Cliff Lee Cracks Up Tim McCarver

What a dominating performance by Cliff Lee and the Phillies.

He may have lost the shutout in the 9th, but that does not change the fact that he is the fucking man! And he also knows how to make Tim McCarver laugh like a girl.



6-1 Phils win Game 1. They lead the World Series 1 games to 0. They have at the very least achieved the much needed split in the Bronx. What will happen next is anybody's guess, but the drama will be in town tomorrow night as Pedro Martinez makes will once again pitch in Yankee Stadium against his former team's biggest rival.

Tonight was fun, join us once again for the live blog tomorrow night. Unlike today, the weather is supposed to be clear through the day and night. And as we all know, weather people never lie!

Weather Forecast For Game 1

Much is being made about the weather forecast today in New York and the fact that it is raining all day. The keyword there, being day. The forecast, believe it or not, is looking fine for tonight (as we all know, weather people never lie) and fine in time for a 7:57 PM first pitch. Of course, things can change, but here is a screenshot of the hourly in NYC courtesy of weather.com taken at 1:43 PM ET today.

It's not exactly a perfect summer night, but hey, it's the World Series in New York, I'm pretty sure dry weather at night time is all MLB wants.

We are approaching 6 hours away from the first pitch, but for now, here's a FARN! exclusive. What I have uncovered is never before seen footage of Susan Finkelstein hours before she posted her prostitution ad on Craigslist for World Series tickets. The first 2 minutes are the part that is relevent for this.

Your 2009 World Series Schedule

I meant to mention this right after the Yankees won the ALCS, but forgot about it for the time. Remember Jim Karol the Psychic Madman, the guy whose show I saw in the middle of September and I told you he predicted the World Series and the Super Bowl. I already told you his NL East pick was the Phillies. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that his pick to be the AL representative was in fact the New York Yankees. I shit you not. Karol hit the nail right on the head, especially during a time in September when the Phillies were slumping and it looked like would be unlikely to get to this point. As far as his Super Bowl pick, that is not looking as well, especially seeing as one of his picks was on the bad end of one of Sunday's big blowouts. The other was a victor in one of the (relatively) close games of the week.

Anyway....

We are practically 25 hours away from the start of the World Series in the Bronx. With that and the announcement from Charlie Manual that Pedro Martinez will be starting Game 2, here is the schedule for the 2009 World Series. (all times eastern)

Philadelphia Phillies vs. New York Yankees (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Game 1: Phillies 6-1
Game 2: Yankees 3-1
Game 3: Yankees 8-5
Game 4: Yankees 7-4
Game 5: Phillies 8-6
Game 6: Yankees 7-3
New York wins the series 4-2.

Some notable roster changes from the LCS series. The Phillies are taking out a bat and and adding an arm by dropping Miguel Cairo and adding the classiest Phillie of them all, Brett Myers to the roster. The Yankees on the other hand, are thinking ahead to the NL rules games played in Philly by dropping Freddy Guzman, mainly a pinch runner, and adding Eric Hinske, who was on the receiving end of this strikeout, the last of the 2008 World Series.

The weather in New York tomorrow is looking rainy during the day, but as of now (and we all know that weather people never lie!), it's going clear up over the course of the night so while it looks like there could be a possible delay, with the forecast that I am looking at, I would be shocked if we don't have baseball tomorrow. Then again, I would not be shocked if for better or for worse, this forecast changed.

Unless there is a postponement in game 1 or 2 and a game is scheduled for Friday, I will be live blogging every game of this series. And hell, I may still be around on Friday, that will depend on what time I get back from my own trip to NYC.

Phillies, Yankees, are you ready?

Phillies-Rockies Postponed Tonight

An inch of snow fell on Coors Field last night. There are supposed to be intermittent snow showers throughout the afternoon. The coldest temperature for a postseason baseball game on record is higher than the forecasted afternoon high today in Denver. Therefore, it really should come as no surprise that tonight's Phillies-Rockies game has been postponed tonight. From MLB.com

With the series between the Rockies and Phillies tied at a game apiece, Game 3 has been rescheduled for Sunday at 8:07 p.m. MT. Game 4 has been moved to Monday, with game time to be announced prior to the start of Sunday's contest.

