f13.net

We're down to the MLB Championship Series. Make your picks for the ALCS and NLCS below.

ALCS
Red Sox vs Yankees

NLCS
Astros vs Cardinals

Results from Round 1

SirBruce - 4-0
Shannow - 4-0
HaemishM - 3-1
Ardent - 3-1
Zaphkiel - 3-1
Rasix - 3-1
WayAbvPar - 3-1
DarkDryad - 3-1
Kenrick - 3-1
Shaftoe - 3-1
Paelos - 2-2
Nebu - 2-2

I'm going to keep records of picks all the way through the World Series. Winner will be the person with the most wins. I'll try to work up something for the winner, like a funny grief title.

EDIT: PLEASE TELL ME IN HOW MANY GAMES YOUR PICK WILL WIN. Since as mentioned, it will probably get dicey. Closeness to games picked will be the "tie-breaker." Or I'll just give you all grief titles.

Yankees in 6
Cards in 6

I'm assuming you're counting games at this point because lets face it, everyone is picking the Cards.

Sox in 7 (I cannot and will not ever pick a Yankee team to win).  Cards in 7.

Sox in 6
Cards in 7

Boston in 7
Cardinals in 5

Sox in 5 (Schilling will close it out Game 5 at Fenway)

Cards in 6 (Should be 5 but Im chicken)

I sense a lot of ties...we need a 3rd qualifier for the tie break...howabout which game the obligatory Sox Yankees brawl will break out?

Im saying game 2 , Pedro plunks Sheffield then sicks Nelson on him......:)

   Red Sox in 6
   Cards in 6

I'm out of this one...

Sox in 6

Cards in 5  (changed from 6 in my first picks)

Since I've been wrong on almost everything else: I also predict the television ratings for the NY - BOS series will be higher than for the World Series.

Im almost certain they were last year. Also Im pretty sure that Fox executives use faces of Grady Little and Steve Bartman as dartboards.

At least if the Sox or Cubs got into the Series, the ratings would be higher, because a chance to break a curse of that magnitude, with as much publicity as the two curses have gotten over the last two years, would be sure to draw a lot of non-fans.

But a Yankees/Cards or Yankees/Astros? Not so much.

The Yankees, the single greatest organization in the history of professional sports, will win in 7 games.

Cardinals in 5.

Some would argue it's.... Da Bears.  

Ditka beats the World Series winner all by himself after winning the Indy 500 driving the Bear's team bus.

Wow you really hate the game of baseball, don't you?



Boston over NY in 5
Houston over Cards in 7

Houston over Boston in 7 with Roger Clemens getting the win in Fenway in the finale.

How many championships have the Yankees won?

And how many have the Bears won?

Kthx.



I love that. There is no funnier sight on this earth than watching Boston fans get their hearts ripped out of their chests year after year after year.

Somewhere amongst those 26 Ardent lost his ability to recognise humour.:)

I read somewhere that Mike Ditka was gay. Or was it John Madden?

Did you get hit on the head recently? How many fingers am I holding up? Who's the president?  If a caveman and a pirate were to fight, who would win?

A few.  They've bought more.

My pick:
Sawks in 5
Cards in 6

Thank you for finding the words that I could not.

Pirate > Caveman
Ninja > Pirate
Caveman > Ninja

Mmmm ... is there an MMORPG concept there?



Zing! Pow! Yep, all the teams they have beat were all playing for minimum wage.

Regardless of where your loyalties lie, though, you can't deny that Yankees/Sawks is what everybody wants to see.

I hate calling number of games.

Yankees in 7
Cardinals in 6

Bruce

The BoSox showed moxy by not quietly going into the night after the 8-0 run, but once Rivera makes an appearance...well you know how it goes.

My coworker asked me today, "Do the Yankees even have a farm program, or do they just wait until talent develops and start signing checks?"

Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada are the only players on the Yankees who they developed.

That being said the only player on the Red Sox who they drafted is Trot Nixon. (Nomar was too...buh bye)

On last nights game, I could take a game 1 loss but the fact that Schilling is actually injured is just frustrating to say the least.

