MLB '12
 

Okay, so another group drops out of the bidding for the Dodgers (the Torre/Caruso group) and with it comes an interesting revelation: that the parking lot does not come as part of the deal (McCourt long ago spun off the lot as a separate corporation and it is not part of the bankruptcyl. Turns out we can't seem to get rid of him.

ARGH!!!

I wish every bidder would pull out until Frank agrees to include the parking lots. He still has to pay his wife by April 30th.

Should he not change his mind, and should someone be stupid enough to buy the Dodgers while letting him retain the parking lot, I think you are going to see far lower attendance than last year. From the many responses I've seen from fans, there is no way they are giving Frank their money to park at Dodger Stadium.

With baseball starting today (even I'm ignoring the A's games in Japan) I refreshed a spreadsheet I've been keeping for the last couple of years.

On June 10, 2010 I went to an A's game and that day I saw 14 players actually play them.

The spreadsheet tracks the fates of each of those players day-by-day since. What team they were on, whether there was a game that day, if there was did they play, if they played did they start or sub, what position.

Less than 2 years later only 5 of those 14 players are still with the team Only 11 of them are playing major league ball on opening day. Such is fandom for a small market team (though I really have no sense of whether it would be much different for other teams)

Here is the colorful representation of that fate when I zoom Excel out to the last setting.

Color represents the team they were on. White means they're not in the majors but are still trying to be (minor leagues/free agents), black is done.

Well, this is going to be a huge disappointment when it eventually comes to an end.

What will?

The Dodgers winning.

Yeah, wasn't expecting a 7-1 start, but I'll take it.

Still, we need a little more in the relief department. Guerra and Jansen can't pitch every night. And Loney is still driving me crazy.

Wow. Now ain't this a rare sight. Dodgers and Nat's leading the way...

Tomorrow could be a test for the Dodgers. So far they've only played the Padres and the Pirates, both sub-500 teams last season. The Brewers were a real team last season.

Of course, they're off to a slow start this season, and are hardly the same team without Fielder and Braun under scrutiny for his PED near-miss. So perhaps they will be another weak team to take advantage of afterall.

But at least they are actually taking advantage of those weak teams so far this year. They may be "cheap" wins, but they are the kind of wins they need to end up with a good season overall, and the kind of wins they haven't been getting over the last several seasons.

Dodgers v Nats is turning out to be a great game. Harper is looking good in his majors debute. His getting booed was funny.

Nice try attempting to swat the ball away while sliding into home.

Turned out to be a great series!

This is going to be a telling couple of weeks for the Dodgers.

Yeah, the last couple of games were cringe-worthy. And, injuries or not, the last couple of lineups have left me scratching my head.

I'm hoping to go to Saturday's game. Would love to see things turn around a little by then.

Thanks to a friend, we got tickets to Tuesday night's Angel game. First
time I've been to that stadium in 40+ years. Great experience!

Meh.

Inter-league play this weekend. I don't go for these new fangled ideas.

Noticed something weird about tonight's Dodger broadcast. They were cutting out commercial breaks. I'm watching on TiVo, only in the 4th inning right now, but between the road and home half of the 1st and 4th they (Primeticket) didn't cut away for a commercial break. Instead they showed some canned features (first about Mark Ellis' injury, the second about Harang who will pitch tomorrow), showed the end of the pitcher's warmup, then started the inning.

What gives? (not that I'm upset with fewer commercials, just wondering if they're struggling to sell ads or something)

Hmm, upon closer attention, seems like there are NO real commercial breaks on this broadcast.

^ Vin mentioned that it was due to some sort of technical issues. Tonight, no such luck. Great game though. These guys continue to amaze me this year.

Gwynn, De Jesus, Van Slyke....what year is it again?

...and the Nationals are still holding on (barely) to first place as we approach the end of May.

Very impressed with Dee Gordon. Not only his resiliency and hard work, but his enthusiasm. Love it. And of course Herrera, Ethier, and Ellis aren't too shabby.

Less impressed so far with Sue Falsone.

