Even a blind squirrel stumbles on an acorn once in awhile.

Go Cubs.

I was thinking today: in musical terms, the game Jimmy Rollins played today - and all year - was a perfect example of Winner Rock!

Mr. Mod, you should be proud! After all, your team has had the uncontested lead in its division since April 18, shares the best record in the league with Cleveland, has the only 20-game pitcher of the season and didn't require the great good luck of their division rivals suffering probably the single greatest late-season choke in baseball history.

Oh, wait, that's my team. Well, yours is good too.

I'm not advocating this or anything, and I do hope I'm wrong, but I think there is at least a 20% chance that Tom Glavine is going to commit suicide in the next 72 hours. That was one of the most shocking on-the-mound flameouts I have ever seen in my life.

Great One, I'm going to be in Boston around the time of the World Series. Maybe we can luck out on tix to a Red Sox-Phils game at Fenway. I mean REALLY luck out!

The scary thing is that the same could have happened to Moyer. Both Glavine and Moyer need to be able to pitch "on the black". If the ump is not calling those pitched strikes, it's meat city for the hitters. Especially for Moyer whose fastball tops out in the low-80's. Fortunately, Moyer was getting those calls.

Go Phils!

Even a blind squirrel stumbles on an acorn once in awhile.

Go Cubs

No screw the Cubs and their hapless, 85-win season. It's a travesty that they made the playoffs while not only the Mets, but one team out of Colorado or San Diego (who'll both end up with a better record anyway) won't. I mean all those teams won at least 3 more games this season.

And yes, I'm bitter. Then again, the way the Mets played in the last few weeks, it's almost for the best that they didn't make the playoffs since they didn't deserve to be there.

Well, the good news is that somebody from the NL has to go to the World Series, and there's no reason that can't be the Phillies, obviously.

I still think the Nats are due something after the way they took care of the Mets for you. Why they even went so far as to give your two important lefties undue confidence.

How 'bout if we reserve 4 seats for the Nats at Wednesday's playoff opener?

I'd pass if I were them. Your guys couldn't hit MATT CHICO. He's about the only guy who throws slower than Moyer who's under 40 and doesn't pitch underhanded. And he doesn't have a decent change-up either. Imagine Tom Glavine without control or a good change-up (recent history should be enough) and you have it.

Give us another 110 years and we could lose 10,000 games and maybe win one championship...

Seriously, it's fine for you to do your crowing now, after missing the wild thang tobacco spit'n nails razor forgetting crew, who let some team from ANOTHER COUNTRY win our World Series for the second time in a row - while YOU were conspicuously out of the country. I mean, no one's blaming you - yet. I've got to go with the Cubs or Rockies, they've been waiting longer. Not that I'm willing to apply this to the Indians, because let's just face it, Chief Wahoo is an asshat mascot only rivaled by the ill-informed backward nature of their fans. Compared to that, your big furry snot with a new year's noisemaker is a genius and your fans probably know a few guys on your team and realize Thome doesn't play first anymore.

San Diego sports: the not ready for prime time players.

sammy, are you from chicago?

Padres, you let me down! Now my boys have to face the HGH-fed mashers from Colorado. I noticed last night that every one of their players has the exact same build. Coincidence? Scouting? Science? I say time will tell it's science.

Yes, I'm preparing my beefs of a possible Phils loss in advance. Speaking of beef, those Rockies fans all look like they stepped out of an expensive steakhouse. No offense to steakhouse diners or guys in polo shirts with combovers and mustaches, mind you. There was a fan in the stands holding a banner that read "Bring on the Cubs!" I think it's important to note, Rockies fan, that the Cubs are being brought to Arizona. Who are these Rockies fans? The Great 48, you've lived just about everywhere in these United States: do tell!

Anyhow, I'm seeing a run of 10-9 barnburners. I'm seeing Tom Gordon and LaTroy Hawkins cough up late-inning leads for their respective teams. I'm seeing Todd Helton continue to hit .500 against Phillies pitching. I'm seeing a bunch of baseball neophyte fans celebrating in their steakhouses. I'm sensing the heartache I felt watching the Carolina Panthers fans celebrate awkwardly when they knocked the Eagles out on their run toward the Super Bowl a few years back.

Go Phils!

Great game. Holliday never touched home though. Christ but it takes McClelland forever to call anything. I wonder if the other umpires order food for him so they can get to their hotel by dawn.

