Canadian Solider Ants. Hilarious! How rare.

Well not rare. But male ants and the Yankees playoff hopes are seemingly going to have a similar lifespan if the Tribe find a way to score again.

"Listen to this crowd, it's sounds like an English Premier soccer game."

Uhh...sounds like a baseball game to me.

I wondered where CHamberlin was from, thinking (wrongly) he was Hispanic. But apparently, he's Native American. Carmona doesn't seem to have the problems with the bugs, but he's from the D.R. Not surprised.

Wow. A-Rod strikes out with a runner in scoring position in the 9th.

Big. surprise.

Sadly this is the first time I've seen Carmona pitch outside of highlights. Wish I'd seen more.

Who went and taught Torre how to use Rivera properly?

Juuuust a bit high. Haha.

Nothing like bodychecks at first base.

I had a little chat with him before the game about that. He often seeks my counsel.

Ugh. That might come back to haunt them.

Or not. Indians win!

Hafner finally comes up clutch.

There's nothing better than watching the faces of a dejected Yankee. Fuck those posers.

wahoo!

That was one hell of a game.

+1

Don't worry Angels fans... Escobar learned something from Juan Guzman.

Dice-K has not been inspiring confidence for the last two months.

Which I really think makes this game a must-win for the Angles. Dice-K is very beatable, they have to get the job done.

Oh man. I'm happy my Tribe are up 2-0 but wow that almost felt like a loss.

Hehehehe....#45 lives on.

Now if only we could send J.P. Riccardi to Baltimore or something, life would be good.

So bugs helped the Yankees lose? Is this proof that God hates the Yankees? ;)

Anyone who knows me knows I can't stand the Yankees. I'm not a big fan of ARod either. (though I recognize how good he is)

But sometimes he gets a lot of undeserved crap and this is one of those times.

After a Jeter single in the fourth innning, the Yankees had 1 BB (which was promtly wiped out by a double play the next hitter), a guy reach on an error and a weak ass infield single that the SS didn't move in quick enough on.

I don't think ANY player in the big leagues gets a hit off Carmona there. He was simply dominant and to laugh it off as another ARod choke job is more than a little unfair. Lets give the kid credit. Earlier in the same inning, he made Jeter look like a little leaguer with a couple of horrific swings. Jeter won't get crap, ARod will take al of it.

Don't get me wrong, ARod deserves some crap. He makes more than the gross GNP of some small countries. And he hasn't stepped up in the playoffs. But he had a lot of help sucking today. A lot of players with big contracts sucked every bit as bad as he did.

I agreed that he doesn't deserve the crap he gets. Especially this year. Without them, playoffs isn't even a word they use in a sentence.

Not a fan of his, but if Ted Rogers wanted to him $300 million over 10 years to finish his career in Toronto, I'd be the first one cheering the move..

My commentary was mostly reflecting the way it'll get spun by the media. Though I did love how the commentators were trying to tell us about how clutch he was in April, as if that mattered now.

Now THAT'S home field advantage. If that catcher's reaching into the stands, you have as much right to the ball as they do.

Earned the Red Sox a run eventually :)

A-Rod's the best player in baseball.

I'd love to see him in Boston.

I have a healthy respect for the quality Papelbon brings to the mound. But listening to these announcers, you would think Boston brought in God to pitch here.

Fantastic first 3 days of playoff baseball, might I just say.

Scioscia took Vlad out? WTF? My two choices here are stupid managierial move (yuck) or Vlad is hurt (shit). I don't like my choices.

Contusion to the shoulder. Damn it, Vlad gets beaned so much. :(

Even more fantastic if you include Monday night. Great October baseball so far.

Sorry Coco didn't catch that, what did you say? lol...

BTW, has that ever happened before in baseball history? A Coco just flew out to a Chone.

MANNY FUCKING RAMIREZ!

WOW!!!!!

That was a B O M B!!!!

I just had a feeling when they walked Ortiz to get to Manny...that it was gonna be a wrap and sure enough...

Manny talking to the media??

The walkoff home run is the coolest thing in sports.

Yup, saw that one coming, too. How many times can you tease a guy with Manny's pedigree and expect to survive? Good game for the Sox. Winnable for both sides. We go home with our backs against the wall. But at least we'll be home.

+1

I wish it was on regular TV, so all of America could see it and yet, I realize that we'd never get back-to-back games if it weren't setup how it is.

The Angels really needed that one - now they have to beat both Schilling and Beckett (on regular rest) to force a game 5.

17 year old Danny Vinik was the one who stole the ball from the angels catcher. Vinik is the son of one of the Red Sox owners limited partners

A bug infestation costing the Yankees the game, some schmuck kid outjumping the Angels hotshot catcher to cost the Angels... what a night!