Yeah, but they've been slipping overall lately. While they still have the best record currently in MLB, they've only been playing .400 ball lately.

And surprisingly, the Nats are STILL in first place!

I'm starting to think I should have sent you a Brice Harper jersey rather than a Calvin and Hobbs shirt....

Considering the lineup they've been having to play with, they've been doing amazingly well. Their team batting avg is actually UP since Kemp got sidelined and their runs per game has remained steady. Unfortunately the starting pitching has gone a little shaky. Ted Lilly hitting the DL hurt. If that settles back down they are still in great shape - despite some pretty disruptive injuries.

The upside to all of the injuries is the consistent playing time a lot of their reserves and minor league call-ups are getting. Come playoffs and roster expansion I think having this many players who have shown on-field success and confidence will be a bonus.

Honestly, I can't remember having so much fun watching a team as I have with the Dodgers this season. I agree with GD that the shaky pitching starts have been the weak point - especially with so many one run games, but the late-inning aggressive playing is truly something to behold. Having two runners try and fail to make it from first to third was exciting and almost heartbreaking. The 2-run RBI that ultimately won the game was icing on the cake.

Go Dodgers.

I really hope we get Mark Ellis back soon. I was most impressed with his abilities, a perfect #2 in the lineup. His loss is understandably overshadowed by Kemp, but it was still quite a blow to our production and defense.

Still, as long as we can play .500 ball or better in the absence of all these key players, I think we have a pretty good shot down the road.

What was that rot about .400 ball?

Zero quit in that dugout.

Mucho quit in that other dugout.

When I posted that, that is what they were playing. I was worried that it might have been the beginning of a trend. Glad my worries were unfounded!

I like last night's trend. For your team, not mine.

I question your sample size.



I either missed the news about the change to the Wild Card, or it was such underwhelming news I forgot about it. If the latter, I look forward to being initially surprised and subsequently underwhelmed again in a few months as I'll surely have forgotten again.

Six pitchers-no hits is a pretty decent sample size. Sadly, the trend does not seem to have held.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that...

Yeah: we secured Ethier for another five years.

So like any good Dodger fan I rolled into the ballpark in the 3rd. Seats were way out in the bleachers, so stopped for some food between the entrance gate, dawdled along the way, didn't get to the seats until close to the end of the 4th.

The one key detail...I'm in the bay area for work this week and this wasn't Dodger Stadium, this was AT&T Park.

First thing I noticed was that I felt surprisingly uneasy surrounded by that much orange and black (I thought better of wearing my blues). The second thing I noticed was that people seemed to be cheering too enthusiastically for some relatively routine plays. Sure, there were a lot of K's, but so?

It wasn't until the 7th inning that something prompted me to think, "Hmm, I haven't seen a line score," and crane my neck to see the big screen. I could just make out the Astro's line, with a lot of 0's, and noted that the #3 batter just made the 3rd out....HOLYSH*T!!

So that happened. As much as I'm a Dodger fan, I'm a baseball fan, so despite the rivalry I'm delirious that I got to witness that. On a total whim no less. Though I can't say it doesn't sting a little that my first perfect game (first no hitter even) was a Giant.

But man, that was something else.

What fun! We saw it on TV, and it was awesome.

I've been to one no-hitter. I saw my Mets get no-hit by the Pirates in 1969 when I was seven. It was sickening.

With some sloppy math and reasoning, I came up with on the order of 200,000 games played over the ~130 year history of MLB. This being the 22nd perfect game, that puts the odds somewhere around .0001:1.

Not quite lottery territory of improbability, but still a number that adds some perspective.

Wouldn't the odds be shown as ~9,090:1 (using the common "odds" vernacular)?

Because if anyone knows a thing or two about being odd, it's Kevy.

And while I expect Alex to provide a more comprehensive analysis, I did find this site where someone did the math (through 2008) which puts the number at 345,950.

Add ~2,430 regular season games per year (30 teams x 162 games per year / 2) x 3 years = 7,290 games.

