The Wright and Wrong Report: Rain Delays Do Strange Things

I ended up missing last night's Reds comeback due to the lengthy rain delay. I put on the FAN in my bedroom, and it was so nice and cool with the breeze coming in from the ocean I fell into a deep sleep. But what I did hear and see before drifting off to dreamland was, in a word, odd.

Tom Hanks, Ron Howard and Dennis Miller are on a seven city tour of ballparks for Hanks' 50th birthday, and during the rain delay they held an impromptu press conference with the beat writers and broadcasters of both teams. During the bottom of the 5th Howie Rose ended up telling a story about Howard and the cast of Happy Days coming to Shea in the late 70s. As he was going through the list of characters there, Tom McCarthy chimed in with, "What about Joanie?" Rose started chuckling and said, "You had to go ruin it didn't you. I was also set to ask Joanie out when she showed up at Shea, and then she made her response clear by not coming to the game at all." Rose and McCarthy started laughing as hard as I have ever heard them in the booth, and then the third out was recorded. Rose said something like, "Mercifully, this inning is over and I won't have to relive that pain any more."

Back on the SNY side in the 4th inning, Gary Cohen was reading the AFLAC trivia question that asked, "Who holds the Mets record for Grand Slams?" As Cohen and Keith Hernandez started discussing who it might be, number-17 said, "It's not Bud Harrelson, we know that much." Then Hernandez said he was going to see the former Mets shortstop and manager for dinner on Saturday in Montauk. He added that they always get together once every summer to hang out, and this year it was during Hernandez's weekend off. That lead to the following exchange which only could have happened after these guys sat in a booth for over two hours with nothing to do:

Keith: You're off Saturday too, right? What are you going to be doing?
Gary: Um, sitting and watching the game.
Keith: Well don't you like your days off?
Gary: I'd rather be working--wouldn't you?
Keith: Of course I like working, but I don't mind sitting on the couch.
Gary: Well, I can do that all winter.
(Laughs)
(Then up popped the AFLAC trivia question again)
Gary: I have no idea.
Keith: I'll say Dave Kingman.
Gary: Robin Ventura.
(The answer was Mike Piazza with 6)
(brief pause)
Gary: Oh yeah, we're idiots.
(more laughs)

Rain does strange things to these Mets broadcasters.