That Rockies guy with the banner had some chutzpah picking his championship series opponent already. He must still be at work when the real baseball is being played. Either that or they serve something besides Coors Light at that park, you know, like actual beer.

I was at the game on Sunday at Citizen's Bank Park (damn, I hate that sports arenas are now named after banks and pet food companies. I really think that sucks. Why couldn't it be "Richie Ashburn Field" or something like that?). What a wild ride. I haven't been that excited since the 1980 season (I was living out of the US in 93 so I missed that.)

I'm trying to remain calm, but it HAS been 8,898 days since the last sports championship in Philadelphia. We are about due.

That must have been wild, moi! I, too, was out of the country in '93. I can't wait to see my first playoff game - in person - this Thursday!!! I was too short on cash and contacts - not to mention too short on the patience required to camp out for tickets - during the great '70s/early '80s runs.

Cool! I'll be there Thursday as well... standing, but there!

Moi

Who are these Rockies fans? The Great 48, you've lived just about everywhere in these United States: do tell!

Couldn't tell you, mate. The Rockies postdate my years in north-central Colorado.

However, I *will* tell you that the reason Rockies players hit a shitload of dingers is that Coors Field was deliberately designed to be a hitter's park. Remember, it was built just before the whole McGwire/Sosa thing, when they thought more home runs was the way to save baseball.

"Shitload of Dingers" will be the title of my next album, incidentally.

Who are these Rockies fans? The Great 48, you've lived just about everywhere in these United States: do tell!

Rockies fans like to complain about the loss of a right to "privacy." After leaving the Steakhouse, they say, "Too many people have moved here. It really disrupts my privacy." Of course, they themselves have only moved there within the last several years.

No shit.

Rockies fans could get some privacy at games - they're far down the list in attendence and percentage of seats filled. Arizona is almost as bad. Chicago and Philly have no problem getting fannies in the seats. Hooray for the new parks, why, even with playoff teams, those expansion cities suck. Damn, I wish I had checked out some games at those places, probably a lot of elbow room and short beer lines.

However, I *will* tell you that the reason Rockies players hit a shitload of dingers is that Coors Field was deliberately designed to be a hitter's park.

That, combined with the thinner air at a mile high.

The Rockies are a team built for success in their home park, where even good pitchers lose an edge on their pitches in the high thin air.

Which is why the Phils, with home field advantage, should win this one. I'm thinking a Phillies-Diamondbacks NL Championship series is likely.

I've always thought the whole thin air thing was bogus. I'd like to see some real research on this.

BigSteve: After a childhood spent in Boulder and a young adulthood in Albuquerque (which is actually higher in elevation than Denver), I assure you that it's not bogus, but I personally don't think it has anything to do with pitching. Where it'll screw you up is in the baserunning.

While Denver is not itself quite high enough to bring on altitude sickness (you really need to be up over 6000 feet for that to kick in -- my visiting friends always used to get sick if I took them up to Sandia Peak near ABQ, once to the point of vomiting rather spectacularly off a cliff), it IS high enough that if you're not used to the lesser amount of oxygen in the air, you're gonna get winded more easily. So it's a definite disadvantage for runners and fielders, far more than the probably tiny disadvantage that pitchers have.

Watch a Broncos home game sometime: the visiting team side always has oxygen masks on it.

I wasn't clear. I didn't mean that I doubted that the air was thinner. What I question is that this thin air somehow offers less resistance to a hit ball resulting in more homeruns. Before there was a team in Denver, Atlanta was the highest altitude ballpark in MLB, and they used to make the same claim about 'the launching pad.'

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhighaltbaseball.html - one take on The Science of Coors Field, from 2002. All I really took from it is that Philadelphia has “more gravity” than Denver, so we’ve got that going for us, at least.

Beyond Peavy having to go on Monday, I was kinda also hoping for the Padres to advance for the added bonus of an opportunity to question Khalil Greene’s Look.

