"You're not going to hope your way in or wish your way in (to the playoffs)," Leyland said. "You have to play your way in. If you want to play in the postseason, you've got to close the deal."

Minnesota is certainly getting hot at the right time. I don't know howinthehell they do it almost every year, but they do.

Well, I was born in Minnesota....http://www.deephousepage.com/smilies/scratchchin.gif

During the Iron Age.......

I remember.:D

Minny won again and everybody else lost. Only 4 back of the Tigers now, Mick. Minny and NY have identical records now too. Could be a real interesting September.

YU.P. during the Iron age up on the Iron Range, right next to an open Iron pit. Very red.

Same for Oakland. Don't bet against them in August!

I saw a stat the other night that said since 2000 the A's have the best record of any MLB team in the month of August. I'm sure you recall that they won 20 in row a couple of seasons ago and most of that came in August.

With Manny sitting the bench again tonight in Oakland, he has now played in only one of the team's last 5 games. What's up with that? Is he quitting on his team?

Well Manny may not be the only one giving up. Boston went down 9-0 to the A's tonight and looked just listless.

Sad really for that kind of talent and payroll.

Well, you never know with Manny, but you still have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Apparently they're gonna shut him down for the whole Oakland series now. I know that the Bah-ston papers are on his azz big time.

The sad part is that David Ortiz has an irregular hearbeat that needs looking into. He's gonna be out for a while now too. I don't care how big a Yankee fan someone might be, there is one guy that you gotta like and admire. Get well real quick, <i>Big Papi</i>.

The Yanks had their injuries early, the Red Sox are getting their's late. I prefer early.

Yep, as a Yankee fan, I'll take Big Papi any day.

Oh, my !
 

3 games in the Big Apple.

• DET are 8-27 in the last 35 meetings.
• DET are 7-23 in the last 30 meetings in New York.

That just means the odds are with Detroit getting closer to even, right?

Tigers are overdue, M&M !
Tigers are only winning 23% of the games with 29% of the payroll.

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=bg0 align=left><TD class=bg0 colSpan=5>Team Payrolls</TD></TR><TR class=bg4 id=special align=middle><TD class=bg1 align=left>No.</TD><TD class=bg1 align=left>Team</TD><TD class=bg1 align=left>Payroll</TD></TR><TR class=bg2 vAlign=center align=right height=17><TD align=left>1.</TD><TD align=left>New York Yankees</TD><TD align=left>$198,662,180</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=bg2 vAlign=center align=right height=17><TD align=left>14.</TD><TD align=left>Detroit Tigers </TD><TD align=left>$82,302,069</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=bg2 vAlign=center align=right height=17><TD align=left>7.</TD><TD align=left>Chicago Cubs </TD><TD align=left>$94,424,499</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

So, if Detroit's overdue, what the heck does that make the Cubs?!?!?

Sigh...

Originally Posted by mick
Tigers are overdue, M&M !
Tigers are only winning 23% of the games with 29% of the payroll.

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=bg0 align=left><TD class=bg0 colSpan=5>Team Payrolls</TD></TR><TR class=bg4 id=special align=middle><TD class=bg1 align=left>No.</TD><TD class=bg1 align=left>Team</TD><TD class=bg1 align=left>Payroll</TD></TR><TR class=bg2 vAlign=center align=right height=17><TD align=left>1.</TD><TD align=left>New York Yankees</TD><TD align=left>$198,662,180</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=bg2 vAlign=center align=right height=17><TD align=left>14.</TD><TD align=left>Detroit Tigers </TD><TD align=left>$82,302,069</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Should be 10% more likely to beat the Yankees than the Tigers are, except that the Cubbies play real baseball, ...theoretically.

Geeze, Mick, if you go by payroll, Detroit <b>should</b> be winning or close in their own division. Minny is #19, Cleveland is #25 and KC is #26. The Tigers are only behind the White Sox in their own division when it comes to spending.

http://www.onestopbaseball.com/TeamPayroll.asp

Using salaries only doesn't explain Oakland, or even Cinci who is leading the wild card in the NL. They're #21 and 22 respectively.

