WARNING!! It's the 2012 Annual Baseball Thread!! Open at your own risk!!

[grunewar]

Keith Hernandez shaves his mustache

[grunewar]

Here's one for you Chuck:

Top of the first inning, Nats vs Cards. Bases loadad, Michael Morse at the plate. He hits a deep ball that appears to go over the 8' fence and hit a wall behind it for a HR. Umps unsure as the ball hit the wall and is now on the field. Morse gets thrown out between first and second as he was jogging the bases as if it was a HR. Harper scored, but Zimmerman and LaRoche stay on their respective bases (third and second).

Umps go to the back to review the replay......the umps come back and declare it a HR. Here's the kicker. The Umps send everyone back to the their original bases and send Morse back to the plate where, without a bat, he fakes like he's hitting the ball over the fence, and now everyone scores as they recreate the play without a bat or ball. Nat's lead 4-0.

Never seen anything like it. Wild.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...yamlb_tormlb_1

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by grunewar

The Umps send everyone back to the their original bases and send Morse back to the plate where, without a bat, he fakes like he's hitting the ball over the fence, and now everyone scores as they recreate the play without a bat or ball.

According to the NFHS, beginning in 2013-14, all correctable errors in basketball games will be decided by replaying the error without using an actual basketball.

[Lcubed48]

Congrats to Grunewar and all other Nats fans for your team winning the NL East.

[DLH17]

Cards starting to play very well at the right time....have won 11 of 14 going into tonight's action at home versus the Reds. Will clinch a playoff berth with a win and a LAD loss.

Carp vs Latos tonight.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by DLH17

Cards starting to play very well at the right time....have won 11 of 14 going into tonight's action at home versus the Reds.

They have a very potent lineup. As I recall when they were in town not too long ago, six of their first seven batters were hitting over .300......and the one that wasn't was in the high .290's!

Nat's don't want to see them again that's for sure!

Of course my team is not playing terribly well at the moment. I think the pressure is getting to them. Hope I'm wrong.

[Lcubed48]

Originally Posted by grunewar

They have a very potent lineup. As I recall when they were in town not too long ago, six of their first seven batters were hitting over .300......and the one that wasn't was in the high .290's!

Nat's don't want to see them again that's for sure!

Of course my team is not playing terribly well at the moment. I think the pressure is getting to them. Hope I'm wrong.

The Redbirds have indeed finished on a high note. Now, it's on to Atlanta and the Bravos. One game at a time.
As far as the Nats are concerned, I think that now that they've clinched the pressure is off.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

According to the NFHS, beginning in 2013-14, all correctable errors in basketball games will be decided by replaying the error without using an actual basketball.

Excellent. That one gave me a laugh.

Now I'm hoping that the O's win, the Yanks lose, and the A's win. That would cause a one-game play-off for the AL East, which I would hope that the O's win, forcing the Yanks and Rangers into a one-game Wild-Card play-off.

Imagine the A's and O's sitting back waiting while those two have to play!

[BillyMac]

Marlins? Adam Greenberg strikes out in first MLB at-bat in seven years - thestar.com

(He's a Connecticut kid.)

[Lcubed48]

It's finally over! Go Teddy!!

Teddy wins! Nationals mascot finally ends 525-race losing streak - Yahoo! Sports

[Welpe]

How about that finish in the AL West? The A's came from 13 games back at one point and after the last day, stand alone on top.

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by grunewar

Here's one for you Chuck. . . The Umps send everyone back to the their original bases and send Morse back to the plate where, without a bat, he fakes like he's hitting the ball over the fence, and now everyone scores as they recreate the play without a bat or ball. Nat's lead 4-0.

I saw that on SportsCenter. Very strange. I guess there had been some concern that one of the runners had passed another runner in the original confusion? So instead of possibly counting a run erroneously or having to call the guy out, they did the pantomime routine. I really hope that they didn't require him to act out the swing. I'm guessing he did that part on his own. Either way, like you, I've never seen anything like it. Kind of funny.

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by Lcubed48

It's finally over! Go Teddy!!

Teddy wins! Nationals mascot finally ends 525-race losing streak - Yahoo! Sports

That's really fun. It makes me wonder if that was their plan all along (to have him win when the Nats finally won the division, even if it took 20 years), or if somebody just had the thought, "wouldn't it be a great time to break the streak?".

Who was the character that took out the other three Presidents? At first, I thought it was the Philly Phanatic, but it's clearly not him. His nose fell off!!

[ChuckElias]

No mention of the Triple Crown? I know in this sabremetric era, RBIs aren't supposed to count for anything and OBP is more important that batting average, but come on! Nobody has won all three categories in 45 years!!

Congratulations to Miguel Cabrera. This has to get the MVP, right? I know they like to talk about Ted Williams winning it twice and not getting the MVP, but look who he lost to. (Although one of those times, a NYC writer left Williams completely off his ballot, which was indefensible. He was just trying to rig the voting for DiMaggio, and it worked.)

And while it pains me to see somebody overtake a Red Sox legend in the record books, at least I can think about Yaz's great '67 season and the Impossible Dream team, instead of this year's pathetic excuse for a team.

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by Welpe

How about that finish in the AL West? The A's came from 13 games back at one point and after the last day, stand alone on top.

If only it was covered in the media with the same fervor as last year's Chicken and Beer fiasco. Texas has pretty much gotten a pass nationally for the last month, although now there will be plenty of "Huh?? What happened?" analysis.

I'm actually really looking forward to these one-game play-ins tomorrow. While on a philosophical basis, I'm against diluting the field of playoff teams, I'm glad that they've come up with a way to reward the division winners. It should be harder for the wild cards to advance in the playoffs.

And I would also love to see an O's/Nats World Series.

BTW, can anybody believe what Dan Duquette -- former Boston GM, and then out of baseball completely for about 10 years -- has done with the O's. I'm amazed that he's been successful after being away from the game for so long. I'm sure he wasn't completely cut off from baseball information, but still. . .