Well, we're sitting here waiting to see if the Mighty Detroit Tigers can bust a move and break the White Sox hearts (Hint: NO) in the last game of the regular season and deny the Pale House a place in the post-season. But, there's a rain delay so let's kill some time with a few random thoughts about what the hell has been going on between the white lines, shall we?
Here's how the main players are feeling today...
von Ebers as is absolutely in the throes over his beloved Cubbies and probably plans to go to the big pep rally for them on Tuesday. For the record, I give no kind of a bleep about the Cubs at all. There is nothing personal or improper about that. There are 32 teams in The Show™ and I don't give a bleep about 31 of them. There are some I care less about than others (Houston Astros, San Diego Padres and Kansas City Royals to name but 3) but all in all, like any good fan, I only care about my team. Even when they suck. Like they did in, say, 2008.
democommie has already weighed in with his prediction for the 2008 World Series (he believes it will go the 7-game limit with the Cubs representin' the NL) and since it is brilliant we share it with you now as he prophesies about how it's all going to turn out:
The Cubs would have the tying run on second, bottom of the 17th inning. The batter would be looking at a 3-2 (after seeing a MLB record 53 pitches) count and would hit a gapper into right center field. The runner would be rounding third when all of a sudden the third base coach infarcts. It turns out the runner is an Ad Altare Dei Life Scout, trained in the latest iteration of CPR and he immediately starts doing chest compressions. Due to his heroics the eyelids of the third base coach flicker and he draws a breath. The umpire rushes over and says, "Congratulations, son, you saved his life. And you ran out of the base path, YER OUT!" Then the third base coach would look at our hero and say, "Thanks, Putz. I'm Arnold Rothstein's great, grand nephew".
Just as a point of information, Arnold Rothstein is the gambler widely credited with fixing the 1919 "Black Sox" World Series.
nomi is heartbroken about the Mets, again. In 2007 the Mets led their division by 7 games with 17 to play and finished 5-12 to not only blow the division crown, but miss the playoffs altogether. And while the Mets again blew the division lead late in '08 and again missed the playoffs altogether, at least the collapse wasn't quite as completely awful this year as the Mets only led by 3.5 games with 17 to play and finished 7-10 to miss out. But, damn. In a game against the Cubs last week, NY had a man on third five innings in a row and never once got him home in what turned out to be a 1-run loss. That included the 9th when, in a tie game, the lead-off hitter tripled and died 90 feet from victory. If the Mets score that run, assuming the results off all their other games were the same, the Mets are at least in a playoff game against the Brewers with the winner making the post-season field.
I blame myself. When they had that three-and-a-half game lead, I posted to nomi that the Mets were gonna make it, positing that it is unusual for a team to fire its manager in the middle of the season and still make the playoffs, but that the Mets were going to do just that. (It turned out to be the Brewers who would be the team to can its manager and make the playoffs). What I said to nomi was the literary equivalent of having a black cat walk in front of your dugout which is what happened to the Cubs in 1969 during a game at Shea when they led the National League by 50 games with 51 to play or some damn thing and never won another game, ever, and wound up losing out to the (then) Miracle Mets.
g-man, meanwhile, wants to know just what it is that a middle relief pitcher does all day, exactly.
Von Ebers will be mad at me and probably never speak to me again, but I have a soft spot for the Dodgers because the hated Yankees fired LA’s manager, Joe Torre, at the end of last season because he’d only managed ‘em into the playoffs for 12 YEARS IN A ROW which wasn’t good enough for them. So, Torre goes to LA and his team is in the post-season and the Yankees are on the outside looking in. Ha, ha. LA looked to be toast after losing 8 straight games to fall 4.5 games out of first on August 29. The Dodgers proceeded to win 8 straight (how many times does a team lose 8 straight and turn around to win 8 straight, anyway?) and LA overtook fading Arizona to win the West. LA also had the guts to pull the trigger on the Manny Ramierez deal and what Manny did with the Dodgers was jaw-dropping. In the 53 games he played for LA after the trade, Ramierez hit .396. .396! With 17 homers, 53 RBI and a Slugging Percentage of .743 (.743!) to boot.
The Tigers have no chance today against the White Sox, by the way. Detroit suffered some of their most embarrassing losses right there at Comisky Park this season, going 2-6 there if memory serves. Today’s pitcher for Chicago, Gavin Floyd, took a no-hitter against Detroit into the 8th inning of a game back in April. I think it was that day that the Tigers quit for the season. They have shown no sign of life since, at any rate.
Well, the rain has stopped so play ball!. Later…
Reflecting on Richard Hauptmann
2 years ago
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10 comments:
Last I heard the Sox were winning 1-0.
I'd forgotten it was Everybody who doomed the Mets. Thanks for reminding me.
When I became a Mets fan in'74, they were in an endless quest for third place or even fourth place for multiple years...
I still consider that Tampa Bay team to be the DEVIL RAYS not the Rays...
Go Sox! Go Cubbies!
Everybody, watch Letterman tonight to see Pete Seeger and Jacob Silver...
Let's see. Tampa drops the word "Devil" from their nickname and straight up a team which has never had a .500 season wins the East -- the division with the Red Sox and the hated Yankees in it.