Then using an assumption of an average of four games per divisional playoff, and 5.5 games per league championship and World Series (I am too lazy to look up the actuals), that is an additional 33 games per season ((4 x 4 divisional) + (2 x 5.5 league) + 5.5 then round up the half game) x 3 =~100 additional games.

Then, there have been 935 games played this season so far, which brings the count up to 345,275.

So the odds are closer to 15,694:1

I need to get a job :(

I did say it was sloppy.

Sorry for correcting you. I was bored and curious.

Regardless, it must have been awesome to witness.

Of course, that is over the course of history, as Keith Olbermann put it on his baseball blog:

Time will tell if it is just statistical clumping (as Olbermann goes on to talk about) or perhaps is a sign of some fundamental shift.

Actual conversation last night as I was falling asleep (and pretty much there):

Lani: Hey! The Giants had a perfect game.
Me: No they a hit that could have been ruled an error.
Lani: I think the news said it was a perfect game.
Me: nggghgngngn

I'm confused by your post Alex (or maybe by Keith's POV). What is the issue with the perfect game?

He's pointing out that perfect games/no hitters have been conspicuously frequent of late.

And his half-sleep conversation with Lani was Alex conflating Cain's perfect game and Dickey's near-no-hitter.

In the first 136 years of professional baseball there'd been 17 perfect games. In the last 2 years and 11 months there have been 5.

Sign of something? Or just an odd clump? After all, the first two perfect games in the National League happened within a week of each other and then it was another 84 years until the third one (also a fact offered in Olbermann's blog post).

Whatever the odds, they're better than actually getting a crisp garlic fry at AT&T.

As to the clumping of perfect games, the reality is that from the dawn of the lively ball until maybe the mid-sixties, maybe later, with a few rare exceptions--pitchers pretty much sucked. You can see You Tube videos of the swings of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Ken Griffey, Jr., etc. and see that little if anything in the science of the swing has changed in the last 80 years. Much in the science and athleticism of pitching has. Look at videos of guys lumbering around the mound in the forties and fifties. No wonder they could pitch endless complete games on two or three days rest. Most of them weren't working that hard.

Today's pitchers have the advantage over today's hitters. Except for the ones that suck. And even them sometimes.

Last year by this time the Dodgers had been shut out 7 times.

Yesterday was only the 2nd this season.

#positivespin

One bad inning. Never recovered. Oh well.

And still the best current record in baseball.

But most importantly, ahead of the Giants by 4-1/2

Proof I was there

If you watch the video (not particularly interesting...I'm in it for 2 brief shots, otherwise it's a bunch of Giants fans screaming), make sure you start with your volume low.

Pitcher has pine tar in glove: 8 Game Suspension.

Pitcher deliberately hits a player and brags about it: 5 Game Suspension

Sure, that makes sense I guess. Not.

Well, I was a month off.

Perhaps they are confused by all the pretty green grass and think they are playing golf. In that sport, scoring the fewest hits on the little white ball is rewarded handsomely.

It's getting harder to watch by the moment.

Aaaaaand suddenly things seem (o)bleaker.

"Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him." Proverbs 24:17-18.

"You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble." Obadiah 1:12.


















BWAH HAH HAH!

My bad. I jinxed MadBum's no-no.

What is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
- Conan

And yet he still lost The Tonight Show.

After watching the Dodgers miserably fall apart for the last couple of weeks, it's nice to see things start to turn around. Three wins in a row, back on top of the division, Ellis returned and picked up right where he left off, and just a few more days of play before Ethier and Kemp are back (hopefully for the rest of the season, fingers crossed).

Hope Kershaw has a good night.

Huh. Historically the teams leading their divisions at the All-Star break have a two-thirds chance of making the playoffs and that was before they added another team to the playoffs.

So yon boys in blue, we'll be seeing you come October..... :D

Plus for some reason I feel like middle-infield defense is going to be improved for, oh, the next six weeks or so.




Dee, I love your attitude and enthusiasm, but seriously, you need to work on your field presence. For starters, quit trying to run into the left fielder!