I now expect Bronson Arroyo to shutdown the Yankees in Game 7 for the win.:)

So it is the Sox love or the Yankee hate that's causing yall to become baseball idealists with your Boston picks? Because really, it's the Yankees v. Sox, we know how this goes.

Pure Yankees hatred. I really, REALLY want to see Steinbrenner's $190 million payroll go into the shitter. I'm hoping that causes a conniption fit that either kills/cripples the man, or makes him so angry he dismantles the team and rebuilds the right way.

Goddamn I hate the fucking Yankees.


From The Sports Guy's running diary (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/041013)-



Boston has always been my 2nd fav team, but even if they weren't, I couldn't help but love them from reading Bill Simmons.

I hate the Yankees, but since my team lost, I'd like to everyone else care very little about the World Series. So I'm gunning for the Cards-Yankees final with the Cards winning. Because I'm a bastard like that.

The Red Sox complaints are funny, because they are the second highest paid team in baseball...cry me a river!

In the first round, all the clear favorites won. The Yankees have just absolutely killed the Twins for years, the Red Sox were just plain better than the Angels in every way, Atlanta won the east out of sheer opponent incompetence, and the Cardinals were the best team in baseball.

This round is a lot harder to call. Houston was great down the stretch. But, their rotation is all messed up, so I'll say:

Cards in 6.
I'll also say Yankees in 6. (I have the benefit of the first game though)

Bernie Williams and Mariano Rivera are from the Yankees farm system too. As is Andy Pettite though he's obviously not with the Yankees anymore. The Yankees used to have one of the best farm systems in the majors but have depleted the talent pool in recent years.

Soriano was as well. The Yankees do more trading than growing now, but so does everyone.

Edit: Note to Schilling: win the game, then talk the trash. Tonight Pedro pitched well though, blame this one on Red Sox bats and Yankee arms.

Jon Lieber. Who'd have thought he'd come back after that nasty surgery and win 2 games in the postseason, and not just win, but win convincingly. I have seriously underestimated the Yankees' starting pitching this year. Lieber's performance kind of makes me wish the Cubs hadn't given up on him, except that when healthy, the Cubs' rotation doesn't really need him.

Losing Schilling pretty much does in the Sox, IMO, unless their offense returns in a big way.

Nice that the Yankees have enough cash to sign a player that they know is going to sit out AN ENTIRE year before they get to use him.

But jeezus does he have to pitch so well...cry.

I should have picked the Yankees in four, holy crap are they stoppable in this round?

Depends on which Kevin Brown shows up.

Correct , my bad I was looking at a list of players they have drafted. Williams and Rivera were signed as undrafted free agents.

The Yankees will allow the Sawks to win a few games.

After all, it's no fun to rip the hearts out of Red Sox fans so quickly and painlessly. The Yankees need to allow Boston a semblance of hope, toss their fans a bone by letting Boston take game 3 or game 5 ... so that when they do inevitably lose, the suffering is just that much more enjoyable.

One thing's for sure, Phil Garner is getting schooled in these playoffs.  He has yet to make a wise managerial decision.  And his bad ones have been disastrous.  The Astros probably should have swept the Braves, and they should be at least 1-1 in this series with St. Louis.

:sigh:

Lesson No. 1: Dont pitch Dan Micelli.

Seriously though Garner has brought this team back from the dead and delivered the first playoff series win in franchise history. Not bad really.

I'm glad Houston got the priviledge of facing Murderer's Row instead of the Braves. It warms my vindictive heart.

Btw, has the ball Pujols hit landed yet?

Well.... maybe.  I am also starting to wonder if maybe it wasn't so much bringing in Garner that turned the season around, as it was bringing in Gaetti and Hickey.

Whatever the case, if we can hold onto Roger and get Beltran signed, AND can find a few good relievers to Bridge to Lidge, we'll be a contender again.  Would help if Pettitte and Miller weren't hurt.

p.s.-I can say "we" because I was born across the street from the Dome and I've been an Astros fan since before I could walk.  :)

Yanks in 5
Cards in 6

The Cardinals lineup is almost flawless.  I mean, even their pitchers can hit .200.  Matheny is the weakest link, but he's a AAA-catcher who seems to actually make the Cards mediocre pitching staff better than it is, so there's no way they'll get rid of him.