...Uh, yeah ??!!!? :)

Oz Ref's latest thread pretty much sums up the Sox at this point, I think: "It's all over". I knew that it would tough with the patchwork pitching staff, but the offense has been horrible lately, too. I disagreed with all the talking heads who were saying the Sox just had to salvage one of the games from that 5-game Yankees series, but it sure looks like they were right. They just seem demoralized. Go Tigers!!

Fair weather fans.....:rolleyes:

Lot of <i>beisbol</i> left and a lot can happen....

C'mon Chuck, if you need optimism, just talk to a Cub fan...

Do you think, after watching them over the last 6 weeks, that the Sox have any legitimate hope of reaching the playoffs? I'm not disavowing them. I'm just saying that 8 games behind the Yankees on August 31 -- and dropping -- leaves them out of October baseball. If they were the Twins, say, and were 8 games behind the Tigers -- but had been moving up the standings over the last 3 weeks -- I'd give them some chance.

But any realistic person, I think, has to say that the Red Sox will not make up that ground in the next 4 1/2 weeks. If they do, I'll be ecstatic and will gladly admit that I'm wrong right now. But I don't see how they can do it with the pitching they have and the really bad offense they're showing.

But isn't good news that Big Papi will be back in the next day or two?

You never know, Chuck.

Remember the '88 Dodgers? That was probably the worst team, talent-wise, to ever win a World Series. They supposedly had no shot to win their division, then they had no shot to beat the Mets in the NLCS, and they definitely had no shot to beat the A's... who were supposed to be the best team since the '27 Yankees.

You never know....

Now let's all hold hands and sing "High Hopes"....



Actually, fuggedaboutit. Who are we kidding? The BoSox are as dead as Dan's dong......or the Cubbies.

What? Chuck didn't know about Dan's dong being dead??? I thought that message went out to everyone two years ago!

Btw - everyone see Rafael Soriano take the line drive to the head the other night? Yikes - I thought he was dead...major concussion and they say he probably won't pitch again this season, but being 14 games out, he's just start vacation a few weeks earlier than the rest of the M's...

I saw that replay - it was scary. I was glad to hear there won't be any lasting physical effects. But I'll guarantee you it will affect his pitching once he comes back. There will always be that little flinch, or something, every time he sees a batter swing. I hope he can work his way through that.

Yeah, even Juulie went to the wake. With a smile on her face, of course.

Yes, M&M, I <b>am</b> going to hell.

I've sort of assumed that for a while; I'm glad to see you're quickly removing any doubts...

Leaving New York City....
 

Tigers won one. [33%] Real fine series !

This is what I have recently learned.
On my team, I want Derek Jeter, Jermayne Dye, Jim Thome, Johan Santana and Coco Crisp.

Jim Thome is a DH. Gimme David Ortiz in his place anytime, anyday. <i>Big Papi</i> is a hold-your-breath kinda hitter. I'd trade our resident steroid-monkey, Giambi, for him in a New Yawk minute. Imagine Ortiz in Yankee Stadium with that short porch in right field? He'd hit more than 60- legitimately.

Big Papi can't play 'til Saturday. Thome played today.

Fans? Fans?!?! It's bad enough when David Wells is your #3 starter. But when your GM trades your #3 starter for a minor league catcher, the fat lady is singing about your season.

Not the best message for your GM to send to his players......
http://1000smilies.com/animated/surrendering.gif

Devil Rays turn a triple play last night. Runners on 1st and 3rd with no outs. Batter strikes out, R1 breaks for second and is thrown out attempting to steal, R3 breaks for home and gets thrown out at the plate. If you're scoring at home (which you're not, or you wouldn't be reading this), it goes as a 2-6-2 triple play -- the first ever. It's also only the 7th triple play since 1900 that started with a strikeout.

