What a great day. First day of the post-season and my work gives us a half-day. (unrelated)

I got to watch some great baseball and I thought this might be a good time and place to talk up America's pasttime. I see Niteguy already got started in the football thread.

My input from day one.
Memorable moments
Shannon Stewart's great catch
Kerry Wood's behind the back stab
Kerry Wood's dominant performance
The great pitching duel between Jason Schmidt and Josh Becket (i hope I dodn't confuse my Marlin pitchers
A great day at the plate for Edgardo Alfonso with a key 40 foot hit and a key 400 foot hit
The Yankees series of errors that cost them the game.

Talk it up guys. Let's keep it clean and fun. And save baseball bashing for another thread.

Just a bit of an observation...

Growing up in the southern suburbs of Chicago, just about everyone liked the White Sox. Accordingly, along with the love of the Sox came a dislike of the Cubs.

It was not uncommon to hear someone utter, "The Cubs will win the World Series when hell freezes over!"

Well, now that I live relatively close to Atlanta (commonly known as Hotlanta down here), I'm subject to their weather reports. Sure enough, temperatures are below average since the Cubs are in town. So much that it is actually causing our temperatures to dip...

I catch the end of the game, and the Cubs won!

So, I check the weather for Atlanta (anyone who has driven in Atlanta knows it is hell), and it's getting colder!

It's all adding up...

Judging by current weather trends, the Cubs will win the World Series. I'm afraid of what could be catastrophic consequences...

Mike

I'm from Michigan. On the front page of the Free Press, there were headlines lauding the 46 - 119 season as better than expected. From that perspective, I think I can hope to get my next haircut with no discussion of "post season." That's the way I like it.

While I sympathize with the long-suffering Cubs fan, Mike, I'm afraid that reality will set it tonight and Atlanta will unleash its mighty offensive onslaught upon the weaker team from the North. Or maybe not, hard to say. Anyway, I've been a Braves fan since I was a wee lad, so regardless of all the "choke, choke" jokes I've had to endure over the years I must root for them and hope for the best.

Sorry about your Tigers, Curmudgeon, but if their owner would open his wallet a little bit and start spending the money necessary to win, they could start to turn it around. From what I've read, he spends the bulk of his cash on his other team, the Red Wings. He better wise up fast and see that hockey is dying a slow death. Too much expansion in the NHL has dried up the talent, not to mention the fact that people in the South don't care for hockey anywhere near as much as those in the North do.

Here are my picks for the whole post season...
Braves over Cubs
Giants over Marlins
Twins over Yankees
Red Sox over A's

Braves over Giants
Red Sox over Twins

Braves over Red Sox

Ok, so I'm a little biased, but I can wish can't I?

The Cubs first post season, on-the-road win in 58 years!

Looks like the Chicago goat curse has finally been beaten.

With any luck, we'll see a penant in Chi-town this year. Now, I'm not saying that they are gonna take the whole thing, but it sure would be nice to have a couple of different teams in the series this year besides the same-old, same-old.

One game is a bit early to be dispelling the curse, no?

Since the Cardinals, Royals and Astros are out of it, I am going to have to root for the Cubs and Red Sox. There fans deserve a championship.

My money would be on Oakland and San Francisco. Giants in 6.

No apologies needed. I am not a sports fan!

I only remarked on what I saw on page 1A of the newspaper. I might look at page one of the sports section if we have an entrant in the America's Cup race, or if it's an Olympic year.

I have heard far more than I want to about baseball, football, hockey, and basketball over the years. One of the main reasons that I used to get my haircut annually was that the barber would spend the whole time he was cutting my hair lamenting that Detroit's Big Cats had suffered another losing season. On the job, I had co-workers who would get excited whenever one of those teams had a "One Game Winning Streak Going!"

I have never been a Detroit resident! I never understood why living a five - ten day walk away from the city, I should ever get excited about their ball teams' performance. A winning season usually meant riots in the streets, police cars overturned, celebratory fires... Wow! Isn't that just the sort of publicity the nation's murder capital needed! If I were a Detroit resident, I think I would want to pressure the mayor to find a city that wanted those franchises... Moscow or Mexico City perhaps.

Me? I am serious when I say that I prefer to get a haircut without discussing sports!

Edited to add, I am certainly not a hockey fan. It is always challenging when driving on an icy road, to come across a group of young would be hockey players proving it takes no brains to play the sport, by practicing in the middle of the road.

I lived on the South Side of Chicago as a kid so of course we are White Sox fans.
Your right Mike! Hell is freezing over. You think you got it cold there we had a frost warning last night and another tonight.
I am in hell knowing the Sox lost and the Scrubs are in the playoffs.

What a great first round of baseball payoffs. Nu Marx is on the brink of being swept from the first round in predictions. All of of his picks have either ben eliminated or are facing at least one elimination game before they make the second round.

My bay area baseball had an unfortunate turn of events.

More memories.
Jose Cruz Jr of the Giants inexplicable drops a fly ball in extra innings when his team was up by a run. Given new life the Marlins respond by having Pudge Rodriguez drive in the tying and winning runs with a single to left.