Wow Manny has 22 Hrs in the postseason? I thought Reggie Jackson had the record 18? That statistic on Manny was flashed by TBS who I don't trust at all the way they have fucked up the broadcasts up to now.

Love this picture

They said he's now one behind the record-holder, Bernie Williams. (Obviously, the newer guys have a huge advantage, it'd be interesting to see a ranking of all time postseason HRs by rate, either per AB or game.)

Thnaks for that and you are right about the rate. That was a MONSTER homerun it looked to be a good 20-30 feet above the Green Monster when it left the park.

Add me to the list of those who saw it coming. Sometimes you just get a feeling. When you keep walking one all star to get to another, you know eventually the other guy is going to step it up. That ball was just crushed.

FWIW: Manny, coming into this season, had hit .258 during the post season in his career. .354 OBP and a .490 SLG. 82 total post season games.

For comparison, Babe Ruth appeared in 41 post season games, hit .326, .467 OBP, .744 SLG (Yikes) and slugged 15 HR.

Also FWIW, ARod, coming into tonight, had hit .276 during the post-season in his career, .366 OBP, and .478 SLG (36 games). Where are all those people giving Manny shit???

Manny's a riot. That ball still prolly hasn't touched down. He hit that thing and didn't even move...he just stood there and raised his arms in the air and smiled.

I remember Manny having some horrible playoff series with the Indians (wasn't he hitless in the entire '99 5-game ALDS against Boston?). He's been much better with Boston. A-Rod's struggles have been more recent (though overrated).

Edit: I added up Manny's playoff stats with the Sox:

.312 Avg, 8 HRs, 25 RBIs in 125 ABs.

So that's why Manny doesn't get shit.

How manny RBis and HRs has AROD had in the playoffs might be more telling?

The ring he's got is also a nice factor.

I'm heading to Denver for Game 3. We'll see how this goes....

6 HR and 16 RBI in 37 games

Funny thing is, he crushes balls in the LCS. His horrific numbers are almost all LDS related. 23 career games in the LDS he's hit .238, .319 OBP and only 2 HR.

14 games of the LCS, he's hit .315, .413 OBP and .611 SLG.

I'm not an ARod fan, but he still takes to much crap over this. The Yankees have just faced two Cy Young calibur pitchers. As a team, they have had 8 hits in 20 innings of play. (and 8 more baserunners via the walk) They've struck out 17 times. Only one Yankee player has 2 hits in this series. (Abreu, whose second hit was an infield single fielded poorly by the SS)

1/3 of the lineup hasn't gotten a single hit. (ARod, Posada, Matsui) 2 of the 4 NY runs in the series are off of mistake pitches to guys the Indians didn't really fear hitting it out on them. Cano hit a bomb. But ARod is taking the crap for this? (I've read some of the articles from the NY papers today. Simply ridiculous)

Keep in mind here, I understand that ARod is going to get criticism because of his contract and his history with NY in the postseason. I just think at times it gets to a ridiculous level. I hope sometime down the line he has a big postseason and shuts a lot of people up. I just hope it isn't with the Yankees. :)

ditto, i hope he has a monster postseason against the Yankees

Yeah wow those stats are pretty good for MOST players but I guess when the guy hits nearly 60 homeruns and 160 RBIs they aren't that great and since he has been with the Yankees he hasn't done much. He does seem to kill the ball in alot of meaningless situations.

Well, considering the league so far is hitting .219 (115/524, if my thumbnail math is correct) in the playoffs vs .268 in the regular season, maybe it's time to cut the guy a little slack. Again, obviously batting average is not a great stat but it's a pretty obvious reminder that there are a lot better pitchers in the playoffs so expected even identical rate stats in the playoffs vs the regular season is just plain ludicrous. Much less expecting better.

SI

And with that, there go the Cubs into the night.

SI

Ok, who turned out the lights in Colorado?

SI

What an awful series. How many times did the Cubs get the leadoff man on base in this series and fail to score? I think the announcers said they were 1 for 23 with runners in scoring position. FOUR double plays in game 3, argh.

I hate it when people ask questions that I'm just curious enough to figure out the answer to.

Game 1 - 3rd, 5th, 6th (scored) = 1 of 3 scored
Game 2 - 2nd (scored), 5th = 1 of 2 scored
Game 3 - 1st, 2nd, 4th (scored), 5th = 1 of 4 scored

9 of 27 leadoff batters reached, 3 of 9 scored.

And the Rockies move on to face the D-Backs in an NL West battle in the NLCS!

Ha-ha Phillies fans thought they were going to roll right over the Rocks. Good for them. Congrats to all the Rockies fans and good luck until the WS against (hopefully) my Red Sox.

