The title is why Moffat starts threads and I don't.

What, no Suppan Sandwich deal from Tim Horton's?

I knew my diehard South Park fandom would pay off someday.

/Can't wait to see Team America: World Police

Play Ball.. Who do I want to win. I want them to beat each other to
pulp and go 7 games.

Whoever wins loses to the Cards. Yes..........

Although I don't really like TLR, I'm rooting for the Cards to win the World Series. I don't think the Astros can take the Yankees, but the Cards should have a good shot.

Yeah Moffat , have the Cards win the WS in 7 games with a pitch hit grand slam with 2 outs in the 9th and a count of 3-2. That would really drive George crazy.

I'm rooting for a Cards win too, although I don't really like Chris Carpenter. I have no beef with La Russa.

And, I think that a 4-game sweep in which the Cards outscored the Yankees 27-6 would drive George crazier. Or at least devastate him more.

Yeah Moffat , have the Cards win the WS in 7 games with a pitch hit grand slam with 2 outs in the 9th and a count of 3-2. That would really drive George crazy.

That would be good.

I'd actually prefer the Yanks get swept in four straight with an average score of around 10-2 for the Cards. :)

I don't like Chris Carpenter either. And I have absolutely no idea why.

Have I ever mentioned how much I miss Dan Schulman?

If Schulman isn't the best in the business he's at least pretty close.

Larrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry!

Walker goes deep. Sounds like deep center.

1-0 Cards. 1 out. Top 1st.1

3-1 Astros after 1.

Could this end up being the highest scoring LCS ever?

This has to be one of the most offensively-stacked LCS's, at least in my memory; the exact opposite could be said about the pitching.

I am a big Parker and Stone fan and Team America is not without some hilarious moments, but overall I was extremely disappointed by it. Perhaps my expectations were what ruined the film for me---I was expectig a strong political satire liberally sprinkled with dick and fart jokes, but the film is essentially an action movie spoof with puppets. Give me Cannibal!: The Musical, South Park: BLU or even Orgazmo over Team America: World Police.

As for the game, what a better way to spend a snowy, cold Saturday afternoon than watching the Astros and Cardinals. Stupid Smarch weather.

Man these announcers on FOX suck! Joe Buck is real good but McCarver's act is getting old.

Bring back the old NBC team of Costas, Morgan, and Bob Uecker. Uecker is hilarious and knows the game.
Costas has a good voice for big games.
Anybody know why NBC stopped doing baseball??

Because they got outbid by Fox.

haha
thanks moffatt. it was a rhetorical question though.

but don't you think that costas, morgan and uecker were good?

Absolutely. I love Bob Uecker.

Didn't McCarver used to be better? Has he been watching too many New York games, has he been somehow corrupted by playing to that audience? Five years ago, ten years ago, wasn't he pretty good?

Uecker has a good time - he seems to think that baseball is fun - and I sure do like that in a broadcaster.

I find Joe Morgan better on TV than in print - well, if he says something dumb on TV, time passes, you can forget about it, something else gets said... I think Al Leiter is much better, and I'm a little surprised at how good Leiter has been. Its not like he's got a lot of broadcast experience. Was last year his first time?

Is anyone old enough to remember Howard Cosell doing baseball?

This is going to get me outed of the Primer Club, but I quite like Morgan. When he's talking about things from the player's point of view (why a pitcher threw a change-up with that count, etc.) or when he's telling stories about guys he used to play with/against he's the best in the business. When he gets into strategy and general management issues, he's terrible. I guess what I'm saying is Joe Morgan is amazing when he's trying to be Joe Morgan, and awful when he's trying to be Earl Weaver.

The 3 man system only works if you have 3 guys that compliment each other. Steve Lyons, is well, a goofball who would be better served hosting "Buzz" than being a colourman. (not that "buzz" is a bad show at all.)

Thom Brenneman is pretty good and so is Brenly, so I guess its just Lyons who screws it up.

Man oh man would it be nice to have Shulman and Buck doing TV in these games. Having Dan and Buck do the NLCS would even up my interest level with the BoSox Yanks series. Right now the NLCS needs some heat to compete with Boston and New York. Not saying that this series has been a dissapointment so far at all.

