Frayed Knot

Yup. 12-2 to clinch this WC spot and they've worked their way into still having a shot at catching Saint Looie (1.5 back) and avoiding the game of death (probably vs SFG and Mr. Bumgarner). This hardly looked like a done deal there for a while as this run comes on the heels of a mediocre August (14-14) which included a seven-game losing streak.

The Yanks tragic number is 1 and they have a game against Baltimore at 1 pm today. We could be celebrating VY Day before supper! A story in one of the NYC locals (I just saw the on-line headline tho didn't read it) suggested that it's the duty of the Yanx to lose today and get things over with so that FJHG (Final Jeter Home Game) day has no other stories hanging over it.

I suspect it'll be treated less as a path too crass to follow and more as one that no one else will ever be worthy of. And that, of course, is Olbermann's whole point, not that Jeter hasn't had a terrific career but that this level of adulation has just become so totally out of whack.

But you see the thing is that Olbemann is a Yanqui fan! Grew up one anyway and his family had prime tickets for years. Famously, back when Chuck Knoblauch was having his throwing problems one of his errant throws which wound up multiple rows behind the 1st base dugout wound up hitting Keith's mother in the face. So it's not Jeter hate, it's just someone who can no longer take the over-the-top send-off. Like I said before, this didn't come out of the blue, he's been building up to this for a while now.

Pitt clinches a spot in the tourney - and still have a shot at catching StL Brewers can do no better than run the table and hope to tie the Giants for WC #2. Any SF win obviously, including their just-started game w/LA tonight, kills off the Beermakers for good. Angel Pagan shut down for the season & post-season - to have back surgery.

Yanx lose (I'd tell you who K'd on 3 pitches for the final out w/the tying run on but I'd be accused of a hate crime so I'll leave the culprit un-named) KC wins, Detroit wins on a walk-off. Seattle loses (hey M's, coughing up 24 runs to Toronto in 2 games, one of them with Felix on the mound, is not way to conduct yourself in a pennant race) Yanx can now do no better than force a three-way tie for the two WC spots with Oakland & KC - and the A's can take themselves out of that possibility with a win tonight.

Edgy MD wrote: He could be less of a smug tool No he can't. Even if he were to try real hard. It;s just not in him. That said, he's been on this topic of the over-the-top Jete-a-thon for a while now. This one was just more extensive than the others.

There's usually some simple reason in Nats games why we keep losing to these guys. Tonight: - We leave lots of runners on base by getting no hits with two outs. - They get an HR with two outs that brings in runners who never should have been on in the first place.

Our offense was really humming, right up until the 2nd pitch of the game. oe: Ooooh, and just now another hit!!

Other than Frandsen in for Rendon it's their A lineup. Although that one change should mean 3 or 4 fewer XBHs for the Nats tonight - at least until Rendon comes off the bench late to smack one in the gap w/runners on. 10 of his 23 hits vs the Mets this year are for XBs and he has 17 of his 81 RBIs (against no one else does he have more than 9)

They'll open the doors and keep people there to 5 AM if they have to. They could be building an Ark in Monument Park and they'd still play that game. At some point if the delay lasts long enough the Orioles should just say 'Fuck it' and walk out. They've got the division, have no need to playing ball until 2 in the morning before traveling to Toronto for a Friday game. And if it costs them a forfeit than so be it.

MFS62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Thursday is Jeter last-day-ever-in-Yanqui-Stadium day (not sure if you've heard that?) so that might wind up as a nice 'Double-Header' so to speak. No such luck. The forecast calls for heavy rain on Thursday, so the agony may be prolonged. Later And the kicker to that is that tickets for that game are, not surprisingly, not just sold-out but also heavily scalped/re-sold/bid-up however you want to put it. But if that game is rained out it almost certainly will not be made up (no time, no bearing on races, etc.) so an awful lot of folks will be out an awful lot of money, not to mention the whole swan song thing being ruined..

Yanx 'Tragic Number' is now: 2 vs the A's 3 vs KC 5 vs SEA 6 vs CLE So they could be EEEEEE-liminated as early Wednesday. Thursday is Jeter last-day-ever-in-Yanqui-Stadium day (not sure if you've heard that?) so that might wind up as a nice 'Double-Header' so to speak.

Rollin' on the (Potomac) River -- aka: I'm on a roll this week so let's keep it rolling. Mets @ Nats - 7:05 EDT � Colon vs Tanner Roark Nats �magic number� for clinching the best overall record in the NL is 4 over the Dodgers and 3 over the Cards. At times this �Overall #1 Seed� thing gets blown out of proportion, but the added advantage of hosting the WC survivor in the 1st round while watching the two other division winners slug it out against each other makes it much more of an edge than just the mere extra home game. In this case especially, the Nats are (rightfully) wary of facing StL who knocked them out in 2012 and against whom they are 2-5 this season, and of the Dodgers (1-2 in 2014) which comes with the prospect of seeing Kershaw (and maybe also Greinke) twice each in a five-game series. IOW, don�t count on Washington taking their foot off the gas anytime soon simply because they�ve clinched the NL (L)East. Y�know, just in case you were thinking that this whole lopsided season against us [13-3 record / 84-43 RS/RA / 25-7 in HRs] wasn�t enough of a factor.

