FR Baseball thread: W/E 9/5/2005...Races tighten, and BTW, the Cards are the BEST team in baseball

[ken5050]

Good morning, all you FReeper baseball fans. Trust everyone is having a pleasant Labor Day weekend. To those of you impacted by Katrina, our thoughts and prayers go out to you. But baseball is the ultimate escape, so let us turn our thoughts to the last month of the season, and the week that was..

[decal]

"The Drays clinch the season series victory."

Joe Torre will get the hook after the season's over whether the Jankees get in the playoffs or not because of this...

[misterrob]

The A's are an up and down team but their starting pitching is pretty good and their line up can really wear a staff out.

[nutmeg]

Well, neither my husband ‘zelig’ nor I were inspired by the Labor Day makeup game at Fenway between the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox to write much of an after-action report. The best way I can sum it up is: beautiful day, ugly game. The Red Sox lost 5-3. The team seemed a bit out of sync, and it was definitely a “MBL” day for Manny (Manny Being Lazy), as opposed to a MBM/Manny Being Manny day…

It was a gorgeous day at Fenway Park, and we and our friends easily “upgraded” our bleacher seats to some pricey roof deck seats above first base. There were many no-shows for this game, originally scheduled for Sunday, August 14 (which was rained out in the fourth inning).

White Sox rookie Brandon McCarthy pitched a 7-inning shutout. Boston fans were aggressively wondering why Olerud and Mueller were not in the lineup against a right-handed pitcher. (There was MUCH yelling and screaming over this for a couple of hours afterward on the WEEI post-game show)

Johnny Damon was out with a left rotator cuff injury. Kevin Youklis was in the lead-off spot. Youklis is a good on-base guy, but Red Sox fans would have rather seen Graffanino in the lead-off spot, and Mueller at third on Monday.

In the bottom of the ninth, Tony Graffanino hit a beautiful a three-run homer over the Green Monster, but it was a little too late. Gabe Kapler grounded out, killing the BoSox rally.

Curt Schilling did OK overall. He lost some velocity and control as the game wore on, and he seemed hesitant to throw any breaking pitches. We cringed when Keith Foulke was brought in to replace Schilling for part of the seventh, but he looked pretty sharp. My husband reminded me, though, that Chicago does not rank near the top in hitting and run production.

No moral victories for Schilling - Boston ace surrenders four runs over 6 1/3 innings

BostonDirtDogs.com

[RonF]

TB is going to cost the MFY the division.

[nutmeg]

Let's hope so ;-)

[ken5050]

Last three games, Sox starters have gone, I think, 8, 8, and 9 innings...and what's their home record?....25 of the last 28?

BTW..Gints are gonna catch the Pods...

and before I forget...

Yankees record against Tampa Bay: 4-10
Watching Steinbrenner go bananas: Priceless

[nutmeg]

BTW..I meant to ask..what's the Sawx record at games you've attended this year?

I finally have an answer for you...

We've attended 19 "Red Sox games" this year so far: 16 at Fenway, 2 at Yankee Stadium and one at Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies).

Out of 19 games we've been to, the Red Sox have won 12, lost 7.

We have a few more to go at Fenway, Yankee Stadium and a couple at Camden Yards in Baltimore. I'll update this total at the end of the season.

Yech, that's a LOT of hot dogs... a "food item" I used to eat about once a year before we became such rabid baseball fans. ;-D

[ken5050]

Listen....we're up by 4...keep eating.....but I suggest Kosher hot dogs..

[nutmeg]

Actually the best hot dogs I remember having at a ballpark were at SHEA STADIUM. And I'm pretty sure they were Kosher.

To be honest, at Fenway I usually seek out the lone guy in the bleacher area who cooks hamburgers. I am NOT very fond of hot dogs. But, if it's the only food nearby and I'm hungry... I'll eat 'em. ;-)

Yankees record against Tampa Bay: 4-10

Amazing, huh?!