That and it no longer rains frogs during their home games at Tropicana Field. Mmmmm.....
uh oh.
It's now 2-1 in favor of the Tigers: bottom of the 6th...
Coupla points, Richard.
A: I don’t hate you; you can root for the, ahem, Los Angeles Dodgers all you like. You’ll notice that, aside from the football Cardinals, no team ever leaves Chicago. Why is that, I wonder? Anyways, so long as the Dodgers play in Southern California, they’re, like, the Eagles of baseball, ask me. Not as bad as the Padres, but maybe, like, one sushi roll better.
And sushi rolls? At a baseball stadium? Please.
And about those Padres: There oughta be a rule that no team in baseball ever gets to change their team colors. You pick puke-yellow, orange and brown, yer freakin’ stuck with puke-yellow, orange and brown. Fer all freakin’ eternity.
2: If the Minnesota Twins manage to beat the White Sox tomorrow, alls I can say is: Every team in the American League playoffs – and whoever wins the National League pennant – will have dodged a freakin’ bullet. Say what you will about the Sox (sorry, Demo, there’s only one team you can call the Sox; leastwise where I come from there is) and how badly they’ve played over the last week or so, they are a damn dangerous team. And streaky, too. I wouldn’t wanna be on the wrong side of the Sox’ upswing over the next coupla weeks. If they get through tomorrow’s play-in, that is.
And C: Though I feel bad for Nomi (and for my Cubs, too – I don’t wanna hafta play the Brew Crew again), the Mets as a whole get no sympathy from me. I got two words fer the Mets: Nineteen-freakin’-Sixty-Nine. Okay? You don’t know what a collapse is.
Anyways, my original prediction stands (until I’m proven wrong, maybe as early as tomorrow) … Sox will be the Cubs in seven games in the World Series.
And there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Oh, Dave. I'd never cheer against 'ya. You're a bud. It's just that my favorite thing in baseball is sticking it to the goddamn Yankees and I thought they did dirt to Torre and they deserve to get stuck.
At the end of the day, ManRam or no, the Dodgers can't hit enough to beat you. Book it. I got the mlb-tv package which lets you watch every game on your computer so I spent a lot of late nights this season watching LA cause I like the way that that Vin Scully calls a game. (Is he new?) So I know they can't hit. I've seen them not hit. Many, many times. Remember, LA won a game this season in which they failed to record a single safe hit.
You'd actually like a game at Dodger Stad, though. My family lives in LA so I've been there a dozen times and it's a pretty good park with reasonable prices for both tix and Dodger dogs.
I'd be more concerned about the Brewers if I hadn't watched your boys bitch slap 'em four in a row in their yard in August when first place in the division was on the line. I know they got Sheets and Sabbathia et. al., but a team don't forget (Sparkyspeak, again)the kind of whuppin' they got at the hands of the Cubs when it meant something. It damaged their pysche. They know they can't beat you.
I watched the last two games of the Twins/Sox series last week (blew off the first one cause it was already a blowout by the time I got home) and it was some of the best baseball I saw all year. But this one's in CHI and both the Sox and the Twins are terrible (35-46) road teams so if I were to plunk a bob or two down on this one it would be on the Chicago's.
Damn, I saw that Alexi Ramirez get a lot of big hits for the White Sox this year. He's gonna be a star.
One other note. A couple of weeks ago they changed the mlb-tv feeds and made both the home and road feeds avaliable. This was one of the great developments of my life since it made it possible for me to watch a White Sox game w/out having to listen to Ken Harrelson and you can put that on the board....YES!
(Go Cubs, my man.)
It was such a pathetic year for my beloved Mariners, that by mid-April I was looking forward to Spring Training...in 2010. When the team will have some good minor leaguers about ready to debut. It was such a pathetic year, the Mariners couldn't even sport the worst record in MLB (those damn gNats did) and won't get the first round draft pick next June. It was such a pathetic year, that some unnamed Mariner players (cough, cough Carlos Silva of your 4-15 6.00+ era) were said to have wanted the beat up Ichiro....and the way the M's swung their bats this year, they would have missed the sure thing HOF pick five years after he retires.
Ahh, all that said....my gramps was a huge Pale Hose fan. So for the sake of my friendships here, I'm rooting for a Cubs-WhiteSox series.
Well, at least we can agree on sticking it to the Yankees.
And the Wolverines, don't forget. Talk about a group who can go and fuck right off...
Richard:
I guess I'd better be more careful about my predictions! Thank GOD, I'm not handicapping the mPalincCain candickdacy.
Yes, Muck Fichigan as well. As we say where I come from, I root for the University of Illinois and whoever is playing Michigan.
By the way, I suppose I never mentioned this before, but I always root for Michigan State. (Unless, of course, they're playing Illinois.) I have some odd Big Ten loyalties: I always pull for MSU, Iowa and Penn State; Wisconsin and Northwestern - not so much. (You know how I feel about U of M, so I won't even go there.) And in hoops, I always pull for Purdue, too.
There's no logical reason for any of that, of course. It's just the way it is.
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