SNY fit in so many commercials that they far too often miss pitches, hits etc. coming back, there's a fix right there. Well that's SNY's problem (and YES's, and a bunch of other outlets). As long as the game isn't being delayed past the assigned time for between innings breaks (2:05 for most games, 2:25 for GotW, 2:55 for playoffs) then the station sticking in extra ads just makes themselves look bad but doesn't really extend the game. Sometimes it seems that those time limits are NOT followed but, if so, then that's on the umps rather than the local carrier. Zvon wrote: Did you really write a letter to the Commish? If so, I salute you. Sure did. I figured you guys were sick of listening to me bitch about it here so I gathered a bunch of what I wrote around this place and stuck it in an envelope headed for Park Avenue. All it got me was a (months later) 'Thank you for your input' kind of response but I figure if I'm going to keep carping about it I might as well do so to someone who's in position to do something about it rather than keep annoying you folks.

Yanx beat the O's KC & CLE wound up splitting their "DH" tonight Tigers get shut out by the ChiSox Mariners get swamped by the Blue Jays DOES ANYONE ACTUALLY WANT TO WIN THE WC IN THIS LEAGUE???? So the Yanx pick up 1/2 game on KC & Cleve, and a full game on the Tigers & M's Still unlikely but, like the guy in slasher movies, I don't trust that they're actually dead until I see the body. The good new is that the A's, after giving up one in the top half of the 1st, have put up a six-spot in the bottom, thanks in large part to [u:22t60cqk]4 BBs[/u:22t60cqk] from CJ Wilson (who didn't survive the inning) and now a big 2-out error

Commish Selig has named his 'select committee' (he seems to have a lot of those) to study and recommend improvements towards reducing the length of games. I like to think the three-page letter I wrote to Bud last winter was the impetus behind this but I suspect not. Anyway, lots of familiar close-to-Bud names wind up on this panel: John Schuerholz, Sandy Alderson; MLB Players Association exec Tony Clark; Red Sox partner Michael Gordon; COO/Commissioner-elect Rob Manfred; MLB VP Joe Torre; and Red Sox chairman Tom Werner -- and nothing says shorter games than a group populated by Yankees and Red Sox You're a bit late to the party Bud (probably from staying up to midnight watching the 7 PM games end) and you're taking your usual consensus approach so that no one can accuse you of being too radical (although why you'd care about that on your way out the door I can't figure). But hopefully something comes out of this other than merely 'suggestions' and I take it that you took note of the pasting that Roger Goodell got this week with his press conference which basically said: 'We're going to fix this although I can't say how or when, just trust us' IOW: Something concrete = Good; Vague promises = Not so much

What is it do you suppose leads them to think that Teufel will make a good hitting coach?

I thought this would be a bigger story, but maybe I just missed something? http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2014/09/21/mets-owners-management-admit-getting-into-enormous-debts-with-little-to-show-for-it/ The article has now been rewritten to reflect that the original "admission" was, in fact, made up for demonstration purposes, and cites the initial source. IOW, it's no longer what it was originally: not merely plagiarism but really bad plagiarism.

Mets sweep of Atlanta has a bigger impact than usual as Braves fire GM Frank Wren. Former Cleveland/Texas head honcho John Hart comes out of the MLBN studio to run things at least on an interim basis. Looking back to the first post in this thread--wondering about what moves the usually aggressive Braves were going to do last winter--kind of brings this thread full circle.

Yup, I was just about to post that. I have no idea who is behind 'Jewish Business News' but they might want to think about hiring some people that publications used to refer to as 'reporters'.

deGrom - 3.0 Duda - 1.4 Tejada - 1.4 Granderson - 1.4 Nieuwenhuis - 1.4 Recker - 1.4

A's finally get on the positive side of an outcome by just now walking-off the Phils in the 10th inning via a 2R HR by Josh Donaldson. Huge win for them. So today was essentially a reversal on how things have gone lately. Most common recently has been the Yanx losing games but not any ground. Today they won but they don't gain much; not on the A's, not on KC, and not on Cleveland, only on Seattle. And one more day is removed from the schedule The remaining games: OAK +0.5 (7 games remaining) - LAA x 3; @ Texas x 4 KCR - - - (1.5 out of the division lead) (8) - @ CLE x 3; @ CHW x 4 Plus there�s the one suspended game where KC is down by 2 in bottom 10th. KC is the home team for that but it will be played with the series in Cleveland, I assume on Monday. SEA -1.5 (7) - @ TOR x 4; LAA x 3 CLE -3.5 (8) - KCR x 3; TBR x 3 Plus the suspended game NYY -4.5 (7) BLT x 4; @ BOS x 3 Yanx have to catch or pass three of those teams and there�s automatically a minimum of two wins for one of them in the CLE vs KCR series. also DET +1.5 Division lead; + 3.0 WC lead (7) - CHW x 3; MIN x 4

Not knocking the building, only that the way it was portrayed on the logo wasn't distinctive. You wouldn't know it was the UN unless you were told so. Slightly angled the way Z has it is so much better and more recognizable. I think I like choice F the best (lower right)

The tough part now will be maintaining some sort of momentum while heading to the D of C for 3 w/the Nats who are still motivated to snag the NL's best overall record. The good news is that the Braves welcome a VERY motivated Pirate team into Atlanta for a four-game set.