Seeing things

Don Zimmer back on the field as Boston's third-base coach?

Oh, hang on a second - Zimmer is on the field as the Red Sox third-base coach, but that's because I'm watching Game 6 of the 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox. I've had moments this season where I've been mad with MLB.com because I couldn't log on to MLB.TV to watch the postseason games, but I have to say that, as a whole, their online service is great. The baseball season my be over, but MLB.com has a whole bunch of games that can be downloaded (for a fee) and watched over and over again on your PC. Game 6 of the '75 Series is a game that I've read so much about but, for obvious reasons, have never seen, so I thought I would begin with that one and then see which other games might tempt me.

It's great to see games like this - I finally get to see Luis Tiant pitch, Carl Yastrzemski field, Pete Rose hit and Johnny Bench catch. Plus, it's just the game and nothing else - no little AOL guy on the replays, no sponsor messages, no annoying trailers for Fox's new autums shows, just baseball. What more could you ask for?

Too Manny problems

The Red Sox dangled a prize catch in front of the Yankees yesterday by placing Manny Ramirez on irrevocable waivers, but, for once, it appears that George Steinbrenner isn't biting. There are probably lots of good reasons why - Buster Olney gives his opinions on some of them.

Can't see the wood for the trees

Alex Belth has a great post about the postseason over at Bronx Banter. His comments about the details of the game are spot-on, and when I read them I couldn't help thinking back to one of my own personal favourite moments of baseball detail:

Game 5 of the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium - the Yankees (with a little help from Scott Brosius and Curt Schilling's favourite special guests, Mystique and Aura) tie the game with two out in the bottom of the ninth (for the second night running). In the bottom of the twelfth, the Yankees have Chuck Knoblauch on second when Alfonso Soriano lines a single to right (this is two years ago, remember, before he became Alfonso 'Swing And A Miss' Soriano...). I've seen the tape a dozen times, so I guess I've had chance to see the detail in question, but the image that sticks in my mind is something that didn't even happen on the field. There is a reverse-angle camera-shot in the replays of Soriano's game-winning hit, and it shows the view of the play from the third-base side of the field. Soriano hits the ball and takes off for first - as he does so, you can see a father and son in the seats behind the Yankees' dugout on the first-base side of the field. The boy - who must be all of five years old - is lifted up onto the roof of the dugout by his father so that he can see the play better. He begins to follow the trajectory of the ball into right field, but his father draws his attention away from Reggie Sanders and his attempt to field the ball and towards home plate, where Knoblauch is going to attempt to score. It's a great image - a father not only sharing a great sporting moment like that with his son, but also taking time out make sure that his son is watching the right thing on the field. If there's a play at the plate (à la Pudge Rodriguez this postseason), the son's eyes are fixed on that, rather than the incoming ball... As it turns out, Sanders makes a one-hop throw which Arizona catcher Rod Barajas fails to catch cleanly, so there is no play at the plate - Knoblauch is safe and the game is over...

It still remains one of the all-time great World Series games, but I will always remember it for that kid and his dad behind the dugout...

[Cue fade and soaring violin music as the credits roll...]

Withdrawal symptoms

I'm clearly not the only one suffering withdrawal symptoms after the baseball season. The San Francisco Chronicle's Brian Murphy - in his regular ESPN column - feels the same way. However, he's given us Five Things We Learned From the 2003 Baseball Season as a kind of consolation prize.

Murphy mentions in passing the excerpt from A. Bartlett Giamatti's The Green Fields Of The Mind, which he says has lost its juice from being reproduced in too many mass e-mails. Though I know of Giamatti and his academic / baseball history, I hadn't come across this excerpt before, so to me it is still "spiritual and perfect". Here's the quotation in full, summing up exactly how it feels right now:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come out, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.
You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.
Today, [October 2nd], a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

It's enough to make you start counting down the days to Spring Training...

A Little bit of a change

After a season in which the Red Sox were one game away from going to their first World Series in 17 years, the club decided not to pick up Grady Little's contract option for the coming season. The initial reaction to the decision is to assume that it's related to Little screwing up in Game 7 of the ALCS, but that's clearly not the case. As GM Theo Epstein rightly points out: "Anyone who thinks we made this decision because of Game 7 or even gave it a significant amount of weight in this decision doesn't know this organization very well. We would be irresponsible businessmen if we were to make a decision based on one play in one inning ... it didn't happen."

What is amusing, though, is that although Boston has decided that Little is not the right manager for their ballclub over the coming seasons, Epstein also had this to say: "If we were to sit down and make a wish list of attributes for the next manager of the Boston Red Sox, Grady Little would embody most of them." That 'most of them' is the killer - he almost has what the Red Sox need, but not quite...

So, the Red Sox will now be looking for someone wiling to manage in the pressure-cooker atmosphere that is Boston. After New York, Boston has to be the toughest place in the country to manage, and it takes a certain mentality to be able to do it. Here's an idea: since Don Zimmer won't be coming back as the Yankees' bench-coach, maybe he could go back to Boston, where he managed from 1976 to 1980. Imagine Zimmer managing Pedro - they could compare notes on choice insults and wrestling holds...

Alex Belth has a good piece on the ongoing Zimmer / Steinbrenner feud - I particularly like the article he links to at the New York Post, where Kevin Kernan says this:

"The Zim/Steinbrenner feud is getting old. Zim is 72, the Boss is 73. This is like watching Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon go at one another in the movie Grumpy Old Men."

Lost for words

Having spent the last few months posting on an almost daily basis on here, it feels a little weird not to have posted anything since before Saturday's classic Game 6. There are several reasons for the silence, but the main one is simply having so much to say and not knowing where to start. It was a helluva season, a helluva postseason and a helluva World Series - so much so that Sunday felt like coming down off cloud nine.

I don't think I was the only one who felt like that - I read lots of baseball blogs and had feedback from people who read this one, and everyone seemed to want the season to go on just that little bit longer (OK, so many Cubs and Red Sox fans couldn't wait to see the back of it, but you know what I mean)... It didn't quite go as far as Game 7, but I think we got a pretty good deal all the same. But, as I said before the postseason even started, it's a bit like Christmas - you look forward to it for months and then it's over before you know it. Even though we've just had possibly the most amazing three weeks of baseball ever, it still feels like that - it just kept getting better and better over that period (and Thomas Boswell lists the ways in which it kept us enthralled, just on case we've already forgotten...), and now we wake up in the morning with no box-scores to check...

At the same time, I AM glad to be getting my regular life back - I can finally stop refusing invitations to dinner or the movies, I can go to bed at 11 and know that I'm going to be able to sleep right through to 6:30, I can start reading again, I can re-discover my CD collection. Baseball will still be there, but it will once again occupy its winter spot - in the background, kept warm by the hot stove. I know I'll be posting stuff on here (though the posts might well be less frequent than during the season) - there will be thoughts on the past season and hopes for the next one, reflections on the game and any other deep and meaningless stuff that might cross my mind between now and Spring Training.

The offseason will also give me time to sit down and watch Game 7 of the ALCS in its entirety, and who knows...? Maybe I'll finally figure out why Grady Little left Pedro in to pitch to those Yankee hitters...

Yankees running scared?

Baseball Musings has a link to a great piece by Dan Le Batard at the Miami Herald. This is a writer I've been missing out on all this time, so thanks to David Pinto for putting that right. Better late than never, I guess...

Old school

Even the most casual observer of this year's postseason games can't fail to have noticed that, beyond the almost constant drama of the games themselves - in fact, almost in counterpoint to it - there is one guy standing out every day off the field: Florida manager Jack McKeon. Thomas Boswell gives us his thoughts on McKeon's 55-year baseball career.