Some of the national FOX baseball play by play guys are voices of their respective teams on Fox Sports Net during the reg season.

Joe Buck-St Louis
Josh Levin- Texas
Thom Brenneman?- hmmm anybody know?

When he gets into strategy and general management issues, he's terrible.

Yes, and he does way too much of it in his columns. Probably thinks its expected of him...

The 3 man system only works if you have 3 guys that compliment each other.

They do way too much complimenting each other, and not enough complementing each other. :-)

And Steve Lyons complements nothing anyway...

But now that you mention it, its probably one of the reasons someone like Leiter was able to step in right away and do a good job. Whereas Martinez and Cerutti, as the second guy in a 2 man system, both needed a few years to get up to running speed.

Joe Buck has been doing the playoffs for several years now, at least. I'm pretty sure he's not been brought in especially because of St. Louis' presence.

The game's started, and if you go to MLB's website, there's a link where you can watch the entire game, with commentary, from Fox's diamond cam. The video quality's not bad, and it's an interesting angle to see things from. Plus, if luck goes my way, I'll be able to see Jorge Posada stomp on it again.

The most annoying thing about FOX? The bench shots.

In the first half-inning alone, FOX cut to a shot of Joe Torre in the dugout approximately 10,000,000 times. Why do we need to look at Joe Torre grimace after every pitch? I don't care.

Annoys the piss out of me.

The rest of the coverage looks great though. For some reason, the video quality seems about twice as good as usual tonight. The pitch trajectory seems much clearer than normal to me.

Is anyone old enough to remember Howard Cosell doing baseball?

Yup, and his "coital call" in "Everything you always wanted to know...".

Yep.
Joe Buck has been there since 96. He did the 96,98,2000,2001,2002,2003
and will do the 2004

I don't know if it was posted earlier in Da'Box but I just read an interesting article about closers on BA. At first it takes a look at the 8 playoff-closers then it analyses a few minor league pitchers wgo clould become closers in the majors including Brandon League, Street and that other Speier from Colorado ( what are the chnces of having two relieve pitchers from one org. named Speier?).
readable Stuff. COMN

Did McCarver just say that Bellhorn led the ML in strikeouts?

The same year Adam Dunn set a new all-time record?

Hard to do.

WooHoo, Boston's first lead thanks to Manny

Nice clutch error by Mr. Clutch. Maybe when they call him Mr.Clutch they mean he helps out the other team in clutch situations.

I hope Boston can make this series a close one. They have some great character players like Nixon, and I'd love to seem them pull out a couple of wins (or more).

On a different note--Beltran is just amazing.

Man, the announcers kept going on and on and on and on....about how Jeter shouldn't have got the error. ugh.

Granted, it was a hard play, but he should have had it

Did McCarver just say that Bellhorn led the ML in strikeouts?

I thought that he said that he led the League in strikeouts, referring to the AL. What bugged me was that they didn't mention that he was third in the AL in walks.

Mr. Clutch has just been supplanted by arod...wow that was a bomb

And now both starters are gone after 2 innings.

MENDOZA!

Oh come on. Thanks alot Howie.

How dare you compare Tom Brady to Jeter. I'm sure every Boston sports fan is writing him a death threat as we speak.

Dale Sveum just struck again! Oh man, what a great moment that was.

I'm getting tired of hearing FOX refer to this as "the greatest rivalry in sports." Not only is the claim false, -- a rivalry suggests a mutual hatred on both sides; here, it's basically a case of Boston bitterness and Yankee apathy -- but it also reveals a tremendous lack of perspective. A quick scan of the European/South American soccer scene reveals that even most middle-of-the-road rivalry equals the BoSox/Yankees in history, hatred, and passion.

I don't mean to piss all over what this match-up means, but I just get sick of the pre-packaged hype dished out by these networks.

A quick scan of the European/South American soccer scene reveals that even most middle-of-the-road rivalry equals the BoSox/Yankees in history, hatred, and passion.

