"He's a bush league player" Safe to Say Red Sox Radio Guy Will Flemming Is Not A Fan Of Jazz Chisholm Based On This In-Game Rant Sunday
Love the passion. But I'm gonna disagree with Will on the play. And I guess the player.
So it was 6-1 Yankees in the 8th inning on Sunday in New York. Jazz Chisholm walked to open the inning. With the Sox lightly paying attention to him on the bases, he stole second base. Then he stole third base. Will was very mad.
He was mad about the 'steals,' and he was mad about the bad call on Ceddanne Rafaela's catch in the 5th. He had every right to be mad about the non-call because that shit was a catch.
The Red Sox were not holding him on - I guess among baseball people, this is the Sox waving the white flag on the game. And in this scenario, I guess you're not supposed to run?
You can hear it in this clip. TV guy and former Red Sox infielder Lou Merloni (and former co-host of Mut and Merloni shout out Feits) also had an issue with it. He stopped just short of calling Chisholm a "bush league player."
Flemming did not. He went on to suggest that Jovani Moran should hit Austin Wells with a pitch as retaliation.
"Wouldn't you just love to see Moran drill Wells here?"
So let me say - love the passion from Flemming. This is why local sports radio still has a place, and why it's dumb for NHL teams to start combining radio and TV broadcasts. Flemming is talking to Red Sox fans… on Red Sox radio. You can hear the emotion and anger in his voice. With so many broadcasters doing the cookie-cutter, paint-by-numbers broadcasts these days, let's get more of his. Especially on the local call. More of this is good.
But I'll also say this - I think he's wrong. And Lou is wrong. And Will Middlebrooks, another former MLB player, is wrong.
This was a huge game. The season tie-breaker might determine who gets to host the best-of-three Wild Card series. When Jazz was doing all this running, it was still 7-1. Let's flip it around - if the Red Sox were in the Yankees' position and New York was giving them bases in a six-run game that is kinda important, I'd want the Sox to still be running.
Lou and Will played Major League Baseball. I played Pepperell, MA Little League (and also UConn Wiffleball intramural champ back-to-back), so they're the baseball guys. But I would not call this Bush League. Flemming used those words; to be fair, Merloni and Middlebrooks didn't. But they both clearly had a problem with it
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Jazz playing infield with a Blow Pop in his mouth is much more offensive to me. What are we doing here? Do Yankees fans even like this guy? I'm not 100% sure.
Sure, he was padding stats (congrats on 40 Stolen Bases, Jazz!), but again, still a six-run game. Are these 'stolen bases,' and Blow Pop and silly home run celebrations enough to call him a Bush League player? I guess I don't see it. Annoying player, but I would not say Bush League. For this play or the player.
Love the passion for Flemming, even if I disagree with the take.
Can only imagine how fired up he'll be for the Red Sox-Yankees Wild Card Games in New York next month.