Bruce

What I find interesting is that, with as vaunted as the Cards line-up is, the Astros' line-up stacks up fairly well against it.  We've just ran into some shit luck and shit managing so far this series.

This weekend should be really, really interesting in Houston.  With Clemens, Oswalt, and Backe pitching, there is actually a decent chance this series could go back to St. Louis with the Astros up 3-2.   I'm going down to Houston on Sunday to see the game, can't wait!

You have a weird idea of "decent chance".  3 in a row?  Please.  At this point there's a good chance it'll go 4-1, but 4-2 is looking more likely.

Bruce

We'll see, Woodcock.

Wow, the Red Sox really suck.  :(

Yeah, I knew the Sox would stumble, but I had no idea it would be this bad...

Bruce

(http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20041017/capt.hta13610172350.nlcs_cardinals_astros_hta136.jpg)

Hey, if Houston wins the third tonight, then you can post a picture.

I have to say I like this one better though:
(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041017/i/r1165292176.jpg)

Bruce

Not having seen that pitcher before this series, I have to say he looks like he walked out of a Chinese opium den.

And I thought Otis Nixon was ugly.

Tavarez is not a Cardinal, he is a Cub and an asshole.  I can post any picture of that tool any time I want, win or lose.

NOT DEAD YET!

Looks like you were wrong. The Astros swept the Cards at home and are going back to St. Louis up 3-2 in the series. The Astros have been playing extremely well at home and it continued through this series. It also blows your prediction of Cards in 6 out of the water.

I can't really root for either team in this series because I am a Cubs fan, but if I had to pick one I would rather have the Astros win it.

YOU CAN'T SCRIPT OCTOBER!

I'm not gonna gloat... Every game of this series has been a helluva battle.

But the Cards have to beat Clemens and Oswalt back to back to win, and even though they'll be working on 3 days rest, I can't see it happening.  I see Clemens getting the job done on Wednesday and fulfulling a promise he made to us back in January.

I still don't think it was a "decent chance" to win 3 in a row.  They just managed to do it. :)

Bruce

Another attempt at 3 in a row tonight. Oh boy.

Word on the street now is, Garner's gonna throw Munro tomorrow and shoot for the win that way, but if game 7 is forced, Roger will be rested and ready to go.

When Tim Wakefield is on, I love watching him more than any other player.

He may start Game 7 if the Sox win 6 and have to use Arroyo.

My prophecy is coming true!

see me ... feel me ... touch me ... heal me

Yes Yankees in 6 looking quite good.

Cards in 6, well we can do the math on that one. I'm just hoping its not a Houston v. Yankees series. Worst series ever.

No, no.  Given this election cycle, the worst series would be Red Sox vs Astros.  I'm just not prepared for that level of useless allegory.

Tim McCarver discussing presidential politics. Oh the horror!

Go Cards.

For my money, Cards vs. Yanks would be the worst series. I hate both teams with a fiery passion that starts somewhere near my colon and spreads over my entire body. In fact if the World Series was Cards vs. Yanks I can pretty much guarantee I wouldn't watch it and I wouldn't care who won.

Yes but at least in the Cards v. Yanks its the baseball "purist" series in the sense that both teams finished highest in the regular season standings. Two number ones facing each other in baseball's greatest showdown would lead to some fiery games.

Otherwise its just like last year with the Yankees and some wild card team, and that only matters if you hate the Yanks enough to care.

That'd be what I would do. Clemens on 4 days rest is better than trying to shoehorn Clemens and Oswalt into two games. Plus, if Munro gets lucky and wins, you have Clemens and Oswalt super-rested for the World Series.

If the Red Sox win the ALCS in 7, I will lose all control of my bowels.

26 teams in MLB history have gone down 3-0 in a series.

Only 2 have made it to game 6 (Sox are now the 3rd) both of those teams (98 Braves NLCS, 99 Mets) lost in game 6.

Only two teams in U.S. professional sports history have won a series after being down 3-0, 75 Islanders and the 42? Maple Leafs.

Maybe Curt should wear some Bauer's tonight.