Soccer? What's that? ;)

Soccer is a great sport

Sincerely,

WNBA
XFL

A quick scan of the European/South American soccer scene reveals that even most middle-of-the-road rivalry equals the BoSox/Yankees in history, hatred, and passion.

Countries have actually gone to war.

Athletes have actually been murdered.

By comparison, Red Sox fans are singing "que sera, sera..."

Yeah, you don't get those good old time rivalries like Sparta vs. Athens anymore.

What's worse: A 4 pitch walk or a 14 pitch walk?

"Say what you will about boorish North American culture, but the fact Europe has regular soccer riots says something about their supposed cultural superiority."

Oh, c'mon Moffatt. Tell me you've never felt the urge to wrap a lead pipe around a Yankee fan's head. Just once. And be honest...

Think about it. You're at the Dome, the Jays are playing the Yanks, you've got some loudmouth New Yorker in front of you... It's the 500 section so there'd be no witnesses.

Who can turn that opportunity down?

the urge to wrap a lead pipe around a Yankee fan's head.

We've all felt that urge.

But in Glasgow (say), they'd actually do it.

Yeah.. I know. I actually deleted that comment because I thought it might start a flamewar. I meant it quite a bit more tounge-in-cheek than it came out. Instead it sounded really pissy. :)

I'd rather find a Red Sox fan, give both the Red Sox and Yankee fan lead pipes and let them duel. Who wouldn't enjoy that? Particularly if they played that old school Star Trek DAA-DAA-DAA-DAA-DUM-DUM-DE-DUM-DUM fight music in the background.

Wot the hell.

Might as well let Dave McCarty pitch.

Seriously.

I don't think McCarty is on the roster. The Sox might regret leaving him off, heh.

This game has been on for about three hours, and I think it could still get rained out.

Wow, that's a fairly devastating stat from Leiter---Arroyo threw 60 pitches (36 for strikes) and the Yankees didn't swing and miss any of them.

Wow, that's a fairly devastating stat from Leiter---Arroyo threw 60 pitches (36 for strikes) and the Yankees didn't swing and miss any of them.

Moffat your comment is a bit arrogant and narrow-minded. It also disregards that professional football made great strides against hooliganism the last two decades. I mean so many people argue that there is no passion in the Dome and the football supporters in Europe
really live with their teams: when they are asked about their religion they answer with the club, they follow the team to every awaygame ( every stadium has a sector for away supporters so that tehy can watch teh game together it is really fun). When celtic played a UEFA-Cup semifinal in Porto (15000 seats) 40.000 Scots flew to Portugal just to be close to the team- for the final 80.000 flew to Spain and only 25.000 had a ticket. The atmosphere in a filled football stadium is also incomparable with the singing of the club anthems etc. There are a few hools who use the football as a scene to committ violence. For example their is no violence during domestic football games in England but some "supporters" use the international scenery. Also in the East of Germany their is violence in the amateur leagues but their football is just a reflexion of the frustration and hatred in the society. I also prefer it when those idiots beat each other up than unlosding the frustration against bystanders ( the hools meet at empty places away from the stadium to beat each other up, so even if you would go to an amateur game you would be safe). I have great friends in the Bay Area so I went to 8-10 Giants and A's games and couple of Warriors games and I was really surprised that so few fan cared about the game. I had the impression that I was at a big picknick. Home team is down 4-2, thousands leave the stadium after the 7th inning strech ( They waited to sing "root for your home team" and then leave. I really missed passion. Also in football every team has sth. to play for: the Championship, Champions League, Uefa-Cup, Qualification for the Uefa-Cup and relegation, which is the most interting "fight" for a team because failure would have the severest consequences. Actually my team from Berlin, Hertha, had pretty good attendence figures even during a dismal season because "we" were (successfully)fighting relegation until the end. The last few years i Germany 1 or 2 clubs have 1 or 2 meaningless games per season ( 34 games for 18 clubs). That excitement can also cause aggression I guess. Moffat, I think you didn't mean your comment as you said it, I just wanted to describe the "other side" and a few mindless people shouldn't determine the cultural achievements of a continent. Damn, I sound like my mum. :-)

Sorry guys ( and girls) I rather long comment. Basically I wanted to say that I love the atmosphere and intensity at football games.

