2011 World Series Game 7 Live Blog

One of the most exciting World Series in recent memory will conclude tonight.  One team will call themselves champions.  The other will walk away bitterly disappointed.

Game 7: Rangers vs. Cardinals 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

2011 World Series Game 5 Live Blog

Oh, yeah, and Monday Night Football as well.  If seeing close-ups of Jon Gruden's crotch is your type of thing.

Game 5: Cardinals vs. Rangers 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

NFL Week 7/2011 World Series Game 4 Live Blog

This slate of NFL games is not a very good one.

Game 4: Cardinals vs. Rangers 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

2011 World Series Game 3 Live Blog

Game 3: Cardinals vs. Rangers 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO LIVE BLOG!

2011 World Series Game 2 Live Blog

I'm going to be starting this early for the big early season Capitals-Flyers game.  Also tonight, one of the most important games in the 2011 MLS Season on ESPN2 as the Philadelphia Union take on the New York Red Bulls.

Game 2: Rangers vs. Cardinals 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Counting Is A Difficult Task For Tim McCarver

I have nothing to add to this.



(Video from SportsGrid)

2011 World Series Game 1 Live Blog

Game 1:  Rangers vs. Cardinals 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

2011 World Series Schedule

Hopefully this World Series is better than the low ratings it will receive would indicate.  Go Rangers.  I guess.  I don't know.  I don't particularly care for either of these teams. (all times ET)

World Series

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Texas Rangers

Game 1:  October 19:  Rangers vs. Cardinals  7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Game 2:  October 20:  Rangers vs. Cardinals  7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Game 3:  October 22:  Cardinals vs. Rangers  7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Game 4:  October 23:  Cardinals vs. Rangers  7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Game 5:  October 24:  Cardinals vs. Rangers  7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Game 6:  October 26:  Rangers vs. Cardinals  7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Game 7:  October 27:  Rangers vs. Cardinals  7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Giants Win The World Series

Sunday, October 3, 2010, 1:35 PM ET: It's the last day of the MLB season. Game 162. And the games matter. The day starts with the Atlanta Braves hosting the Philadelphia Phillies. If the Phillies win, the Giants are guaranteed at the very least a playoff spot. It starts off great for the Giants. The Phillies jump off to a 2-0 lead and it looks for all the world that Bobby Cox's last stand will end in Turner Field in humiliating fashion on the last game of the season. A Phillies team with nothing to play for all series long could single handedly send a choking Giants team to the playoffs.....

But Danys Baez enters this game to pitch. And the meltdown begins. 2-0 Phillies becomes 8-2 Braves faster than you can say "Danys Baez, Mike Zagurski, and J.C. Romero are useless pieces of garbage and Joe Blanton in relief is a great idea if you ever want to lose a baseball game." The Phillies rally. 8-2 becomes 8-5. Then 8-7. The Giants may not have to worry after all.......

....The rally was never complete. Braves win 8-7.

Sunday, October 3, 2010: 4:05 PM ET: The Giants send Jonathan Sanchez to the mound in San Francisco against Padre ace Mat Latos in San Francisco with everything to play for, and an arduous road ahead if they lose. If the Padres win and sweep the series, the Giants would have to go on the road and face the Padres in an NL West tie-breaker on Monday with Tim Lincecum on the mound. Win that, and they would need to go to Turner Field to face the Braves in a wildcard tie-breaker on Tuesday. Win that, and on Wednesday, they would start an NLDS series at Philadelphia against a rested Roy Halladay with who knows what pitcher on the mound. The odds would be stacked immensely against the Giants. 4 games in 4 cities in 4 days would be brutal on any team, especially considering the stakes of all those games would be higher than high. 0-0, bottom of the 3rd inning, Jonathan Sanchez hits a triple.......

Monday, November 1, 2010: 10:30 PM ET: The San Francisco Giants are World Champions of baseball.

It happened that fast. An excellent starting pitching staff combined with a very solid bullpen, 3 real good hitters, and a bunch of medicore "huh, they are still playing baseball?" veterans combined to win the World Series. One of those mediocre veterans, Edgar Renteria, won 2010 MVP. Think about it for a minute. Edgar Renteria. 2010 World Series MVP. Edgar. Renteria.

Everything about this run by the Giants has been improbable: the absurd bounces, the ridiculous hot streak from Cody Ross in the NLCS, ridiculous BABIP, the timely hits from Juan Uribe, opposing team's line drives magically finding their ways to Giants gloves time after time again, the hot streak of Edgar Renteria in the World Series, the meek Giant groundballs that squirted through and led to runs, a kid 1 month and 15 days older than me who was struggling with his fastball in the minors earlier in the season pitching the game of a lifetime in Game 4 of the World Series, the unprecedented 6 1-run wins in the post-season, the incredible luck. It all combined together to equal a Giants World Series championship.

Go back to October 3, 2010 at 1:04 PM. Simulate the scenario from then to the playoffs 1,000 times. How many times would the Giants end up as World Series champions? Less than 50? I'd say so. The crazy thing about sports, baseball in particular, is the best team does not always win. If that was the case, we'd be talking about the Rays, Twins, Phillies, or Yankees right about now as World Champions. The best baseball teams of 2010? The truth lies somewhere within the middle of the aforementioned 4. But it's the hottest team at the right time wins. The luckiest team at the right time wins. That team? The San Francisco Giants.