I think it's more feasable to come back in hockey than to come back in baseball. Hockey just seems to have a more momentum based flow to it than a game like baseball. Add in the fact that you can always keep the same players on the ice and not have to worry about the pitching rotations that baseball does, I'd say that alone would make it somewhat easier.

How much easier is debatable.

Are you fucking kidding me you retard?  Who do you work for, Fox?

The Astros have been waiting longer than any other team in baseball to be able to host a World Series.

Astros fans, through years of heartbreaks and shortcomings, have loyally stuck by their team and are some of the classiest, devoted, and most knowledgable fans around.

Best friends Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell have played together on this team for the past 13 years, longer than any other two active players have been teammates.  The team was built around them, and in the late 90's they started winning division championships only to come up short in the first round year after year.

The Astros were "supposed" to be going to the World Series this year, but half of their pitching rotation (Andy Pettitte and Wade Miller) got hurt early in the season and were hardly able to contribute before their seasons were ended by surgery.  The Astros were 4 games under .500 and behind  6 teams in August for the wild card lead, and they were thisclose to trading away recent acquisition Carlos Beltran to try and get some pitching to salvage what had become an extremely disappointing season.  Then they went on to win 36 or their last 46 games and clinched the Wild Card on the very last day of the season.

So the 2004 Astros, the classic Cinderella story in these playoffs, are now 1 win away from reaching a level they have never reached before.  And believe it or not, there's a feeling down here in Astro-land that it's going to happen.  There's a sense, a true belief, that this is the Astros' year.  There has been that feeling since, oh, about the time this (http://raykerby.com/ad/media/2004Sep23_SeasonSaver.mpeg)happened in late September.  Just one miracle in a storyline chop full of them.  But you probably missed that one too.

"Worst World Series ever?"  A team led by two Hall of Fame bound veterans, who before this year had never made it past the first round of the playoffs, a team that was considered dead in the water just 2 months ago but miraculously fought their way back to the surface just in time... playing against the Evil Empire that you can expect to see in the Series just about every year?  That is a bad World Series?  If that's the case then I guess I'm watching this sport the completely wrong way. I forgot it was all about ratings and merchandise and Josh Lewin getting a huge erection every time he utters the word "Pujols."  I guess I should really re-evaluate what I consider to be good baseball.

Oh, and go to hell you mindless Braves troll.

Cards Yanks? Bah.

Im of the belief that every franchise deserves to win at least one championship (except the Marlins and the Devil Rays, may they rot in hell forever)..espcially ones who have suffered for years (eg Anahiem, the Pats, etc) ..

That being said if the Red Sox reach the WS screw the Astros...

Unbelievable, 5 years ago I couldnt have even told you what SPORT the red sox played let alone what city...right now Im suffering ulcers watching game 6..fun times.

Amazing how fast you get hooked, huh?

In 20 years think what a wreck you'll be!

I can name two teams who have been waiting longer to host a World Series and one of them are in the playoffs this year. However, you can say that the Astros have been waiting the longest of any team that has NEVER went to the World Series. I think that makes sense, I just woke up.

Wrong, and wrong.  Do some research.  Seriously.  Wow.  Or maybe read posts more carefully.

Are you referring to the Red Sox?  They've been in their share of World Series, most recently '86 if I recall correctly.  Hmm were you referring to the Twins?  No, hmm wait they won one in '87 I think, against the Cardinals...  Talking about the Angels?  No I think they won one 2 years ago.  Dodgers?  Try '88.  Yankees?  Braves?  Who the hell are you talking about, pray tell?

Tonight's game was a healthy reminder why the rest of the baseball world hates the Yankees.  And their fans even more.

Fuck. I. Yeah.

Fuck it. Go Astros.

Nothing like the beauty of fall baseball. The grass, the chalk, the riot police along the rails........

... the sweet aroma of pepper spray in the air....

Kenrick, you like your team, and I respect that.

Other than that, realize that your team is a fucking sideshow right now. Should the Sox win, nobody will give a damn about them and the bandwagoners will jump off. Your city may care, the rest of the country will give you the finger in the hopes the Sox break the curse.