I don't doubt it. I love Dee and know that he's going to be exciting to watch in the years ahead (he already is). Having said that, he's not quite Furcal yet.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...inmlb_texmlb_1

During the last thunder storm 'round these parts there was a lightning strike right above our place, so I know exactly the, "OMFVCK A BOMB JUST WENT OFF!!!!" feeling. The pitcher's reaction is my favorite, followed closely by the runner at 1B.

Take a closer look at the first base coach (30 second mark) doing the funky chicken......

Something new from XKCD...

What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?

Why, if as it says, the ball hit the bat? I also think the home team would forfeit for failing to provide playable grounds.

I think he has it correct. The batter is show to be "unaware" and so does not swing at all, largely because the ball reaches him long before he could even twitch.

Reading the rule he cites, if the batter is hit by the ball and is not swinging at the pitch they are awarded a base.

Although you could make a fairly good argument that the batter made no attempt to move out of the way of the ball.

I'm more impressed by the catcher, his move to the dugout was as smooth and instantaneous as if he'd just caught a swinging strike for the third out.

In Ellisburg, WA, a group of us were walking on the campus of Eastern Washington University when a clear-sky lightning strike hit ground about 50 feet away from us. It really is impressively loud.

If the ball hits the bat first, it doesn't matter if it then hits the player. If it hits the player first it doesn't matter if it then hits the bat.

Assuming a normal stance I think it is safe to assume particles would have hit the player first.

That leaves a discretionary ruling on the batter not attempting to avoid the ball. But umpires rarely call that unless they feel the player was actually trying to get hit so I think it would be unlikely.

Another fundamentally important question is what inning this was in so that we know whether the game needs to be replayed, called with the current score, or continued later if tied.

Kemp and Ethier both got rousing ovations at their at bats tonight. Kemp produced well at the plate but E not so much. An underwhelming game, but a win none-the-less to stay ahead of the Giants, even if just by a half game.

So much for that lead.

Beyond that, I'm at a loss for words concerning how tonight's game ended.

No kidding. Wow. At first I thought the TiVo had glitched and cut some time out. Nuts.


On another subject, while I fully understand that Loney's lack of offense is a very valid reason to sit him down, he doesn't make that error in the first, and that run doesn't score. Not that you can predict how the game would have gone with him in there, just pointing out that there's a value tradeoff when you take him out. I consider him one of the most underrated defensive fist basemen in the game. No one ever talks about his defense, but it seems like every game he make a play that saves a hit or a run.

Absolutely. I like Rivera, but I hate seeing him play first when we have such a great first baseman.

I really wish Mattingly would stop playing musical chairs with the infield.

Clayton Kershaw pinch hitting. Not something you see every day.

Good bunt!

Then Cruz and Ellis can't capitalize :(

Okay, hopefully it shows up in tonight's highlights: Cruz hits a three run shot that just goes over Matt Holliday. To add insult to injury, it bounces around a couple of times and then bounces back onto the field right on Holliday's head. Kinda funny.

I'm watching the game on TiVo delay. I saw that you had posted and of course didn't open the thread. Once I saw that play, I knew that must be what you were posting about :)

Sorry GD - should have spoilered

No worries, I know not to open the thread until I've watched the game.

Hanleywood?

Cautiously optimistic about the trade, although sorry to see Eovaldi go.

We'll see how it works out, but I like it in theory. It addresses the Dodgers 2 biggest holes right now - the infield merry-go-around and swiss-cheese bullpen. Only time will tell how effective they are, but at least it shows that management understands the problems.

If Hanley can be the piece that stops Mattingly from changing the infield on a daily basis, that alone will be a boon. And Choate's numbers are good so far (healthy 3:1 K:BB, <1.00 WHIP), 0HR).

Really, MbC, you're sorry to see a 4.15 ERA and a 1 and 6 record go? I'm sure he's a great guy, but that is not going to get them into the post season.

