2011 MLB Season

[JSngry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fo9CBJxl7A

[JETman]

Further proof that, if not for God-given athletic talent, most professional athletes would be flippin' burgers at Mickey D's!

Even more reason to have that good-ole nationalistic pride.

Edited October 24, 2011 by JETman

[JSngry]

[PHILLYQ]

I just hope that last night provides the kind of gut check similar to the Mavs game 2 loss to Portland on their way to their championship.

That was some gut check. That kid may not be able to grow much of mustache, but he sure came through in epic fashion. What a curve! I hope it leaks out what Washington was saying when he went out to get Derek Holland.

During the post-game interview, Holland said that he basically begged Wash to let him stay out there, that if he couldn't get the next guy on a double-play it'd be okay to bring in Feliz but please please please PLEASE let me stay out here! That's why Wash kept shaking his head no. Holland went on to say that Wash said if Holland got on his knees & begged, he'd let him stay in. I guess that really IS the way baseball go!

In all seriousness, major props to the Rangers for stepping up to the challenge and conquering it in Mavs-like fashion. Gonna enjoy the moment while it lasts because tomorrow's game is gonna be a major gut-check for BOTH teams, especially with CJ returning to the mound.

All I know is this: the kid with the acne problem single-handedly saved this World Series for the Rangers. For now, anyway. Thank you, Derek Holland.

Holland also saved the bullpen . By going 8 1/3, he lets the bullpen get a night of rest so they're fresh for tonight's game, then with the travel day they get another day of rest. Young man was DEALIN'! He had only three balls hit out of the infield- amazing aginst that lineup.

[BERIGAN]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fo9CBJxl7A

Having just turned 25, he probably never heard Harry Carey, and it doing Will Ferrell doing Harry Carey!

[Big Al]

I just hope that last night provides the kind of gut check similar to the Mavs game 2 loss to Portland on their way to their championship.

That was some gut check. That kid may not be able to grow much of mustache, but he sure came through in epic fashion. What a curve! I hope it leaks out what Washington was saying when he went out to get Derek Holland.

During the post-game interview, Holland said that he basically begged Wash to let him stay out there, that if he couldn't get the next guy on a double-play it'd be okay to bring in Feliz but please please please PLEASE let me stay out here! That's why Wash kept shaking his head no. Holland went on to say that Wash said if Holland got on his knees & begged, he'd let him stay in. I guess that really IS the way baseball go!

In all seriousness, major props to the Rangers for stepping up to the challenge and conquering it in Mavs-like fashion. Gonna enjoy the moment while it lasts because tomorrow's game is gonna be a major gut-check for BOTH teams, especially with CJ returning to the mound.

All I know is this: the kid with the acne problem single-handedly saved this World Series for the Rangers. For now, anyway. Thank you, Derek Holland.

Holland also saved the bullpen . By going 8 1/3, he lets the bullpen get a night of rest so they're fresh for tonight's game, then with the travel day they get another day of rest. Young man was DEALIN'! He had only three balls hit out of the infield- amazing aginst that lineup.

:tup :tup

[Aggie87]

Well executed guy-checks, Rangers!

[Free For All]

[JSngry]

This excerpt from a Cardinals fan's post pretty much sums up where I am right now, finally:

I’ve watched baseball long enough to appreciate the role of luck/randomness. Right now I feel like home field + pitching matchups just about even out the true talent edge the Rangers have, so the series is now a 3-game coin flip.

No less than two, no more than three games left in this year's season. In those remaining games, there will be heroes and there will be goats. Of course, I want the heores to be Rangers, but what fan fan doesn't want that for their team?

The reality is simple, and a little abrupt - both these teams "deserve" to be here, but a few others, given a few random acts of the universe, would be here instead, and would just as much deserve to be here as well. Same for the outcomes of the remaining games - unless somebody just steps up and goes out of their way to play bad baseball, good players can have bad games and not-so-good players can have great games. And great players can have greater games, and "bad" players can have even worse games.

You want to think that over the course of the year that averages and tendencies come to the fore, and they do, most definitely, but realistically, the aggregate is composed of little more than an ongoing set of individuals, and those individuals,...they can be just as glorious as they can be upsetting. The only real difference between a Regular Season Game 49 and World Series Game 7 is that there's no game to played after the latter, so the "finality" is real, but only because the season is designed to end there, not because it's The Ultimate Judge Of Your Ability.

