Frayed Knot

Utley doubles to lead off the inning

I think we're 1 for 17 on bunts today. I may not have that exactly correct but it's close.

This morning's Newsday mentions Willie suggesting that Pedro will go on Wednesday not Williams -- and why not?, it's his regular day coming off a rain-shortened outing. Then - as mentioned above - he's available for a potential play-in game on Monday or with extra rest for the playoffs.

- Angels lose again to Mariners and again fail to clinch. Magic number = 1 - Indians lose with a chance to clinch. Magic number = 1 - BoSox rally to win on a Julio Lugo HR. They keep their 2-1/2 game lead in the East and clinch at least a playoff spot - Yanx win a totally stupid [u:6bd2e643a8]5 HOUR[/u:6bd2e643a8] / 10-inning game, one in which 2nd baseman Aaron Hill botched a game-ending grounder for the 2nd game in a row. - Tiggers lose Indians - 63 losses, 8 to go Angels - 64 losses, 7 to go Red Sox - 63 losses, 7 to go Yanquis - 65 losses, 8 to go Tiggers - 71 losses, 7 to go Indians, btw, hold the tie-breaker over the Angels for 'top seed' if those two come down to league's best record and the "right" to play the Yanx in the 1st round.

West: - Snakes win again and the Padres lose - Now a 2-1/2 game lead for the division while SD also puts itself in danger of losing its hold on the WC lead. It also increases OUR safety valve as we lead the Pads by a full game. - Rockies win their [u:b3f953fe09]7th straight[/u:b3f953fe09] Central: - Cubs win over Pitt. - Brewers bust up a Smoltz no-hit bid late then actually take the lead in the 10th before blowing the lead and the game. - Cubs up 2-1/2 WC: Padres Phils -1/2 Rockies -2/1/2 Braves -4-1/2 Brewers -6

Perez - 4.5 Castro - 2.7 Wright - 1.9 Beltran - 0.9

"Is it just me or does this portrait of Andrew Jackson bare a resemblance to Roger Daltrey?" Not surprising considering that Jackson, like Daltrey, was also in a rock band Oh wait ... that's the other Andrew Jackson look-alike Peter Gammons!

Wright's scattershot arm is troublesome at times.

Very encouraging so far.

I suppose one could point out [AGAIN] that listing various problems and/or contradictions is NOT the same thing as saying "the sport is dying" but I've already wasted enough band-width on that and you're obviously going to stick with your tendancy of coming to a conclusion first and then cherry-picking and twisting whatever evidence comes down the pike when it fits your pre-determined conclusion. "The rise of the Latin American player at the expense of American born players" Yeah, I just hate the way MLB has been hiding its Latin influence. "- How MLB is essentially scalping their own tickets by going to bed with Stubhub and other resellers." Yes they are and it's bad business practice IMO. But it's something which is partly driven by increased ticket demand! " - Alienating fans because of arcane territory rights that black out certain markets on MLB.com's MLBTV service." As opposed to the NFL's national TV deal which is built on exclusivity rights and blackouts designed to protect local teams and articfically boost TV ratings through lack of competition. "-Crazy accounting that makes teams appear to be losing money and in turn more raises in prices at the ballpark, not to mention getting the public to finance new ballparks in one form or another." In other news, Seattle is expecting rain this winter. And the way they've kept the second largest city in the country without a team for all these years strictly to use it as a threat to cities who won't cough up subsidized stadiums is disgusting ... oh wait. "-There are still many problems with the drug policy, especially in the case where you can not test for HGH." This just in: ALL sports are dying!!! "-And the coziness of having that anti-trust exemption." I agree it should no longer exist but this is the biggest red herring in sports today. Much of the exemption has already been watered down to virtual non-existance and what remains doesn't allow baseball to act any differently than any other sports league. "Its good for a quick read on the problems still facing baseball, despite what the revenue streams of attendance records and merchandise sales will have you believe." Well that's good because I'm certainly tired of hearing how baseball has no problems. Nothing in that article is wrong per se but it's not saying what you claim it's saying nor is it breaking any news. This notion that problems within baseball are being swept under the rug either by itself or by a dis-interested news media is laughable.

Angels had a chance to clinch last night but lost to the Mariners Indians: 62 losses - 9 games to go Angels: 63 losses - 8 games to go BoSox: 63 losses - 8 games to go Yanx: 65 losses - 9 games to go Tiggers: 70 losses - 8 games to go

Van Buren was the first President to be born post-revolution and therefore actually as a United States citizen.

- DBacks romped on the Dodgers - Padres scored the tying run in the 9th ... only to lose 2-1 in 14 innings to the still-breathing Rockies Snakes Fathers -1-1/2 Rox -5 - Brewers beat Tim Hudson and the Braves - Cubs won a slug-fest with the Pirates in the afternoon Cubs Brewers -1-1/2 WC: Padres Phils -1-1/2 Rox -3-1/2 Braves -5-1/2 Brews -6

Martinez - 1.5 Mota - 1.0 Schoeneweis - 1.0 Reyes - 1.0 Castillo - 0.8 Delgado - 1.0 Chavez - 1.0 Beltran - 0.8 LoDuca - 1.1 Alou - 0.8

Always fun when the relievers no one wants to see shut down the opponents while the ones fans are clamoring for shit the bed. The opposite result would of course be labeled "mismanagement"

Well if Feliciano is in Willie's doghouse for some reason he's not exactly working his way out of it now with two straight walks.

They have an early day game tomorrow too.

Gwreck wrote: I would've been in favor of Mota plunking Cabrera. I was very much in favor of him popping him up. Two strong ones by Willie Mota

Blue Jays push across a run in the 14th and hold on to the win which should have been theirs 5 innings and 2 hours earlier. Still counts the same in the standings, it just ruined 8.1 stellar innings from Roy Halladay and screwed with his record.

="Zvon"]How does a guy with the last name of Garcia get a first name of Harvey? Ask Keith Hernandez

="Gwreck"]="Johnny Dickshot"]Is Muniz in the house? Yes, wearing 38 as per SNY, early in the broadcast tonight. Well what they said was that he was scheduled to arrive and be assigned #38 but were unsure about whether or not he was there yet. Problem is that he ws already home in California.

I was mentally resigned to a rainout here. I have to get back into game mode.

The Yanx drive to the AL East was about to take a Halladay as Roy Halladay was shutting them down and shutting them out 4-0 thru 8 innings. But then a couple of hits combined with a couple of really piss-poor, game-ending plays were NOT made by 2nd baseman Aaron Hill (not sure if they were scored errors) allowed them to tie it so they're going to extras in da Bronx. BoSox are leading their game late.

Word comes via radio that Beltran has a bruised patella tendon and is listed as -- say it with me folks .... as "Day to Day"

Delgado comes back tonight so it's only natural that Beltran goes down (who knows for how long?) since the last time Beltran was down was just after Alou came back. I count 45 times thru 153 games that Delgado, Alou & Beltran were in the starting lineup together -- and that includes 28 of the first 35.