This Week in Baseball 9/15 - 9/21

[Bored 0]

The thread subtitle is a quote from Mickey Mantle's favorite Yankee Stadium memory which I felt was appropriate to revisit as we will say farewell to that shithole next Sunday night.

 

ESPN/FOX/TBS Games to Poison Our Youth

 

WEDNESDAY

Brewers at Cubs, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

 

FRIDAY

Mets at Braves Twins at Rays, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN

 

SATURDAY

Twins at Rays, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX

Brewers at Reds, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX

Cardinals at Cubs, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX

 

SUNDAY

Red Sox at Blue Jays, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, TBS

Orioles at Yankees, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

[bob_barron 0]

Yankee Stadium's a pretty nice place to see a game.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Yankee Stadium's a pretty nice place to see a game.

Certainly not from the bleachers. I was not impressed when I went.

 

Anyone taking odds on what kind of riot Yankee Stadium sees? The souvenir hunters should be out in full force.

 

ESPN2 has the Bricktown Showdown on Tuesday Night at 8pm. IL champion Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees versus PCL champion Sacramento Rivercats.

[bob_barron 0]

The bleachers suck, I've never got why anyone would want to sit there. It's terrible.

 

But as long as you're not in the bleachers, I love going there, and I hate the Yankees. It felt weird going by 161st street and seeing the new stadium.

 

Anyone taking odds on what kind of riot Yankee Stadium sees?

 

There won't be one.

[Guest Brady's Torn ACL]

Magic numbers:

LA Angels: clinched

Chicago Cubs: 7

Boston: 8

LA Dodgers: 10

Milwaukee or Philadelphia: 12

NY Mets: 13

Chi. White Sox: 13

Tampa Bay: 14

[RepoMan 0]

Considering Yankee Stadium security will kick your ass out if you try to go to the pisser during God Bless America, I'm sure they'll have the place in full lock down mode.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I can't believe all the whining going on about playing these two games in Milwaukee. Richard Justice is convinced that this of all things is what's going to keep Houston out of the playoffs.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The way I figure, here's how home field advantage helps your team.

 

1. Ease of travel

2. Familiarity with home park

3. Batting last

4. Home fans

 

Numbers one and two don't fall in favor of either team in this case. Both teams had to travel to Milwaukee, and both as Central teams play the same number of games in Milwaukee otherwise. Number three is more of a mental factor than anything. That leaves the fans. If a player can't win because he's being booed instead of cheered, he would not have possibly made it to the Majors in the first place.

 

The Astros lost a significant advantage not playing in Houston, but that would have happened no matter where they played.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Have we ever figured out why "neutral" games end up in Milwaukee? Is this a Bud Selig thing or is there a legitimate reason?

[At Home 0]

They like the drive over.

[Fökai 0]

I can't believe all the whining going on about playing these two games in Milwaukee. Richard Justice is convinced that this of all things is what's going to keep Houston out of the playoffs.

 

He said that the Astros wore the road uniforms last night to "make a statement" to MLB, and that these two games should not count as a home game.

 

I now want the Astros to fail in every way possible.

[Mike wanna be 0]

ESPN reports that Ned Yost just got canned, but that makes absolutely no sense at all.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Many Brewers fans are elated right now.

[mike546 0]

Ted Lilly has a no hitter through 6. Astros haven't had a hit in 15 straight innings.

[KingPK 0]

Nice job Jinxy Von Jinxerton.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I cannot believe that a team would fire their manager with two weeks left in the season, especially when said team is leading the Wild Card. This is either absolutely brilliant, or tremendously stupid. I'm going to lean toward the latter, but we'll see.

 

And Dale Sveum is taking over? I remember Sveum's work at third being something of a running joke during his tenure in Boston.

[Cartman 0]

It's a tossup on who was a worse 3B coach between Sveum and Wendell kim.

[migoli 0]

I read in the paper up here in Minneapolis, the Twins offered to host these games instead of Milwaukee. I wish that had happened because how does that work with tickets? Are they just first come first serve for anyone that goes?

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3588603

 

Twins named their new stadium today, we sure do love Target up here I guess. Target Center,Target Field. Just need to get the Vikings Target Stadium now.

 

[Guest Brady's Torn ACL]

Target Field? Bullshit. I was pulling for Land O' Lakes Field.

 

The Yost thing doesn't make a great deal of sense, but it was a foregone conclusion that he'd be fired if they missed, and maybe if they didn't win their NLDS as well. I suppose if they were to fire Yost midseason, it should have been done in the middle of the season with Gibbons and Manuel and that other guy that got fired, not with under 10% of the schedule remaining. This just connotes a tumultuous sort of organizational instability that I know the team's front office does not have. It's a small improvement, though, since it gets rid of Dale Sweum's third base coaching and Ned's bullpen capers. It's a weird move, to be sure.

 

Have we ever figured out why "neutral" games end up in Milwaukee? Is this a Bud Selig thing or is there a legitimate reason?

1) There's a roof

2) Even though it's not ideal for the Astros to have 40,000 Cubs fans over two games, playing the games close to Chicago will net more spectators than two games at, say, Tropicana, where they can't even get 25 and 15 for Rays games, let alone neutral-siters.

3) Selig probably doesn't mind making sure a few more dollars are spent in his hometown.

4) It's only the last two neutral site series that have been in Milwaukee. The last weather-forced neutral site game was Expos "at" Marlins on the south side in '04.

