Best. News. Ever. Sunday Night Baseball is Back in Play

ESPN.com: Jon Miller and Joe Morgan's 21-year run on ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" is over.

Morgan's contract is expiring and he will not be renewed. Miller's contract is also expiring though he may remain at ESPN working the "Sunday Night Baseball" series and postseason baseball for ESPN Radio.

"Jon and Joe have contributed greatly to the success of 'Sunday Night Baseball' for the past 21 seasons," ESPN executive vice president Norby Williamson said in a statement Monday. "Over the last two decades, Joe went from Hall of Fame player to one of his sport's top analysts and Jon's Hall of Fame voice and tremendous knowledge of the game have connected with baseball fans everywhere. We owe them our deepest thanks for an outstanding body of work."

Miller, the play-by-play voice, received the Baseball Hall of Fame's 2010 Ford C. Frick Award. Morgan, the color commentator, was a two-time National League MVP with the Cincinnati Reds. The second baseman was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1990.

I honestly can't control my excitement right now. Sunday night baseball is in play again. No more watching muted baseball with ITMwife looking at me like I'm completely insane.

T Murph and I have been complaining/making fun of these two since Nam'. And by Nam' I mean since we were sinking Coca Cola's like Bush Lights and eating PB&J sandwiches in T Murph's childhood living room.

Regardless of how bad your Monday was, today is a win for everyone, and certainly a massive victory for the game of baseball.

Joe Morgan is a Mental Midget...

It's tough to blog about much from this weekend. The Sox didn't put up much of a fight as the Yankees clinched the AL East. In fact, I was somewhat emotionless during the series....that is until I read what Joe Morgan had to say about possible ALDS pitching situations (thanks to JoyofSox for the Morgan quote):


According to Joe.......

"Jon, a lot of mystery surrounds both teams here as we approach the playoffs. ... When we talk about who's going to start the playoffs for these teams. You ask the Yankees, we know Sabathia is going to start the first game; we do not know who's going to start the second game.

And for the Red Sox, we know Beckett will start the first game, but we do not know what's the condition of Jon Lester's knee or who's going to start the second game there, because of -- you know, Tim Wakefield is struggling, you know, with back problems and back issues....

and then you go to the Yankees, you don't know if they want Pettitte out there because of his experience or are they going to go with A.J. Burnett?We don't know if they are going to take the longer series, so they don't need but three starters as opposed to four if you take the short series, so it's amazing what has been decided after this long a season but what hasn't been decided about this pitching."

There are so many things wrong with this I can't, and won't, go into them all, but how do you forget about my main man Buchholz?...you know, the guy that has been comparable to Grienke the last few months? And did he not get the "Lester is starting game one" memo the rest of us received (ITM note: while it's not official yet, it's about the worst kept secret in the Red Sox organization right now). If he read any kind of media....even ITM, he would know that Lester was not hit in the knee and is going to BE FINE. And Tim Wakefield!? Really? The man can hardly walk and needs surgery ASAP.

Can someone at ESPN put us all out of our collective misery and can this guy? Or at least toss him down the stairs to get him on long term disability? Honestly, I could come up with a post like this after every game I hear him call. I get dummer just by listening to him. I'm pretty confident that Keyshawn Johnson, Charles Barkely, and Deon Sanders bring more value to their respective games than Morgan...not an easy thing to accomplish. As fellow ITM writer Joe Murph put it: "I'm pretty sure he stopped watching baseball years ago."

Thank you Joe, for turning an emotionless weekend into a hate-filled rant.