Maybe one of the reasons Jack McKeon has had so much success with this Florida Marlins team is that he puts no pressure on them. When I say pressure, I mean pressure of the George Steinbrenner, it's-either-win-the-World-Series-or-find-a-new-team variety. It's not that McKeon doesn't care - in fact, it's just the opposite - he does care, but what he cares about is players playing the game right and playing it hard. If there's pressure from the fans or from the media, then McKeon acts as a kind of buffer - he takes that pressure away and soaks it up on behalf of his ballclub with his no-bullsh*t, this-is-just-another-game approach. He makes the moves and manages the team, but maybe the single most important thing that McKeon does is simply let his players go out on the field and play their game, and this is why players are willing to accept roles with which they are unfamiliar (Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis are two names which spring to mind).

Tonight in Game 6 we're going to see yet another McKeon Move - he intends to start Josh Beckett on just three days' rest in order to try to deliver the knockout blow the Marlins need. I can see the logic behind his move - the Marlins need only one more win to clinch the Series, so why hold back your #1 pitcher for Game 7 when you can try to clinch it in Game 6? McKeon's options are actually pretty limited - given that Mark Redman has been pretty shaky, the only real options open to McKeon are Beckett or Dontrelle Willis (who has been pitching in relief). Beckett is a 23-year-old with attitude in the same old-school tradition as McKeon, who will probably relish the chance to take the mound in hostile Yankee Stadium and try to prove to everyone that what McKeon has been saying all along - that there's no real difference between three days' rest and four days' rest - is in fact true.

It IS a roll of the dice, a calculated risk, but at the same time, at least McKeon won't be second-guessed on this one. He's played the whole of the postseason as if each game were Game 7 - don't save your best players for a later game - play them now, win this one, and worry about the next one if and when it happens. Were the Marlins to lose tonight, they would have to pitch Carl Pavano tomorrow in Game 7, also on short rest, but at least McKeon will be able to say that they gave it their best shot when they really had the Yankees on the ropes. The Marlins won't get a better chance than tonight to clinch it - even if, on paper, tomorrow's game gives them just as big a chance to clinch it, it's not quite as simple. The Yankees, though they say they're not panicking, are somewhat in disarray - they're one game away from losing the World Series, but a Yankee win tonight would once again shift momentum in their favour. The Marlins may be loose and relaxed, but not even these guys could fail to be fazed by a Game 7 in Yankee Stadium. I'm not saying that they couldn't win under those circumstances - the season has proved that they can win under pretty much any circumstances - but it would be harder to win tomorrow night than tonight. (Of course, you could easily argue that McKeon is making a big mistake going with Beckett tonight, as David Pinto does over at Baseball Musings...).

Whatever your thoughts on McKeon's decision, tonight will see a battle between two Texans - Beckett and Andy Pettitte. Pettitte has been the guy who has come through for the Yankees every time he has had to this postseason, so it promises to be a great matchup. I can't wait. I think I'm probably secretly longing for a Game 7, because this Series - and the postseason as a whole - almost deserves a seventh game, but I think that this Game 6 pitching matchup promises to be something special. Miss it at your peril...

Fantasy baseball

This was part of an e-mail sent to me by a fellow inhabitant of the baseball desert (a French baseball fan living in Germany), which pretty much sums up this wild rollercoaster of a postseason:

OK - now I gotta look like a jerk. [Yankees win the Series] 4-1 or 4-2 I said? Anyhow, I don't care who wins. I like Pudge, Beckett, Cabrera, and young teams. I also like Clemens. So I just hope there's gonna be a game 7, Beckett against Clemens in relief. Scary. Greatest game 7 ever. Game tied, bottom of the 14th, Jeter is being taken out of the game after 5 GIDP. He still hit a walkoff homer in the bottom of the 10th of game 6 to give the Yankees another late heroic win. Jeter is now officially named "Mr October" by Bud Selig and his number is retired, but only for the post-season. Meanwhile he is replaced by Luis Sojo, Soriano by Clay Bellinger, Contreras by David Cone, and Giambi by Scott Brosius. Tino Martinez is warming up in the bullpen. You say they can't be on the Playoff roster? George of the Baseball Jungle just bought this right (and the Expos at the same time). One just can't have enough veteran presence and leadership.

He may have a point - who knows where this Series is going to take us next?

Weavering a magic spell

Three straight nights of getting up in the wee small hours of the morning to watch the World Series are starting to take their toll - I'm tired, I have a blinding headache and my brain seems to have stopped functioning (although the last point may have less to do with the World Series than the fact that it's 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon...). So, in the absence of any original or interesting thoughts on the Marlins' win last night in Game 5, I thought I would point you in the direction of Rob Neyer's thoughts on Game 4, notably the one that must have occurred to everyone watching the game (including yours truly, an English guy brought up and soccer, cricket and darts...): why was Mariano Rivera sat on the bench whilst Jeff Weaver was on the mound serving up the game-winner to Alex Gonzalez?

Going all the way?

The Marlins pulled off yet another win against the Yankees last night, thanks to Brad Penny's great pitching (and timely hitting). Maybe the result would have been different had Yankee starter David Wells not been forced to leave the game after just one inning - the Marlins then scored four runs off reliever Jose Contreras, and survived a ninth-inning rally by New York to win the game 6-4.

Then again, maybe it's got nothing to do with Wells or Contreras or Penny or anybody - maybe Florida's success is simply down to the Marlins' mojo...

Anal retentive? Me?

Tim, a good friend of mine (who I am trying to turn slowly but surely into a baseball fan and who, incidentally, is the reason the Baseball Desert was born) is often amused (or is it bemused?) by baseball fans' obsession with statistics. I try to tell him that they are part of the game's charm, and that the inherent contrast between the beauty and grace of the game on the field and the cold, hard accountability of the stats in the boxscore are part of what makes baseball so interesting, but I don't think he's buying my arguments. He still thinks that ERA is a group put together by a French soundscape specialist (whatever one of those might be...).

So, in order to try to show him the error of his ways, I thought I would link to one of Jayson Stark's great Useless Information pages, this one inspired by Roger Clemens' last start. I know - I said (twice!!) that I was done with Clemens, but this page was just too good not to post, containing, as it does, gems such as this:

When Cabrera homered off Clemens in the first inning, they combined for one of our favorite World Series records ever -- biggest age differential between a player who hit a home run and the pitcher who gave it up. Clemens is 20 years and 257 days older than Cabrera -- blowing away the previous record, according to Elias. The old record was 16 years, 236 days between Mickey Mantle and Preacher Roe (1953 World Series).

In any case, I figured that it was OK to mention Clemens' Last Start™ again, since Stark suggests that it might not actually be his last one...

Anyway, enjoy the stats and watch this space for more on the Rocket's (non-)retirement.

OK, so I lied...

...but I hadn't seen Clemens' postgame press conference when I said that Thomas Boswell would have the last word on Rocket's last start. Since Clemens has said all along that he's retiring so that he can spend more time with his family (particularly when journalists bring up the fact that he's in as good physical shape now as he was 10 or 15 years ago and that he could easily pitch another season or two), I thought that the last word should go to one of his sons. Clemens answered questions for about fifteen minutes after the game, with his wife and four sons beside him. Once the questions were over, Clemens asked his sons if any of them had anything to add. Nine-year-old Kacy stepped up to the mike and said to the journalists in front of him: "Thank you for watching over my Dad for the last twenty years. We'll take it from here...". It was orchestrated and it was corny, but it was also the best closing line I've heard in a long time...

The last word

Lots of words have been - and no doubt will be continue to be - written about Roger Clemens' last start, but the final word, on here at least, will go to my favourite baseball writer, Thomas Boswell. Simple, elegant, timeless.

Reverse curse of the Fox?

No sooner had the Fox team said that Alex Gonzalez had been struggling at the plate all postseason (with the lowest postseason on-base percentage in history...) than he hit one out of the ballpark off Jeff Weaver to win the game for the Marlins. It was a gutsy performance by Florida, who didn't fold after giving up their two-run lead in the ninth. Braden Looper pitched fantastically to get out of a bases-loaded jam and keep the Marlins in the game.