Kevin Kouzmanoff made his major league debut for the Indians against the Rangers last night. He was subbing for the injured Travis Hafner who has hit a record-tying 6 grand slams this season. So what did Kouzmanoff do? Hit a grand slam in his first major league game? Better. Hit a grand slam in his first major league at-bat? Better! He hit the very first pitch he saw in the bigs for a grand salami. He's only the third guy ever to hit a grand slam in his first major league at-bat, and the first ever to do it on the first pitch.

Pretty cool stuff to think about now that the Sox have a big fork sticking out of their backs.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but they aren't playing too bad right about now. The ChiSox are a pretty good team. I do agree though that you have a heck of a long way to come back. Believe the Yankees' magic number is 17 -- depending on the outcome of tonight's games.

Being a Phillies' fan, I usually don't have much to say about baseball, but d@mn, you gotta love that Ryan Howard. And even after getting rid of Thome and Abreu, and losing Flash Gordon to injury, we're still over .500.

Oh well, that's it for my baseball posts. NFL starts in about 36 hours, Penn St is at Notre Dame on Saturday, and the Eagles kick-off in 4 days & 5 hours.

I'll watch SportCenter in mid-October to catch up on baseball.

Howard vs. Maris:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

and

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

I've also read several articles questioning whether Ryan Howard is on 'roids also.

Unfortunately, that's the price that MLB and the MLBPA has to pay for their past drug-testing failures and their failure to test for HGH, etc. Under the current system, there will always be doubts. The inquiry/commission that MLB is currently holding is a complete joke too. It's got no power at all, and will be done as soon as everybody forgets about it.

The sad part is that the MLB system is still light-years ahead of the NFL when it comes to testing. The NFL is a complete joke.

Dimitri Young???????
 

Dimitri Young, Mick?

Sumthin' really funny going on there. He went straight from batting in the 3-hole to gonzo. Weird. Or <i>wierd</i>, if you're Chuck.

Personal problems aside, 32 yr.-old Dmitri Young was batting .250 and no power as the DH. The left-handed bat (Young stood on either side of the plate) was nicely replaced by Sean Casey (.276).

Young played a little OF and 1B, but those positions are filled by better fielders and better hitters.

He had a long, fair chance to get to it, but he couldn't come back from his respite and funk apparently.

The Tigers are in an unfamiliar place with their record and the hitters don't hit. The pitching remains solid and seems to be the only plus sign right now.

Leyland has been preaching patience at the plate by waiting for strikes before swinging. The hitters seem to like everything they see.

A 4-game series in Minnesota should tell a tale. I imagine Santana will be there smiling, although Liriano will not.

Sox lose to Kansas City by 6 in extras. 10 behind the Yankees. Thank goodness the Patriots kick off this afternoon. :(

Don't thank "goodness". Thank the Bill's coach; he made your day. Fourth and one on the Pats' seven, with the lead and the momentum, and he goes for it instead if kicking the 3. Dumb.

Yankees are best.
Johan smiles.
Liriano had rest.
Tigers on trial.

<i>Tired of my horse
Tired of my saddle
Tired of rounding up
Sh!tty ol' cattle.</i>

I are a poet too, Mick.:D

Whover pitches best is gonna win the Cental, methinks. Methinks also that the kid pitchers in Detroit look like they're getting a little worn out. Gonna be a real interesting race between the Tigers, Twins and the White Sox. Any two out of those three could make the playoffs.

Personally, I'd like to see your Tigers get in.....especially after the last few years that they had. Their fans deserve it.

September 11th
 

...If I got this correct.

1928 - Ty Cobb hit his last baseball. A pop-up.
1985 - Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's hits record.

Heck of a day for the Yankees. Matsui comes back (which I honestly didn't think he'd do this year) and Abreau (kind of sounds like the character from "The Neverending Story") puts the game away in the first inning.

I love the AL Central. I'm betting on the Sox (of both colors) being left out of the playoffs.

Like I told Rut earlier...Hailley's Comet comes again BEFORE a Chicago team wins it all again.

Liriano's gonna get some more rest, by the look of it. He got taken out in his first game back with the same elbow pain. If the Twins are smart, they'll shut the kid down completely until he heals. He's got too much potential at 22 to screw around with.