That's not entirely fair. We both know that had he received any run support, that record would be very different. In his 10 starts, he gave up 3 or less runs in 7 of them. Also in those 10 starts, he gave up a total of 27 runs (with one horrible start against SF accounting for 8 of them). By comparison, Bills and Kershaw have each given up 29 runs, with one less start each.

I'm simply saying that he is a young pitcher (22) who showed a lot of promise, IMO. Let's hope that they either get Dempster, and/or that Lilly returns to his original form this year when he eventually returns.

Yep, he's got promise, but he's not there yet and they don't need promise they need delivery.

Billingsly was in pain for at least 5 of those starts. Kershaw is averaging more than an inning more per start than Eovaldi. They're much better off going to the market for a proven pitcher like Dempster than hoping a young pitcher that has been middling at best can hold it together down the stretch.

And just to be clear, I agree he has potential. But he's just not someone who can help them win now, and the way you improve a team so they can win now is to trade potential for performance. I expect we'll be seeing him win games against the Dodgers in the future, no doubt, but strategically I can't argue with the move.

Someone like a Kevin Brown perhaps? ;)

Nah, I get what you're saying.

We are now in the portion of the season where the A's collectively decide to tease the fans. It'll be fun while it lasts.

That would have been an inside-the-park had he not strolled to first admiring it.

As if being 26 games under .500 wasn't bad enough, now the Rockies don't even know when they can leave the field! Apparently ALL NINE Rockie players did not realize that they had just recorded the third out.

Congratulations to Kendrys Morales of the Angels who became only the third person in history to hit home runs from both the left and right sides of the plate on the same inning.

Well damn. Guess who has the best record on all of MLB?

Steven Strasburg is getting close to his inning limit for the season so he'll be benched soon, but it still looks like a post season run is not a complete flight of fantasy.

I have seats for the Nats vs Dodgers series in Sept. It should be a good game.

Looks like we just picked up Victorino. Wow.

Nice. Now just a starter left to go (all signs point to Dempster) and things will be in place.

A gentleman dances with the lady what brung him.

Then I suppose you had issue with the contributions of Cody Ross to the 2010 world series champs?

It's one thing to put together a team of scrappy ne'er do well castoffs to fill in the gaps in a faltering lineup and hope for the best. However, the annual spectacle of midlevel or worse teams scrapping their on-field product while other teams rent a superstar for a few months is not a positive development. And the fact that we're now apparently giving up Nate Schierholtz and a good prospect pitcher to get Hunter Pence for who knows how long just makes me want to say eat sh*t, Dodger fans. You are so screwed.

Done deal.

Have fun watching the Giants in the World Series.

Or, you LA people could always throw early support to your football team. Oh, wait. You don't have one. Just like you don't have a Hunter Pence!

The LA Kings traded with Philly mid season, they wound up with the Stanley Cup. The LA Dodgers traded with Philly this year, hoping to get a World Series Championship.

Dang, looks like Dempster is out, headed to Texas.

Not seeing many other options out there for a starter.

Maybe the Dodgers are going for the Stanley Cup

Found this humourous:

Rockies' Project 5,183 is historically wacky, and it's not helping league's worst pitching staff

It's only the 5th inning, but I think it's safe to say the Nats are doing their part to help the Dodgers standings.

Holy bajeebers!

ETA: And no homeruns (yet)!

Oh, and like Matt Kemp's urine couldn't power a small city. When all the steroid stuff about Jose Canseco started coming out, they asked 1988 second place MVP finisher Mike Greenwell if he thought Canseco's award should be given to him, and he said, "Hell, yes." When they asked Kemp about Ryan Braun, he said no, it was all cool.

So, get off it already.

0.o Who pissed PED's in your wheaties today?

"Felix Hernandez: you just pitched a perfect game for the Seattle Mariners. Where are you going to go?"

"Hopefully to a team that has hopes of actually wining a pennant some day."









(No, he didn't say this: I did.)

Oh, that's what you're on about.

Haw haw!

4 hits, 4 homeruns. Wonder if anything like that has happened before.

Wow, that was pathetic.