As for Weaver, his miserable season continues - he hadn't pitched since September 24th, then he comes in in a crucial situation and gives up the game-winning walk-off home run.

So, 2-2 it is. This thing could still go all the way...

Gee thanks

Urbina managed to blow the save, giving up two runs in the top of the ninth, and the game is tied at 3. It's now up to the Florida hitters to try to make sure that Carl Pavano's great eight-inning pitching performance doesn't count for nothing.

Hanging in there

I need Ugueth Urbina to get a quick 1-2-3 inning here to end the game, because a) I'd love to see the Marlins win the game, and b) I'm running on fumes here - I could really use a couple of hours' sleep before heading off to work...

Roger - over and out

If the score stays as it is, Clemens will be charged with the loss (I said "if" - you can never count the Yankees out), but he signed off with a trademark strikeout and then left the field to yet another standing ovation from an opposing team's fans and players. Great moment.

Short and sweet

Thank you Shelby Lynn - after a series of long, drawn-out versions of "God Bless America" during this World Series (please take a bow Ronan Tynan and David Cassidy...), it was nice to see and hear a short, simple, pared-down version.

Back to the ballgame...

Same old same old so-Soriano

Yet another strikeout for Soriano. They used to say that Yogi Berra was a great 'bad-ball hitter' - well, Soriano is a great bad-ball misser. If it's within a couple of feet of the strike zone, this guy's gonna take a whack at it. He makes me feel a lot better about some of the swings I have on Sunday afternoons at our ballpark here in Paris!

Never too late

Clemens has waited until his last major league game to get his first World Series hit - a broken-bat blooper just over the shortstop's head. Whatever happens later in the game, Clemens has made yet another little bit of personal history tonight...

Who's on first?

Well, the umpire is Ed Rapuano, and he stiffed the Marlins on a close-call on a throw that 1B Derek Lee picked out of the dirt. The Marlins managed to escape the inning more or less unscathed - the Yankees had the bases loaded at one point, but only scored one run.

Milking it?

Clemens clearly wants to make the most of his last major league start - he threw 40+ pitches in the first inning! Unfortunately for him, the Marlins put bat on ball on five of those pitches - all with two outs, including a home run by Miguel Cabrera - and the Marlins now have more runs on the board in this half-inning than they've had over the last two games combined. 3-0 Marlins.

Sleep needed

I really need some sleep, because even I'm starting to get all teary at the thought of Clemens' last Major League start tonight in Game 4! Just like with Jeter, whether you like Rocket or you don't (and I happen to be one of those who does), you can't argue with his Hall of Fame stats.

It's a tough one for me - I'd like to see the Marlins win tonight and even the Series up at 2-2, but I'd also love to see Clemens go out with a bang. It's kind of win-win, but not quite...

(The new) Mr. October

Jim Caple states the case for Reggie Jackson moving over and making way for the new Mr. October.

You can like Jeter or loathe him, but you have to admit that Caple has a good point...

Absolutely, positively the last time

I know that this postseason has thrown up its share of surprises, but I think we can probably say with some certainty that tonight will be Roger Clemens' last-ever appearance as a starter (note that I'm still qualifying the statement with "as a starter", just as Joe Torre did in yesterday's press conference - he didn't rule out the possibility of Clemens being used in relief should this thing go to Game 7...).

Clemens will be facing Carl Pavano in Game 4, and it should be another interesting matchup. Clemens will want to finish his major-league career on a high note, but Pavano will be no pushover - he's one of the Marlins' unsung heroes in this postseason, with a 2-0 record and a 1.59 ERA.

Recipe for success

Take a little hot Mussina, some warmed-up bats, a dash of ice-cold Rivera. Mix well. Top off with a little melted Florida bullpen. Cook for 3 hours and 21 minutes...

Beckett was good last night, but not good enough. He held the Yankees to just 3 hits and 2 earned runs over 7 1/3 innings, but the Yankees took advantage of his exit from the game to tag on another 4 runs in the ninth inning and put the game beyond Florida's reach.

The Yankees actually had two fewer hits than the Marlins (6 vs 8), but their hits either came at the right time (i.e. with guys in scoring position), or left the ballpark, or both. Florida once again scattered a bunch of hits all over the place but were beaten by the hit / walk + 3-run homer formula.

Just one observation on the Yankees' otherwise great performance - what the hell is Soriano doing out there?? He went 0-for-4 last night and struck out three times, and in the process set a new major league record for most strikeouts in a single postseason (23). I don't know if Joe Torre has any options or ideas as far as Soriano goes, but if he does, now might be a good time to try them out.

The Sunshine State

The rain is pouring down in South Florida, so we get thrilling interviews with Commissioner Selig, who assures us that this game will be played. I just hope he's a better weatherman than he is a Commissioner of Baseball...

Interesting fact (interesting in a 4am, not-much-else-to-think-about kinda way): this is the first World Series rain delay since 1993, which is pretty surprising, given that the Series is played in mid- to late-October.

Famous last words

Beckett's stuff is so good that he's just walked home the tying run.

Here endeth today's in-depth baseball analysis from the other side of the Atlantic...!

The Right Stuff

Josh Beckett has, as they say, brought his good stuff to the ballpark. Nine Yankees up over three innings, nine Yankees down. Florida leads 1-0 after 2 1/2 innings.

Navel-gazing

I need to stop reading Alex Belth's Bronx Banter - there's too much good stuff on there and too little time to read it. Today's post linked to about a million things to read on the Web, but I only got as far as the second link (to a column in the New York Daily News).

If there's one thing that bothers me more than people complaining about the Series being dull, it's the view that the Yankees somehow deserve better than the Florida Marlins. I love the Yankees' history and lore and tradition, but this sort of navel-gazing really annoys me. Yeah, the Marlins have a hot-tub in right field and the Marlin Mermaids during the seventh-inning stretch, but seriously, who gives a s**t? The Marlins are not in the Series on the merits of their ballpark or their mascot or their eleven-year history - they're there because they played great baseball over the second half of the season and then beat the Giants and the Cubs (both of whom, I suppose, John Harper would see as more worthy adversaries of the mighty New York Yankees) in the playoffs.

I didn't really have any preference regarding the winner of this World Series until I read the article, but now I do.

So, with all due respect to the Yankee fans out there: Go Marlins!!!

Series? What Series?

OK, so each fan wants his / her team to be in (and hopefully win) the World Series, which means that at the end of every season, fans of 28 or 29 teams are going to be disappointed, and I understand that die-hard fans of certain ballclubs (notably the Red Sox and the Cubs, in the case of this year's playoffs) feel like they've been through emotional hell (no, I take that back - as I said the other day, I've been a die-hard fan of a sports team, so there's no 'seem' about it) and thus have no real interest in what goes on after their teams have been eliminated. So I can understand yesterday's post by Ed Cossette over at Bambino's Curse, and others I've seen like it over the past few days (at Do They Still Play The Blues In Chicago, for example). Do They Still Play The Blues, however, pointed me in the direction of an article on ESPN's Page 2 on the World Series being played out in an alternate universe (on ESPN, no doubt, rather then FOX, who only have the rights to the real, actual World Series being played out in New York and Florida). I have no problem with the article - a brief look back over the Baseball Desert archives will show that I really wanted this alternate universe Series (which I dubbed my "Field of Dreams Series"), but we didn't get it, so let's move on, huh, guys?

