Frayed Knot

Yanx lose, BoSox hang on vs the Reds which now makes it 4 games with 9 left to play each. PROBABLY a big enough gap. Also: Twins win, Angels are losing, Rangers just getting started.

Didn't Peter Gabriel write a song about this guy? -- Oh Difo, Difo, Difo, Dee-Foe

It's not a good look for the Nats that their trainer seems to have a belly and man-boobs.

It's shots like that that keeps one from giving up on d'Arnaud Off the bat that looked like a line drive which, at best, you were hoping would split the OFs Mets are only hitting tonight with ticket holders in the booth w/GKR

Edgy MD wrote: [fimg=400]http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/Diag/YankeeStadium1976.gif[/fimg] [fimg=400]http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/Diag/YankeeStadium_II.gif[/fimg] One thing that's apparent from those layouts of YSII and YSIII is how much less bowed the walls in RCF are making the gap on that side is considerably closer.

Oh good, getting our butts kicked already and not until tomorrow and Sunday are we forced to face actual major league hitters and pitchers.

It just occurred to me that the last time Syndergaard was on the mound he pitched only one inning against the Nationals April 30: he walked off the mound one batter into the 2nd inning and hasn't been seen since.

Brad Ausmus joins the list of managerial maybes as the Tigers decline to pick up his option for next year. I wish I could say I have an opinion of Mr. Ausmus as a skipper but I really don't. Detroit had a good team when he got there and he won a division his first year (2014) but the team has been aging and slipping ever since and lately they've been actively bailing. He's a bit Girardi-like in his background: Similarly aged [Ausmus is 48, Girardi 52] and the products of a good education [Dartmouth and Northwestern] who carved out lengthy careers [18 seasons vs 15] as light hitting catchers [669 w/80 HRs vs 666 w/36] due at least in part to their defense and brains.

Just Murphy & Rendon sitting takes 6 or 7 hits out of their lineup vs NYM pitching.

d'Kong76 wrote: [tweet]https://twitter.com/Nationals/status/911321266069569537[/tweet] Holy shit, they left their entire starting lineup at home!!

Ceetar wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Just watch next year as the Mets hire their own "Beat the Freeze" guy, except they'll call it "Beat the Tri-State Lincoln-Mercury Dealer Guy" and expect pats on the back for innovation. well sure. A bunch of other teams probably will too. These vendors pitch these things at the winter meetings or gm meetings or whatever. The problem isn't that the Wilpons aren't creative, or couldn't be, it's that they're boring as hell business people that just don't care. They've never cared. I suspect it's more a lack of daring than a lack of caring. It's the same reason why those few bars of 'Blister in the Sun' and 'Everybody Clap Yo Hands' are heard at every ballpark in the country. Sure they could go out and maybe hire someone to find something new or different, but those wouldn't be pre-approved, pre-market-tested toe-tappers so why take the chance. It's the same way that 'Classic Rock Radio' market researched themselves into utter boringness, not because they didn't try but because they weren't willing to try anything even slightly off the beaten path. I'm sure the "Magic is back" campaign that begot the Apple was just some well-produced marketing pack from some ambitious underling. Actually (I'm almost certain about this) it was Madison Avenue rock star Jerry Della Famina who came up with that one, almost certainly for huge buxxx. Call it money well spent or something your idiot cousin could have come up with, but at least it was unique to that team at that time and not just a rip-off or even variation of what 20 other clubs were doing or saying.

Yeah, like Jeff has any idea who George Theodore is.

So the revamped starters are Edwin Jackson vs Robert Gsellman The now 34 y/o Jackson is on his 12th* ML team in 15 seasons and on his second go-around with the Nats. He was called in to replace Joe Ross as 5th starter when he went down in mid-season and has made 11 starts since with his usual mediocre results [5-6; 4.77; 1.39] but it's not like we've exactly been smacking around mediocre pitchers lately. * Dodgers (3 seasons), then Rays (3), Tigers (1), DBacks (< 1), ChiSox (1), Cards (< 1), Nats (1), Cubs (2+), Braves (< 1), Marlins (< 1), Padres (< 1), Orioles (< 1), and now signed again by the Nats in June That's a lot of packing and unpacking.

Yeah, it's not like Neshek asked him for a signature then turned up with 87 different cards, programs, ticket stubs, etc. and was asking for an hour out of his day.

Edgy MD wrote: Geinke added "I wouldn't even sign for your kid." I'd hate signing also, and would probably opt out of it, but I wouldn't be a turd about it. Yeah, I'm totally not a collector type but still lean towards being on Team Neshek here. Not that I KNOW his side of this is accurate, but this is hardly the first time he's asked non-teammates about this stuff and claims he's been told 'No' plenty of times before and totally accepts it when that's the case. But don't, if you're Greinke, agree to it, then not only refuse but angrily deny you ever agreed in the first place and stoop to the insults while doing so.