Well, I went to a baseball game and a hockey crowd broke out.

Rockies/Dbacks NLCS.....I'm pretty sure reruns of "Still Standing" will draw comparable audiences. Poor TBS....They need to pray for Yankees/Red Sox.

We were joking about that tonight. "The worst possible series. The one no one wants to see. Oh well."

I don't weep for TBS or FOX.

Here are pics from tonight's game, if you're into such things.

Playoff baseball is quite an experience, I must say. I really enjoyed that. I imagine it'd be pretty intense in a "baseball city" but...for what they lack in playoff experience, the local populace make up for it in exhuberance. It was pretty rockin' from start to finish, that's for sure.

TBS is fucked. It doesn't matter who wins the AL series' since FOX holds rights to the ALCS.

I just wondered how you could market a Indians D'backs WS?

I find the Rockies really compelling so I'll take them in the World Series if that's who we get. On the AL side, I think all 4 of those teams are somewhat well known, tho Cleveland is the lowest rung on there since they haven't had much success in the last 5 years.

Arizona does kindof stink up the joint but that's because they kindof fluked their way into the best record in the league and no one's really sure how that happened. They have Brandon Webb included in a collection of guys that had a negative run differential. It boggles the mind.

Back to the ratings issue, this is the problem with running what amounts to local northeastern sports news as national in scope the rest of the year on ESPN, Fox, etc. They promo the hell out of New York, Boston, etc for cheap, short term gains. If you have practically every ESPN and FOX game at one of about 5 major markets all year, that's all people are going to see and that's all nationally people will "care" about it come playoff time. Why show, say a Jeff Francis-Brandon Webb regular season game when their respective teams are in the playoff chase when you can show some Yankees/Red Sox tilt between their 5th starters just because it's the "greatest rivalry" (sic) out there?

SI

So did you trip over a power cord on your way to get a hot dog in the 2nd inning there? ;)

SI

You couldn't.

Any WS without the Yankees or Red Sox is going to be difficult to market. With those two teams, you have enough of a fan base nationally to draw viewers. And there is enough of a "hate" base that you'll get a lot more people cheering for them to lose.

The Angels give you a decent fan base in LA, but they aren't popular enough to hate. At least you have LA.

But the Indians vs. Dbacks/Rockies? For die hard baseball fans, that's a decent matchup. (Carmona, Sabathia vs. Webb or the Rockies bats make for good TV viewing) The casual baseball fan not from Cleveland, Arizona or Colorado? Low ratings here we come. . .

Hahaha..nope. Was just in my seat watching. It was cool to see the field with no stadium lights. The players got off that field fast as hell, though.

Know what would be a marketable series? Jays vs Expos.

With glowing hearts
We see thee rise
The TRUE NORTH strong and free!

I'd settle for just an all-Canadian Stanley Cup Final.

::sigh::

Awesome. If we had some kind of list of favourites, you'd be on it right now. My dream after the Jays two good years was for a Jays-Expos World Series. Will never happen now!

I became a Jays fan for no good reason around '91. Jack Morris showing up (he was my favourite player at the time) in '92 sealed the deal for me. I was lucky, I guess. And the team's success from '82 to then gave me a lot of lore to build on and to get excited about. Then it all went to pot.

One of my best friends growing up (and to this day) is a Canadian and that bolstered my interest, but, I just think hockey is such a pasttime that it's a shame what Bettman did to the sport under the guise of saving it and the fact that he still has a job just bugs the hell out of me.

But yes, an Expos-Jays World Series would've been great, especially since Montreal supported that team well until it was apparent that corrupt Bud and his boys had it out for them. At least an American city is now suffering under that fraud Jeffrey Loria, rather than continuing to rip the hearts out of people who are clearly sports fans, just don't want some huckster coming trying to lie to them about what his intentions are. In retrospect, it wasn't the best place for a baseball team in the first place..but...no one told them to do that. I think somewhere in Western Canada with a domed park would've been much better as a viable 2nd Canadian option.

I hope when the Marlins move, he sells the team and goes back to doing blow or whatever it is he was doing before he decided he wanted to be a baseball owner.

I think that whole angle is a little overstated, but to the extent that it exists, you make it sound like ESPN is covering Boston/NY as some kind of charity case. The northeast is the population center of the United States, and it's transplants are all over the place. (It's amazing how many other 20-somethings from the northeast ended up here in Idaho). You're asking tv networks to leave money on the table by showing smaller market teams for some kind of future investment? If they Yankees and Red Sox were leaving the league or something, I'd see your point, but big markets have always driven sports TV business.

