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..

[Petronski]

Other interesting facts about the Tribe: of remaining games, they face the Royals 7 times, the Tigers 4 times and the Devil Rays 3 times.

In August, the Indians played .705 ball (19 and 8).

Sabathia is on fire: six wins in six starts.

[Petronski]

Well you have something to dwell on in your lifetime. Hold it close to your heart.

I gotta hand it to you, SCALEMAN: when it comes to talking smack, you've got a real talent there. LOL

Rock on.

[hflynn]

As a direct contrast, I have attended more Cards world series games in my 58 years than Boston has actually played during the same time frame. I have dozens of shining momemts to look back on, rather than just one.

Hey pal, I live in New York. I'm more disappointed about the Cardinal's performance in October than you are.

Sorry to hear you only have dozens of shining moments to look back on. I have a 1,638,931 New York Yankee shining moments to look back on.

[SCALEMAN]

As a Cardinal fan of long standing, I have to admit that I was always critical of La Russa. However, lately I have been forced to give him his credit. He did a good job keeping the team focused when Darryl Kyle died and this year he has managed to win games with a different line up each day. (Of course I point out that he has used quite a bit of running and suicide squeezing ala Whitey Herzog this season). So put me in the pro-La Russa column.

It took me a long time to warm up to LaRussa, primarily because of his personality. After Whitey, who always had a quip and a smile, Tony was the complete opposite.

(I still am anti Mike Martz though).

While I abhor Mike's game management and blame him for Werner's shortened career, I can't be "anti" as he at least makes it exciting each and every week.

[SCALEMAN]

Regarding the Cards; they're division that has quite a few crappy teams(Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Pittsburge). I don't think they'd fair so well in the AL East.

Yeah Toronto, Baltimore and Tampa have just astounding records. I'm casting my vote for Power House Division to the AL East. /scarasm
The AL East has two teams with winning records.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Not in October, when it counts.

As long as they have LaRussa.

[SCALEMAN]

I gotta hand it to you, SCALEMAN: when it comes to talking smack, you've got a real talent there. LOL

I don't start these things, but can't sit silent.

[SCALEMAN]

Sorry to hear you only have dozens of shining moments to look back on.

One of my favorites happened in 1964.

[ElTianti]

Baltimore and Toranto are better than any team in the NL central apart from StL and Houston.

You'll see, the Cards will get blown out again.

[GraniteStateConservative]

I don't remember the last time the Red Sox were 3 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees in early September.

The last time we were ahead of the Yanks this late was 1995, when we won the division. Things were pretty even between the two of us on August 1 (4 games up in the loss column), but things fell apart for the Yanks and we surged in August and started September 18 games up in the loss column, vs. 4 games up this year.

They had a good September (21-6) but the division was already out of reach.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Every AL East team can't hit the cover off the ball. That's why you can't assume any win against any of our teams.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Damn. "can."

[dakine]

Not '64, 1968...best ever.

[JohnnyZ]

if you were picking for a drsaft..who'd you take..only RedSox that is a sure bet is CF

That's just a slight exaggeration.

Graff over Grudzie
Renteria over Eckstein
Mueller over Nunez
Varitek over Molina
Ortiz over Marquis at DH ;)
Nixon over Walker
Manny over ... Sanders? Taguchi?

The only Cards I'd pick are Edmonds, Pujols at 1B -- and that's it.

[SCALEMAN]

Not '64, 1968...best ever.

I would have to put '55, '57, and '60 above '68 on my list, but everyone has opinions.

[hflynn]

One of my favorites happened in 1964.

One of my favorites was 2000, Then again I can't forget 1999, 1998, and 1996.

Of course I have fond memories of the unbeatable Dodgers in 1978 and 1977.

Then of course we go back to some of the great Yankee teams and the great memories of 1962, 1961, 1958, 1956, 1953, 1952, 1951, 1950, 1949.

Oh and lets not forget 1947, 1943 and 1941.

And then of course the fabulous 1930s, when we took it all in 1939, 1938, 1937, 1936 and 1932.

Of course it all began in the 1920s when the Yankees won it all in 1928, 1927, and 1923. Of course we also lost more World Series than the Cardinals have won but when you go to the World Series 39 times and win 26 times you have to be happy with your team winning 2 out of every 3 appearances and providing 1,638,931 New York Yankee shining moments. .

[SCALEMAN]

Renteria over Eckstein

I was in that camp at the first of the season, but their stats are extremely close at present. I hated to lose Renteria, but now I'm over it. I don't know what you based the choice on, but opinions are just that, opinions.

Name Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS

Édgar Rentería BOS 128 521 84 149 30 3 7 57 47 82 9 4 .286 .346 .395 .741

David Eckstein STL 133 535 74 151 22 7 7 53 49 40 10 6 .282 .352 .389 .741

[SCALEMAN]

f course we also lost more World Series than the Cardinals have won but when you go to the World Series 39 times and win 26 times you have to be happy with your team winning 2 out of every 3 appearances and providing 1,638,931 New York Yankee shining moments

Wow. I'm only 58 so I really don't remember all of those that you must have seen. I defer to your age.

[CARDINALRULES]

TLR is fine as long as he doesn't over-manage. I hope I never have to see another game like Friday's. Think it is time to stop using Ray "Burger" King in close games.

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Mike said the other day that they have successfully pulled off the squeeze 12 times. I think they have only failed once or twice.

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[hflynn]

Er, there is a new electronic device called, I hope I spell it correctly, TV. It's amazing. Not only do you hear the voice's and sounds of a game but you actually see it. It's truly amazing.

The great thing about this TV thingamagig is companies called Cable Companies run a tiny wire into your house which allows you to receive a signal which is converted into a picture on your, hope I spell this right, TV. Then, and this gets more amazing the deeper I get into the story, if you root for a fabulous, successful beyond belief, baseball team like the New York Yankees you get to watch games on the New York Yankees very own Cable Network which is called, I hope I spell this right, YES (yes I think I spelled it correctly).

And now comes the best part, I know you won't believe this, but everyday, sometimes 4 times a day, the New York Yankees broadcast Yankee Classics, games that were played before you see it on your, I hope I spell it right, TV. So excuse me while I go watch the 1928 Yankees kick the spiddoodle out of the St. Louis Cardinals:)