Here's the relevant section of that article to my argument:

"Undoubtedly Coors Field is a hitter's park, but there's more to it than just the fact that a batted ball goes farther in the thinner air. Pitchers are at a distinct disadvantage because they lack the same degree of control there. All pitches that depend on the aerodynamic properties of the spinning baseball (and that's most of them), are harder to throw well. The curve ball, for example, will curve only about two-thirds as much in Denver's thinner air. Balls batted toward right or left field, because they pick up sidespin when hit, tend to curve toward the outside by several tens of feet for the same reason that curve balls curve (the Magnus effect). Again, at higher elevation, the effect is weaker, so many balls that would curve foul at sea level stay fair in Denver. Another factor to consider is that a ball of a given distance doesn't stay in the air as long in thinner air, so a fielder doesn't have as much time to get to it.

But none of this would seem to give the Rockies an unfair advantage in terms of winning games, since their opponents have the same advantages and disadvantages when playing at Coors Field. The only real concern is that the thin air will make Rockies batters look better than they really are, and pitchers look worse than they really are."

Pitchers who are especially about pinpoint placement lose their edge on that field.

But I would add, re that second quoted paragraph, that the Rockies "unfair advantage" at home would come from how they build the team to fit the environment: stocking your team with fastball pitchers and longball hitters would give you an advantage in Colorado home games.

I guess I just find it hard to believe that the differences in air density could have that profound an effect on the path of a 5 ounce ball. But then there was a time when people thought the curve ball was an optical illusion.

As the Phils get down 3-0 after the Rockies' second at-bat, I DO miss the opportunity to discuss Khalil Greene's Look. My wife saw him the other day and said, "Why is a girl playing?"

What's greatest about Greene is his absolutely blank at all times expression. That's not a girl, that's a mannequin.

I guess I just find it hard to believe that the differences in air density could have that profound an effect on the path of a 5 ounce ball.

They tested this on a baseball themed MythBusters and found it to have a significance of something like 15%.

Also tested- corking your bat does nothing at best and actually makes it worse. No such thing as a rising fastball and it is not possible for a human to hit the skin off a baseball.

I saw it on TV so it has to be true.

*ahem*

YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUK!

Thank you.

*ahem*

Papi, bitches! Suck on THAT, Los Anaheim Angels Of The Greater Southern California Metro Area!

Thank you.

Who's an Angels fan? Just because some of us are SoCal, we're automatically Angels fans? That's some sort of baseball-bigotry. Kind of what I'd expect from the city that treated Jackie Robinson so poorly. OUCH!

Go Cubs.

Eh, I just felt like gloating a bit, what with our boy Beckett pitching a complete game in less than two and a half hours and all.

Incidentally, what did "the city" have to do with Jackie Robinson? "The city" wasn't the general manager of the Sox at the time, an avowed racist named Pinky Higgins was.

From the Wikipedia:

On April 22, 1947, during a game between the Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies, Phillies players called Jackie a "nigger" from their dugout, and yelled that he should "go back to the cotton fields." In fact the entire city of Philadelphia participated as did their descendents and everyone that lives there to this day.

Playoffs Game Two: Whose backs can be said to be "against the wall"? Perhaps only those teams who lost an opening game at home?

The opening-game loss for the Phillies was the best thing that could have happened to them. They will come out mashing the ball today. I still feel they will not be able to match the Rockies' firepower over this 5-game series, but yesterday's loss was the key to today's coming victory and the difference between a 4-game elimination and a more heart-wrenching 5-game one.

Mr. Mod is at today's game, yes?

I pity the phool.

I was there. I pretty much lost my voice after 2 innings. The game started out with great enthusiasm and optimism from the phans. Then Manuel wouldn't let Kendrick work out of a jam that Manuel, in part, created. Then Lohshe came in too early to give up a grand slam to Kaz Matsui! Then Jose Mesa came in to great boos and more hits and runs. Mesa bugs me to no end. I was part of the loud "Mesa sucks!" chant that broke out. An older gentleman next to me was highly annoyed with us all. "The series is lost," he said. I agreed, thinking he meant the likelihood that the Phils were going down 2-0. He said, "No. They can't be expected to play with the home crowd booing them." Well, I was booing Mesa. I'd boo him on whatever team he was on in whatever situation. All in all, we had a lot of fun. It's only a game.

He said, "No. They can't be expected to play with the home crowd booing them."

Erm...he said this in Philadelphia? Home of a football team that's LUCKY if all the fans do is boo?

I can maybe see booing your own team at home when the season is starting to go down the tubes and especially when the team is not only playing badly but seems not to be trying. Or maybe if management has made decisions so bad as to indicate a lack of respect for the fans.

But in the playoffs? When you're on the edge of heading out of town 0 - 2 in a five-game series? There's no percentage in that.