Hmmm....will the Twins be smart about handling a player? ...well, maybe. Afterall, they did let Ortiz get away.

Now if Liriano played for the Cubs his career would be over! :eek:

If Liriano played for the Cubs, they already woulda traded him for some broken-down 36-year old.

Twins just announced that Liriano is done for the season. And maybe next year too if he needs Tommy John surgery.

Too bad.

Shades of the Bird
 

Indeed, Liriano's injury is too bad. :(


from
http://espn.go.com/i/classic/bio2.gif
In '76, Bird was the word
By Nick Acocella
Special to ESPN.com


It was over almost before it began. The phenomenon that was Mark Fidrych lasted only one year. But what a season 1976 was for the charismatic Detroit Tigers pitcher known as "The Bird."

...

At the end of the season, Fidrych had a 19-9 record, league-leading figures in ERA (2.34) and complete games (24), a Rookie of the Year award, and the uncommon distinction of having started the All-Star Game as a rookie.

....

http://espn.go.com/classic/biography...rych_Mark.html

Geeze, this reminded me of the bird too.

Hope he can come back next year, hate to see the young ones burn out so soon.

Sure, kick a guy when he's down.

(Just because I'd do the same to you is irrelevent.)

How many young pitchers have been having these types of problems recently? I just don't remember all these issues "back in the good 'ol days". Maybe there's something to be said for pitch counts, and pitchers that don't have all the innings under their belt, might be more suceptable to injury because arms aren't strong enough.

Or, perhaps, maybe they're too strong, and the internal tendons, etc. just haven't caught up to the outside muscles.

Or, maybe kids today are just wimps.

Oh, off the top off my head.......
Kerry Woods, Mark Prior....

That's my point - I consider them part of the crop of young pitchers.

When I'm talking about back in the day, I'm talking about Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Fergie Jenkins, and then even farther back. They didn't have pitch counts, but they also didn't seem to blow out their arms every year. Someone like Fidrych comes along, and it's news when his arm goes out. Now it seems to be news when a pitcher goes through a season without any arm problems.

I really believe that it has to do with the proper teaching of pitching mechanics. Back in the day those guys got solid coaching in the fundamentals. This is why Roger Clemens has never had arm trouble. Look at his mechanics. They are perfect.

Compare that to some of the young pitchers of today: Wood, D. Willis, and now Liriano. They were talking about it on ESPN last night. The arm angle is way out wide and it causes a major strain on the elbow ligaments.

I am too young to have seen or recall "the Bird", but I would guess that he had a funky, long, sweeping delivery.

I would even use Randy Johnson as an example. As big as he is and as hard as he throws, he really has to watch his mechanics.

Red Sox vs. Yankees this weekend and, sadly, it barely registers on the radar. For the first time in about 3 or 4 years, a September match-up with the Yankees really doesn't mean that much. The Yankees magic number is 6, I think, and the chances of overtaking the White Sox and the red-hot Twins for the wild card are pretty slim.

Since I don't really feel like talking about that, how about I update my annual ballpark rankings? The rankings and comments as of last year can be found here: http://forum.officiating.com/showpos...&postcount=288

The list looked like this:

1. Camden Yard
2. PNC (Pittsburgh)
3. Citizens' Bank Park (Philly)
4. Yankee Stadium
5. Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati)
6. Jacobs' Field (Cleveland)
7. Olympic Stadium (Montreal)
8. Shea Stadium

This year we visited Comerica Park in Detroit and Rogers' Centre (formerly SkyDome) in Toronto. Ranking these two was kind of difficult. If you rated them mostly on the ballpark itself, you get a very different result than if you considered the surrounding area and the city.

Comerica is a beautiful park with lots of the "old fashioned" feel that has become popular. We had very good seats, about 20 rows back and even with the first base bag, which were about average price. There's a very cool fountain in center field (although there's a big SUV displayed with it, since it's sponsored by GM). There are tigers sculpted all over the park and the main entrance to the ballpark is framed with giant baseball bats and is guarded by a huge tiger. The food in the park was above average, I thought (my buddy John wasn't as impressed). There was also reasonably priced merchandise, so I could get something for my daughter. We didn't try to move to better seats, b/c ours were already really good. It was also "Negro League" weekend, so the teams wore old uniforms from the era. The Tigers wore the uniforms from the Detroit Stars. I forget which team the Royals wore (maybe the KC Monarchs?) That was pretty cool.

