Schedule and results

The Cardinals took the Padres 8-5 this afternoon in the first game of the NLDS. No surprise there.

Meanwhile, Go Sox! (Red, that is.)

Well 5-0 in the first for the White Sox.

Quick distract Carl Everett! Show him a picture of two guys having sex while riding a dinosaur on the moon!

sorry, fenway, but them Pale Hose bent over those Red Sox and gave it to them RAW, baby!!!

What happened to Mr. OH MY GOD THEY'RE SO HORRIBLE THEY'RE GOING TO CHOKE I WANT TO DIE THEY'RE SO PATHETIC... -- did he take a happy pill? wink

Right here...

Jake Peavy out for the remainder -- he broke a rib in the Padres' post-clinching 'pileup' last week, and pitched with it yesterday. Perhaps this will change how players behave in such circumstances ... NAHHHH!

Not only was it RAW, it was done with no love, and no call the next morning!

The Padres are toast without Peavy. Well, they were toast anyway.

That eighth inning was ugly for the Braves. If the Braves have to rely on the bullpen, the Astros and Cardinals could have a replay of last year's NLCS.

~Adam

And now Boston is down 2 games to none. They're a game from elimination. Of course, they've been there before. wink

Let's hope the White Sox can close the deal and send the Boston team packing. They've had their YEAR in the media spotlight--be gone!

The Cards now lead the Padres 2-0 with the series going to San Diego. Game three is Saturday night at 11 pm ET so no one will notice.

The ol' Rocket looked pretty tired tonight. So if he had a strained hammie, why was he pitching? Garner should be second guessed for this one. Oswalt should've been out there, and maybe the extra couple of days might have helped Clemens in Game 3.

But the Cardinals are pitching Matt "Homers Away" Morris, which I guess means LaRussa wants to have a Sunday game to give Eckstein, Grudzielanek, Sanders, Walker and those cuties Núñez, Molina and Papi Pujols more batting practice.

Let's wish the same for the Yankees' decade in the spotlight.

Anyone hear Eric Karros on the STL-SD game yesterday say the forbidden words -- that the seat-of-the-pants postseason TV schedule f*cks up players' timing?

We on the west welcome these late games; it's the ones that start at 1:00 (pdt) that confuses the hell out of us. wink

From the Associated Press:

San Diego Padre reliever Trevor Hoffman was going to offer a $100 reward to the man who found his wallet, then had second tjoughts when he realized who it was.

"I thought it might look funny, giving money to an umpire," Hoffman said.

Hoffman took a cab from the team hotel to Busch Stadium on Tuesday and left his wallet in the back seat.

Umpire Ed Montague later got into the same cab and recovered the wallet. Montague was waiting at the clubhouse door when Hoffman approached.

"He asked me for some identification and I couldn't understand why he would be doing that," Hoffman said Thursday.

When Montague handed over the wallet, Hoffman started to offer him a reward. "I stopped short when I realized how it would look."

Love that story!

~Adam

The revival of that racist war chant last night reminded me how much I hate the Braves.

I wonder how much the weather will foul up the schedule. The remnants of tropical storm Tammy combined with a cold front pushing eastward are bringing lots of rain to the northeast -- tonight's game at Yankee Stadium as well as games in New York and Boston tomorrow could be affected.

Glad I didn't buy those Game 4 tickets. frown

Well, we don't have to worry about Boston. wink

~Adam

Two great executions of the squeeze play tonight by Ozzie Guillen and Mike Sciocia. I hope other AL managers are watching (John Gibbons, this means you). When you're a small ball team, you've got to use all the tricks.

I've been tough on Ozzie all season long, but today, I saw what I can only say was "baseball as it was meant to be played," or "authentic baseball."

Bases loaded with NObody out against perhaps MLB's most potent lineup, and you get that team to pop up twice then strike out swinging! Unbelievable!!! I'm watching the game not believing my eyes. Then in the 9th inning with A.J. on third, I'm saying out loud to my father, with whom I was watching the game, "How about some aggressive baseball and running a squeeze play?" My father replied, "Huh? With A.J. on third? He can't run at all." What does Ozzie call? The squeeze is on, A.J. scores an insurance run, and our guy's safe at first to boot.

