John Sterling has a memorable Memorial Day weekend

Photo credit: Watchdog

I generally avoid John Sterling bashing here, no matter how many e-mails I get from helpful readers tipping me off to his trademark moments.

Partly it's because this stuff loses a lot in translation from audio to text. Partly it's because this is an old story by now. Partly it's because I find Mr. Sterling mostly harmless and amusing.

But since I have a complete set of John moments to share, one from each day of the holiday weekend, and since I'm closing in on my monthly page views record and John is a reliable lightning rod, what the heck . . . click below for the aforementioned weekend fun.Saturday: OK, Sterling had a right to be confused about this one. But it still was entertaining to hear him describe the strange situation in which home plate ump Larry Vanover called Adrian Beltre out to end the game on a strikeout, except that there only were two strikes on Beltre at the time.

"Strike three is called on the outside corner! Ballgame over! Yankees win. Thuuuh Yankees win! . . . Adrian Beltre just stayed at home plate. Am I wrong? Is the game over? Beltre is just staying there at home plate. Now the home plate umpire Larry Vanover goes out to talk to Molina and the game apparently is not over. The Yankees were shaking hands and celebrating and patting each other on the back, and was it a strike or not? Obviously it wasn't a strike. Music was playing. We heard 'Yankees win' from some fool in the booth. Don't ask. I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea."

Sunday: Jose Molina hit a big double that Ichiro Suzuki misplayed in centerfield. It was Molina, wasn't it?

"Here is Molina. Matsui at second with two out. The pitch swung on and hit in the air to right center. Ichiro going back, a way back in deep right center. It lands for a base hit! How do you like that? Matsui scores, Cano goes to second with a double. Oh, it's a ribbie double by Robbie Cano, don't you know, and the Yankees take the lead! A ribbie for Robbie! . . . Excuse me, that's Molina. What am I talking about?"

Monday: Johnny Damon was thrown out at home plate by the O's Nick Markakis, but evidently it looked as if he was going to be safe, apparently.

"[Damon] around third to score, the throw home is . . . in time! Damon is thrown out by the great arm of Nick Markakis. Beautiful throw by Markakis gets Damon on the slide. Beautiful, beautiful throw. I really thought Damon was going to score."

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