The Brewers blew several chances last night (bases loaded/one-out/tie-game bottom 9th) then finally lost after the Cubs tied it w/2 outs in the 9th then won it on a Kris Bryant HR in the 10th. The game would have been even better had the 8th & 9th innings not taken about 45 minutes each to play, but I digress. Brews now need to sweep the remaining three games and even that may not be enough. The biggest remaining race is the three-into-one WC where the stumbling Rox (4 straight losses and 6 of 8) are in danger of being taken by either the Brews or the suddenly hot Cardinals (13-6 in Sept) after it seems like StL was just dealing off parts a few weeks ago. DBacks +6 Rox ---- Brews (-1.0) Cards (-1.5) Dodgers broke their latest losing streak to avoid getting swept by the Phils and now have pretty much sewn up the NL best record thing so, yeah, it'll be the Nats vs the Central winner while LAD plays the WC survivor.

I doubt anyone outside the commissioner's office (and maybe not even there) has seen -- or, considering that these are all private companies, will see -- an accounting of how many folks get winged by foul balls (or bats) and how the injuries from them would be characterized. The field manager announcing within two hours after it happened that the girl is "OK" is the extent of what we're going to hear from Yanqui mgm't on this one -- and, seeing as how she remains hospitalized, "OK" seems to mean "not critical" or at least could have a variety of meanings -- as they have at least one and I believe several ongoing lawsuits from previous incidents and stoutly refuse to comment on any of them.

So in addition to the WC race between Arizona and Colorado, there's some All-Star pitcher beef to go along with it. It seems that this started at the ASG when then-Philly/now-Rox pitcher Pat Neshek asked temporary teammate Arizona ace Zack Greinke to autograph some stuff for him. Neshek it seems is a big autograph hound and, according to him anyway, Greinke agreed. Fast forward to their first meeting after the ASG when Neshek sends over the cards he wanted signed (5 he says) over to Greinke only how he not only refuses but denies ever agreeing in the first place. When pressed on the issue, Greinke added; "you wear me out" to Neshek. Neshek then went on a collector's chat room he frequents to call Greinke "a turd" over this.

Between the old multi-purpose stadiums that were common in the 60s-80s vs the newer ones built since I think there certainly are a number of seats that are closer to the field. And of course we're not talking about netting vs no netting, it's a choice between some netting vs some more netting. That netting is needed isn't in question, merely how much.

As noted in one of the papers this morning, a kid was killed back in 1970 at Dodger stadium. I had never heard of that story previously or if I did I completely forgot about it. The Japanese stadiums (and for the most part they are stadiums, not 'ballparks') have netting down to the foul poles in many cases - except that there are two or three rows in front of the netting known as the "excitement seats" where willing ticket buyers (and presumably not kids or old folks) know what they're getting into and each seat is provided with a helmet and glove (and being Japan, the patrons then neatly leave the glove and helmet right where they found them when the game is over). Note also that these are not the same "excitement seats" as what used to be offered in 42nd Street movie houses.

I don't mind it. The cool part is supposedly Jeter hates it and wants to make drop-kicking it out of there his first act once his group officially takes over. Except that apparently the city of Miami has some sort of jurisdiction over it and some of the other pieces of art in the stadium (they paid for the joint so it's good that they kept some measure of control) and so the new owners are finding out that they're not necessarily going to be the ones with the final say.

d'Kong76 wrote: There's still a warning on the back of tickets that has been there for as long as I can remember. Or course even with a magnifying glass I can barely read it but it says, "The ticketholder assumes all risk, danger and injury incidental to the game of baseball or other events and all warm-ups, practices, competitions..." It goes on and on and seems pretty ironclad to me but maybe one of the lawyers here will say someone struck with a baseball has a case. Just saying it's not your (the team's) fault doesn't necessarily mean you're free and clear and there are multiple ongoing lawsuits involving this stuff - including at YSIII

Both the Yanx & Red Sox have won 11 of their last 14 games so are neither gaining ground nor putting the other away. The fate of the AL East could come down to how the Astros opt to play that final four-game series with Boston; who they'll pitch, who they'll rest, etc.

When you consider how this thread started with a look at how near automatic it was going to be for them to win 100+ and how easy, or at least reasonable, it was to see them surpassing the recent NL record of 108 or even the all time mark of 116, you see what a ridiculous slide they've had.

That was back in the 5th inning (now the 8th). YSIII is one of the stadiums that has so far opted not to extend netting.