I think my reaction to this comes from being in the baseball desert we call France. ESPN's Jim Caple has probably seen more baseball games than I've had hot dinners, so I can understand that he's not really excited about a Series between the Yankees (with their 26 World Series wins) and the Marlins (with their 26 fans), but, from my 'outsider's' point of view, this is a great series - two contrasting styles of play, two contrasting franchises, two contrasting histories, two contrasting ballparks and even two contrasting payrolls. All I see, when I look at the Series, is the possibility of 7 good baseball games between two good ballclubs. The neutral fans of the game - and those who write about it for a living - were maybe in a sense spoiled by the Championship Series (notably the New York-Boston one) - it was possibly the best postseason series in history, and it was unrealistic to expect this World Series to come anywhere close to that. Still, if anyone is really bored by the prospect of the remaining Yankees-Marlins games, then I'm willing to propose a trade: my life for yours, until Sunday night.

It's a good deal - you get to live near Paris for a week, eat lots of great French food and drink some good wine, but be warned - don't get a sudden craving to turn on the TV and watch some baseball, because there isn't any... Instead, you're going to have to plan your whole day (and life) around the game - you need to get away from work fairly early (without the boss noticing), in order to beat the rush-hour traffic (which, in Paris, is terrible); when you get home, grab a quick bite to eat; go to bed around 10pm (not forgetting to set the alarm); get up again at 2am, switch on the computer and hope that your broadband connection is not going to suddenly crash; then spend the next 3 1/2 hours peering at a six-inch-square image of the World Series game on your computer screen. With a bit of luck, the game won't go on too long, and you can go back to bed around 5.30am and grab a little more sleep before heading off to work again, fresh and rested, at 7.30am... Then, when the Series is over, you can take two weeks off work to recover from the gruelling ordeal of watching the games.

So - anyone interested, or would you rather just watch this boring ol' Series on TV after all??

"Be My Number Two"

It's the title of a song by the great Joe Jackson (no, not that one, the other one...), but it could also be the title of Joe Torre's ode to Andy Pettitte. The Yankees have lost Game 1 of each of the three series they have played this postseason (against the Twins, the Red Sox and, on Saturday night, against the Marlins). After each loss, they have sent Pettitte to the mound in Game 2, and each time he has come through with a huge win. Pettitte pitched a great game in Yankee Stadium last night - he gave up just one unearned run over 8 2/3 innings and didn't allow a Marlin to get beyond second base over the first eight innings - and he notched up his 13th postseason win overall, which ties him for first place with Atlanta's John Smoltz.

In keeping with their 'small ball' reputation, the Marlins managed 'only' six hits, all of them singles. I say 'only' because although it doesn't look like much, it's in fact only one hit less than they got in Game 1, where they had 7 hits, good for a total of 3 runs. The difference last night was that the hits were spaced further apart and the Marlins had no stolen bases - they weren't able to get their guys beyond second base and score any runs, except in the ninth, when an Aaron Boone error allowed them to finally get on the board.

The Yankees finally looked like the Yankees last night - maybe they got over their Game 7 hangover. They took their game to the Marlins last night, rather than letting the Marlins dictate things. The first inning was once again a key - just like in Game 1, the Marlins had a runner on first with one out, but this time the runner (Castillo) broke late for second base. Ivan Rodriguez took a called third strike at the plate, and Jorge Posada threw to Soriano at second base to tag the runner coming in. A strike-'em-out-throw-'em-out double-play - inning over... To further take away any momentum the Marlins might have had, the Yankees then came to bat in the bottom of the first and put three runs on the board, thanks to Hideki Matsui's two-out homer (the first World Series home run ever hit by a Japanese player). And even though these are the never-say-die, come-from-behind Marlins, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for them from that point, and Pettitte made sure that they didn't even come close.

So, the series is tied at one as the teams head down to Miami for the next three games. We've seen two completely different games in the series so far, so I'm not going to make any rash predictions as to who I think is going to win this thing or how far it's going to go (I'll leave that to the pros) - the Marlins got in a quick sucker-punch in Game 1 whilst the Yankees weren't really paying attention, but the Yankees countered with some big punches in Game 2. The Marlins aren't on the ropes - especially as they're heading home to Pro Player Stadium for Games 3, 4 and 5 - but they're going to have to keep their wits about them if they want to fight it out with the Yankees in the middle of the ring. This thing is just warming up and, as SI's John Donovan suggests, maybe the best is yet to come...

Small ball

I love the way the Marlins play baseball - they're like the ultimate National League team, doing all the little, fundamental things well, and nobody does them better than one of the heroes of last night's game, Juan Pierre, who is the subject of a good piece by Jayson Stark on ESPN.com.

Advantage: Marlins

It didn't feel like Game 1 of the World Series, it didn't sound like Game 1 of the World Series, and the Yankees didn't play like it was Game 1 of the World Series. Maybe the Yankees were having trouble getting back to the business at hand after that dramatic ALCS Game 7 against the Red Sox, or maybe they just couldn't get excited at the prospect of playing the Florida Marlins - whatever the reason, they just didn't seem to be in last night's game. They made a couple of key errors - Aaron Boone (the hero of Game 7) cut off Hideki Matsui's attempt to gun down Juan Encarnacion at the plate and elected to try to get Juan Pierre at first instead, and Nick Johnson got himself picked off third base by Pudge Rodriguez - and paid the price.

The Marlins have said all along that they weren't going to be in awe of the Yankees or the Big Ballpark In The Bronx, and it showed. They were neither too keyed-up nor too loose - they came out and played the same kind of baseball that they've been playing all season. Juan Pierre's first-inning bunt-hit set the tone for the whole game - it couldn't have been a real shock to the Yankees that he tried such a move, but the fact that he did it on the second pitch of the game clearly signalled Florida's intentions and probably got the Yankees wondering a little bit. It immediately gave Florida not only the chance to score an early run - which they did - but also an opportunity to take any lingering Game 7 momentum away from the Yankees and their fans.

Marlins manager Jack McKeon also played his part in the win by continuing to manage in his inimitable 'every game is a game 7' style. He started Miguel Cabrera in left field - his fourth different position of this postseason - and wasn't afraid to use Dontrelle Willis for 2 1/3 innings to help preserve the Marlins' lead. Willis and Cabrera are perfect examples of why this Florida ballclub has been so successful - both of them were asked to perform in roles with which they were not necessarily comfortable, and they did so without batting an eyelid. There's an inherent respect for McKeon in their attitude - if he thinks that they're going to be more useful in a different role, then so be it - just go out there and do it. This kind of decision is obviously easier to implement with rookies like Willis and Cabrera than with a highly-paid veteran who's been round the block a few times, but such is the respect that the players have for McKeon that even that is not a factor - witness Mike Lowell having to sit on the bench after coming back from inury because McKeon didn't want to change a winning team. It wasn't easy for Lowell, but he understood why McKeon did it.

So, Goliath lost the first round of the Series to David. It's no big deal - the Yankees have been here before and bounced back, but if they're going to do so in this World Series, they need to find a way to slow the Marlins down.

Round two is scheduled for tonight - Andy Pettitte (whose legendary pick-off move might help keep Pierre and Castillo a little closer to first base) vs. Mark Redman. Both pitchers will be pitching on just three days' rest, so it promises to be an interesting duel.

Déjà vu?

The Yankees kick off with an infield hit which Soriano beats out to first base, and then Soriano tests Pudge's arm by stealing second. Johnson and Jeter both fail to move the runner to third. Bernie Williams flies out to center to end the inning.

I don't think I'm going to blog constantly through the game because, as I'm watching this on the Internet, I can basically either blog or watch, and I have to say that I got up at 2am to watch the game rather than write about it.

Keep on runnin'

Yankee catcher Jorge Posada is going to be a busy guy - Castilla steals second with Derek Lee at the plate. Wells gets out of the inning, though, striking out Lee with a great curveball.

So, we've seen how the Marlins are going to play - let's see what message the Yanks are going to send to the Marlins...

