Flemming Flemmang II

On May 23, 2012, the Giants were visiting the Milwaukee Brewers for a day game.  Unfortunately, for those who have no access to a television and their only hopes of following the Giants are by listening to the radio, this game was torturous.  Why?  (Dave)Fleming-Flemang and his bucket of negativity.

Dave Fleming as in "your Giants' broadcaster."  Flemang as in 'mang he sure does miss a good game.'  Primarily because he is drawn toward the worst-case scenario happenings (the way he harps on balls lost in the sun or bad bounces as if they were routine plays) versus a way to see things that have a positive effect. 

Milwaukee just so happens to have a retractable roof.  On this day, the way it was left open intrigued Dave Fleming.  As he began to describe the effects of the partially opened roof it was unbelievable to me that such a thing would be allowed by the umpires.  The Giants' dugout was in the bright sunshine while the Brewers were nestled away in the shade.  The infield was in bright sunshine but foul territory, for the most part, was in the shade. How could the umpires let this happen.  I mean you leave the roof open because of overbearing heat or you close the damn thing because water is falling from the sky.  There are no exceptions, know what I mean?

This clearly put the visiting team at a disadvantage. While Duane Kuiper was filling in (for the 4th and 5th innings) he made mention that although this was a beautiful park, the way the light shines on the field when the roof is opened does the game a disservice.

Then there were the issues of the home plate umpire (Kellogg) and first-base ump (Eric Cooper).  Kellogg had a "generous" strike zone for the hometown nine while every play at first base was a "close" call and tallying the final total, the hometown nine benefitted greatly from this blindspot in blue.

Flemang, 'he's doing it again,' moaning about how Zito's pitches were strikes according to some system he had access to in the broadcast booth but when the Giants were batting it wasn't about where the ball crossed the plate but rather that they clearly DID NOT cross the plate.

A horrible game to tune into on the radio.  Bad play-by-play and one-sided umpiring.  The only consolation is that had you been a Giant fan and decided on attending this game you would have picked the worst game to see in-person.  A bad game broadcasted by the San Francisco Giants' play-by-play people is most assuredly NOT the game you wanted to witness in-person.

Kevin J. Marquez