The drawback was that the city of Detroit was -- how shall I put it? -- less than appealing. The hotels in the area were priced very high and the one we were in was horrible. The surrounding area (except for Greektown, which was pretty cool) is 5 square miles of deserted buildings and empty lots. There was very little to do that we could find (except the casinos) and we simply didn't like the city itself.

SkyDome, on the other hand, is a pretty average park in the middle of an amazing city. I'm not a big-city kind of guy, but I could live in Toronto. Museums, castles, amazing history, clean city and friendly people (except the attendant at our parking garage). The most remarkable thing about SkyDome is the retractable roof. We got to the park about 40 minutes before the game and the roof was closed, despite the fact that it was a gorgeous day. Why? Because it was "Bring Your Dog to the Park" Day. They had a parade of dogs along the warning track in the outfield and they were interviewing the dog owners in the parade. I kid you not.

Anyway, when the parade was over, they opened the roof and we got to see it in action. It was VERY cool. The other cool thing about the park is that if you sit on the third base side, the CN Tower rises right behind the ballpark. It was truly an amazing sight. Otherwise, I felt the ballpark was about average. The seats down the lines are not angled toward home plate b/c the stadium is used for multiple events. So we had to crane our necks for the whole game to see the infield action. It was very tough to move to a better seat, as every section is guarded and they take it seriously. The merchandise was pretty good, but the food was average at best. We took the ballpark tour the next morning before we left for home, and it was very good. They let us out into the field and we got to walk around the outfield.

If we were just ranking the ballparks, Comerica would be way ahead of SkyDome. However, taking the town and surrounding areas into account, our updated rankings are:

1. Camden Yard
2. PNC (Pittsburgh)
3. Citizens' Bank Park (Philly)
4. Yankee Stadium
5. Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati)
6. SkyDome
7. Jacobs' Field (Cleveland)
8. Comerica Park
9. Olympic Stadium (Montreal)
10. Shea Stadium

Hope that's interesting to somebody. :)

Frankly I'm surprised Shea stadium shows up on the top 10. Oh well. In a couple of years neither the stadium nor the name will remain.

In any event, and since you don't want to talk about it...the games this weekend will mean something. It will give Joe Torre & staff a chance to get his playoff rotation & bullpen set, and of course get Matsui back up to speed.

Well, we've only been to 10. So they're all in the top 10 so far.

Still a little early for that, isn't it? Next weekend, maybe. As to Matsui, I'm amazed he's back at all; let alone getting up to speed.

That reminds me of an old Manny Sanguillen story. One of his Pirates teammates (might have been Stargell or Clemente) said to him, "You know, Manny, you're the second best looking player on the team."

"Who's the first?" Manny asked.

"The other 24 guys."

Yup, and I disagree.

Surprised?

I've seen most of 'em over the years. The best ballpark imo is Dodger Stadium.Just a beautiful, beautiful place to play ball.

And the Skydome, Olympic Stadium and Shea shouldn't be anywhere near a "best" list. The Skydome and Olympic Stadium are both charmless, concrete monstrosities with fake grass. Shea is built on a garbage dump right in the flightpath of runway 45L.

For sheer nostagia and history, I'd also add add Wrigley Field and Fenway Park in addition to to Dodger Stadium to replace the Skydome, Olympic Stadium and Shea. They're both kinda old and dumpy, but, come to think about it, so am I.

As I mentioned to Dan, you may recall, we've only been to these 10 parks together. So that's why Shea and Olympic Stadia are still in the top 10. When we get to Wrigley, Fenway, and Dodger Stadium, we will undoubtedly add them to the list.

However, there's no guarantee that they will be knocked out of the Top 10 next year, either; as we're probably going to Miami and Tampa. Not high on aesthetics in either place, from what I understand.

