Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine

Watching the ESPN baseball broadcasts this season and have been amazed with the pairing of Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine. I have played baseball all my life and coach it now, but I am actually learning a few things from listening to this pair. A very solid pairing, even if Valentine's voice is annoying. Any thoughts on this pair?

 

I would break so very many laws and religious beliefs to be with Bobby Valentine. Things that haven't even been diagrammed.

The end.





But I do like Hershiser as an announcer.

 

Only if he wore the fake moustache

 

Nah, I hate facial hair.

 

Bobby's take on why Josh Hamilton is playing left field now and Julio Borbon is in center was awesome! Best line was, "well Borbon is a lousy left fielder...it has nothing to do with Hamilton being hurt..."
Enjoy this weekend's games, because I have a feeling Bobby is going to have to reel it in after stepping on too many toes in the first few games.
But, yeah...this is such a step up from Joe and John.

 

I wasn't watching/listening real close to the Rangers-Red Sox game, but during the whole Hamilton-Borbon dialog, I thought I heard Valentine say that center field was easier to play than left field.
Did I mis-hear?
That doesn't sound correct to me.

 

That struck me as odd, too. I've heard it's easier to read the ball coming off the bat in center than one of the corner outfield spots, although there's more ground to cover in center.

He also mentioned that left was harder because every left field is different, and centers are pretty much the same one from park to the next. But I'm like you -- I always thought that center would be much harder to play than left.

 

Those guys are a great team. It's going to be a great season on ESPN

 

Every game those guys are doing is a game that Joe Morgan is NOT doing.

 

Addition by subtraction . . . but Bobby V's always been good, when not discussing anything related to any of his historical quirks/prejudices within the game.

 

I loved Valentine/Hershiser ripping the Rangers for resorting to a washed-up hack like Darren Oliver as their setup man when they have 10 better arms in their minor-league system. All we would have heard from Morgan is about how great Oliver is in the clubhouse as a mentor to the young pitchers.

 

No, Valentine is right. Center is the easier of the three positions to play because you can read the ball off the bat more easily and you don't have to learn to play the corners in 15-16 different ballparks.