Is that to say it is undeserved championship? Absolutely not. Any team that wins a division in baseball and makes the playoffs is going to be good enough to at least make a run at things, even if they are not the best. 2009 Yankees? They can say there were one of the best in the league. 2008 Phillies? Not among the best of teams. 2007 Red Sox? Among one of the best. 2006 Cardinals? Not even close to being the best; they won a putrid division with a record barely above .500! 2005 White Sox? Up there with the best. 2004 Red Sox? Nope. 2003 Marlins? Nowhere near the best. 2002 Angels? No. 2001 Diamondbacks? They were not the team that set a major league record with 116 wins in a single season.

Over half of the above teams were not among the best or one of the best overall teams in baseball when they won the World Series, yet how many people are saying that the 2008 Phillies did not deserve it, or the 2001 Diamondbacks winning is a scandal? A lot of these teams have got very lucky with some bounces along the way, as did the Giants, but that does not mean they are undeserved champions.

Congrats to the San Francisco Giants. The well-deserved 2010 World Champions of baseball.

MLB Playoffs Day 21 Live Blog

Giants vs. Rangers 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE LIVE BLOG

2010 NFL Season Week 8 Live Blog/MLB Playoffs Day 20 World Series

Happy Halloween! Join the ghoulish gang for what promises to be a record setting day in sports. As always don't be a troll....unless you are dressed as one. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Game 4: Giants vs. Rangers 8:00 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

2010 MLB Playoffs Day 19 Live Blog

Game 3: Giants vs. Rangers 6:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE LIVE BLOG

2010 MLB Playoffs Day 18 Live Blog

Game 2: Rangers vs. Giants 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

The Legend Of Pat Burrell Continues To Grow

For those that have not been following the awesomeness of Brian Wilson, he has been referencing a character known as The Machine for a good part of the season. These verbal references came in a post-game interview after the NLCS and in an interview with Jim Rome. Then, The Machine literally made an appearance while Brian Wilson was being interviewed by Cheap Seats. So the big question is, who is this guy? Well, thanks to some top-notch sleuthing, meech.one of The Fightins has uncovered the answer.

After narrowing down the suspects, [Deadspin] decided that the culprit was more than likely Pat Burrell, former left-fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies and Wilson’s current teammate. Now that’s some mighty fine investigative work by the Deadspin boys, because for the last couple of years, I have been sitting on a picture of Pat Burrell in all his gimp-outiftted glory, but never ran it because the guy who gave me the picture didn’t want to get caught.

Well, that was a few years ago when Pat Burrell was a Phillie, and since he’s now with the SF Giants, and it’s basically public knowledge anyway, I’m gonna go ahead and share the picture with everyone…

I don’t really want to go into detail about how I acquired this picture, but it was taken at Pat Burrell’s house in Arizona during a Christmas party in (I believe) December of ’04 (possibly ’05). According to my picture-taking accomplice, every year during his Christmas party — which is attended by a veritable who’s who of baseballers who spend their winters out in AZ — Pat wanders upstairs and slips into his assless-chapped gimp outfit to entertain his party guests while making them feel extremely uncomfortable all at the same time.

Please excuse the bare-assedness of the following photo taken 5 years ago of The Machine.

In his post-NLCS interview linked to above, when talking about C.J. Wilson's trash talk on Twitter, Brian Wilson mentioned that "I think The Machine will say all he needs to say when he makes an appearance again," thus sort of referencing the fact that he might be a Giant. Add that on to Meech's evidence and the fact that The Machine is built like Pat Burrell, and I think it is safe to say we have a match.

Pat The Bat is The Machine. Oddly enough, I can't say I'm at all surprised.

2010 World Series Schedule

Okay this is seriously the most painful schedule I've ever had to type. (all times ET)

World Series

NL West: San Francisco Giants vs. AL West: Texas Rangers

Game 1: October 27: Rangers vs. Giants 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)
Game 2: October 28: Rangers vs. Giants 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)
Game 3: October 30: Giants vs. Rangers 6:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)
Game 4: October 31: Giants vs. Rangers 8:00 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)
Game 5: November 1: Giants vs. Rangers 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)
Game 6: November 3: Rangers vs. Giants 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)
Game 7: November 4: Rangers vs. Giants 7:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, SR: Ken Rosenthal)

Either myself, Keith, or James Craven will have a live blog up for each of these games. If Game 4 of this series is not the lowest rated game in World Series history, I'll be very very shocked.

Deadspin's Will Leitch Thinks Harry Kalas's Death Was Awesome

You really can't beat nit-picking on the internet.