 

If anyone associated with the Astros, from ownership to management to broadcasting to players to fans, claims this two-game series as the team's ultimate undoing, perhaps they should look to the months of June, July, and August, when the Astros stunk up the joint and necessitated another year of cramming. They're each one game, guys. At least we won't have to hear about how Chicago ruined The Healing Power Of Sports like we did when the Bears beat the Saints, because nobody likes the Astros anyway.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

The Yost firing seems like a last-ditch effort to win the wild card. Melvin put a lot at stake to set the Brewers to win now and I don't think it was going to happen with Yost. It might be too little, too late, but we'll see how much of this was Yost's fault. They're still tied for the WC and have two weeks with which to prove their downfall was largely his fault.

 

And the only way I'm listening to any of this Houston nonsense is if they wind up missing the WC by two or fewer games. That they wore their road uniforms to make a statement shows they were more wrapped up in that than actually going out there and winning the game. This whole thing is something I would've expected from a Dusty Baker-led squad.

[Guest Brady's Torn ACL]

Yeah, the Astros are a bunch of vaginas, pretty much, yeah. Fat Elvis and Loretta have been particularly vocal about this injustice.

 

I wonder if Brewers owner Rivers Cuomo circa 2001 overrode Melvin on this decision, or made it clear that Melvin's job was on the line pending this team's fortunes.

[BruiserKC 0]

First for Milwaukee...the Brewers IMHO are the Arizona Cardinals of MLB. No matter how much good stuff happens and no matter how often they get in a position to make good, they ALWAYS find a way to piss it all away. Yost all of a sudden gets the blame for everything in Milwaukee from the losing streak to supposedly overusing Sabathia to even McCain's post-convention surge in the polls. (I'm sure someone in Milwaukee blames Yost for that last one ). And of course the flame-out starts tomorrow night when the Brewers come to Wrigley. By this time next year the Brewers will once again be the laughingstock of the NL Central and all of baseball.

 

As for the Cubs-Astros series, I'm a Cardinals fan and really have no dog in that fight since the Cards are pretty much toast with no one decent left to play that's anywhere near healthy. MLB messed it up there. From what was being said, it was pretty much known for about a week that most likely Ike was hitting near Houston if not directly pounding it. There was more than enough time to make arrangements. They could have used Arlington (even though the Rangers were home, they could have done day-night double dips) or St. Louis (Cardinals in Pittsburgh last weekend). Yes, it would have been a bummer for Houston fan but they want to make sure the regular season gets completed without having to play any more extra days than they absolutely have to.

 

Now you look at a possibility of Cubs vs. Astros on Sept. 29 when it most likely may only mean something to Houston, provided the Cubs win the Central. Whatever the result there, then you have Houston most likely having to play Philadelphia or Milwaukee for the wildcard title on Sept. 30. This is going to throw the postseason schedule into a tizzy, as if it's already hard enough to keep track of.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

SABR put their Baseball Research Journals online from 1972-84, as well as '86 and '89. Most of this stuff is actually not stat related. 1981 for example has an article detailing the construction of Wrigley Field.

 

Check it out.

www.brj.sabrwebs.com

[Guest Brady's Torn ACL]

First for Milwaukee...the Brewers IMHO are the Arizona Cardinals of MLB. No matter how much good stuff happens and no matter how often they get in a position to make good, they ALWAYS find a way to piss it all away. Yost all of a sudden gets the blame for everything in Milwaukee from the losing streak to supposedly overusing Sabathia to even McCain's post-convention surge in the polls. (I'm sure someone in Milwaukee blames Yost for that last one ). And of course the flame-out starts tomorrow night when the Brewers come to Wrigley. By this time next year the Brewers will once again be the laughingstock of the NL Central and all of baseball.

I'm going to defend the Brewers a little bit here: the Arizona Cardinals are just an unprecedented complete disaster from top to bottom, and any comparison to them is an unfair one. I respect what the organization has done in the last four years to rekindle baseball interest in southeast Wisconsin and undo the damage of the directionless Wendy Selig years. Even though things have gotten pretty dicey in the 2008 postseason-ensurement department, this is still an organization on the upswing, hardly the laughingstock of baseball when you have the Washington Nationals failing at everything there is at which to fail, or the Pittsburgh Pirates closing in on records for sustained futility and having nothing to show for the farm system but Nate McLouth.

 

MLB messed it up there. From what was being said, it was pretty much known for about a week that most likely Ike was hitting near Houston if not directly pounding it. There was more than enough time to make arrangements.

Correct on sentences Nos. 2 and 3, but this bungling can't be blamed on the commissioner's office. The Astros stalled arrangements to the last minute, under the impression that even with flooding, power outages, and a non-functioning airport, sure, there was enough infrastructure and discretionary time/income for 120,000 people to go git on over to them thur Stros games. It was selfish and imbecilic to not concede that hosting baseball in Houston would not be viable over the weekend until it was too late. This is all Drayton McLane's fault.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Dontrelle Willis is actually starting for the Tigers tonight. I'm surprised that really flew completely under the radar.

[jimmy no nose 0]

Scott Kazmir 7 ER through 3+ and responsible for 2 more runners in scoring position with nobody out. Probably not the best day to have your worst outing of the year.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Scott Kazmir 7 ER through 3+ and responsible for 2 more runners in scoring position with nobody out. Probably not the best day to have your worst outing of the year.

The best day to have your worst outing is always when it rains in the third. Kazmir needs to get out of Tropicana Field.

[NYU 0]

The Mets are DYING to give away first place in the NL East. Six innings and they only have ONE HIT off John Lannan?! What is it about him that has led to six strikeouts so far?!

[devo 0]

And here I thought they'd wait until the last week of the season before rolling over and dying. Well, live and learn.

[MFer 0]

Dontrelle Willis is actually starting for the Tigers tonight. I'm surprised that really flew completely under the radar.

Maybe if he had come back sooner, or the Tigers were still in the race...doing pretty well so far though.