If the Yankees win, you'll be just like Florida, and the ratings and viewership will be just as low. Outside of your markets, watching the Yankees get beat will be only mildly interesting to the rest of the country. You can look at the series last year as an example. Nobody likes seeing the Yankees in it and they tend to tune out regardless of who else is playing since Boston will have lost.

The best series for good baseball titans would have been Yankees v. Cards. The best series for baseball fans would be Cards v. Sox. That's just the way it goes. Watching the most dominant team of the regular season against the media darlings baseball would be awesome for everyone.

Plus, chicks dig the long ball.

Bruce

Houston facing the Sox would be the best, with Clemens winning game 7. That would be too amusing.

I admit I was wrong about the Red Sox, I didn't think they had been in a World Series since the Curse. I guess they just can't WIN the World Series cause of the curse.

However, perhaps you should think about the team I root for and the city I live in. The Cubs haven't been in a World Series since 1945 and the White Sox hasn't been in a World Series since 1959. The Astros weren't founded until 1962, so obviously the Cubs and the Sox have been waiting longer than the Astros.

So I guess I was half wrong, but that makes me half right too.

Yeah ... and Boston fans are nothing but smiles and lollipops and bunny rabbits.

That bunch of shit throwing by the Yanks fans last night was just despicable. I don't blame them for bringing out the riot police. I hope the Sox beat them just to see if Steinbrenner has a heart attack and the Bronx fans burn down Yankee stadium.

No one likes a bully, and for years, the Yanks team has been seen as a bully. "HO HUM, the Yanks are in the Series again." But at least the fans in New York haven't stopped going to the games, unlike in Atlanta. Cubs could pull of the same string of successes the Braves have and 13 years later would STILL be selling out playoff games.

Can A-Rod be more of a mincing little queer? He even slaps like a 5 year old girl shooing away a bee.

I am utterly amazed that the umpiring crew got together and corrected 2 controversial miscalls last night (I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that they went against the Yankees too). Good lord...can this series get any more surreal?

If game 7 is close, I am not sure I will survive it. I can't believe how invested I am in this thing at this point. I blame Bill Simmons.

I know its hard to understand for those who aren't Braves fans, but we've become completely fatalistic. We supported the team through the 80s when they were AWFUL, and I mean god awful. Everytime someone left the Braves and went somewhere else they had great success, that's how bad it was. However, the situation we're in now is a bit of a quandry. We don't know why we keep losing in the playoffs every year, but we always do, and we do it early. It's not like we're sneaking in and getting edged out either. We win convincingly and just utterly blow it in the first or second round.

I'm sorry if you can't really grasp that but it takes it's toll on the fans. You start to see the end of the regular season as just that, THE END. We just know they aren't going anywhere in the post-season because its happened time and time again. Couple that with the fact that the games are at worktime hours on work days, and the turnout sucks. I'm not saying its right, I think it sucks we don't sell out the stadium too. However, you have to see where its coming from. Watching a team go great, great, great, SUCKS, every season leads to apathy.

If Carlos goes to the Yankees after the way Houston has embraced him, and after the way the Yankee fans and players have shown their true colors of late, I am going to cry.

Same here, only replace "5" with "2".

Something to do with a wife that likes baseball, I guess.

Simmons cracks me up. If the Sox win the series Im emailing him to officially rename the Patrick Ewing effect the Nomar effect. (fuck off Im not spelling garciaparra)

Going to agree with Paelos on Atlanta fans here. The time has nothing to do with it, its all about the results of the team in the playoffs.
It'd be different if the team had never won the World Series in all those playoff trips and the team had a long relationship with the town but neither of those are true for the Bravers. They've only been in Atlanta for what, 30 years? And they won a World Series in 95.
I dont think there would be many towns that could maintain that level of interest with that record of mediocrity, Chicago and Boston would be examples...and who could say that if they did win a WS one of those years that interest might wane.

Hell, if we're playing the Sox, I'll even be halfway rooting for them.  I like the Sox, and I'll be happy enough that the Astros' even made the Series.  In other words, if the Astros lost a World Series to the Sox, and their curse was finally reversed, I wouldn't be too torn up.