Of course, there's all sorts of social, emotional, and economic constructs, rewards, and penalties built on top of that difference, but...if it is exactly the randomness of play, the fact that every possible outcome of every single pitch can only be measured in terms of probability instead of certainty, that necessitates the playing of the games, then maybe it's a good idea to appreciate that randomness when contemplating the outcome of something like a "championship" series between two teams of this caliber at this particular point. Remember when the WS was a best of nine? Well, neither do I, but it just goes to show you that the pursuit and appreciation of excellence (a real, measurable, albeit multi-faceted, quality) occurs within constructs that are more or less wholly arbitrary (think about the all the statistical implications if the home team came to bat in the bottom of the 9th even if they were already ahead, and really, if it's a "balanced" statistical sample you want, why not? How many home runs, strikeouts, double plays, you name it, have been "lost" because of this construct?

Of course, there's no point to playing any further when the home team is ahead in the bottom of the ninth, the outcome of the game is already determined, but... when evaluating the absoluteness of evaluating "performance", a little appreciation of the somewhat arbitrary nature of the cutoff point might be in order, at least sometimes. It's kinda like those guys back in the day whose true brilliance was said to have never been captured because of the limits of the 78 - do you judge them as half-realized talents because they didn't/couldn't do "it" within the known, proscribed limitations? I mean, one the one hand...but on the other...

Now, having said all this...if C.J. Wilson steps on his dick again this evening, he might as well just go ahead and cut it off.

But that's just emotion talking.

[Big Al]

Well executed guy-checks, Rangers!

{{{sigh}}} With fiends like you guys, I'll never need an enema....

Now, having said all this...if C.J. Wilson steps on his dick again this evening, he might as well just go ahead and cut it off.

But that's just emotion talking.

The way this game is going.... my scissors are ready!

[Dave James]

i gotta say I'm lovin' it when they put the camera on Ron Washington and he goes through all of his seizure-style gyrations. That whole scene in the Texas dugout after Napoli hit the go-ahead double was great.

[Van Basten II]

Quite frankly, the way the play and they plan, St-Loiuis deserves to lose.

[Big Al]

Quite frankly, the way the play and they plan, St-Loiuis deserves to lose.

When LaRussa lifted Lynn after the intentional walk, I was thinking WTF???

[Dave James]

Quite frankly, the way the play and they plan, St-Loiuis deserves to lose.

When LaRussa lifted Lynn after the intentional walk, I was thinking WTF???

When it comes to LaRussa, I'd have to say the gilt has fallen from the lilly in the last couple of games.

[alocispepraluger102]

washington put pujols on 1st base late in the game with no one on base with a 2 run lead, hardly a brilliant move.

a tater by the next batter would have had washington answering the tough questions.

Edited October 25, 2011 by alocispepraluger102

[JSngry]

Was that not the most randomly crazy game yet? C.J. comes out like a man doth burdened, we get a little clownball from two usually defenders, and its 2-0. Mitch Moreland redeems himsel (don't tell anybody, but I'm pretty sure it was more of a blast than was Puhols'), Cj. keeps bending and not breaking, here comes Beltre, and now it's tied. I've come to develop a fairly good "weather sense" about when runs are going to come, and whne the bottom of the 8th began to play out,I felt that this was it. And so it was. But nefti still be liking his drama. Not all of us do, ya' know...

One more Ranegr win - 27 outs and fewer mistakes than the other guy, and the season is over on Wednesday. Definitely by Thursday. No guarantees of anything, of course, but between the way they played last nigh and teh way the played tonight, I'm convinced that whatever happens, it will happen with the Texas Rangers playing their hearts out, brains preferred, but occasionally optional.

What a series, What a season. And what a bunch of goofyass baseball playin' convention of charachters to spend some time with over the course of almost a year.

God bless America!

[Big Al]

It hurts. But that's the way baseball go.

This could be the biggest disappointment of the Rangers existence!

It might be the most painful, but let's see how they play over the rest of the games. Win or lose, if this is the team I think they are, they'll gut it out until the end.

Gotta give ya props for this one, cuz they've certainly done that since Saturday's debacle.

[JSngry]

Dude, I tell you, I've watched damn near every game this season (might've not been able to watch 7 or 8, but caught all but 2 of those on radio), and the one thing I've never seen them do is quit, even after digging themselves into some inescapable holes through their own faults. They do not quit. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard Wash talk about how his guys come to battle, and the come to battle for nine innings, every day, I might not be rich, but you and I could have a nice meal somewhere, I'll tell you that!

