Quincy

That's the face of a coal miner's son. He had a greater love of fast & fancy cars than he did good sense in managing money, but he said in the past he has no regrets.

George, or Bill? Try Bono & GaGa. I think he must have thought he was on another board.

Ooooooooooooh. And Eeeeeeeeeeew. Well he scores some toughness points. It's not easy being left-handed vs. the Tigers in Arlington's park even when you're not needing to change your uni for those reasons. I have a lot of love & deep respect for Arthur from seeing him pitch for the Mariners in the early 2000s. Actually even when he was with the O's so I was thrilled when the M's got him. He's just one tough badass dude, and from the SI feature earlier in the year there's some deep sadness in his life there too. Part of the early appreciation was due to the traumatic Bobby Ayala years (see GA Russell's slideshow thread on most disliked players - I didn't so much hate the person as hated seeing him put on the mound Can I put a strikeout font on that smiley, as I take back laughing at that pain!) but it was mostly from how he carried himself and took care of business. I'm not counting out the Brewers though. We've had so many match ups in the past decade of never-won-it or not-won-it-in-50-to-100-years, and without a salary cap either, that it would be the ultimate series for this year. Then again Pujols in Arlington (one last time as a Card?) would be very cool too. As would Berkman having to play there.

A good reminder whenever you worry about your own club's pitching (it's natural), the other club has to pitch too. If they hold on I don't see either NL team beating them, but then again this was the season where the Red Sox were assured the playoffs because of their "dream team" and the Cards were toast as soon as Wainwright went down, so you never know.

I didn't even get what he was doing until today (spelling out "100" - the mph of the pitch. I got the "poof" part. ) If anyone has earned the right for this kind of creativity he sure as hell has. Who is the goatee-wiping coach in the background? I've checked pictures of a few of the Ranger coaches but they shaved for photo day, and I guess for me facial hair is great disguise as I can't place him.

I wish they'd lose those dopey rope necklaces. They're so 2010! I mean, I know gold is expensive, but c'mon, you're major leaguers. Buy some gold if you gotta wear necklaces. I so thought the Tigers were doomed when they kept the lefty in to face Beltre in the 9th. That was some dangerous managing, but I guess that's what helps keep Leyland so thin as the nerves alone most have burned 300 calories for that at bat. A case could be made the '75-'76 Reds didn't have much better starting pitching than your Rangers, or at least "going in," namely because Gullett & Nolan usually had injury troubles. Tough seeing C.J. struggle like this as he had a very good regular season. I see what you mean though by comments earlier in the year about how he hasn't shown he can be "the horse" yet.

This has been airing all season long: It is something else when a player gets in a zone (understatement) like this. Also I believe that was the first butt crack to appear in a MLB thread.

Oh I agree, it's exciting news for Cubs fans. I'd just temper my enthusiasm as the record of successful GMs moving elsewhere and winning again is mixed. He's also worked with the 2nd or 3rd largest payroll. Most of his genius trades happened 8 years ago and that kind of Moneyball maneuvering is harder to do (he admitted as much not long ago in an interview.) Here's a decent summary of his moves. I wonder if Theo ran off with his own set of the Diamondview software & data that is property of Red Sox? Obviously I'm not even sure how it works, but given how primitive things were when he joined (typewriters!) they may not have much of a data security policy in place. Just mindless speculation on my part.

Interesting. I think that if I were a Cubs fan I'd be happy. I don't know. He did sign Lackey & Crawford didn't he? And from the looks of things the stats approach failed to account for character defects like too much beer, fried chicken & vidya gaming.

About 2/3rd of the Dick's Picks were complete or very close. Just eye-balling it I'd call 24 complete even though at least couple of those are missing a first set song (such as DP 20 - the fall '76 set.) So 1/3 (or 12 of the 36 sets) were partials or combinations of nights. 2 of my favorite picks fall into the latter - DP 12 and 14. More than that as DP 18, oh the '68 Tahoe, several more. But it is right to consider a DP to be more likely to feature a full show, though Road Trips showcased more full shows as it went along. They made some good choices in that series and quite a few that didn't interest me too. What surprised me more than anything was how good the '71 RT releases are, both the summer one & Texas. As a '72-'74 whore I do make the mistake of underestimating '71, especially as it develops as the year goes on. I won't miss the cardboard packaging, although if they adopt the Euro '72 paper packaging the fat finger, clumsy & Cheetos eating folk are going to hate it. But I'm glad they plan something, because we just don't have enough live Grateful Dead to choose from.

Facebook keeps telling me I should become friends with Chris Albertson.

I always try to listen to a disc 2 times before it gets filed away. Sometimes things will pile up for a few weeks but eventually they make their way off the little "to listen to" piles. However I've had Michael Formanek's The Rub & Spare Change in a pile which I bought before seeing him early last summer, having only been played once. Maybe enough time has passed that I might even like Taborn this time around...(oops, that's another thread.)

Naughty naughty Timmy.