In the deciding game two plays at the plate decide it. The Marlins knocked the ball loose from the Giants catcher and in the top of the ninth a jarring collision between JT Snow and Pudge Rodriguez made the last out of the series. Had Snow scored the score would have been tied.

An injured John Smoltz barely pitched the Braves to game five against the Cubs as he dueled Sammy Sosa and gave up a towering fly ball that stopped at the warning track. Game over, they play in Atlanta to decide the winner tonight in a Hampton v Wood matchup.

Roger Clemens pitched a gem over the age of forty to eliminate the Twins from the playoffs.

And last night the A's refused to win by making four or five errors that were counted. And making other key mistakes. Eric Byrnes made the unfathomable mistake of forgetting to retag the plate and chose instead to try to push the catcher who had hurt Byrnes knee???? It was unbelievable to watch him standing still while he got tagged out instead of scoring the go ahead run in a 1-1 game. On the next play Miguel Tejada got bumbed by the third baseman as he rounded the base on the way to the plate. Assuming that obstruction would be called he slowed to a walk allowing himself to be tagged easily by the catcher. Obstruction was not called on the play. (The Red Sox only run in regulation was granted on obstruction call)

Then finally, on the brink of elimination, the Red Sox fans stayed on the edge of heart break with a walkoff homer by Trot Nixon.

Disturbingly this is partly credited to this year's rally monkey, a tape of one of the players in college doing a karaoke version of a Springsteen song. The performance was truly intended not to see the public eye. But now it is the rally cry at Fenway. (The unfortunate performing ball player would be Kevin Millar I believe and the song is Born in the USa i think, but I wish it had ben Dancing in the Dark if you know what I mean!

How 'bout them Cubbies? It's such a great thing to see the Cubs have a little bit of postseason success, and against the Braves no less! Only time will tell if this will be the end of this success for another 50 odd years, but I don't think it's gonna happen. Hopefully those days are over, or at least the Cubs could just win one World Series and leave it at that. I think that would be enough for most Cub fans. We've adapted to spreading out the happiness we get from our victories over LONG periods of time, after all.

As relatively unsuccessful as the Cubs have been over the last century, we still have more fans spread out over the country than all other teams except the Yankees. Hopefully they'll show up in big numbers in Miami for the NLCS.

Go Cubs! Squish the Fish!

We are getting eerily close to the series that might bring on the eve of destruction, the Cubs v. Red Sox. Can you imagine????!!!!

I believe a Cubs/Red Sox World Series is predicted in the Book of Revelation.

Hell has froze over in Chi-town. Scrubs have beaten Atlanta and Da Bears won their first game.

Disappointing day in Oakland yesterday (How could we lose to the Bears?????), but I think with Zito on the mound the A's can take game five. But even if we lose I won't be too bummed as long as the Sox can beat New York.

Wow, what a matchup that would be. Two classic teams, two classic stadiums. It seems fitting that the Sox should win a World Series while they're still in Fenway, though, so I will be rooting for them if the Cubs don't make it to the Series.



Amen to that, man. I sure am tired of seeing the Yankees in the dance.

WOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! How 'bout them BoSox! I'm not going to say that this is their year, cause then they'll lose, but let's see what happens.

CP

The Yankees are going to win the world series this year (by the way I don't feel guilty about being a Yankees fan, look at the Knicks, Giants, Mets, Jets, Rangers and Islanders.) Soriano, Jeter, Giambi, Bernie, Posada, Matsui, Nick Johnson... that is an impossibly good lineup plus a healthy Rivera. The sox just don't have the pitching to compete with the Yankees. Yanks in 5 over the red sox and in 4 over the Marlins.

The indominatable spirit of the Marlins overcame the presence of the Cubbie World rooting for a Cubs world series. They had to overcome a four run first inning and Sammy Sosa's first career post-season home run that tied to game in the ninth inning. Alou and Sosa made it onto Waveland Avenue. What a scene! If the Cubs win the series a matchup vs the Yankees or the Red Sox would be the highest rated series ever.

If the Marlins make the series, they rating won't be so high.

Myabe, maybe not. Doesn't matter though, the predictable Yank fans are just going to "1918, blah blah blah, 27 World Series titles, blah blah" it up if the Red Sox win, and I shall laugh if [and maybe when] they do. GO SOX!

CP

BoSox win first game against the Yanks, 3-0

Cubbies tie up against the Marlins, clubbing them 12-3.

Rumor has it that Satan has put in an order for space heaters.....

Mark Prior pitching with a lead. Six outs to go and the Cubs go to the series. Too good to be true? Yes, seven runs later, the Cubs are in game seven trying to return to the land of lovable losers. Also the Yankees have pushed the BoSox to the brink of business as usual.

Rating have been great but they will drop like a rock if the fish swim for the series instead of the Cubs.

Last night's Cubs game really made me ticked. That braindead fan who calls himself a diehard Cubs fan screwed up the game for the Cubs.

I'm surprised the Cubs haven't called for any sort of a new game or didn't call interference at the time of the incident.