Ridiculous !
 

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=section_medium><TD class=black12bold align=left>
Saving hits and runs for one game ain't gonna cut it against the Yankees.
But the Tigers certainly needed a win.





FINAL
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








1
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








2
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








3
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








4
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








5
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








6
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








7
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








8
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








9
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








R
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








H
</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>








E
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=black12bold> Orioles </TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>2</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>9</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>2</TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#cccccc colSpan=13 height=1>http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/clear.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD class=black12bold> Tigers </TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>8</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>6</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>X</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>17</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>19</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

And Minny and the White Sox both lost too, Mick. You had a good night.

The BoSox had a good night too. They were rained out.

There are more than 1 sports facilities called Olympic Stadium?

A quick check of GOOGLE found Olympic Stadia in London, Helsinki, Berlin, Barcelona and West Sheepnuts, Montana.

It's true, it's true.....

West sheepnuts, eh?

Would that be the left or right?

Actually it's just south of Limpdick, Montana.

Ahhh...so since it's SOUTH of Limpdick, the question of which sheepnut we're discussing depends on which direction the sheep happens to be walking. So we need to find out where the ewe's are, right? Assuming it's not Saturday in Montana and the ewe's are not on a date already.

(What do you think the over-under is on these posts being deleted?)

Ewe're wrong.....you're thinking of Wyoming......where men are men and the sheep are nervous.

http://www.sodamnfunny.com/Picture/Animal/datewyom.jpg

Why would anybody delete these posts?:confused: We're giving them a free geography lesson, aren't we?

Only a curmudgeon(gotta look that up sometime) would delete these posts.

Sad!!
 

Pete Rose says <i><b>"I'm sorry that I bet on baseball".</b></i>

And for only a $1000, he'll write that on a ball for you and sign it too.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/st...p-381614c.html

Unbelievable......even for him.

Obviously you haven't been to Safeco Field - the M's might suck, but it's a beautiful ballpark!!

And what was your tip-off?
The fact that it wasn't on his list of ball parks that he attended? :)

I don't get out much, but Milwaukee's Miller Park is comfortably esoteric.
mick

So I've heard. Seattle is a beautiful city.

I saw a game in the Kingdome back in the 80's. You can put that park on the list of concrete monstrosities with fake grass that shoulda been blown up.

Good thing we blew it up then...Qwest Field (Seahawks) and Safeco are right side by side...watched a M's game on a Friay night and then a Hawks pre-season game on Sat. night - both gorgeous facilities!!

Yankees magic number is 1. Matsui's back. Abreau is working out great. Sheffield is going to play 1B once they clinch. I hate to say it, but they look like the favorites to me.

I'm really pulling for Detroit, but they're slipping a little. Oakland never makes it out of the first round. And I think the Twins have worked too hard to get to the playoffs to sustain it. Yanks make the World Series and who's going to beat them in the NL? The Mets? I tend to doubt it. Sad day.

Good going, Chuck !
Keep sending the mojo.
Tigers do have a favorable schedule:
1 game White Sox 89-61
1 game Orioles 66-85
3 games Blue Jays 79-72
6 games Royals 58-93

Remember, the Red Sox slide from contention began by dropping 5 of 6 to the Devil Rays and. . . the Royals. :eek:

Didn't know that.
But, I only said "favorable".:)

Fair enough. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. :)

The 5 straight to the Yankees mighta had a little bit to do with it too.......just a teeny-weeny little bit.

They had already blown the division lead when the Yankees rolled into town. The slide really started with the sweep by Tampa Bay.

They were a game and a half down when the series started. If they had won even one or two, they still woulda been close.

Of course, I really think that the timing of the Sox's injuries killed 'em more than anything else. They had theirs late; the Yankees had theirs early and managed to adjust.

Of course, Manny taking a September vacation didn't help either.:D

GO Yanks! Repeat Mets-Yankees World Series.

That would work, Fred.
I just don't wanna be U.P. all night for a Left Coast thriller. http://www.deephousepage.com/smilies/sleeping10.gif
mick

I think they should play the WS like they do Super Bowl. Un-Biased region and stadium.