Thanks for the report. I've borrowed a copy a couple of times over the years but waited to buy. I can be very patient and decided years ago they'd redo this at some point. It took about 10 years longer than I thought. The good thing is I became more familiar with the neighboring albums (and the 4 disc Japan set) more when the mood for this era struck. But living in the NW I've felt a little bit of shame not having the regional show amongst the orange spines, so it will good to rectify this.

Verlander is a rain magnet this fall. Hang in there Ranger fans (and way to keep you hanging w/ Tigers loaded.) Go outside, put a blue tarp in the backyard, wait a few minutes and go for a slide.

Growing up in the early '70s I gravitated towards the rebel image, especially the idea that players who were cast off for not following another team's rules could be given a second chance and succeed. It was like the Land Of Misfit Toys from Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer for me. And compared to the god fearing law & order repressed Landry-Staubach Cowboys (at least what was in the press at the time), it was the Raiders all the way for me baby! From what other franchise could a 12 year old boy learn what a sex doll is? There have been a lot of jokes about the man over the past 10 years and rightfully so, but boy did he change a sports world. R.I.P. Al Davis if you can.

Ah my heart goes out to J.H. and our other Phillie fans. Ever since 2001 when the Mariners failed to advance out of the 1st round despite having the best record (and what a record they had!) I refer to this as being "Marinered." Not sure why it is but the Cardinal teams that don't play as well in the regular season seem to do better in the playoffs than their better teams. And now we get the 1982 World Series matchup in the NLCS! The battle of watery American beers - er, once upon time for the American (owned) part. Sorry America's coasts, no playoff baseball for you!

I noticed Justin only pitched once against Texas this year, not all last year and 3 times in 2009. It's always difficult when players haven't seen a pitcher much, let alone one of the best in baseball. Not that Game 1 needs to be amped up a notch. Of course some players were elsewhere so they may have seen him pitch more. C.J. has the same sort of appearance record as Justin except he was a reliever 3 years ago. He has not done well in the very small sample vs. the Tigers whereas Justin has been Justin.

If there can be "mad genius" about hitting a baseball, this was the one guy who definitely had it. Me, I'm a fan. A 162 game season of just Ted Williams in his prime batting against Bob Gibson in his...I'd get season tickets for that. Oh me too. I just consider it unfair to the other mortals who have to be compared to him in certain situations. I was also disappointed that The Baseball Project's song "Ted Fucking Williams" didn't do him justice. Gibson vs. Williams would indeed be awesomeness. Good to hear there is no bonus for a batting title, as that undoubtedly could make for a messy situation.

No kidding on the 'roid years. Regarding Reyes I'm not really a fan* of him, but when the comparison for last day going for a batting title (or actually hitting .400) is always Ted Fucking Williams, well, that's the highest standard. And face it, Ted was psychotic. So when I responded back to you it was just from reading angst over the "bunted hit and get out of there" for the 4th or 5th time. Ryan Braun may have been being polite but he had no trouble with it at all. In fact he expressed being grateful that at least he had a shot at the title if he could go 3 for 4. I don't know if he did but if Reyes had a bonus in his contract for winning a batting title, it'd be mighty hard to do the cowboy thing and go out there for a full day, especially vs. Strasburg. If that was the case I can't really fault him. *This is only from fantasy baseball, as when I have him on my team it's been the years of especially bad hamstring injuries.

Because baseball was better in the '70s. And let's not forget the sportsmanship of the late '80s either. (Most believe Boggs injury was phantom. They were in the playoffs for the first time since '75, so perhaps he was being careful.) Reyes set an excellent example for good math skills. Just like Willie Wilson...

I always get a chuckle out of fast food promo photography vs. reality. A review from Serious Eats which is sorta positive and note the new one tastes less salty. As I don't think I've had a Wendy's burger in 20 years I doubt it'll draw me back.

The other imbalance is to make the AL West a 5 team division. And from the looks of things one Central Time Zone team has to suck it up and move there. No team wants to do because it messes up the local broadcast times for so many games. And Seattle might as well be Alaska or Hawaii for all of the complaints of travelling there. I think the most sensible option is to return the Brewers to the AL and put the Royals in the AL West. It was a long time ago for many, but once upon a time KC owned the AL West. Maybe a move back could kick them back to winning.

I understand the sentiment, but once the playoffs start the records are 0-0. As noted the 2000 Yankees are one example of a team that stunk up September and won the World Series. There have been others too. What's more disturbing to me is how this season would have played out with next year's extra wild card team. There would be no drama as the 4 teams fighting for 2 spots today all would have made the playoffs a few days ago.

That's a devastating insight. I haven't watched 60 Minutes in the past 15 years like I used to so I haven't seen much of Rooney during this time. The few times I did it was a mixed affair, but even those that fell flat I liked that he still had his spot. Even in his highly insensitive moments such as complaining about the coverage of Kurt Cobain's suicide I could see why one could have that perspective. TV tends to favor the "youth culture" and he's anything but. If you take the average of Andy & Justin it's middle age but it's still older than me.