tkeith

I'd rather face Philly, but precisely because I believe they are the better team, and I'd like to beat the best. Getting to Balfour last night was very important. It will be interesting to see how he reacts; will he rebound and move on, or will he have a Kazmir-like implosion. I'd like to see the latter, just for the novelty of it. I'm okay with the split; and yeah, Becket sucked it and I continue to rue the day Hanley Ramirez was sent packing for that fat fuck. People like to point out that he was a big part of last year's Series victory. I like to respond that Ramirez may be the best player in the national league, and having him one mean, 1) Money available to get a front line starter, 2) No money wasted on Lugo, 3) No fucking Lugo! I've yet to figure the negatives of keeping Ramirez. You could have acquired Lowell anyway, and even more important, perhaps you could have gotten Becket for less. No matter, what's done is done, and we're stuck with Lugo for two more years. But I digress. I still say the Sox take the ALCS handily and the WS, nearly as handily.

Yup, that seems right. Not sure what to tell you. I go to the wimpy player, choose Blindfold Test #59, but track 05 is definitely the track you're describing as track 7. Track 7 is soprano saxophone.

Something is definitely off. Are you listening from a download or via the web link? I'll download it make sure those are okay, but the web version is correct. The zip is correct, too. I'm not sure what happened, but you might try DLing it again. Track 07 by your description should be track 5.

Just to clarify, I don't hate the White Sox; just Ozzie... and A.J.

F*ck Ozzie with a donkey dick. I'm so glad I don't have to watch that prick make goo-goo eyes at the camera anymore this season. I'll be so happy when he's finally out of baseball -- egotistical camera hound.

Always felt that way myself. That photo was just... well, wrong.

This is definitely the best record the band put out, and it was KG's last recording with the band. You can hear that he's sort of stepped beyond them at this point, though Mossman does have some terrific moments.

Just so folks know, I sent the answers to Al they wouldn't be posted to give a chance for people to listen and guess. Hard to imagine this test killed the entire process; say it ain't so, Joe.

They have Furcal for the first time since May as well, but the other key for the Dodgers was those experienced older players getting injured. The Dodgers scuffled when they were playing Andruw Jones, Nomar, Kent and Pierre. Notice that none of those old fogies are starting now. Adding Manny of course has helped immensely but having Ethier, Kemp, and Looney not have their at bats taken away by those other bums has made them a much better team. Hell, with Andruw in the lineup it was like batting 2 pitchers. Getting Kent off the field mean has improved the pitching so much you can easily afford a less powerful bat there. It was Kent who suggested a war between the older vs. younger players when Grady Little was managing. Had Little been so lucky to have had a similar rash of injuries with those older farts he may had better success. Nah... Grady would have found a way to fuck it up.

And the Phillies realize they're facing Jeff Suppan. See ya next year, Milwaukee. Ah, Ned, we hardly knew ya.

Fair enough. It's merely a colossal number for a baseball stadium instead of a ginormous one. My point was, Pittsburgh has a population of 360K and a baseball park that was actually a football stadium. As such, it's no surprise they had empty seats. For the home opener against the Dodgers in 1997, they were sold out (post after they'd added the tarps); my seats were so far back it was hard to tell Mike Piazza from Pedro Astacio (slight exaggeration).

AND Three Rivers Stadium held, what, 72K?

Yep. I remember thinking a couple of times that he had messed up the count or number of outs. Wouldn't it be something if the Dodgers advance and the Angels get bounced? Lovin' the Rays win today. Longoria! And it was good to hear Harold Reynolds back in the broadcast booth. I always was suspicious of the way he got turfed out at ESPN. Never smelled right to me. Reynolds: Agreed. He was the best part of BBTN, followed by Kruk. Having Olney show up on that show is a travesty. Stockton sucks, always did. He's one of the reasons I didn't enjoy Sox broadcasts as a kid; fucking blowhard of Musberger proportions.