The New York market is more than just a big city - it includes almost 20 million people. That's 10 times Denver.

That being said, two major markets facing off in a championship series is sometimes too much of a good thing. Yankees/Mets in 2000 was horribly rated outside greater NYC (though again, if you can get a big piece of 20 million caring about the series - who cares about Pittsburgh or Detroit?). Red Sox/Rockies is probably the best matchup on the table right now, in terms of national interest.

Great save by Weaver getting those strikeouts to get out of the rally.

I'm not sure Arizona-Boston might not be better, or at least as good.

The Phoenix DMA is now about 20% larger than Denver (as of the recent Nielsen market estimates ) and I'm not sure that the Rockies generate any greater interest outside their home market these days than do the D'Backs.

Figgins was probably safe but tough to tell. Leading foot definitely in before the tag, but it looked like he missed the bag with that leg. If his knee is first to touch the bag, I think he's out, because Lowell had the tag on by then.

The only reason I think the Rockies would generate extra interest is how they got to the playoffs. They're a great story - I think a lot of people would tune in to root for them to take down the the Red Sox or Yankees.

Geez:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playof...ory?id=3052904

"His job is on the line," Steinbrenner told The Bergen Record. "I think we're paying him a lot of money. He's the highest-paid manager in baseball, so I don't think we'd take him back if we don't win this series."

What a dope.

eh...2-0 Sox now. Back to back bombs by Ortiz (hard) and Manny (crushed another)

Are you watching, Bill Stoneman? This is why it's important to get some power. Other teams beat your teams with it. It doesn't mean stop using the speed and the small ball. But get a sack and get us a freakin' hitter to hit behind Guerrero.

And speaking of which, from Scioscia's decision to rest players in the last week rather than going for home field, to his decisions in this series to put guys like Izturis at 5, and Willits of all people in the cleanup spot, if we lose this, as it appears to me, it is all on him and Stoneman. Just some awful decision making from a normally extremely intelligent basbeall man.

Oh okay, Willits was an injury replacement. Somehow I missed that. Yuk, though. I stand by the other comments.

I hear there's a 3B who might be on the market this offseason who has a bit of pop in his bat, CR. Oh yeah, but he doesn't hit 1.000 in the playoffs ;)

SI

Mike Lowell?

Heh, yeah, I know, and the Angels are probaby the most often mentioned team when it comes to him (besides his current team). I just don't see how we can come up with $30 M a year. And what does that do for the rest of the team, particularly Guerrero. Vlad's contract runs out in '09 (assuming we pick up the option). If ARod's grabbing 30-something, how much do we give Vlad, who the team probably owes a lot more to fo rwhat he has been for this franchise since he came over.

Sure, we're in LA over here, but I don't know that we can afford that much.

I would take Mike Lowell right now in a heartbeat. Most legit hitter Stoneman would have gotten since Vlad, which is sad.

Makes you wonder how bad of shape your team would be in if 29 other teams weren't scared of Vlad's back when he was a FA.

Oh, c'mon. We all know he's coming to KC to play SS and anchor our lineup ;) :( :( :(

SI

Well, we have to give credit where it's due, even if the management team has done an awful job otherwise procuring legit hitters. They took a chance and it worked. Other teams should be kicking themselves over that.

5 years, $70 million was very cheap.

Actually for then it was about right. Teams were a lot more stingy then in the wake of the 2002 labor deal, and the madness of the 2000 FA season (the one where ARod and Manny got their money).

Since then, baseball has seen record attendances and revenues and teams have gone a little nutso with spending. So for the time, it was a lot of money for that market. It's only in retrospect that it looks like a particularly good deal.

Since this game is over now...

For as close as these playoffs looked on paper, probably as open coming in as ever in recent history, it's really odd that we've had 3 sweeps and another team trying for a 4th tonight.

SI

+1

Indeed, what a strange turn of events. I do like it, given it's been sweeps by teams that no one really favored except in the case of the Red Sox (And even that wasn't a forgone conclusion.

I'm sure it'll get the clamoring for the Division Series to be best-of-seven in full swing again. Not that I think in any of these cases, it would've mattered much. I think the short series is a nice to weed out the pretenders and in other sports, it might lead to fluke wins, but in baseball..I figure that after 162 (or more) games, you don't need too many games to decide 'who belongs'.

If they shortened the season to 148 games, I could down for an either longer division series or preferably, a wild card series that's just a best-of-three between the two wild cards (and let the 3 division champs in as normal)

It's been a lot of fun having baseball on every night, though.

Red Sox vs Indians is such a worst case scenario. Ugh.

Save for '04, it'd be compelling. But maybe the Indians need to get past the demons of the Red Sox before trying to exorcise their own streak.