As Jays fans, we all endured a difficult year. We called it the Season From Hell. It was horrible.

So what could be better than to enjoy someone else's suffering?!

Nothing, I say!

So, with no further ado, here are some of the highlights from the tragic souls logged into Sons of Sam Horn:

---First Inning

"I want to kill myself."

"Please, please, please, please, please, pretty please score some runs."

"Well, I'm officially depressed. How about you folks?"

"Does getting a first-inning baserunner count as a moral victory?"

----Third Inning

"Will to live is rapidly fading."

"How long did we have the lead, 8 minutes?"

"What did I do to deserve this?"

"We need rain. And lots of it. Like, now."

---Fourth Inning

"this game is killing me"

"I am a seething ball of hate right now."

"If the Sox score 17 runs tonight, that should be enough."

"I give up. Have your way with me, Yankees."

"i wish i was dead"

---Fifth Inning

"I hate this. I would rather scratch my eyes out with a pencil."

"kill me"

----Seventh Inning

"My son just said to me that he hates me for making him a Red Sox fan."

"This is why we need McCarty on the playoff roster."

"man, what a night to be out of beer."

"Please Yankees, have mercy on our souls."

"I hate baseball."

If the evenly matched Heads and Tails play a best-of-seven series, there is a 25% chance one of the sides will start 3-0. One really shouldn't read too much into one team being up 3-0 on another.

Math isn't my game at all, but I believe there is a 1 in 8 chance that one team will be up 3-0.

At any rate, NY has dominated this series. They look unstoppable at the moment.

In 7 post-season games, Matsui is now 16-32 (.500) with 3 HR and 13 RBI.

You know, at $ 7 million a year, he is a bargain.

Magpie, THAT was gold. Thank you.

I couldn't resist checking out the site. I immediately noticed the "Is this the lowest point in franchise history" thread...

This is so much fun!

I've been glued to Sons of Sam Horn ever since this series started. The game threads are brilliant I've even gone back to read the Aaron F*cking Boone game thread. I'm loving it. Does this make me a bad person?

Arroyo allowed 6 runs, Wakefield allowed 5, Leskanic allowed 3. Embree and Myers allowed 2 each.

And the losing pitcher? Mendoza! The guy who gave up 1 run, of course.

Bernie Williams 4-6, 3 RBI. Who noticed?

Alex Rodriguez 3-5, HR, 2-2b, 3 RBI, 5 runs. Not bad.

Gary Sheffield 4-5, HR, 2b, 4 RBI, 3 runs. Good game.

Hideki Matsui 5-6, 2-2b, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 5 runs. Take a bow.

Who else thinks that Warren Sawkiw has really come into his as an analyst own during this post season?

That should read: "come into his own" - meaning, I've noticed a big improvement.

Yes it probably does, braden. But oh well, I do the same thing.

P.S.

"If the Sox score 17 runs tonight, that should be enough."

HE WAS WRONG! HAHAHAHAHAH!

http://www.torontobaseballguys.com
Just got from a dinner and night of no baseball to see this. If the Red Sox and their fans were a single person and you were one of their friends, I don't think you'd want to leave them alone tonight, lest they do themself bodily harm.

I can't even begin to guess the psyche of Red Sox fans at this point. I know Leafs fans like to wallow in their own brand of misery, but we're talking about a drought that's 2 1/2 times longer here, and one without being completely owned by a particular team that is, for lack of a better term... their daddy.

http://www.torontobaseballguys.com
Just got in from a dinner and night of no baseball to see this. If the Red Sox and their fans were a single person and you were one of their friends, I don't think you'd want to leave them alone tonight, lest they do themself bodily harm.

I can't even begin to guess the psyche of Red Sox fans at this point. I know Leafs fans like to wallow in their own brand of misery, but we're talking about a drought that's 2 1/2 times longer here, and one without being completely owned by a particular team that is, for lack of a better term... their daddy.