Eh. Not happy to see them loose, but it was just one of those games. Both pitchers were on, it came down to a few good breaks, all of which went the Giants' way. The Dodgers lost several base hits on unlucky position/good defense, whereas the Giants got a couple base hits on bloops.

Unless you were referring to the running game. Pathetic indeed. And perhaps that swinging K by Kemp with a man on third. Ugly.

I'm going tonight. So they will win. Or else.

else.




THAT was pathetic.

Ga-go! Ga-go!

Oh, wait, this is the MLB thread. Baseball is healthier when star pitchers like Lincecum do well and predictably sucky pitchers like Blanton suck. So, what's the problem?

Go P-town!

Yeah... Not a fun game. But Lincecum sure can pitch. And Blanton fooled nobody (except for a handful of strikeouts).

I dunno...seems like he fooled Ned Colletti pretty well.

Mean wile over on the right coast...

The Nats keep rolling along. We've taken the first two from Atlanta leaving us seven games up. With a fairly cushy closing schedule featuring a lot of home games talk of playoff baseball in Washington this year does not sound the least bit cuckoo.

Mostly just referring to the lack of run support our pitchers are getting as of late.

Hmm, not sure I agree with that observation. The game you commented on ended a streak of 11 games with 3 or more runs (including 9 with 5 or more). They've averaged more than 4.3 rpg in August (not stellar, but better than their 3.9 rpg season average).

They ran into a couple strong pitchers having great nights, lost Monday due a couple bad breaks, and lost last night due to starting a pitcher with a career ERA well over 4.0. Not the best timing for a drop off, but 2 cold games at the plate don't amount to a trend, yet.

Meanwhile, this song keeps going through my head

I'm confused because it is now late August and the A's are still sniffing at the playoffs.

Well, to mimic my Giants-fan friends:

WTF Bartolo!

After seeing the numbers, I don't agree with my observation either.

My excuse is that I don't think clearly when we are getting beat by the Giants. If you think I was irrational on Monday, you should see me now. The word "Mattingly" alone can set me off on a 20-minute tirade.

Mattingly!
Mattingly!
Donnie Ballgame!
Mattingly!

0.o Gonzalez?

Not sure what to think of that. Doesn't exactly address the starting pitching problem, but maybe they can deal Rivera or Loney for that. *shrug*

Oh boy, it gets "better". A 5-11 pitcher, a .200 hitter, and a Tommy John patient who's out for the season. All for the low low price of $35 million this year alone. What a deal!?

Huh?

Well run production is nice to see...but what the falsone is going on with the injuries?!?! Argh!

Yeah, I'm not too enamored by this potential trade either. Sounds like it is going through though.

LA Times is confirming it now.

Guess that means we won't see Victorino next year. Gotta have a place for Crawford.

Okay, that's two days in a row that Matt Kemp hit the wall in Colorado. Tonight's was pretty nasty.

Although only Kemp would get up smiling.


ETA: holy crap, I can't believe he's staying in the game after that hit!

It looks like Victorino talked him into leaving the game. Probably a good thing. Sue Falsone looked pretty pissed that he wanted to stay out there.

Man, things are not going our way in Denver.

If only there were something out there that could serve as some sort of...warning...when he goes to...track...down a ball like that.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Need to get back to the basics...

Some great quotes from today's press conference:

"He's gonna feel like he ran into a wall at full speed, if you can imagine that." -Mattingly

"That's the wall one and Matt one. I survived the first day, the second day the wall got me. We're tied. I hope we don't fight any more." -Kemp

Hmm, did Vin let slip a little locker room lingo? In the 3rd inning he referred to the "Demonbacks".

And then there are the Fourandahalfbacks.

I always call them the D-Bags

Are you still talking in this thread, people?

It's sport. Get over it.

Unless it's Pétanque or something, then it's OK.

I'm now the proud owner of a Vin Scully bobblehead. The organization and crowd paid him a warm and well-deserved tribute at Chevez last night. It was really nice to be a part of it.