Setting the tone

Juan Pierre gets a bunt-hit on the second pitch of the game. This is how these guys are going to play the game, just as they've played games all season. Florida then executes a perfect hit-and-run - Castillo gets a bloop hit into short right which puts runners on first and third with no outs. Up comes Pudge Rodriguez, who gets a sac fly to put Florida up 1-0.

Against the tide

I haven't read everything that's been written about this World Series (although it sometimes feels like it, because the more I read, the more I want to read, whether it be blogs or professional sportswriters...), but Jayson Stark is the first person I've come across so far who is actually predicting that the Marlins will win the Series. I've read 'Yankees in six' and 'Yankees in seven' (everyone seems to think that this Series is unlikely to end quickly), but Stark says Marlins in six. Interesting...

Here we go

Looking back over what I've posted on here since I started the blog back in June, I can see that I've spent a lot of time wishing good things for certain teams that got to the postseason but didn't make it to the Series (the Red Sox, and then the Cubs) and others that never really got close to the playoffs (the Expos and the Phillies). When people have asked me which team is 'my' team, I've generally described myself as a nominal Yankees fan, but, above all, a fan of the game. Having always lived in the baseball desert known as 'Europe', I have no real historical, sentimental or geographical links to any particular ballclub, and although that deprives me of both the agony and the ecstasy of the fan who follows a particular team (see yesterday's post), it also puts me in the privileged position of being able to simply look forward to the upcoming World Series and hope that we'll see some great baseball. I've lived and died with sports teams in the past, back in the days when I was a crazy soccer fan following my home-town team all over England, so I can relate to those who live and die with the Red Sox or the Cubs (or the Royals, as is the case with ESPN.com's Rob Neyer, who has written a great piece on why we care). At the same time, that level of emotional involvement really is sometimes just too hard to take, and it's nice to be able to have the easy option of just wanting to see some good ballgames. You don't need to worry about goats or curses or 85 years without a World Series, because sometimes it's just all about baseball.

A view from the inside

The agony and the ecstasy...

Too Little, too late

I blew it - my CSSA (see yesterday's post) finally caught up with me, and I slept right through the alarm going off at 2am and thus missed a classic Game 7. However, I can comfort myself with the thought that I didn't blow it as much as Boston did.

Regardless of whether you like the Yankees or not, you have to tip your hat to Yankee manager Joe Torre. Dusty Baker and Grady Little take note – this is how you manage a Game 7: when your starter is in trouble, his 310 career wins and Hall of Fame credentials are not an issue – you take him out of the game (even if it might be his last-ever game of major league baseball) and you bring in the guy who pitched Games 1 and 4 (pitching in relief for the first time in 401 career appearances and pitching on three days’ rest) and then you bring in your Game 5 starter for a couple of outs, and when the game goes extra innings you use your lights-out closer for three innings (something he’s not done since April 2000). In other words, you make the moves you have to make and worry about the next game later (because if you don’t, there is no “next game”).

As ever, Thomas Boswell says it better than most.

So, it's back to Yankee Stadium on Saturday for Game 1 of the 2003 World Series. Even if a Yankees / Marlins series lacks the romanticism of a Cubs / Red Sox or Yankees / Cubs matchup, I have a feeling that we're going to see some good baseball. The Yankees are going to be hot after their epic series with the Sox, and the Marlins have shown this postseason that they're not afraid of anyone. I have a day-and-a-half to get some sleep and get my life organised so as not to miss a minute of the games.

Stats

No, not BA or ERA or W-L or OBP, but CSSA (Championship Series Sleep Average). These are my sleep stats for the past week:

Saturday - 4 hours
Sunday - 4 hours
Monday - 5 hours
Tuesday - 4 hours
Wednesday - 2.5 hours

which works out at a CSSA of 3.9 hours. Given that I am having dinner with friends tonight (which removes the possibility of me being rested in the bullpen ready for the big game), if I decide to catch Game 7 of the ALCS (and God knows, I'm tempted - how could I miss this one?), I'll have a second consecutive 2-hour night, which would bring my CSSA down to a borderline-crazy 3.58...

But...but...this is Pedro vs. Rocket, in the House That Ruth Built (you remember Ruth, right? The Red-Sox-pitcher-turned-Yankee-slugger-and-greatest-ballplayer-of-all-time (and source of the legendary Curse of the Bambino)) - Clemens could be pitching his last-ever major league game, Pedro is going to be going up against not only 10 Yankees but 50,000+ wild Yankee fans who will be taunting him for his part in last Saturday's Fenway fracas, Boston could finally put to rest the famous curse...

Who am I kidding, with my oh-so-reasonable questions about getting enough sleep? I'll be there, because if I'm not, I know I'll end up regretting it...

Cubs RIP

What can I say? The Cubs were up 3 games to 1 in the NLCS (then 3-2) and they sent their top two pitchers to the mound in Games 6 and 7 and still couldn't get that one win against the Marlins. Sure, they got some bad breaks, but the bottom line is that they were beaten over seven games by the better team.

I know that the thought of a Yankees / Marlins or a Red Sox / Marlins World Series is maybe not going to appeal to everyone, but I like the way these guys play the game, I like the way Jack McKeon has brought the group together and taken them from 11 games under .500 to a World Series appearance, I like their stars in the making (Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis) and their star in the re-making (Ivan Rodriguez). Whoever wins Game 7 of the ALCS tonight is going to find that the Marlins will give them a run for their money. There's some good baseball in store over the next ten days or so.

All over

Flyball to left field and the Marlins are going to the World Series for the second time in the franchise's short history. There's a deathly silence in Wrigley Field - it's so quiet you can actually hear what the Marlins are saying to each other on the field.

The Cubs' implosion will no doubt be analysed for months and years to come, but you have to tip your hat to the Marlins. They'll be packing their bags tonight to head up to the East Coast for Game 1 of the World Series on Saturday - tomorrow night they'll know whether they stop in New York or head right on up to Boston.

Did somebody say tense?

Bottom of the ninth - the Cubs have three more outs try to make up the three-run deficit...

Florida's closer Ugueth Urbina looks as nervous as the Cubs fans in the stands - he's walked the first Chicago batter.

Update: Urbina has struck out Randall Simon for the first out of the ninth.

The story of their season

The Marlins just never give up - they scored three runs in the top of the fifth to take a 6-5 lead. Ivan Rodriguez got yet anothe hit - he now has a hit in every single postseason game this year.

The Marlins are throwing everything they have at the Cubs. Josh Beckett is now on the mound, pitching on just two days' rest after his stellar performance in Game 5.

Update: I'd be curious to know just how many 2-out hits the Marlins have had this postseason. They just tagged on 2 more runs with two out in the top of the seventh to take a 9-5 lead.

Little ball?

So much for the National League teams playing 'little ball' - stealing bases, bunting, advancing the runners. Moises Alou has just hit a 2-run home run to put the Cubs ahead 5-3. 7 of the 8 runs scored so far in the game have been scored on balls hit out of the ballpark.

Down to the wire

Meanwhile, over in the American League, the Championship Series is going to come down to a single game. The Red Sox beat the Yankees 9-6 this afternoon to set up what could be a classic Game 7 tomorrow night. I can't wait to see the reception Pedro Martinez gets from the crowd in the Bronx as he goes head-to-head against Roger Clemens.

Getting Wood on the ball

The Marlins took a swift 3-run lead in Game 7, but Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood just helped dig himself out of a hole by hitting a 2-run home run in the bottom of the second. The shot has tied the game at 3 and woken up the Wrigley faithful, who had gone silent after Miguel Cabrera's home run in the first. This promises to be a good game.

The one that got away

Cubs fans are probably still in shock after last night's Game 6 loss to the Marlins. Depending on how you see things, the Cubs lost the game because of a fan trying to catch a foul-ball or because Alex Gonzalez made an uncharacteristic error at shortstop or because Dusty Baker made the wrong moves (not taking Prior out of the game earlier, issuing two intentional walks). Whether it's any one of these factors, or some combination of the three, the result is the same - 8 runs scored by the Marlins at a time when they were just five outs from being eliminated from the NLCS.