I think it would be most satisfying seeing the Red Sox go down four straight. I'm no Yankee fan, but it would just be wicked to see that kind of destruction.

http://www.torontobaseballguys.com
Hmmm... wasn't quick enough on the "Back" button.

The poor guy running the Fenway scoreboard. I couldn't have kept up with it either...

That was also the longest game in post-season history. It takes time to do that sort of thing:

Smiley reviewed the wreck, and that took some time, in the way that sacking a city takes some time, or liquidating great numbers of people. LeCarre, The Honourable Schoolboy

I wonder if the RedSox are going to continue to try and compete with the Yankees financially through free agency. They could if they wanted to, but it's got to be disheartening when according to alot of experts they were the superior team on paper 2 years in a row and it still wasn't enough. Between this off-season and next it looks like about 80% of their roster is eligible for free agency as well.

Wow was that game ever Terrible. First and foremost I hate the Yankees and wish that the Red Socks could manage to pull a win off (because coming back from 3-0 would kill the curse, for good and you know it just has to come in a series such as this one).

But my god... This was the red socks series to lose and they sure as heck are doing a great job of losing it!

I don't want to see the Yankees in the finals again...

Here's the real Weekend in New England sports question du jour ...

Can the Patriots hold the Seahawks to a lower score than the Yankees rang up on the Red Sox?

And don't compare Brady to Jeter ... compare him to A-Rod, who had all kinds of NCAA powerhouse schools recruiting him as a QB when the Mariners took him first overall in the baseball draft. In high school, his favorite receiver was a big tight end with great hands named Doug Mientkiewicz.

And if Miami (FL) had offered A-Rod a scholarship -- they didn't, and he was a huge fan -- he might be spending his days right now scrambling around various CFL fields taking aim at various Doug Flutie records. Flutie, of course, the former Boston College and New England Patriot quarterback, which sort of brings us full circle to Tom Brady, who went to Michigan, as did ... Derek Jeter.

Maybe we should be playing "Six Degrees of Kevin Barker" or something ...

Using tonight's star (let's pick Gary Sheffield from a potential list of dozens) and the star of bygone Yanks/Sox yore, the Oracle tells us ... oh, damn, the Oracle appears to not be working right now. Maybe it's being repaired by the guy running the scoreboard in Fenway. We'll try again tomorrow.

Actually Mick, Derek Jeter never WENT to Michigan. He's originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan but he went into the MLB draft straight from high school.

Interesting about A-Rod, I never knew that he was a high school QB. Could you imagine a guy that big, that fast, with that kind of arm playing quarterback? Forget the CFL, he would have had a legit shot at playing in the NFL.

And maybe Mientkewicz should have stuck to football, he was probably a better hitter at tight end than he is as a first basemen.

Wow, that's a fairly devastating stat from Leiter---Arroyo threw 60 pitches (36 for strikes) and the Yankees didn't swing and miss any of them.

That's pretty interesting. Got to be an extremely rare occurence, too.

One really shouldn't read too much into one team being up 3-0 on another.

On the broadcast last night it showed that no team in MLB history has ever come back to win a 7 game series after being down 3-0.

In fact in no major sport has that ever happened, except NHL hockey, if that is a major sport ;)

Anybody else who watched think the "reporter" (whose name I don't know) was a little rude to Stephen King when he was talking to him around the 5th inning?

I believe there is a 1 in 8 chance that one team will be up 3-0

You're referring to a particular team rather than either team. If each game is 50-50, then there's a 100% chance of a team starting 1-0, 50% chance of a team starting 2-0, 25% chance of a team starting 3-0, etc.

no team in MLB history has ever come back to win a 7 game series after being down 3-0

If the teams are evenly matched, the team down 3-0 only has a 6% chance of winning the series.

Actually Mick, Derek Jeter never WENT to Michigan.
You're right, of course. For some reason, the Oracle is still not working, Too bad, it's a pretty cool thing.

Way back up on 10/16, Pete Warren asked what team Thom Brennenman does play-by-play for during the regular season...

Joe Buck-St Louis
Josh Levin- Texas
Thom Brenneman?- hmmm anybody know?

Brennenman is the voice of the Diamondbacks, in case anyone is still wondering.