The guy who did that got insulted and got pelted with beer cans. Serves him right for being a moron. He will probably be found dead by the hands of some other diehard

Yes, if Alou had caught that foul ball the Cubs would have likely won the game. Yes, I am mad at that dumb fan. HOWEVER:

The reason that play made the Cubs lose is because the Cubs didn't 'cowboy up' and pull it together. If Gonzo hadn't screwed up that grounder, the fly to Sosa would have been out 3 and not a sac fly. They let that fan get into their heads and lost the game because they were not mentally tough.

That fan is the worst kind. I cannot stand fans who forgo the good of their team for their own benefit. However, I place that lose squarely on the Cubs and their lack of experience in the playoffs.

That being said, I'm still mad the Astros stopped trying with 10 games left in the regular season.



New game? You can’t do that. And secondly, the Cubs did try to get the officials to run that as interference. Alou was yelling at the ump as much as he was at the fan.

I know a new game can't be called. I was just mad as hell. I had just heard about it and I was furious. I wonder why the umpire didn't do anything? That was bogus.

I agree. It was bogus! Tonight is the night though. The Cubs will be in the W.S. on saturday! My fingers are crossed.

The team of density oops destiny returned to its state of normalcy tonight, watching other teams compete for the World Series.

The fish at least will be able to see where the plunging ratings will go.
Oooh you cubbies, you lovable losers!

BoSox are tempting fate by making game seven happen. Martinez vs. Clemens I believe, perhaps Clemens last game ever.

We can only hope...

I would not bet against Pedro losing two games in a row...

The Red Sox need to keep their cool. I predict Clemens will try to instigate something to get the fans involved and get the Sox rattled. Grady Little must make sure his team remains in control.

Go Sox! (Being from Cleveland, I think I just signed their death knell...)

Serve those Cubs right for letting Sosa use corked bats. That cheater cost the Astros to lose their place in the playoffs.

Hey Rev,

The Astros played for a playoff spot in September and fell short in a fairly weak division. Say it ain't Sosa cheated and that's a justifiable jab, but I don't know about pinning Astro losses in September on Sosa's corking in June(?) (July?)

Well we don't how many of the games Sosa used his trusty "batting practice" bat. The Astros only losed by one game or so. I know your gonna say that MLB officals reviewed the tapes and blah blah blah..... but do you actually think the would label Sosa a cheater. Common him and Mark McGuire homerun race restarted baseball, and to say he cheated would *** NOTICE: THIS WORD IS AGAINST THE RULES. FAILURE TO REMOVE IT WILL RESULT IN A STRIKE. *** to many of the fans off.

You guys are getting mad over trivial footnotes. The Yanks are gonna win it all, so who cares who won the NLCS? Pedro loses tonight after Clemens gives up less than two over the course of seven innings of work. Then the Yanks take the Marlins in five.

Either way the Yanks win really. If they go to the series and win they're champs. If not it proves all the talk about money is *** NOTICE: THIS WORD IS AGAINST THE RULES. FAILURE TO REMOVE IT WILL RESULT IN A STRIKE. ***.

Yanks, Nets, Devils, now if only the Jets didn't suck NJ would be a fans paradise.

Some Cub fans are hoping the Yankees will make it so they can beat the stuffing out of the Marlins

Uh oh, look at them Sox. I'm not going to get excited, or say this is the year, cause then they'll lose, but look at them Sox, time to start getting nervous Yank fans

CP

To be honest I think either AL team will beat the Marlins. The Yanks have 4 key pitchers not two. And the Marlins pitching staff has never seen anything like the Red Sox lineup, especially in DH games. Dontrelle Willis is amazing. But I just don't see the Marlins taking care of either the Sox or Yankee hitters in a long series.

Hey Conserv, you're from JERSEY! What are you doing rootin for the sox? What are you a Mets fan or somthing? Or Phillies? I can't decide which would be sadder to be honest.

Sorry to see the Cubs get beat. I really feel for them and their fans. I thought their pitching would take them to the World Series.

As for the poor Braves. I live in Atlanta and they are a poor excuse for a baseball team. I don't believe the players give a damn.

Yankees win! ohhhh Yankees win! Holy Cow! Aaron Boone homer in 11th! I used to not believe in the curse... Sorry Red Sox fans maybe next year.

How embarrassing, the NY Post ran an editorial saying that the "Curse of the Bambino" boomaranged on the Yankees...

Link

How's THAT for shoddy journalism?

Quick questions for all of you (well, except but RU because I know your answer )

Now that you know who will be playing in the World Series, will you watch any of it? Would your answer be different if the Cubs or Red Sox had made it instead?

I will watch when I am in watching mode. I love baseball, but I would have been glued to a Cubs v. Yankees/Sox series.

The Marlins are an exciting team but the matchup of the century is not the Marlins v. Yankees

The series, as it stands, doesn't really excite me.

I can't stand the Yankees, and I don't have any feelings about the Marlins.

If the Cubs or Sox got in, there would have been historical value...

Bottom line: yeah, I'll probably watch some, especially later in the Series.

There are other teams besides the Atlanta Braves?

Only good ones...