Since I didn't see the game and since blogging time is at a premium today, I'll let ESPN's Jayson Stark describe how the game unfolded and how the Cubs fell apart.

I've said all along that I'd like to see the Cubs in the World Series (along with the Red Sox, although the Yankees' David Wells did his bit yesterday to ensure that Boston won't be getting a shot at their dream), but I don't live and die with the Cubs. So, as a fan of the game, I have to say that the prospect of a Game 7 between the Cubs and the Marlins is mouthwatering. So far, the playoffs in general - and this series in particular - have thrown up so many unbelievable moments that I feel greedy asking for more, but for tonight's game, I almost don't need to. Whatever the outcome of Game 7, this particular fan will be happy - by tomorrow morning, either the Cubs will have booked a historic spot in the World Series or the Marlins will have achieved an almost impossible comeback. It's win-win for me, but, having been through the situation many times with my hometown soccer team, I can also sympathise with the passion and heartache over at The Cub Reporter...

Tough call

The Yankees / Red Sox game is at a user-friendly 10pm French time, so I'm tempted to watch that and then try to catch up on some much-needed sleep. The problem is that if I do that, then I'll miss the chance to see the Cubs / Marlins game... My brain is telling me it's possible to do both, but I don't think my body would make it through the week if I only get 2 hours' sleep tonight.

I'll use the one-hour drive home to reflect on my existential dilemma and come to some kind of decision.

Insights

I'm slowly starting to realise that you can spend all day reading baseball blogs and still not have time to read all the good stuff that's out there. Alex Belth has a good piece over at Bronx Banter, which itself refers back to two of the Baseball Desert's other favourite blog authors, David Pinto (at Baseball Musings) and Edward Cossette (at Bambino's Curse).

And whilst we're on the subject of blogs, tthe Baseball Musings piece in turn refers to a blog I've recently added to my bookmarks: Irina Paley's West 116th Street.

So much information out there and so little time - there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to fit in work, watching ballgames and blogging - maybe I should give up work and concentrate on the essentials...?

Holding his own

Boston has had bullpen trouble all season long, so it's worth noting Mike Timlin's performances this postseason. He's pitched in six games so far - a total of 7 1/3 innings - and has retired all 22 batters he's faced without giving up so much as a hit. I'm not saying he's up there with Mariano Rivera or Eric Gagne, and he doesn't get the 'W' or the 'SV' after his name (just the infintely less sexy 'HLD') [click here if you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about...!], but he's yet another small but important cog in the Red Sox machine.

Playing silly games

My favourite moment of the game came in the eighth inning, when Yankee reliever Jeff Nelson entered the game. Immediately after Nelson's very first pitch, Boston manager Grady Little came out of the dugout to ask the umpires to inspect Nelson's glove and his belt-buckle. There's no way that Little could have believed Nelson was tampering with the ball in any way - I think it was a clear case of Little getting his own back on Yankee manager Joe Torre, who asked the umpires to examine the cap of Red Sox reliever Mike Timlin in Game 1. You could see it as petty, but Little was just trying to make his point and, if possible, try to capitalise on the fact that Nelson had had to listen to the boos of the Fenway crowd most of the evening (thanks to his part in the incident Saturday with a member of the Red Sox ground crew) and was maybe in a position to get upset in a key game situation. It didn't work out - Nelson got the double-play he was looking for - but it was worth a try...

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

The Yankees were once again baffled by Tim Wakefield's knuckleball in Game 4 of the ALCS last night, but were ultimately beaten by their own sloppy fielding and some timely hitting by the Red Sox.

Boston 2B Todd Walker - who hit only 13 home runs during the course of the regular season - hit his 5th home run of the postseason, thus breaking the club record for the number of homers hit in a single postseason previously held by Nomar Garciaparra and John Valentin.

The Yankees didn't help their cause much by making one or two crucial fielding / baserunning errors. With one out in the fifth, and runners on second (Jeter) and third (Soriano), third-base coach Willie Randolph elected not to send Soriano home on a flyball hit to Johnny Damon in shallow center field. In his defence, Randolph said: "If he gets thrown out there, everyone says why don't you give [the next batter] Bernie [Williams] a shot [next]. You can't second-guess yourself and I won't. We have all our good RBI guys coming up after that. You just have to react to what you see." That's fair enough, I guess, but he's got to be kicking himself this morning when he looks at the one-run margin of defeat.

Soriano was also involved in a key play in the bottom of the seventh. With the bases loaded and one out, pinch-hitter Jason Varitek hit a grounder in the hole to Jeter, who made a great play to start the potential inning-ending double-play. However, Soriano was slow in getting the throw over to first, and Varitek's mad dash to first just beat the throw to Giambi. The runner scored at the plate, and Boston had their all important (game-winning) run.

I'm not getting on Soriano's case here. He wasn't at fault on the first play, and the second play owed as much to Varitek's hustle as it did to Soriano's slow throw, but he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Add to that his wild swings at pitches way outside the strike-zone in the top of the ninth and you've got a game that Soriano probably wants to forget as soon as possible.

Two more shots

The Cubs were on the sharp end of a great pitching performance by Florida's Josh Beckett yesterday. Beckett threw a complete-game, two-hit shutout and baffled the Cubs' hitters with a canny mixture of fastballs, curveballs and changeups. He threw 115 pitches on the night, 80 of them for strikes...

In the fourth inning, Beckett threw a pitch high and inside to Sammy Sosa, to which Sammy took exception - I think everyone in the ballpark had visions of a "Florida Flare-Up" to match Saturday's fiasco in Boston, but Ivan Rodriguez did a great job of calming Sammy down and not letting things get out of hand. (The more I see Pudge play, the more I realise what a key factor he is in the Marlins' success this year - on MLB.com, Mark Newman makes the point that in yesterday's game, Pudge pretty much did it all...). Then, in the same at-bat, Beckett threw a blazing fastball that was clocked at 100mph and he finished the at-bat with a 3-2 changeup that had Sammy frozen like a rabbit caught in somebody's headlights...

As much as I wanted to see the Cubs win the game, I have to admit that Beckett pitched a great game - he looked less like a 23-year-old and more like a wily 23-year veteran. However, when all's said and done, the win still leaves Florida down 3-2 in the series, and the Cubs have two more chances to get to their first World Series since 1945. Not only that, but they have their two aces - Mark Prior and Kerry Wood - ready to go for the final two games. The Fish are not quite cooked yet, but it sure looks like somebody's setting the table...

View from the inside

I promise that this will be today's last post on all the crap from last night - The Bambino's Curse gives a Red Sox fan's view on the whole thing.

In a way, I'm glad that Game 4 of the ALCS is on at 2am, too late for me to watch it. With a bit of luck I'll be able to catch some of the Cubs / Marlins game instead and just concentrate on the game itself...

True perspective

At the risk of having to change the name of this blog to the 'The Boz Baseball Blog', here is what Thomas Boswell makes of last night's incidents at Fenway. Beyond the 'lawlessness' of the two separate incidents (the second one being the ninth-inning scuffle in the Yankee bullpen), he makes the point that Boston shot itself in the foot last night in more ways than one (a point on which Sports Illustrated's John Donovan agrees), and that the balance of power in the ALCS seems to have swung in the Yankees favour.

Episode 4 of this ongoing soap opera can be seen tonight at 7pm ET, and that will show us whether Boswell is right or not.

A tale of two Ramirez

There was Manny, in Boston, over-reacting to a Roger Clemens pitch and setting off the fourth-inning fireworks (see post below). Not good...

And then there was Aramis, down in Florida, hitting two home-runs (including a grand-slam) and 6 RBIs, and taking the Cubs to within one game of the World Series. A hero is born...