Of course, the dodgers offense also made it one of the worst games I've seen there in recent memory. This team has some serious problems that I really doubt are going to get worked out in the next four weeks. Better luck, next year.

You were there too? Wow, my sister and niece were there too, sitting maybe 50-75 feet away from us in Loge and I didn't know it (we were in Loge 118 and they were in Loge 108).

And yeah, unless there is a drastic change in their level of play, there won't be a post season. They can't blame the crowd: we did everything possible to get them pumped up (and I loved the 'Animal House' bit going into the bottom of the ninth).

And I was there too. I have to remind myself that even at the beginning of the season, when The Dodgers were leading the division, so many of their wins were single-run nail biters. Still watching, hoping.

That's right - you were there as well. What a night!

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

Second time in a row I pay good money to watch Kershaw lose. The only consolation was that SF lost their game less than 30 minutes later. So... 4.5 status quo. Boo. Hiss.

Well, technically Ely lost.

True. Ely got (and deserved) the loss. But I wanted to see Kershaw get a win. So, y'know... boo hiss.

My wife scored four nice tickets to last night's Giants game from work, so we were there to see Vogelsong's fifth bad outing in a row. We stayed through the seventh inning comeback but grudgingly left in service of school night obligations. I felt bad because I feel certain that had we stayed I could have persuaded the Giants to see the reasonableness of scoring the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth with a man on third and nobody out. Plus, Bochy had sent up a note asking me to get loose.

Highlights: a splash hit from Brandon Belt and an unusal force out at second (9-6)

I think this was an issue of too little too late: if you wanted to be a good parent, you wouldn't have taken your kids to a Giants game in the first place.

Since we don't live in L.A., I can't very well take them to a Red Sox game, now, can I?

Saw that one coming a mile away. Never liked him, still don't, probably won't. But our bullpen isn't exactly overflowing with available arms, so I suspect I'll be seeing quite a bit more of him in the weeks ahead, cringing all the way.

Big series this weekend with playoff implications. Giants vs. Red Sox. It doesn't get any better than this.

Three games clicked off, one game gained. A good weekend.

You folks in L.A. might want to start focusing your energies on your Patriots.

Grumble, grumble, grumble

Baseball being the funny game it is, chickens should not be counted before they hatch.

Hear that, St. Louis?

Whatever happens from here on out, I'll long remember how much fun it's been to watch Luis Cruz this season. Shame he isn't in the running for rookie of the year.

Dustin Brown should throw out the first pitch every night.

Athletics playoff tickets officially went on sale this morning so Lani and I officially jinxed them by buying some.

And now I am in the odd position of hoping that the Athletics don't overtake the Rangers as then there'd be no guarantee that we'd get to go to a game.

I assume the better record of the two Wild Cards gets to host the game? If so and things stand that should be pretty exciting. One game playoffs are simultaneously a travesty and so exciting.

Hummm, so individual tickets for the Nats so far. Right now you need to purchase season tickets for next year in order to get "priority" tickets for this years post season.

*sigh*

I have tickets for tonight's Nationals/Dodgers game. In fact I purchased them months ago before the season even started. Great seats right up front near the Dodgers dugout.

They'll play through a tornado right?

*FML*

Tonight's Nats/Dodgers game called for weather. Rescheduled for tomorrow when I can't possibly go.

Normally I might post something about not wanting to witness a spanking, but I'm not sure things would go in my favor at this point.

The Nat's kick off a double header against the Dodgers in just a little bit.

The Nat's magic number for securing a playoff spot is two. So if it's not too much trouble......

I think the Dodgers may not have quite understood the term "double header".

Nat's took the first game. One more and we get post season play for the first time in a long time....

Yip! The Nats are in the playoffs. Sorry it was the Dodgers that put them over the top.

No offense taken.

Kind of nice that it looks like there will be a possibility for two different "<mode of transportation> Series"

I'll root for A's-Giants. Moonliner can root for Orioles-Nationals. Fox can root for "Please god let it at least include the Yankees."

A Nat's/Orioles World Series would lead credence to the Mayan 2012 end of days prophecy. After all if one impossible thing can happen why not two?

