In the aftermath of Stephen Strasburg's fourth major league start, Washington Nationals announcers Rob Dibble and Ray Knight had a difference of opinion on how well the young pitcher was throwing. The video is up on MASNsports.com and I urge you to watch it and see this battle of the Nationals announcers take place. Otherwise, a great transcription of the event is up on the D.C. Sports Bog.
The best part of the whole thing has got to be when they start using their past lives as players to justify why they are correct in what they are saying. Their quotes are after the jump.
Knight: "I got a base hit in the World Series that jammed me as big as anything, but it was a high fastball out over the plate."
Dibble: "That's all right, I got MVP in the playoffs, too, Ray, by striking guys out throwing strikes, so you've got your opinion, I've got mine....That kid did a great job. He did a fantastic job."
It is hilarious when two grown men quickly become exasperated at each other because one dares to not agree with the other. That is high quality television entertainment. There is nothing like watching a couple ex-jocks trying to prove who is the alpha-male of the pack.
In this instance, I have to agree with Ray Knight. Strasburg was not making pitches that batters had to reach for, instead keeping the ball constantly around the strike zone. Its tough to be upset with a pitcher for being too perfect, but if the ball is ending up in the same area, no matter what the speed is, then batters are going to get hits like the Royals did on Wednesday.
UPDATE: You can find the video here, we had nothing to do with the Toyota ad, you can go ahead and ignore that. Courtesy of Dan Steinberg at the D.C. Sports Bog.