Open thanks to MLB for the asinine decision to schedule the Sox series West Coast primetime so that no one with a job or academic obligations could see a single pitch. Selig doesn't get it. The game is not as popular among young fans, yet they continue to schedule broadcasts so late as to eliminate the possibility of reversing that trend.

I hope you're right. I'd love the Rays/Brewers series, but I'd REALLY love to have the Sox meet up with the Brewers and exact some revenge for the late-70s/early-80s matchups!

ALDS -- Boston in 5, Tampa Bay in 4 NLDS -- Chicago in 4, Philadelphia in 4 ALCS -- Boston in 6 NLCS -- Chicago in 6 WS -- Boston in 6

Go Sox! Failing that, go Rays! In the NL, go Brewers!!!

Like this means jack shit. Didn't the Yankees once "own" the Red Sox? Did that ensure victory? For that matter, the Sox once lost like a dozen playoff games in a row, and everyone "owned" them. Did that continue? What's past is past. There's absolutely no guarantee that the recent stretch of success against the Angels in October will continue. In fact, its more likely to end than to continue, because strong teams don't lose over and over and over and over without end. Oops, sorry, I forgot they have the edge in the all-important category of "experience". Like key players Bay, Lowrey, Masterson ... they've all got tons of playoff experience. Better book those duck boats now! :rolleyes: Gee, Dan, guess we're making each other's arguments now. Or are you just trying to be an ass hat? Either way, mission accomplished.

Fixed.

oops Side note: Here's crap in the Skankees eye for omitting even video footage of Joe Torre from their celebration. That's the sort of class I'd expect from a Dan Duquette-run franchise, not the New York Yankees.

Good stuff.

Fine. The Red Sox are doomed and Tampa Bay should be simply crowned. Dan is absolutely right and should never be questions. Egad! No wonder the Red Sox didn't win a championship for 86 years; many of their fans didn't deserve. Learn the game.

Jermaine Dye. Freddy Garcia. There were 2 or 3 others who had one & done experience. But both the Red Sox and Angels had more "experience" in 2005. So this is a case of the less experienced team winning over the more experienced. I'm sure Giants fans are forever grateful Dusty went with Livan in game 7 because of his experience. He should have gone with Gregg behind the plate. As for the rest, welcome to the board Joe Morgan! I didn't comment on degree of experience. Just being there matters. Is this a new concept?

Shows what little you know. No one has ever used the Pythag to predict the results of a post-season series! What the Pythag shows is that the Red Sox ought to be in a better position for the post-season because they ought to be in position to clinch home field advantage. And as far as your "experience trumps all" after-the-fact explanation: can we formalize it in some way? Do we count up the players on each team that have made the playoffs with other teams, sort of a reverse "ex-Cub factor"?? No Dan. We watch the games and see what happens. Again, all I know comes from 40 years of watching and about 35 of playing. I'll just defer to your expertise.

Bah. 2005 White Sox 2003 Marlins 2002 Angels 2001 D-backs The Yankees have had lots of playoff experience in this century and no titles to show for it. I'll take the better team of the year, you can have the experience. Bah back at you. The only team that goes against the argument is the '03 Marlins. The '05 White Sox had experienced players who'd done it elsewhere AND Ozzie (yes, manager's experience counts). '02 Angels had Scocia which counts for a lot! '01 D-Backs had a number of players who had been there, as well. Bah all you want, but the Sox have experience (and you can check the history on this) on their side. There are MANY teams that perform better in the regular season, but seems like the experienced team usually wins out in the end (again, '03 Marlins not knowing what they didn't know are the exception). No, it works in real baseball too. Every now & then there are cases where it doesn't, like last year's D-backs. The Pythagorean won-loss is a nifty stat and it's frequently way off. It's designed by the hardcore SABRmetricians who analyze stats from the age of two yet rarely don a glove. The best team doesn't always win (01 Yankees, 03 Yankees, 02 Giants to name a few).