Snow began falling Friday night in the Denver metro area as the temperature dropped to 17 degrees in the Mile High City overnight, breaking the record low of 25 for the date, set in 1905. Coors Field was blanketed in snow by Saturday morning, and the white stuff was expected to keep coming down into the day, predicted to dissipate by the 7:37 p.m. game time. Since Coors Field is the only field in the Majors with an underground heating system, the snow might have been cleared away.

The cold is another matter, though.

Denver awoke to icy roads, multitudes of accidents on the highways and snow all around, with the updated forecast for the scheduled 7:37 p.m. game time calling for a temperature of 26 degrees -- which would have been by far the lowest for a postseason game in history. That distinction belongs to Game 4 of the 1997 World Series at Cleveland between the Indians and Marlins, with a game-time temperature of 35. The predicted high temperature for Denver on Saturday is 33.

Rockies manager Jim Tracy, whose team evened the series with a 5-4 victory in Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon, said at Friday's workout that he was well aware that the weather could cause Major League Baseball to step in and postpone Game 3.

"If it's a day where ... it's not conducive for either team to be playing baseball, it's going to jeopardize our fans from the standpoint of being treated to the type of baseball that has been played thus far in the first two games of the series in Philadelphia," Tracy said.

"If moving it back because there's going to be much better weather ... that would be the most sensible thing to do ... because, you know, Game 3 in a series that's 1-1, it's a fairly pivotal game.

"You'd hate to see a game be determined one way or the other due to the fact that the conditions were not good. Somebody slips that otherwise wouldn't have, if the conditions would have been much drier and much more conducive for baseball."

Fans with tickets for Game 3 will now be able to use them only for Sunday's game at 8:07 p.m. MT. Those fans with tickets for Game 4 will be able to use them for Monday's game. Game 5, if necessary, will still be played on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

As fun as it would be to see a baseball game played in the frozen tundra, this is definitley the right call to make. Those conditions are not suited for baseball and given the nature of the game, the cold could definitley play a factor one way or the other. Making this call even more of a no-brainer is that tomorrow and Monday are supposed to be nice days with highs in the 50s, although the temperature for game time would most likely fall int the 40s. Regardless, it is much better than this.

This does bring up an interesting scenario for the Phillies pitching in Game 4, which has now been moved to Monday, time TBD. The question now becomes will Cliff Lee pitch game 4? He would be available on normal rest and especially if the Phillies lose tomorrow, may be their ace in the hole to make sure that regardless of what goes down tomorrow, that at the very worst for the Phillies, this thing goes to a Game 5.

Update: It appears as if the change in date has also affected the Phillies starting pitching. Pedro will no longer be on the mound as the starter, but rather, according to CSN Philly, the Phillies have named NL Rookie of the Year candidate J.A. Happ as the starter for Game 3.

If his leg/knee is all right, then I have no gripes about this decision. While he has never played in a game of this magnitude, he has done a solid job all year and I feel real comfortable with him on the mound.

This Is Perfect Baseball Weather!

I am very curious to see whether or not the Phillies will play ball tomorrow night at 9:37 PM ET (and despite the epic Tebow battle, there will be a live blog tomorrow night) considering that the weather forecast for Saturday night in Denver looks like this.

Wow. Wouldn't it be sickly awesome if they played? It would sort of be like Game 5 of the World Series. It would be a complete car wreck that you can't turn away from.

Oh, and I don't care who you are, snow on the baseball field and sub-freezing temperatures favor no one!

No, Silly, The Storm Of The Century Is Going To Be After The Super Bowl

Interesting little development coming out of Florida as we approach the end of the week. For a few days, the weather men have been watching a low developing over the Gulf that is going to produce a huge storm that's already drawing comparisions to the 1993 Storm of the Century.

The good news: The forecast is looking fine for the Super Bowl.

The bad news: The storm is going to come on Monday, and while it won't be snow in Florida, there's a chance for very heavy rain, strong wind gusts exceeding 40 mph, and damaging thunderstorms. In other words, while as of now the game will see clear weather, it's going to be one hell of a dogfight getting out of Tampa (and anywhere in Florida for that matter).

It will be interesting to see how this whole thing unfolds over the past couple days, and if there's a change in the forecast that will affect the Super Bowl. Right now we're looking at partly cloudy skies with slightly cool temperatures in the 50s. But if this storm decides to form a little earlier than expected, we could be in for a wild night in Tampa.

Super Bowl XLIII Forecast (AccuWeather)
Bring on the Blizzard of '09, Baby! (AccuWeather)