Ugh... dude... Please don't compare the Houston Astros fanbase to that of the pathetic, 11 year old franchise, pastel colored uniforms, unable-to-fill-seats-even-though-2-championships-in-7-years Florida fucking Marlins.  Sure the Astros aren't the Cardinals or the Yankees or the Red Sox, but they have been around for 42 years and have as much history as a team can have without a ring.  That was just a really ignorant and really offensive statement, to compare the Astros to the Marlins.  Here's 16,000 reasons and counting (http://www.petitiononline.com/CBeltran/) why you are wrong.

Okay, I'm ready for your next B.S. statement.

p.s.--Madman yeah the Cubs have been suffering "longer," gotcha.  I was just confused by your "in the playoffs" comment.  =P

I'm not saying you play like the Marlins or that you have a fanbase like the Marlins. You are ignoring the point I'm making about your national appeal. Nobody is debating that Houston cares a hell of a lot more about their baseball team than Florida. The only reason for the comparison is the to the rest of the country, you don't have a big draw. Neither does Florida. The Yankees have a big draw nationally because they are the Yankees. The Braves have a big draw nationally, especially in markets without teams. Despite Houston's love of the game, you won't draw a big market into the series outside of your own realm. That was the point.

Thus my whole statment about what would be the better series. I'm sorry you don't realize it but if the series plays out like that is will be known as the series between the Yankees and those other guys. In other words, the average fan is twirling his finger in the air.

Granted, between you and the Sox, it will be an awesome series, but IMO not the best one possible. We differ there. However, you can see that the greatness of the series completely doesn't hinge on your team at all.

I do realize that... but I think Yankees/Astros is better than Yankees/Marlins.  Astros/Red Sox would be AWESOME!  The team that should have won the Series in '86 vs. the team that should have BEEN in the Series in '86 (fuck the  '86 Mets!)

No I totally understand the "draw" of the Yankees.  I'm just glad that have more haters than fans.   It's funny, I was telling my friend back in Scotland the other day about how the Astros were doing really well in the playoffs (at which point I had to remind her who they were by bringing up my "star cap.")  I told her they could be playing in the World Championship against the Yankees, to which of course she said "Oh! I've heard of the Yankees."

:roll:

Thought I'd just toss this link out there as an addendum to my point about national appeal of certain teams.

TV Ratings of the World Series for the past 35 years (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wstv.shtml)

It's not hard to notice that the best rated series were the ones where there was a struggling underdog trying to win it's first title in a long long time, sometimes for the first time ever. The strike shows the sharp decline in ratings, but the last five years have collectively been the worst. I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Yankees, considering they were present for the majority of those.

In other words, the Yankees killed baseball.

(http://msn.foxsports.com/id/3094494_7_2.jpg)


Curt Schilling is a fucking pimp. He is also a long time EQ player, but I can't really hold that against him =)

Just looking at that makes me want to limp.

You just said "limp" almost lyrically with "pimp."  Intentional???

Curt Schilling has more cojones than some of us would have with two sets of male genitalia. Man walks out on the mound with a torn fucking tendon in his ankle and pitches more innings than the entire Houston bullpen in the NLCS.

EDIT: Yeah, Sammy... THAT'S what a team leader does when he's hurt, bitch.

Not to mention that the tendon in his ankle had been stitched TO THE SKIN to give extra support. f that.

You just made my testicles shrink up into my body.

I hope you're near a bathroom.

So.....

How bout them Yankees?

Oh Ardeennnnnt....

Damn that was an awesome series. Torre really blew it by pitching Mariano more than one inning two nights in a row.

I don't even watch Baseball much, but that was fucking amazing.

It feels good to be right.  Especially about this.

Okay so I was a little off on the numbers for the AL series, but I'm still right for the NL.

Jeff Suppan does not know pressure like this. Roger Clemens lives for it.  I still believe in Houston.

Never been so happy to be wrong.

Go Sox!

I will now tip my hat and don an Astros hat to wear with my Yankee jersey tomorrow.

Jesus, I don't think I've ever rooted for the NL since I've been self aware.

This has been one of the most dramatic post-seasons in recent years.  (Although Cubs last year was pretty dramatic, too.)  I vastly prefer to the NFL to MLB, but when it comes to the playoffs, baseball makes you hang on every pitch.