The Cubs now lead the Marlins 3-1 in the NLCS. Dare we dream? Cubs fans already are, so you betcha!

Staying focused

The Yankees seemed to come out of what's now being dubbed the 'Beantown brouhaha' on top - they remained concentrated on the game, didn't let their emotions get out of hand and hung on for a 4-3 victory at Fenway. I guess the win will take a little wind out of the Red Sox' sails - they were hot after taking Game 1 in Yankee Stadium, but now they're down 2-1 down in the ALCS. They're gonna need a healthy dose of that 'Cowboy Up!' spirit if they are to come back against the Evil Empire. May the force be with them...

Fightin' at Fenway

Did somebody say 'tense'?

After Pedro hit the Yankees' Karim Garcia with a pitch, Manny Ramirez over-reacted to a pitch from Roger Clemens which he thought was inside. Manny was clearly looking for a reason to go after Clemens, as replays show that the pitch was high but pretty much over the plate - he started yelling at Clemens, the benches cleared and Don Zimmer ended up getting shoved to the floor by Pedro in the ensuing ruckus. To be fair to Martinez, it looked like Zimmer - who was annoyed at Pedro's gestures to the Yankee bench after the Garcia incident - was going after Pedro. As for Zimmer, he might be 72 years old and 'just' the Yankees' bench coach, but he's not lost any of his intensity as regards the game. I don't know what he thought he was going to do to Martinez, but full marks to him for getting 'involved'...

It's the bottom of the seventh, and the Red Sox are still down 4-2 - the incident doesn't seem to have ignited Boston in any positive way. Clemens is done for the day, but the Yankees have Jose Contreras on the mound - big pressure situation for the Cuban pitcher.

All square

The Yankees got yet another great pitching performance from Andy Pettitte last night and beat the Red Sox 6-2 to tie the ALCS at 1-1. There's never as much fanfare surrounding Pettitte as there is surrounding the other Yankee pitchers (Mussina, Clemens, Wells), but he once again proved why he's the guy Joe Torre wants on the mound in those key postseason games - last night's win was Pettitte's 12th in the postseason, which moves him into second place on the all-time list, one game behind John Smoltz.

The Yankees clearly didn't panic after losing Game 1 in New York, and at the same time, the Red Sox clearly didn't collapse in Game 2, so this series is now nicely balanced heading into Game 3 - I guess that the Red Sox, prior to the series, would have signed up for a 1-1 split heading back to Boston...

This thing is now effectively a 5-game series, so it's going to be an interesting weekend of baseball in Boston (and New York, if it goes beyond Game 5). Tomorrow's game is a mouth-watering clash between Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez - a former Red Sox hero going up against a current Red Sox hero. One or two figures, just to put the clash in perspective - on the mound there will be a combined 476 career wins, 6525 career strikeouts and 9 Cy Young awards. The game - one of those 'miss it at your peril' ballgames - may end up a 15-13 slugfest, but I think it's unlikely...

Non-conformity

Thomas Boswell has written a good piece on the Red Sox being the very antithesis of the clean-cut, Steinbrenner-controlled Yankees. Even Boston manager Grady Little is on the same page as his team - on Monday called them "this group of renegades that I'm putting on the field"...

Wild Thing

Speaking of difficult pitches to hit, I was reminded of the movie Major League this morning, for the second time in two days. What prompted thoughts of that was a pitch thrown by Florida's Michael Tejara last night against the Cubs - check it out on MLB.com's game wrapup. He went one better than Charlie Sheen's character - he didn't throw the ball over the catcher to the backstop, he threw it into his own team's dugout!!! It was one of the rare smiles that the Marlins had during last night's game, which they lost 12-3. The series is now tied at 1, and the teams head down to Miami for Game 3 on Friday. The Cubs maybe have the upper hand now, having really beaten up the Marlins in Game 2, but the Marlins are going home for games 3, 4 and 5, so that may work in their favour.

The Dark Side of the Pinstripe

My apologies to any Yankee fans reading this, but I think I finally realised last night that my nominal 'Yankee fan' status is no more... I watched last night's game, and from the first pitch through to the last out, I was rooting for the Red Sox.

It was a good game, and one which allowed me to finally understand what a knuckleball is and why it's so difficult to hit. Fox put up a series of knuckleball-related quotes throughout the game, and my favourite was one from the late Willie Stargell: "it's like a butterfly with hiccups"... Well, the Yankees didn't seem to be able to get hold of the butterfly last night, and the Sox gained not just an important Game 1 win, but also a psychological advantage. Everybody said they would be tired from their 5-game series against Oakland and the endless cross-country flights, but they came into the Bronx and beat the Yankees (under the watchful eye of the Bambino out in Monument Park). The Yankees once again need a big game tonight from Andy Pettitte to avoid going two games down in the series and leaving themselves with a huge mountain to climb.

Famous for 15 minutes

The Fox TV team (Buck, McCarver, Boone) is having a lot of fun with Yankee fan Ed Hillel and his 'objective' views on whether the Todd Walker home run hit the foul pole or whether a fan got a glove on it as the ball was heading foul. Ed has gave us his in-depth opinion, even though his view of the play was obstructed by the foul pole itself. Ed clearly has no idea what he's talking about - a long and distinguished career in television probably awaits him...

Long ball

We're finally getting to see the postseason version of the Red Sox big bats that were so much a feature of the regular season. Two solo home runs - from Todd Walker and Manny Ramirez - in the top of the fifth mean that Boston now has a 4-0 lead over New York.

It's long-ball day over in Chicago too - the Cubs are leading the Marlins 8-0, thanks in large part to two homers from Sammy Sosa and one from Aramis Ramirez.

First blood

David Ortiz - 0-for-20 lifetime against Mike Mussina - managed to work his way back from an 0-2 count and take Mussina deep for a 2-run home run in the top of the fourth inning. 2-0 Red Sox...

It's still dark outside...

...but the coffee's on and the ballgame is about to start. YES!!!

"I live for this"

It's the catchphrase of Major League Baseball's new ad campaign (see Sep 18 post), spoken in the ads by some of the game's biggest names, but it's also a phrase that fans of the game could use as well, and it's never been truer than today. The first pitch of the Red Sox / Yankees game is still over eleven hours away, and I'm sat here in my office, an ocean away from where the action will be taking place, getting all excited about twenty grown men chasing a little white ball around a big field... Crazy, maybe, but I love it.

Programme for the rest of the day:
3pm - 6pm Try to get through the rest of the work-day without logging on to MLB.com, ESPN or SI.com every five minutes...
6pm - 8.30pm Baseball practice - two-and-a-half hours of twenty grown men chasing a little white ball around a big field...
9pm Dinner
10pm Bed, in order to get a little bit of sleep before the game
2am Get up, make a big pot of strong coffee and...Play ball!

Why, oh why?

SI.com's Tom Verducci has written a good article listing what he sees as the reasons for the A's continued postseason woes. Some of what he says reminds me of what the manager of the Cleveland Indians says in the movie Major League: "This is a simple game - you throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball..." According to Verducci, the A's continually fail to do at least two of these baseball fundamentals in the postseason.

Time out

There was so much stuff to see and read on the Red Sox victory in Oakland on Monday night that I didn't have chance to post anything yesterday. I didn't see the game live, but I caught up with bits of it over the course of the day - what a great game! Oakland once again failed to make it post the first round of the playoffs, but all credit to Boston for not giving up when they were 2-0 down in the series. Boston's big guys (Ramirez, Ortiz) finally came through over the last two games, and Pedro pitched a fine effort. The ninth inning was a real nail-biter, but Derek Lowe (Boston's closer-turned-starter-turned-emergency-closer) came through with a gutsy performance.

