some pitcher out there must have the right mix of temperament and appropriate outpitch to use “The Slider”.
I agree that the dirty helmet Look is worse than the vented helmet.
Lowe was sweating like a cokehead on the downside of some bad business deals, like Sean Penn as Pacino’s attorney in that bad Brian DePalma movie.
I don’t like Lowe, never have. He and Jeff Kent should get married and have bunch of asshole kids that commit double patricide in their teens.
I’m pissed that Torre is using the NLCS as the time to help Furcal get his groove back. He was out for 120 games. Came back during the last game of the season and, as much as I love the guy, has been nothing but a no-hitting error machine.
That said. I’m amazed that the Dodger’s held their own against the Philies. That we could do that against Hamel gives me hope.
That said. We haven’t done so good in the face of adversity. When a bit of wind gets sucked from our sails, I’ve seen us completely deflate.
Speaking of Look issues, how does the Hall feel about Manny’s evolution from dreads to braids? I thought the braids took on an interesting twist in the first inning as he stood at the plate watching the beautiful arc of his … double.
I didn’t see the game last night due to a family gathering & I just heard about the result this AM. From what I’ve read, it seemed like the Sox-Angels games, close games marked by fielding miscues by the CA team.
Mr. Mod, a soft pretzel w/that cheesesteak? Don’t you have chips or fries w/those things?
Manny now looks like the dude from Predator.
Diskojoe, the Philly-centric pregame meal requires a soft pretzel with the cheesesteak. Chips and fries are fine when the NLCS is not on the line.
Today I’m going to mix it up with a hoagie.
I really can’t wait till we get around to left field! RTH will enjoy!