I'm pretty shocked at Boston's win.  But the curse is just trying to inflict maximum psychological damage this year... you know they'll lose in the World Series.

Bruce

How good must Johnny Damon be feeling right now?  Geez, talk about going from the doghouse to the penthouse.  I guess it just goes to show one thing...

Caveman > *

Go Sox

Damn you chewbacca!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I guess the baseball gods are paying A-Rod back for that little 1st base stunt.

You mean Ralph?

(http://www.ball-wonk.com/archives/KarateKid.jpg)

Classic.

Thank God the Sox went up big early- I was about the see my dinner again when they brought in Pedro for his mini-shelling. WTF was that about anyway? Did Pedro just want to pitch in the deciding game? Made very little sense, and even less sense when Pedro got ripped by the first 3 batters.

CAP-TAIN CAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAA-AAA-VE-MAA-AAAAANNNN!!!!

Fuck yeah, bowels voided, waiting for the Steinbrenner conniption fit circus to begin.

Jeff Suppan is your Game 7 ace? Good luck with that.

keke Haemish made me giggle. ^_^

Let's compare:

Derek Lowe: 14-12 5.42 ERA .299 OBA
Jeff Suppan: 16-9 4.16 ERA .265 OBA

Looks like the Cards have a better shot than the Sox did.

Bruce

If only the game were played on paper...

Kevin Brown is no Roger Clemens. With the amount of offense they could expect off of Brown, I could have pitched the Sox into the Series. Suppan ain't no ace... Clemens is. And I picked the Cards to win at the beginning of this thread, and midway through, I figured the Sox were lost.

Then a man got on the mound with a tendon stitched to his skin.

That should read "Then THE MAN got on the mound..."

I say this as a lifelong Yankee fan ... FUCK the FUCKING Yankees, they let those mediocre pussies with homeless wino haircuts stomp all over them after scoring 19 mutherfucking runs in a Game 3. What a bunch of pathetic ninnies. They can't even beat some EQ elf pansy who has only one functioning ankle. They so fucking deserved to lose as humiliatingly as they did.

The new title of this thread could not be more appropriate. I'm disgusted.

I could not have been happier to watch the Rapists ... er, I mean, the Lakers ... get swept earlier this year. (Yeah, they won one game, but they should have been swept). I pray that I reach that pinnacle of happiness again to see the Sawks get swept. By a REAL team this time.

You do know that by being the only baseball team in the history of time to blow a 3-0 lead, and especially considering the way you lost, you've gone below medicore into the realm of the greatest joke in sports today?

I mean you have A-Rod being paid enough money to launch a fucking moonbase and the shit head can't hit hit a ball unless it's about to tag him out and he has time to charge his super girlscout power slap.

They didn't "blow it". The Red Sox did. The surprising part isn't that they won, it's the fact they managed to lose the first 3 games when they had the overwhelmingly better team. A bunch of our big name players were shit for most of the series and we still fucked you guys over.  Every single person on the team came out and gave an amazing performance and you didn't have shit. You lost, and you lost in such a way that it's obvious to the entire fucking planet that you deserved to lose. You were the worse team.

Enjoy the post season losers, you're going down in history as having fucked up worse than any other team in the history of the sport no matter who wins the big show.

Sometimes I heart the Boog.

I was somewhat surprised to discover that I agreed with everything Boog said.

The Yankees were the better team this year in the regular season. Fact. The Red Sox were one decent Gordon outing away from losing in 4.

The Red Sox and Yankees were pretty evenly matched this year. Sure, it blew to lose 4 in a row, then again the Sox lost 3 in a row. It happens.

To say that the Yankees are a mediocre team is just stupid. No baseball fan could say that. This Yankees team was not built for a dominating post-season, which is why they were considered the underdogs by a lot of people.

A team that won the World Series in recent memory and was in the WS last year, and the ALCS this year, is hardly a joke.

It's just stupid, don't pollute a baseball thread with your flaming. The Red Sox played better, they deserved to win, and the Yankees did choke. That much is all true. The rest is just stupid ranting.

The fact is, the Red Sox would have been the chokers had they lost this series, they had the better post-season team. That said, they played well and deserved to win. Yay.