[Petronski]

Watching the AL Wildcard:

  New York

77	60	.562	-	-	44-25	33-35	23-26	18-13	25-14	11-7	6-4	L1
Cleveland	77	61	.558	0.5	25	33-32	44-29	18-15	27-30	17-13	15-3	6-4	W2
Oakland	76	62	.551	1.5	24	40-30	36-32	19-25	22-12	25-17	10-8	5-5	L4
Minnesota	72	66	.522	5.5	20	38-32	34-34	18-12	31-24	15-20	8-10	5-5	L2

[Petronski]

Watching the AL Wildcard:

New York	77	60	.562	-	-	44-25	33-35	23-26	18-13	25-14	11-7	6-4	L1
Cleveland	77	61	.558	0.5	25	33-32	44-29	18-15	27-30	17-13	15-3	6-4	W2
Oakland	76	62	.551	1.5	24	40-30	36-32	19-25	22-12	25-17	10-8	5-5	L4
Minnesota	72	66	.522	5.5	20	38-32	34-34	18-12	31-24	15-20	8-10	5-5	L2

[raccoonradio]

>>Red Sox Magic Number: 22!

Much better than the old days when people wore T-shirts saying: Red Sox Magic Number: 911 :)

[SCALEMAN]

The Cards Magic number stalled out at 11 as the Cards lost to the Flubs and the Stro won their 2nd in a row.

While I deplore Cards losses, this is actually a personal blessing to me. As of yesterday the Cards had a mathematical chance of clinching the division on Sunday, which had me in a personal quandry. The Rams open up on Sunday. If the Cards had a chance to clinch I would have been forced to DVR the Rams game and watch the Cards live. Now I can do the opposite.

Sometimes something bad can have good consequences.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Lynn Jones told newspaper people he was annoyed that the mostly black people in NOLA were being called refugees. Apparently, Lynn is black. Did you realize that? I had no idea. I thought he was a tanned old white guy. Weird. Am I alone in being surprised?

[ken5050]

Good Wednesday morning, all...a few tidbits and thoughts for your delectation and contemplation on HUMP day...

The highest paid and tallest #3 starter in MLBB history cannot beat the Devil Rays. In four starts against Tampa this season, the little pinkie is 0-1 with a mind boggling 7.27 ERA against the DRays lineup. FYI, those 4 games he failed to win just happen to be the difference between the Red Sox and the Yanks in the standings.. And if Moose weren't on the DL, RJ would be the #4 starter on the Yankees..

Gotta put fresh batteries in the remote for tonight..ESPN gives us Red Sox/Angels, and we have the Yankees/DRays, as well as Mets/Braves and Marlins/Nats

I'm rooting for a 4 game Cards sweep of my Mets this weekend..to put me out of my misery once and for all, displace ANY lingering hope.so that I can focus on enjoying the Yankees implode, and the Red Sox win. Though Glavin will probably toss a 3 hitter today against his old team, just to annoy me...

More and more I get the sense that the Tribe is the WC winner in the AL this season..

This last is for all, but especially SCALEMAN..I'm not a gambler, other than the occasional office pool, but I understand that at the Las Vegas sportsbooks, you can get odds on almost any bet. How can we find out what the odds would be on the Cards sweeping the Red Sox in the World Series. I mean, think about it? What are the chances the same two teams face each other in consecutive years, then take turns sweeping each other..5000-1, 10,000-1? I'd love to bet $10 on that..Can you call a sportsbook in LV...or anyone know someone there?

[NeoCaveman]

How about that Tribe.

[Petronski]

Twice more with the Tigers, plus seven with the Royals....



Schweeeeeeeeeeeet!

[NeoCaveman]

I've been to two games where they played KC this year, perhaps the third time will be the charm.

Tonight they go for the sweep of the Motor City Kitties.

[nutmeg]

Gotta put fresh batteries in the remote for tonight..ESPN gives us Red Sox/Angels, and we have the Yankees/DRays, as well as Mets/Braves and Marlins/Nats

Whew, that's a lotta baseball tonight. I'm glad I can watch the Red Sox game tonight on NESN with our familiar "folksy" commentators, RemDawg and Don Orsillo. Jon Miller of ESPN drives me nuts with his endless babbling... he must be paid by the word. Wish ESPN had televised last night's Mets game with Pedro pitching.

I'm worried about tonight's Red Sox game... Arroyo has been steadily going downhill this season. Hope Manny gets with the program tonight... he's in a bit of a home run drought.

[nutmeg]

I thought Jones was either mixed-race or a tanned old white guy also when I first noticed him a couple of years ago or so.

Wasn't it the MEDIA that started calling the Katrina victims in NOLA (mostly black) "refugees"? It's hard to tell... everytime I turn on any news channel other than Fox News, it seems all fingers are pointing at President Bush. He's being blamed for the refugee label as well as every other bad thing that's happened...