Yes, I bitched like hell about Marte coming in--I still do--but sticking with El Duque, who was simply masterful in that 58-minute long 6th inning, was truly amazing. And speaking of that inning--58 minutes to complete 6 outs, and I never thought for a minute that that inning was boring or too long. It was almost an hour of tense, nail-biting, heart-wrenching, penis-twisting baseball.

Whoever said baseball was boring has definitely got some screws loose!

Berman and Gammons have been placed on suicide watch now that their beloved Red Sox have lost. What's ESPN going to do if the Yankees lose? Their precious East Coast teams will have been eliminated (and no, Atlanta doesn't count as an over-publicized East Coast team).

The Eastern Seaboard Propaganda Network will have to lead off SportsCenter with the NHL, soccer, or badminton if that happens, since the only two teams that matter will have been eliminated.

[ October 07, 2005, 09:42 PM: Message edited by: MIB ]

Forget what ESPN thinks. The Fox honchos have to be out of their minds. Not only don't they get Red Sox vs. Yankees, they might not get either one!

Hello, Alanis Morissette? I have a question for you. Edgar Renteria grounded out for St. Louis, making the final out in Boston's Series clincher last year. In games two and three in the ALDS this year, now with Boston, he grounded out to end both games -- and with David Ortiz on deck both times, yet. So, Alanis, question is, is this considered ironic?

During the latter part of tonight's Flyers game the message board did a sports update. A small cheer went up when the Chicago-Boston final was posted. A much louder cheer went up when "Angels 5, Yankees 0" followed. wink

Too bad we still get that moron McCarver, though. Oh, to have HIM eliminated in three games!

Just to bring the conversation down a bit , I quite enjoyed it when Ozzie would get on the case of the home plate umpire Mark Wegner. When he (the ump) took off his helmet, I was impressed to note that he's quite the hottie. wink Alas, I looked up his profile and it says he's married and "... participates in church activities... and ProLife activities." Ugh.

Seeing ex-Yankee pitchers El Duque and Jose Contreras shine for the White Sox, and recent Yankee (high-priced) signings Randy Johnson, Jaret Wright, Carl Pavano and Kevin Brown struggling or unable to pitch, one can't help but wonder about Brian Cashman's job.

He's made some good moves acquiring Chacon, and bringing up Cano, Small and Wang, but do they offset desperation measures like Leiter, Embree, Bellhorn and Lawton, his starting pitching errors and Tony Womack?

Kenny Williams, meanwhile, who was laughed out of Toronto by the media who constantly questioned his smarts (he was notorious as a player for baserunning blunders), is looking like a genius in compiling a terrific team without a big name star among them.

There are probably individual Yankees who have been to more All Star games than the entire White Sox team. One can't help but like the ChiSox.

I don't think anybody who actually SAW the way Hernandez and Contreras pitched last year would fault Cashman for letting them go. A better argument would be the decision to let Andy Pettitte go, and, to a lesser extent, Jon Lieber as well. As far as the line "There are probably individual Yankees who have been to more All Star games than the entire White Sox team. One can't help but like the ChiSox." All I can say to that is if your resentment of the Yankees success means that you're more comfortable happily rooting for a team managed by a loudmouthed homophobe, then I'm actually pleased that you won't be sitting next to me at Yankee Stadium. eek!

You really can't blame Cashman for what is going on with the Yankees right now. Not with George Steinbrenner possibly going thru Alzheimer's disease and the real decisions being made down in Tampa.

Cashman tried to resign Pettitte but he was swayed by Clemens to go pitch in Houston. Cashman originally made a brilliant move by picking up Lieber when he was let go by the Cubs and still on the disabled list. Lieber paid off for them. With Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright coming in there simply wasn't room for Lieber. Should they have signed Wright? No. He was a huge question mark for any team without pitching coach Leo Mazzone.

As for guys like Leiter and Embree? What else is he supposed to do? The guy is working with relivers on the open market. Good relievers aren't just out there for the taking.

