BEVERLY HILLS (MI) –- The regular season for MLB is finally in the rear-view mirror, which marks the onset of the absolute best time of the year in sports –- post-season baseball — especially (in my feeble, carmine-tinged mind, anyway) when the Red Sox are in it.
The festivities began late Tuesday afternoon with the 163rd game of the year for the Twinkies and the Tigers for the right to see who gets to lose to the Yankees. If this game is any indication of what we can expect in the next 3 weeks, this is gonna be a fun ride. Dang and I was hoping I had seen the last of the Hefty Bag Dome.
Post-season baseball? The Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera will drink to that:
I have to comment on this whole mess. The Rugby Grill at the Townsend Hotel is less than 2 miles from my house and it is not some dive bar like Timothy’s; it is a first class dining and drinking establishment. Our family went there for the Younger Swampette’s HS graduation. I met NBA Commissioner David Stern there when I was having an adult beverage with my boss at Court TV, who knew the Commish. For Miguel Cabrera to taunt some overweight teenager at the Rugby Grill meant that Miggy was:
a) Seriously ‘faced’ and
b) Pretty much the pot calling the kettle black, as Cabrera has battled his own weight problems throughout his MLB career.
Kinda makes you wonder how that whole scene impacted his 0-4 performance on the field on Sunday, huh? Miggy blew a .26 (or 3 times the legal limit) when he got taken to the Birmingham Police Station Saturday night/Sunday morning. Dude.
Didn’t seem to bother him Tuesday as Cabrera doubled and homered in the Tigers’ heartbreaking 12 inning loss to the Twinkies.
Anyway, the real post-season starts on Wednesday with the Rockies/Phils, Cards/Dodgers and the very tired Twins /Yanks on Wednesday followed up by the Red Sox/Angels on Thursday, with the first pitch slated for 9:37PM. Dang, it looks like I picked the wrong week to try and catch up on my sleep.
The Sox are in the post-season for the 6th time in the last 7 years. Here is a great piece by the incomparable Joe Posnanski on the architect of the Sox success, Theo Epstein:
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/10/03/theo/
Find players who “don’t make outs.” Sounds overly simplified doesn’t it, but it’s amazing how many MLB execs rely on misleading stats like RBI and BA instead.
How much does analysis come to bear in running a baseball team? Here is a piece from Money magazine on how important it is to the owner of the Boston franchise:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/2003/04/01/339747/index.htm
MLB announced the umpires for the Sawx/LAAAAAA series:
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2009/10/umpires_named_f.html
That’s a pretty sucktastic assemblage of “blue” for such a big series in my opinion. Don’t believe me? Here’s what the always shy and reserved Curt Schilling has to say about them, courtesy of the Sons of Sam Horn website:
“FWIW that might be the worst umpiring crew in the history of post season baseball. Bucknor, Gibson AND…Joe West, the umpire who is well known to hate the Sox as much as any man ever.
At least in Joe’s defense he’s a decent ump, albeit one who has stated EXPLICITLY on the field he holds grudges and gets even. CB and Gibby just suck, no two ways about it. CB has never been good enough to ID a bad or missed call and as far as Gibby knows he’s NEVER MADE a bad call.
Direct quote from Greg Gibson during a game “Do you know you are arguing with the best young umpire in the game right now?”
Dead serious when delivering it too.”
Curt followed that up later in the thread with this prediction:
“FWIW and I hope I am wrong, Greg Gibson will have major impact on one or more games this post season. The obvious choice would be for the game(s) he’s behind the plate, and I can assure you I’d lobby to not be on the mound for that game. He’s an umpire, when all is said and done, who would WORK to make you know he’s the KING over getting a good Questec score.
Oh and for you trivia buffs, I think Iassonga or whatever his name is, is the man I am holding directly responsible for the death of the Questec camera in Arizona.
“The machine won’t let me call that pitch a strike” was the quote he gave me.”
How do you really feel about the umpires, Curt?
As for a preview of the Angels/Sawx showdown, I’ll leave that to the Master, ESPN’s Peter Gammons:
http://espn.go.com/boston/columns/blog?post=4533801&name=gammons
I’ll finish with a link to a tremendous piece of writing entitled “The Green Fields of the Mind” by a fellow Red Sox fan, the late MLB Commissioner Bart (father of actor Paul) Giamatti:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giamatti.html
Enjoy the post-season!
That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: [email protected]
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