Let's get this straight, BigSteve: I was booing Mesa. I boo him consistently. He's a mercenary in the worst sense of the word. I also booed the quick hook of Kendrick. In this case, I booed a decision by a manager. Again, I consistently boo the quick, pointless hook. The third time I booed was when Ryan Howard got picked off third. That was simply an emotional boo, with no great rationale to support it. I felt guilty about that particular boo. My guess is that most Philly sports fans understand these subtleties.

By the way, in one of his countless promos on sports-talk radio stations and pregame shows, Peter Tork was asked what's a more pressure-filled situation, singing in front of a large crowd or playing baseball in front of one. He immediately said that he imagined playing sports would be tougher because people boo poor performances in sports. In music, he said the fans cheer for you if they like your performance or if they ever liked your performances. Pretty funny.

Most of the crowd at a stadium-sized music show can't even hear the music that well, and they're still cheering.

Two comments about baseball Look issues I've witnessed this evening:

1. God bless Cal Ripken for a.) being a well informed commentary guy, and (to the point at hand) b.) for dressing like an approachable member of the rural Maryland landed gentry, which is what he is. No funky-ass collars, euro-trash double-windsor tie knots; he looks like he's on his way to an Aberdeen Kiwanis pancake breakfast. Bravo!

2. Thank you, BoSox, for eschewing the new wave in batting helmets -- you know, the ones with racing vents, faux aerodynamic flanges (stupid!) and, for all I know, built-in laser beams, sirens and GPS devices. Boston's helmets are old, plain and beat to shit. Bravo!

Jim, I want to know what you think of these thoughts of mine. I know you care.

HVB

p.s.: Coco Crisp?!

Great games tonight. A couple of Look issues ... Manny's dreads obviously. How long will they get before he cuts them? Is he a rasta?

And how about that composite pullover thingy Mike Scioscia wears rain or shine, win or lose?

And I get SO tired of the announcers and commentators using nicknames like Big Papi and Coco Crisp every single fucking time they refer to these players. Occasionally would be ok, but come on, say their real names.

And I'm sorry, but they shouldn't have baseball at that ballpark in Cleveland if they can't control the insects.

Manny's Look is terrible! And you're right about Scioscia's pullover. Francona's big on that thing too. There was an article in August that a friend sent me about Francona getting a warning from the league about him wearing that thing without his jersey underneath.

Cal Ripken is the John Mellencamp of baseball announcers. Every time he's on camera, he looks like he's auditioning for a role as Mr. Real American. I've never liked that guy's image, I have to admit. But he could be governor of Maryland one day though: don't rule it out.

Manny's always had that sloppy, I don't give a shit look, like he's half asleep at the plate. Guess he wasn't though, last night.

I thought Coco Crisp's name WAS Coco Crisp. Enlighten me here, please.

From espn.com:

Proper Name: Covelli Loyce Crisp

Moddie, I am now *OFFICIALLY* with you on this Phillies thing. Not only does the team avoid the horrors of the 21st-century, Web-enabled batting HelmeTron 2000, they've also got the good fashion sense to eschew the faux-cardigan sweater vests sported by their cheeseball opponents. Go Phils!

Amen to that, Bakshi.

HBV, your OFFICIAL adoption of my Phillies platform means a lot not only to me but to my city.

Great games tonight. A couple of Look issues ... Manny's dreads obviously. How long will they get before he cuts them? Is he a rasta?

And I get SO tired of the announcers and commentators using nicknames like Big Papi and Coco Crisp every single fucking time they refer to these players. Occasionally would be ok, but come on, say their real names.

1. I believe it's a different kind of superstition than Rastafarianism, more like "We'reinfirstplacesodon'tgetahaircutism."

2. Coco Crisp's nickname was bestowed by his parents, not by announcers, and it is the name he uses both personally and professionally. See also the former governor or Massachusetts and the GOP's likely presidential nominee for 2008, Willard Romney.

Can I suggest that we find a new heading under which to continue these important postseason comments? It could be that the "Phinally" thread gives unintentional pain to some blog readers.

Red Sox looked monstrous in the first round; they've got to be the definite favorites at this point, especially given home field advantage.

I'm imagining a Mr. and Mrs. Berry somewhere naming their athletically gifted son Francis Norman, with obvious consequences for baseball announcers.