baseball Page 447 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Yet Another Reason To Hit Jeff Kent
That's a part deep inside all of us, we must admit, that wonders if athletes are secretly basing the outcomes of their games not on whether or not their team wins, but whether or not it affects their fantasy team. We've all thought it....
Obviously, Joe Torre Was The Problem All Along
And so there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth in Yankee Land, as you probably expected. Word on the street is that manager Joe Torre is as good as out, and that Lou Piniella — yow — is in. Seems rather rash to us, but what do we know? Only what we read in the papers ... and in various Yankees...
Albert Pujols, In A Proud And Photogenic Moment
We're as pleased as anyone by the Cardinals' series-clinching victory over the Mets Padres last night, but, honestly, they really shouldn't allow still cameras to take pictures of the postgame celebrations. They inevitably lead to photographs that are, well, uncomfortable to look at. (Though we appr...
The Happy Italian Vegetarian Lawyer Genius Elf
As we celebrate our Cardinals' advancement to the National League Championship Series, we are reminded once again, from this photo, that no one knows how to party like Tony LaRussa....
Live Playoff Blog: Twins Vs. A's, Game Three
Say what you will about this little postseason tournament, but we've learned one thing: When you're in the ALDS that doesn't feature the Yankees, you play a heckuva lot of day games. This is Game 3 of the A's-Twins series, and we've now live-blogged all three of them. We know these teams a little ...
Oh, It Never Rains In Southern California
"All right Chief, you're our last chance." That's Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest, in which his character, Randall McMurphy, tries to urge a fellow insane asylum inmate to cast the deciding vote so that the ward can watch the Dodgers-Yankees World Series game on TV. That bid failed....
Tommy Lasorda Is Not "Smart"
Big ups to Sports By Brooks, which has unearthed a gem of an audio clip: Our pal Tommy Lasorda absolutely freaking out on a radio host for, uh, pointing out that he was sleeping during a baseball game earlier this year....
Live Playoff Blog: Padres Vs. Cardinals, Game 2
All right, so after doing this live blog of a Cardinals game thing on Tuesday, it's pretty clear now that our hearts can't take it. It's difficult enough for us to survive watching these games; we can't actually be expected to type about them. Therefore, we're handing over the live-blogging chores t...
9-4-2-2 DP? 2 U? 9-4-2 DP? What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
We might be the only person on earth who cares about this, but earlier, we wondered aloud how in the world a scorer — if you were, ahem, the type of dork who brings a scorebook to baseball games — would possibly handle that bizarre "double-play" during the Mets-Dodgers game. 2 Unassisted? 9-4-2? 9...
Live Playoff Blog: Yankees Vs. Tigers, Game 2
Seriously, we can't imagine a worse rainout scenario for fans than this one: Rather than a late-night Wednesday game, you have a Thursday game at 1 p.m. Imagine being at the game last night, at 9:30, thinking it might start, then learning they've cancelled it and you have about 13 hours to get home ...
Eric Byrnes Showed Up To The Set On Time, At Least
All right, so we understand that it's kind of cool to be able to active athletes on your studio preview shows during the postseason, because they're not playing anymore and don't have much to do. The Blue Jays' Vernon Wells was on a couple of days ago, and we enjoyed him, though it was odd to watch ...
Time To Get Your Taste Of Lasorda Love
In case you haven't been paying attention, a very old man is demanding that you cancel your plans this weekend to stay home and watch the baseball playoffs. It's Tommy Lasorda, of course. You know, the guy who decided to pitch to Jack Clark in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1985 NLCS. Suddenly he...
The Playoffs Are Already Wearing Us Out
We personally know four people who stood in the rain at Yankee Stadium for two-plus hours last night, with it not even raining particularly hard, only to learn that there would be no game. That's particularly unpleasant because it was rescheduled for today at 1 p.m., and it's a lot easier to make an...
Live Playoff Blog: Mets Vs. Dodgers, Game One
This is John Maine, and, so it's known, he's really not a bad pitcher. (Why did everyone act like El Duque was somehow Johan Santana, anyway? You know he's about 84 years old, right? Plus, now the Mets have Oliver Perez on their roster, so what could possibly go wrong?)...
Live Playoff Blog: Twins Vs. A's, Game Two
It seems strange to have a 1 p.m. start the day after the same two teams played at the same time the day before, but hey, it's Minnesota. Those folks should feel lucky ESPN's even showing their game!...
Where, Oh Where, Is Sidd Finch When The Mets Need Him?
As the Mets, just four hours away from their first playoff games, continue to wonder who the heck is supposed to pitch these darned playoff games — it's John Maine, by the way — our attention is turned to a reference we always find irresistable: Maybe Sidd Finch should pitch!...
The Day After For The 0-1 Teams
One of the joys of writing about sports on the Web is how every day is a little more important than it would be if glimpsed from a wider perspective. Fortunately, during the baseball postseason, there is no wider perspective: Everything matters in every possible moment. (If you don't believe us, ask...
Live Playoff Blog: Padres Vs. Cardinals, Game 1
You know, it's absolutely perverse that we are expected to sit here and live-blog a Cardinals playoff game. How, exactly, does one spell a primal scream of pain? Last year, during the NLCS, we realized that we were literally running back and forth, stomping our feet, howling at the television screen...
Playoffs Pants Party: Mets Vs. Dodgers
All told, we'd rather listen to "I Love LA" for the five-millionth time than "Our Team, Our Mets." This is probably the most intriguing series of the four, with teams from the two largest media markets in the country, which is probably why it starts on at 4 in the afternoon....
Live Playoff Blog: Twins Vs. A's, Game One
Well, all right, we did this last year, so let's rev it up again. We know you're stuck at work while there's a freaking playoff game on, and we know that, at times like this, the MLB GameCast isn't quite enough....