As for Mark Bellhorn, he's been good off the bench and has a good on-base percentage. Lawton was brought in because the Yankees are better off putting an empty glove in centerfield than having Bernie patrolling out there. In 100 games for Pittsburg, Matt Lawton was batting .273 with a nearly .400 OBP. Not bad. He also brings a pretty good glove to the outfield. Tony Womack was brought in because of a mistake with Miguel Cairo. Cairo's agent told him that the Yankees weren't interested in his services. Totally wrong. But before he found that out, he signed with the Mets. The Yankees had to bring in someone comparable to him. So they brought in Womack, who's number in 04 are very similar to Cairo's.

As for Chacon, that was the trade of the year...albeit in a year that didn't feature any huge trades at all. Bringing Chacon in saved the Yankees season along with promoting Small and Wang. Although I don't give Cashman much credit for those two call-ups. If you look at Small's numbers, he is a very mediocore pitcher. Having him start was purely a desperation move. But hey, it worked out.

Cashman hasn't been able to make many decisions that he was publicly wanted to. Including signing David Ortiz and Matt Clement. When he signs somewhere else next year-probably staying in the AL East with either Baltimore or Tampa Bay-we'll see just how good of an executive he can be.

On the one hand, Cashman's had his hands tied because of Steinbrenner. On the other hand, he generally has gotten as much money to spend as possible. It would be interesting to see what he'd do with the freedom to make his own moves but without as much money.

I cvan't freakin believe that the Bosox lost.

what the......?????

There's a good column by Bob Ryan in the Globe today- anybody who's followed them knew they were in trouble once the playoffs started was the gist of it, primarily because they don't have any top notch starters. Realistically, most know they were fortunate to win so many games and be in the playoffs. Both NY and Boston overcame a lot to have the seasons they did. Things would have had to break their way big time for a chance for the Red Sox to repeat and to their credit, Chicago wasn't just fortunate, they were clutch when it counted.

I actually had a huge problem with so many people saying that the pressure was on Chicago, not on Boston after they had fallen to 0-2. Even baseball columnists who I generally regard as having a good head for the game were saying that the BoSox thrive in these conditions and were probably going to come back. Bull.

Chicago wasn't clutch. They were better. They were even offensively and they had better pitching. Hands down. The only reason everyone thought that the White Sox were going to lose is that they weren't the Red Sox. Where was the pitching going to come from? David Wells and Tim Wakefield are the best starters for Boston and they weren't even as good as Freddy Garcia, Chicago's fourth starter.

If Chicago keeps playing like they are, you can expect them to continue on into the playoffs. With their balance, I can see them handily beating the Yankees and fighting off the Angels in six or seven games.

...And the Cards wrap it up in the NLDS. I really hope the 'Stros beat the Braves and we get a rematch of last years NLCS. That was such a great series, not to mention I love seeing my roommate the Cardinals fan sweat bullets over playing the Astros. You'd think they had murderers' row or something the way he talks.

But they'll still have the Cardinals, whose hometown is often referred to as "the best baseball town" in the US and its fans the "most knowledgeable" by the ESPN mouthful.

And as for the possibility of Schilling joining one of the broadcast netorks for the remainder: will there be enough oxygen to suck in the booth for both Schilling and either McCarver or Berman?

~Adam

Ugh! GO ASTROS!

[ October 09, 2005, 07:36 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

Please, stop the hating!

GO CARDINALS!!!

Wishes do come true. Not only for the long-suffering fans on the Southside of Chicago, but for everyone who's fed up with the media tonguebath of the Red Sux. I can watch Manny Ramirez at the plate (though please, please, not in the field) and David Ortiz swinging that big bat all day, but it's still not enough to subject baseball fans to this overhyped gang, which includes that obnoxious cargo container of blowhardery Curt Schilling as well. Plus they kicked Pedro to the curb, and let Derek Lowe go as well. Arrivederci, Red Sux!

Red Sox, Braves, Yankees all eliminated in about 72 hours?

Best. Weekend. Ever.