That means a warm-weather stadium or a dome. Hmmmmmm.....might be a way to finally get Seattle into a World Series.....watching, not playing of course. :D

I think that they should play the World Series during the day, or early enough that kids under 10 and geezers over 60 will be still awake for more than a coupla innings. It's a heckuva lot warmer during the day too, than at 1:00am.

Uh, oh ...!
 

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=black12bold colSpan=10 height=30>Central</TD></TR><TR><TD class=grey12bold> TEAM</TD><TD class=grey12bold align=right>W </TD><TD class=grey12bold align=right>L </TD><TD class=grey12bold align=right>PCT </TD><TD class=grey12bold align=right>GB </TD><TD class=grey12bold align=right>HOME </TD><TD class=grey12bold align=right>ROAD </TD><TD class=grey12bold align=right>L-10 </TD><TD class=grey12bold align=right>STREAK </TD></TR><TR><TD class=boxscorefooter> Minnesota</TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>90 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>61 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>.596 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>- </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>50-24 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>40-37 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>8-2 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>W-4 </TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#cccccc colSpan=9 height=1></TD></TR><TR><TD class=boxscorefooter> Detroit</TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>91 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>62 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>.595 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>- </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>45-30 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>46-32 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>5-5 </TD><TD class=boxscorefooter align=right>L-1 </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

...But Go Red Sox !
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR height=20><TD class=inside-copy style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 2px" width="50%"> Minnesota 0 vs. Boston 6</TD><TD> Top 8th </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Ah, who cares?

The Gremlins won by 50! :D

Yer all right, Woody.
Must be last year's Coach of the Year is still workin'.

Ok Chuck, here's your "Weird Nugget of the Day":

Last night, according to ESPN, Lance Berkman of the Astros homered (twice)on his birthday. He has now hit a home run, on his birthday, the last 5 years in a row.

Even more amazing to me is the fact that someone knew who holds the major-league record for most number of consecutive years of hitting a home run on their birthday.

Look how Goofus spelled "wierd", Chuck.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.....

Mr. Spelling Guy has severely lowered his intern standards.

Ortiz hit HR #51 and #52 last night. So I'm overlooking the minor spelling errors today. If we sweep Minnesota, we might actually have a shot at the wild card. But I'm not holding my breath.

Give it a try. Hold your breath until the series is over. Might bring good luck to your Sox...who knows?

But that would be cool. I work with a guy in Minny-soda who's been telling me he can't wait for his team of Rooks to beat my bought & paid for team. In fact he's already bought his first round playoff tix, they play NY if wildcard Oakland if not.

Go Birds !
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR height=20><TD class=inside-copy style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 2px" width="50%">Minnesota 1 vs. Baltimore 4</TD><TD> Top 3rd</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Yeah Mick, my friend from Minny-soda didn't have much to say that was good about Dee-troit either.

I'll not disparage Minnesota.
I was born there. :)

Go Rocky

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=5><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=black16bold align=left width="50%">Seattle 8</TD><TD class=black16bold align=right width="50%">Chicago White Sox 6</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD>http://images.usatoday.com/sports/ba...a/mariners.gif</TD><TD width=10>http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/clear.gif</TD><TD align=middle><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=section_medium><TD class=black12bold align=left> </TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>1</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>2</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>3</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>4</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>5</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>6</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>7</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>8</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>9</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>R</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>H</TD><TD class=black12bold align=middle width=25>E</TD></TR><TR><TD class=black12bold> Mariners </TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>6</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle> </TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle> </TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>8</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>14</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#cccccc colSpan=13 height=1>http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/clear.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD class=black12bold> White Sox </TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>1</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>2</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>2</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>0</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle> </TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle> </TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>6</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>6</TD><TD class=black11bold align=middle>2</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD><TD width=10>http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/clear.gif</TD><TD align=right>http://images.usatoday.com/sports/ba...a/whitesox.gif</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Everything's dropping for ya, Mick.

Magic number for a playoff spot is only 2 now.