9/5/08

The Ol' Can of Corn

This is probably how I, too, would describe Yefim Bronfman’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto:

The third [movement] was tintinnabulating, but with Sinatra songsmanship, delicate partnering with the orchestra, and, above all, stamina.

But then again, for good measure, I would insert a baseball reference so not to seem too unhip, what with the Sinatra reference and all.

Bronfman was brushing back the hitters, then catching the outside corner.

Sweet.

Like Gibson and Koufax in one: a virtuoso in action.

Bob Gibson: retired 1975.
Sandy Koufax: retired 1966.
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3 comments:

Danny said...

Keep in mind, though, that the Giants haven't really been known for their pitching since the days of Christie Mathewson. Take a look at the franchise's single-season ERA+ leaders. Jason Schmidt's flukish 2003 is the only one in the top 10 since they moved west.

So yeah, when a critic in SF writes about pitchers, he's going to go with the all-time greatest player in the history of his local team's arch-rival. (Perhaps he could have tried to tailor it to the Giants and written that the performance had the smoothness and force of Boras's negotiation of the Zito contract.)

Empiricus said...

Yeah, but Marichal has two of the top three and four of the top ten best K/BB ratios in franchise history. That's exciting, right? And he retired in 1975.

Empiricus said...

And don't forget, Tim Lincecum's ERA+ this year, so far, is 169, which would tie him for tenth in all-time franchise history.