Quincy

In Billy Bragg's "Waiting For The Great Leaps Forwards" he sings: In the Cheese Pavilion and the only noise I hear Is the sound of someone stacking chairs And mopping up spilt beer Here's that show.

That is something. He had some 1 out saves, but the less than 1 inning outings also reflect blown saves and losses. Francisco "I hate his nickname" Rodriguez's game log

It's real!

And its depressing the hell out of me. 5 game series are a bitch. A couple of moderately hopeful things to cling to. The Dodgers have never faced Harden. Not even in interleague play when he was with Oakland. (On the other hand Manny has and is 3 for 11 lifetime. All 3 hits were home runs. And game 3 starter Kuroda has pitched terrifically since August.) The other mildly positive thing for the Cubs is the Dodgers didn't face Ted Lilly this year. (Manny has faced him 46 times and slugs .619 against him.) Both have been pitching well post-All-Star break. So I don't rule out the Cubs winning the next 2. But should they do that, Game 5 will be unbearably tense.

HIGH FIVE! Or to quote Marv Albert, "YES!"

Just for fun I sometimes file this box under Shorter. Though I haven't done it since I joined this board, as now there are too many discs in-between to move around.

Whadya know, I misremembered, I indecisively did pick the Cubs to make the playoffs (as wild card) not the Phils. Sorry J.H. (though he didn't pick his own team. ) I even had the Cubs facing the Dodgers in the first round. And picked the Dodgers? Those "ifs" didn't work well for the Mariners at all, no siree. Bring on the Nationals for the baseball equivalent of the Toilet Bowl I say! You know, if the Twins end up facing Tampa it'd be an all plastic all indoors series. Kind of like the NL in the '70s (other than the indoor part, or DH...) And then there's the Young-Garza trade too. The ChiSox are up 1-0 as I write, much to the joy of grass seed growers.

Really? Sorry, don't mean to pick on your buddy's sale, but that one made me chock on my sip of water.

And he even faced Pujols 3 times. 0 for 2 with a walk. Though that playoff HR is still in orbit last I heard. to Lidge and congrats to the Phillies.

Probably tacky to reply to myself, but yes he can & did. Go Brewers!! Heh. I picked them here to go all the way (uh...vs. Cleveland. Soulstation wishes it was so. ) Though I did have them winning the division and the Cubs not making the playoffs. And the Braves winning the East. But otherwise, I got all of the NL playoff teams right.

I'll second the MacBook. I use PCs too, but I love my MacBook. You wouldn't have to, but I'd recommend maxing the RAM (2 GB) too, just to make the experience all the more pleasurable.

Another dramatic victory for the Brewers as Braun hits a grand slam in the 10th. Yovani Gallardo throws for the first time since May 1st and Ks 7 & 1 run allowed in 4 innings (held him to 64 pitches.) He had surgery last May on a torn ligament in his knee on his pushoff leg. Nice job after such a long layoff at an important time.

I check it daily, often more than once and have had nothing weird going on and I'm using Firefox. Um, on a Mac though.

No kidding! I loved how he untucked his jersey as he was rounding the bases.

????? Me too. Is that a Spinal Tap reference?

3 times in '99, '98 & '96 each time losing in the first round to the eventual champion Yankees. Their moment of glory was winning game 1 in '96 vs. the Yanks 6-2. It was a close series as game 2 went 12 innings. Game 3 took a 2 run on-the-road 9th for the Yanks to win. In the clinching game 4 the Yanks came back from a 4 run deficit.

Yup. I didn't either, but using "new math" I had to order the box. Hey, maybe if you could share a website or something regarding that new math — I only made it through trigonometry in high school — then I could understand, or at least rationalize, the same purchase. Why of course. Thanks (?) to my parents I had this song memorized* by age 4. New Math *Okay, that's an exaggeration.

Last hit in Yankee Stadium (by either team) was by Jason Giambi. Last homer by Jose Molina. Last out a grounder hit by Brian Roberts to first fielded by defensive sub Cody Ransom. Pettitte gets the W. Rivera on the mound for final inning in a nonsave appearance. File 'em away in your "trivia(l)" mind. :rsmile:

Yup. I didn't either, but using "new math" I had to order the box.

A heads up regarding the bonus disc, especially for Rollins fans. It's not just a cut or 2 but a much fuller disc. Bonus disc preview Bonus disc contents link (also listed below with less detail.) Sonny Rollins Sweden '59 Interview It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) Paul’s Pal Love Letter Sonny Rollins Holland '59 I’ve Told Every Little Star I Want To Be Happy A Weaver Of Dreams Rahsaan Roland Kirk Belgium '63 Stolen Moments Everything Happens To Me Domino Three For The Festival Nina Simone Sweden '65 Love Me Or Leave Me Interview Mississippi Goddam

No, that's not it. It's just that the whole "experience" experience ends not being very meaningful when predicting who will win. And of course when comparing one obviously looks at degrees, otherwise (except in rare cases) every team has some that can be found (especially if one throws in College World Series experience.) It's old news, but the best (yet not perfect) predictor is some function of OBP & SLG, probably leaning a tad towards OBP. But it isn't infallible. And that's a good thing, otherwise there'd be no reason to watch. Peace.

There's a study by Micheal Wolverton which examined players from post-WWII thru 2003 with at least 30 AB comparing their first playoff experience to their last. Batters performed better better as virgins (.755 OPS) than in their last postseason (.720 OPS.) Now obviously this could be skewed towards the decline in productivity due to old age, but it shows that ability trumps experience. Pitchers also performed better in their first playoff compared to their last (2.86 ERA vs. 3.50.) And repeating myself, but before the rosters were expanded at the start of the month the Yankees had 24 guys with playoff experience. That sure hasn't helped 'em this year (nor have a buttload of injuries, duh), nor has the advantage in experience helped them win another World Series in the past 7 years. Mind you I don't mind having players with some on my team, but I wouldn't care for those with the experience like Timlin had for the M's.

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!

UGH! A couple of years ago a friend of mine asked me to look over "this great investment book" to see what I thought. I could barely read it as it was just so effin' stupid. I found it hard to believe the author wasn't a 10 year old used car salesman intern who had been whacked in the head with a shovel a few times. I was shocked (though I shouldn't have been in the least) at how popular the book was. Some of the idiotic insights included "make friends with business owners to gain insider information of their stock." If I recall right he may have even said something along the lines of "the only good friends are wealthy ones who can do things for you." I could be wrong about that though, as just skimming through the book made my head hurt. This same friend is one of the great contrarian indicators as he dove heavily into the tech stocks before the bubble. He became a real estate agent last spring. After stating how I thought the housing market was crazy and people are acting like houses can go up 20% a year for the next 10 years he replied "I think they can." He's no longer an agent (never sold a house - he thought they sold themselves.) Not sure what investment idea he thinks is great now, but if I find out I'll see if I can short it!

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. No, it works in real baseball too. Every now & then there are cases where it doesn't, like last year's D-backs.