I don't care if tomorrow IS a work day - I'll be up at 2am tonight to watch the first game of the ALCS. A Red Sox / Yankees playoff game at Yankee Stadium - the postseason doesn't get much better than that, does it? Well... maybe it does, because the probable matchup for Saturday's Game 3 at Fenway Park is Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens. I'm like a little kid in a candy store - I don't really know where to look or which game to look forward to the most!

All-nighter

Just my luck - after a weekend of great baseball games at reasonable hours (1pm / 4pm ET), I see that tonight's winner-takes-all (well, the Division Series at least) game between Boston and Oakland is scheduled for 8pm ET. If there's one bad time for me, that's it - even games that start at 7pm PT are OK, because I can go to bed early and get at 4am to watch the game, but an 8 o'clock start (2am for me) is too late for me to stay up for, and to early for me to get up for... I know it's 'only' Game 5 of the Division Series, and there's a long way to go yet, but I have to admit that the prospect of a Pedro Martinez / Barry Zito duel is very, very enticing.

Of course, given the way that series has worked out so far, those two guys may end up as mere bit-players in today's episode, as MLB.com's Mychael Urban points out.

Shut the h*** up!

Although I'd be the first to say (and in fact I've said it on here before) that a Red Sox / Cubs World Series would be great, it's nice to see - in amongst all the earnestness of teams' playoff hopes - someone with a slightly left-field point of view. I like the thinking behind Phil Taylor's "Just Win Already" article on SI.com. A nice piece which offsets the postseason fervour and hype surrounding those two particular ballclubs...

Home-run Trot

The Red Sox are still alive in the Division Series, thanks to a Trot Nixon walkoff home run in the eleventh inning. It's 5:20am here, and I almost went to bed about 15 minutes ago, but I figured I've stayed up this long, so what the hell... It was worth it - a fine ballgame which got the ending it deserved.

I take it all back

As last night's post showed, I was a little mad with MLB.com when I couldn't log on to watch yesterday's games. Tonight I'm still mad, but only because I know I'm not going to get enough sleep for about the fourth time this week - I had no problems logging on to MLB.TV tonight and am now in the middle of my third game of the night...

The first game was the Giants trying to stay alive (and failing) in Florida - a good back-and-forth game, although I'm still trying to work out why the Giants tried to send the runner home from second base on the last play of the game. Okay, there were two outs and maybe it was worth a shot, but if they'd held the runner at third, they would have had the bases loaded, still with two outs, and a better chance of winning the game. Great play by Pudge Rodriguez, by the way, to block the plate, hang on to the ball and send Florida to the NLCS.

The second game was at Wrigley Field, and after nine innings of baseball, it all came down to one of those great confrontations - the tying Chicago run at the plate, in the shape of Sammy Sosa, and Atlanta's John Smoltz on the mound. Sammy got hold of a 3-2 pitch which looked like it may leave the ballpark, but it was caught deep in center field, so the teams head back to Atlanta for game 5. Cub's fans' hopes are still alive, but Chicago is gonna have to do things the hard way - on the road. Still, they've got the right guy for the job on the mound - Kerry Wood should be facing Mike Hampton in the final game of the series. Atlanta may have a problem with their closer - Smoltz didn't look at all comfortable on the mound during the ninth inning, and as he left the field, he didn't shake anybody's hand with his right (i.e. pitching) hand, giving high-fives with his left hand instead. Watch this space for more details on Smoltz...

My lightning one-night ballpark tour has of course ended up at Fenway, where the Red Sox are trying to keep their playoff hopes alive. Boston is leading 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning, and although it's almost 3am here, I think I'm gonna make up for last night's failed efforts and see this one through to the end. I've always said that sleep is a much overated concept...!

Friggin' MLB.com

I finally get a free evening where I can sit down and watch the playoffs and MLB.com is giving me a hard time because it can't check my address using my credit card billing details. So tonight, not only am I 4,000 miles away from the playoff action, but I now don't even have access to an Internet service I paid good money to have. I'm gonna try to log on to MLB.TV a couple more times, and if it doesn't work, I'm gonna send MLB.com a really nasty e-mail and then head off to bed - I was looking forward to seeing the game so much that I don't even want to consider 'just' listening to it on MLB Radio.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining - I guess that I could use a good night's sleep, having slept about 4 hours a night for the past three nights. (I was about to say that it will allow me to be in good shape to watch some late-night games over the weekend, but, as things stand, there ain't gonna be any games for me over the weekend...). Damn.

Classic

As the old saying goes, hindsight is an exact science, but I wish I'd gone to bed early and got up at 4am to watch the Red Sox / A's game in Oakland - from what I've read and seen, it was a great baseball game. I'm catching up with innings 9 through 12 on MLB.com, but since I didn't see the whole game, I'll leave MLB.com's Mychael Urban to give his impressions of the game.

My best friend is an English guy who lives here in Paris and who enjoys watching baseball now and again (since seeing a game in Oakland last year), and he's always asking questions about rules, tactics and strategy. I guess I should send him to check out the video of the game. Good pitching, good hitting, pinch-hitters lifted for pinch-hitters (without even facing a pitch), Gold Glove defense (Chavez saving the game in the 12th with a great play at third) and a game-winning bases-loaded bunt in the bottom of the twelfth inning, which surprised just about about everyone in the ballpark except the guy who laid it down, Oakland catcher Ramon Hernandez.

The only question now is: how do these two ballclubs improve on a game like that?

Go figure

There are certain moments during a ballgame when you know that you'll never be able to fully understand or predict anything in this game. Atlanta's Mike Hampton gave up two runs in the first inning against the Cubs, then loaded the bases and then proceeded to strike out the next six batters he faced.

Hampton has settled into a good rhythm, as has the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano - it looks like it could be a good game down in Atlanta, but this baseball fan is gonna have to hit the sack if he wants to make it through tomorrow in one piece. I can't complain - I saw a good gme earlier this evening between the Giants and the Marlins (who used seven pitchers to get through the game, including starters Carl Pavano and Dontrelle Willis - good to see Florida manager Jack McKeon making surprising but effective moves to help his team stay in the series...).

I'm out of here - will be back later today with an update on the games, particularly that big Game 1 between the Red Sox and the A's down in Oakland.

They're off!

I didn't see anything of the games last night - I finally made it home after dinner (which was great, btw, just in case anyone was worried after yesterday's post...) just in time to see the Giants' Jason Schmidt throw the last pitch of his three-hit, complete-game shutout of the Marlins. I was tempted to stay up and watch the Cubs play the Braves, but I need to keep some late nights in reserve for Championship / World Series games, so I'm catching up with that game right now on my PC at work (it's lunchtime, so don't go calling the boss just yet!)

The Yankees are already in trouble, having lost the first game of the series to the Twins (notably through some sloppy defense on the same play by Bernie Williams and Alfonso Soriano). Yankee fans would tell us not to worry and to pay attention to Yogi's "it ain't over 'til it's over", and they would be right, but New York desperately needs a big pitching performance from Andy Pettitte in Game 2.

Down in San Francisco there was a great pitching duel between Jason Schmidt and Josh Beckett - Beckett allowed just two hits and one earned run in 7 innings, but it wasn't enough to win the game. Schmidt threw a gem at Pac Bell and put the Giants in the driving seat for the rest of the series.

And so, last but not least, to the Cubs - Kerry Wood not only gave up just two hits in 7 1/3 innings - striking out 11 in the process - but he also hit a two-run double which broke open the game in the sixth inning. It's a great start for the Cubs, but I won't go on about it for too long in case I put the kiss of death on their postseason.

Tonight I have a tough choice to make - staying up a little late would allow me to see the Marlins-Giants game, but what I really want to do is go to bed early and get up at 4am to see Pedro go head-to-head with Tim Hudson in Game 1 of the Boston-Oakland series. Am I crazy enough to do that just for a Division Series game? Hey, it's playoff time, so don't bet against it...