Quite frankly, the way the play and they plan, St-Loiuis deserves to lose.

When LaRussa lifted Lynn after the intentional walk, I was thinking WTF???

LaRussa's story is that the bullpen heard him wrong two times in a row about what pitcher he wanted up. What caused this sudden lack of hearing was not elaborated upon, as was not the Pujols-initiated hit and run call that resulted in Freese being thrown out in the 7th(?).

Game 5 Strike Zone:

Preeeeeety generous, and just a teence moreso for the Cards. But oh well!

[JSngry]

Ron T. Ennis of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram got this magnificent shot of Beltre's...shot last night.

[Neal Pomea]

Cardinals left too many on base last night, but you gotta hand it to the Rangers' pitching staff and clutch hitting by Napoli, even if the wrong Cardinal pitcher was in the game. Advantage now with Texas, which hasn't lost two games in a row in quite a while.

[Big Al]

All I know is, if anyone had told me Saturday night that I'd be enjoying the hell outta this series, I'da laughed my ass off. Win or lose, these guys have proven me wrong for the umpteenth time, and the only way I could be happier is if the Rangers give their fans the happy ending we've been waiting for most of our lives.

But if they don't, as JSngry says, I know in my heart it won't be without a fight. As long as they have that (because they've already proven they've got the heart), then I'm happy and proud to be a shameless bandwagon hopper Rangers fan.

[Big Al]

Cardinals left too many on base last night, but you gotta hand it to the Rangers' pitching staff and clutch hitting by Napoli, even if the wrong Cardinal pitcher was in the game. Advantage now with Texas, which hasn't lost two games in a row in quite a while.

Was thinking about that on the way to work this morning, and I can't help but think the Cards have the advantage now for the following convoluted reasons:

1) I don't see them losing three in a row

2) I'm even less certain Texas WINS three in a row

3) If the Cards win Wednesday, that shifts the momentum back to them

4) In their backyard in front of THEIR frenzied fans

5) Starting pitching continues to be the big (no, FREAKIN HUMONGOUS) question mark, moreso for the Rangers than the Cards

Of course, I could be wrong about all of this (sure as hell wouldn't be the first time) and the Rangers could take it all tomorrow night. If they don't, I'm gonna have to find me some extra-strength heart medicine to get me through game seven. I may just save time and watch the game in the local ER!!! :party:

[JSngry]

Just be prepared for randomness...Murphy's muffing of the ball in left was just as random an occurrence as was him bouncing that ball off of Rzepczynski...and imagine what could have happened if Feliz' Strike 3 against Berkman would have caromed off of Napoli just a little wilder...

[Joe]

Gotta say... after Game 3, I was afraid these Rangers were un-mightily morphing into the Cleveland Indians of the 1990s (and, while I can't claim Cleveland fandom, I REALLY wanted those Cleveland teams to win a championship). But I feel pretty good about Colby Lewis taking the mound for a potential close-out game.

[JSngry]

Jeff Sullivan: http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2011/10/25/2512498/quickly-on-game-5-of-the-world-series

It's a funny thing about a series like this. In a playoff series, the idea is that, by the end, one team will have clearly outplayed the other, and will thus either advance or win a trophy. And a lot of times it happens that way. The 2007 Red Sox clearly outplayed the 2007 Rockies. The 2004 Red Sox clearly outplayed the 2004 Cardinals. Pretty much every team that's faced them in the playoffs this decade has clearly outplayed the Twins. But look at the Rangers and the Cardinals. It's been five games, and who the hell is winning? The Cardinals have 22 runs. The Rangers have 19 runs. Three of the games have been unbelievably close. The other two games were close for a while before the winning team pulled away. Based on what we've seen so far, has either team looked better than the other? If you say yes, you're lying. Don't. It's a handy reminder that the MLB playoffs don't really prove anything, except that one team outscored its opponent 11 times. I just remembered that all four teams who won in the first round were outscored by the teams that they beat. That's crazy, and that's the MLB playoffs - a month when everything suddenly starts to mean so much more, even while everything starts to mean so much less.

Wednesday or Thursday - or Friday, in the event of rain, which is in the forecast! - the Rangers or the Cardinals will win the World Series. They will get a trophy for their efforts. "Congratulations on something" is not engraved on the base, but it should be, and all the little flags should have question marks.

I don't know about the flags having question marks on them, that seems a little silly, but...this whole thing...at some point you just gotta sit back, say a heartfelt "thank you" to whatever and whoever you say such things to, and then just watch it all play out.