Whoever is playing the Nationals, I did manage to score a set of tickets for the second home game of the NLDS. Hopefully they will need to play that game.

C'mon Reds, you know you want home field advantage. Beat the damn Cards, will ya?

So right now, y'all are rooting for the Dodgers to have a one-game playoff with the Cardinals to determine which inferior team has the one game playoff with the Braves? You should be boycotting.

While on the other coast....

The Washington Nationals have clinched the National League East!! *woot*.
I wonder what the Vegas odds were on that at the start of the season....

Now the Nationals have to fight for the number one seed. To give more teams a chance at the post season and ensure that division winners fight to the end for the number one seed, Bud Selig today announced that the second seeded team and the sixth seeded team that would otherwise not quite qualify for the one game playoff (ahem, Dodgers, Angels) will each take a written test on the history of the game. If the second seeded team scores higher, it will keep its playoff spot. If the sixth seeded team wins, the second seeded team's plane will be blown up in mid-air, and the sixth seeded team (Dodgers, Angels) will take its place in the playoffs.

Further contingencies will be announced if the sixth seeded team is not from a major market.

Study up, boys. Ya gotta believe.

Things were going well until Bryce Harper answered "Baseball was invented in ____" with "1981, way before I was born."

Thank god that's over.

Makes tomorrow a hell of a lot less exciting.

What's not exciting? Two division races in the American League, and a probable Triple Crown.

The Dodgers? Maybe they'll find the hidden immunity idol.

Today's definitely an exciting day for my baseball fandom. If the A's win tonight not only do they win the division by I get $100 for the playoff game that won't be happening but for which I bought tickets.

Today I'll be rooting for the Cardinals just to shut that one last bit of "What If" up.

Well that was an unlikely and quite nice second half of the A's season. I'll take it.

A new downtown stadium?

Please don't do something stupid like that.

Apparently the scab referees from the NFL have found a part time gig in MLB wildcard games...

Well, that was a fun half inning to be at.

Off to see if the A's can do what the Giants just did.

If they can, hopefully it won't be so exciting as last nights game.

Nope

Go Nats! Grrrreat game last night. Let's have one more today please.

Before the game I told Lani the A's would have to get Verlander up to about 130 pitches to knock him out of the game just on pitch count. Unfortunately he only needed 122 to shut them out.

Ummm, yeah. That did not go well.

No kidding! I'll appreciate the end of the impact on my commute, but that was just plain embarrassing.

That's why they play the games, etc.

Between 2006, last year and this year, the Cardinals have become the Shaquille O'Neal of baseball, stumbling indifferently through much of the season, getting it together at the end and being stellar in the playoffs.

So, it wasn't a major choke. It was destiny.



Cough.

I think the Yankees are going to petition to retroactively roll the game back to the middle of the 9th and concede.

"I've got to really hand it to the Giants. It took them a while, but they shook off their own form of rust from playing the dreck that is the rest of the National League West, their pitchers have come through, they're playing great defense and getting plenty of timely hitting, and Bochy is doing a great job of managing. Those fat guys in Detroit deserve to get run out in four."

That's what you're all trying to find the right words to say.

Sorry, I'm too busy watching the NHL to pay any attention to the World Series.

Well as fun as it would be for a shutout, I hope Detroit bags a game or two so the finale can happen in SF with a big win. Apologies to LSPE!

Holy crap, is it May already?! I missed the first month of baseball season.

Well . . . . . ?

Did something happen while I was asleep last night?

Yes, Miguel, you made the last out of the World Series.

Great game last night. I do wish it had gone on longer with Detroit winning a few, but c'est la vie. Have to hand it Detroit (and the Giants) pitchers.

In any case, great joy in mudville today and parade on Wednesday. Of course, the douchbags who trashed a bus, overturned a car and caused general mayhem and destruction, not cool.

All the newspaper boxes and trash cans between my BART station and my office was in the street this morning.

Wow, Sandy's wind field was much larger than predicted.