(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041022/i/r1509060898.jpg)
(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041022/i/r1318985352.jpg)
(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041022/i/r3629589320.jpg)
(http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20041022/capt.sts13910220418.nlcs_astros_cardinals_sts139.jpg)
(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041022/i/r4188721177.jpg)

Oh well, it would have been nice to watch Clemens help sweep the Red Sox. I guess the Cards in 4 will do.

Shannow is the only person who is 6-0; a few of us are at 5-1.  Only way to beat Shannow is the pick the opposite of whomever he picks for the World Series and guess closer on the number of games.

Bruce

Wow i went 6-0 htf did I do that.

Well I think you can all figure out who Im picking and we'll do it in 6.

GO SOX!

In that case, Cardinals in 7!

And you know, the Cards have beat the Red Sox in the World Series twice before, in 7 games, in 1946 and 1967.

Bruce

Yes well aware. Thats why they say third times a charm.

Funnily enough when people talk about the curse they dont mention 1946. I just got done reading 'The teammates' which is a book about Williams, Johnni Pesky, Bobby Doerr and Dom Dimaggio..
Dimaggio specifically goes into what happened in game 7 of that game...He gets injured..is replaced by a centrefielder who is suspect defensively..St Loius wins the game on a bad play by the CF and a bad throw (iirc) by Pesky as the cutoff man. Frankly its just a wierd set of circumstances and surprising that those who love to mention the curse dont bring it up more.:P

Loved the fact that the first thing Theo Epstein said after the Sox won game 7 was that this was for all the Sox teams in the past..for Pesky williams et al , for 49 and 78 and 03..classy move.

Just made a new sticky thread for World Series picks. This has been fun!

I agree with Boog on that one. $190 million dollars just leaves you no room to collapse, and no excuses to fall back on. YOU CHOKED. HARD. Yankees starting pitching just wasn't good enough when it counted.

Amazingly enough, I've been surprised by this postseason. It's the first I can think of in a number of years where the pitching has not been the main deciding factor. There are at best about 5 "ace" starting pitchers in the entire postseason; Schilling, Clemens, Oswalt, Santana, and by stretching the term very loosely, Mussina or Martinez. Their performances lately though make me think both Mussina and Martinez are past their "ace" days. Offense has carried most of these teams to where they are now.

I forsee a World Series with LOTS of runs.

I think I'm securing dead last in the picks here, which is nice.

But at least I'm getting what I perceive to be the best possible world series matchup, so I'll hang my hat there. Scott Rolen is my hero. (http://www.rolenontheriver.com/)

Yeah those Astros dejection pictures are real appropriate, thanks.

Only put that picture of Julie Tavarez on there because he's a fucking criminal who belongs in a Cubs uniform.

I used to respect you, even though you take a lot of flack here.  No more.

Baseball is not that important, whore. Hate Bruce because he's a deviant furry who has a controlling interest in an awful game that can make him come off as holier than thou. Not because you don't like his angle on the series.

Edit: Yea, I'm a little angry at the moment. Has nothing to do with baseball but more that I can never make it to the bank during the day. I took it out on you. On sunday I'll take it out on all the people I was waiting on to turn in their EQ2 info.

Oi Schild I think thats a bit harsh....






ww2ol is not awful.

Bruce knows I don't hate him despite how much shit I give him. But this thread isn't about him. Anyway, both series were great, particularly for someone like me who has no steak in baseball anymore.

Well, I've proven that I am terrible at predictions.  Thanks to Paelos who saved me from the cellar (the Red Sox helped too!).

I had originally said the Cards in 5, but they had too much trouble with the Astros.  I think Boston could beat Houston, but not the Cards.  I'll have to go with:

Cards in 7.  They win their 3 at home and game seven ripping the heart out of the chest of Boston fans yet again.

Anyone hear Letterman's Top 10 on Boston beating the Yanks?  Good stuff.

twas humour..

haha hehe and all that.:P

I'm here to please. And suck at all things sports guessing related.

Back to the pizzeria for me.

So bruce, 4 games in a row?  I mean, its not impossible.  The red sox did it against the yankees.


Hehehe