Brian
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Post by Brian on Sept 15, 2012 23:32:34 GMT -8
By my reckoning, 17 of the 30 major league teams could make this year's postseason. The Dodgers are seven and a half games behind the Giants in the National League West with 16 games left to play. I gave up on the Dodgers winning the division a week or two ago. The Dodgers had a .600 winning percentage late in June -- now they're only six games above .500. Almost certainly, the Hated Ones are going to wind up the 162-game season as the best in the west. Until I have to confront the agony of rooting for whoever is playing the Giants in the playoffs, I watch the scoreboards each night. As I post, the Dodgers are tied with the Cardinals for the chance to face the much better Braves in a wild card elimination game on Oct. 5, something new this year. And the Pirates, Brewers and Phillies are within three games of the Dodgers. A ten-game winning streak would be good right now.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Sept 30, 2012 23:00:26 GMT -8
A month ago, I dreamed about sitting in Chavez Ravine for one of the final three games of the season against the Giants, watching the Dodgers vying for the National League West Division title. Quite the opposite, it turns out. The Hated Ones land in L.A. nine games ahead of the Dodgers and I'll be at work.
The Dodgers waited too long to get hot. Two games behind the Cardinals for the second wild card spot, it's still possible that they could be in a play-off game on Friday if the Cards cooperate by losing. There's just so little hope of any real satisfaction left this year for a Dodger fan. Even a sweep of the Giants will lack substance if they decide to rest their best players for the postseason.
In the American League, no team has clinched its division yet. So, as of Monday morning, any two of eight teams could be in the wild card playoff game -- and the chances of a playoff for a divisional tie on Thursday are huge. You do not have to be among the legions of baseball fans who despise the Yankees to be rooting for the Orioles. The only excitement remaining this season comes from the junior league.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Oct 7, 2012 23:00:35 GMT -8
The postseason got off to a fantastic start on Friday with the first ever wild card playoff games in both leagues. The Cardinals dispatched the annoying Braves and their tomahawk chop in the National League contest. And perhaps my favorite American League team -- the Oakland A's -- eliminated the Rangers, which means Texas won't appear in a third consecutive World Series.
Yet nothing could be better than watching the Hated Ones blow the first two games of their National League Division Series to the Reds at home this weekend. Now, if the Giants lose any game of the next three in Cincinnati, they're done for the season.
I know I should empathize with those poor orange-clad San Franciscans braving the October chill. The Giants sell out every game of the regular season and their fans seldom leave early, unlike Dodger fans, even when their team is down 9 to 0 in the ninth. So 43,000 stayed and suffered. I wish I could say that I felt their pain, but I'm just a shallow guy.
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Oct 8, 2012 12:41:55 GMT -8
Yet nothing could be better than watching the Hated Ones blow the first two games of their National League Division Series to the Reds at home this weekend. Now, if the Giants lose any game of the next three in Cincinnati, they're done for the season. You're welcome!!!! Though I often do root for the Giants as opposed to, oh let's say, another team in their division, I'm with you in hoping to see them disposed of tomorrow.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Oct 9, 2012 23:00:23 GMT -8
Yet nothing could be better than watching the Hated Ones blow the first two games of their National League Division Series to the Reds at home this weekend. Now, if the Giants lose any game of the next three in Cincinnati, they're done for the season. You're welcome!!!! Though I often do root for the Giants as opposed to, oh let's say, another team in their division, I'm with you in hoping to see them disposed of tomorrow.We need to wait at least one more day for the Reds to eject the Giants from the postseason, Roberta. As much as I disliked the outcome, I wish that I could have watched a very interesting game -- the Giants won despite getting only three hits in ten innings. You know I've been rooting for the Reds all season. Your husband the Orioles fan must be on edge right now. His team split the first two games at home. Under this year's unique Division Series schedule, they have to win two of the next three in Yankee Stadium.
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Oct 10, 2012 16:02:01 GMT -8
Your husband the Orioles fan must be on edge right now. His team split the first two games at home. Under this year's unique Division Series schedule, they have to win two of the next three in Yankee Stadium. ARRRGHHH! Another unhappy finish and another day to wait. But yet, I am serenity itself compared to John about his O's. He has suggested that I fly to Cincy to watch the games with my sister should the Reds and the Orioles end up in the Series. Looking less and less like that will be a problem .....
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Oct 11, 2012 23:00:10 GMT -8
I am so sorry, Roberta, knowing what a true, lifelong Reds fan you are. The Giants are just the eighth team to win a five-game postseason series after losing the first two games. All the numbers say that the Reds outscored, outhit and outpitched the Giants, yet the Giants outplayed them. Certainly, the Reds played the best baseball throughout the 162-game season, but the young and gifted Giants had a stellar second half.
Who are you rooting for in today's deciding game in the other Division Series -- the Cardinals or the Nationals? I need a team that can keep the Giants from advancing to the World Series, so I can relax.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Oct 15, 2012 23:00:49 GMT -8
The only thing scarier? The Cuban Missile Crisis. The four Division Series gave us the possibility of a Giants-Yankees World Series, a Dodger fan's worst nightmare. I cannot imagine watching a Fall Classic where I want both teams to lose. I was 4 years old the last time they met, thankfully too young to remember that World Series -- or the Cuban Missile Crisis that became public six days after the Yankees beat the Giants in seven games. Maybe the worst October ever. The Giants and the Cardinals split the first two games of the National League Championship Series in beautiful AT&T Spies on You Park. The next three games will be played in St. Louis. In the American League, the Tigers took the first two games in Yankee Stadium. Another Cardinals-Tigers match up -- like the mediocre 2006 or the historic 1968 World Series -- would be the bomb.
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