Earlier today, Will Leitch of Deadspin wrote a column detailing how a metaphorical turning point of the Phillies was their reaching eclipsing the 10,000 loss marker on July 15, 2007. Of course, that Phillies point is exactly that, metaphorical. Shortly after they did get on a bit of a winning streak that helped them, but if you are looking at an on-field standpoint, you probably have to go to the Phillies landing Jim Thome as the franchise turning point. Sure they never won anything with Thome, but that move signified that the Phillies were a team ready to contend again and no longer just a laughing stock as they had been at the start of the decade. Anyway, I digress, now where was I? Ah, yes, the metaphorical turning point of the Phillies being the 10,000 loss marker. Here is what Will Leitch had to say about that.

The Phillies were the logical team to break the 10,000 barrier. They'd been to the playoffs once in the last 25 years and seemed perpetually perched at that "just above .500 but not a real contender" ledge. They didn't even have the good manners to break their fans' hearts. They just plodded along, always just short. After the 10,000th loss, the team went on to lose three of its next four, dropping a game under .500 and six games out of first. Take another shot. They endure, they persevere, they do not discourage.

Every single thing that has happened since then has been awesome.

The Mets collapse and Phillies subsequent rally in September.
The Phillies finishing the job off to claim their first NL East title since 1993.
The Phillies first playoff game since 1993.
The Phillies winning the NL East for a 2nd straight year in 2008.
The Phillies winning their first playoff series since 1993.
The Phillies reaching and winning the NLCS, both for the first time since 1993.
The Phillies in the 2008 World Series.
The Phillies winning the 2008 World Series.
"WORLD CHAMPIONS......WORLD FUCKING CHAMPIONS!"
The death of Harry Kalas.
The Phillies winning a 3rd straight NL East title.
The Phillies winning their 2nd straight NLCS.
The Phillies making their 2nd straight World Series appearance.

Yep. All those things were simply awesome. Will Leitch slight oversights FTW!

A Preliminary Legal Hearing, The World Series, Susan Finkelstein, And Double Penetration

I'm pretty sure this may top the decade as one of the most absurd stories. We all remember Susan Finkelstein, right? You know, the Phillies fan that wanted World Series tickets who instead of finding good deals on StubHub went to CraigsList and offered sex in exchange for World Series tickets? Yeah, that Susan Finkelstein.

Well, at the case preliminary hearing yesterday, quite a bit of stuff came out regarding the case. From the Philly Inquirer

Susan Finkelstein sat down with undercover Officer Michael Brady at a Bucks County bar and allegedly gave him a bold confession for a first meeting, according to his testimony yesterday at her preliminary hearing.

"I admit it. I'm a prostitute. I love sex. I'm a whore," the Bensalem police officer testified that Finkelstein had told him as he posed as "Bob" at Manny Brown's in Bensalem.

She talked about "how much she loved anal sex," he said, alleging later that she pulled up her denim skirt to expose her genital area and asked, "You wanna touch it?"

The Southwest Philadelphia woman believed Brady had three tickets to a Phillies-Yankees World Series game and, Bensalem police say, was willing to exchange sex for at least one.

In reality, it was a sting operation by Bensalem cops, who had found the "desperate blonde," as Finkelstein reportedly called herself, while trolling Craigslist for illegal activities.

Finkelstein, 43, was also told in an e-mail written by Sgt. Robert Bugsch that "Bob" had a brother, Bugsch said on the stand. That apparently upped the possibilities for Finkelstein.

For two tickets, she promised more, Brady testified. "I'll have sex with both of you. I'll let you DP me."

Magisterial District Judge Joe Falcone and Finkelstein's lawyer, William J. Brennan, asked Brady to clarify what the term "DP" meant and the officer answered, "Double penetration."

The real sad part of all of this? Finkelstein actually got into games 2 and 3 of the World Series. Sadly, though, she lost her job and is now labeled the city whore, so for Ms. Finkelstein, one has to wonder if the sex ad really was worth all of her troubles now.

Then again, maybe Freud was right and women are nothing but a bunch of pleasure seeking whores. Okay, so he did not use those words, but you Freudians out there know what I am talking about.

This Is In Slightly Poor Taste

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This MLB Post-Season Has Officially Come Full Circle

Think back long and hard as to how this post-season began. Need a refresher?

"Line drive basehit caught out there!!! [...] Double play!!"

It's come full circle folks. Last night was truly a historic moment for the Yankees, but it was also a historic in broadcasting. No longer is Chip Caray the worst announcer of the post-season (I did not hear much of Stockton so I can't assess that although surely he was not as bad as ol Chip was). Chris Rose stole that honor away from him. Here are some hilarious random people's tweets about him from last night.

"Chris Rose is such a tool. : It makes me laugh when this guy tries to dress up a question, and the player blows.. "
"Chris Rose is a douchebag! Can't believe he's from Cleveland!"
"Chris Rose is still only the second-worst Rose in broadcasting. Jalen has retired the trophy"
"chris rose is awful"
"Chris Rose is a total ass whip "
"Chris Rose is talking to these grown men like they are 3 yr olds."

Jeets FTW!

"Chris Rose is fast becoming one of the better sports commentators on television"

Whoa! How did that get in there? I never knew Nathan Brice had a Twitter account....Anyways, back to the awful...

"Chris Rose is gunning for razzie as worst championship post-game celebration presenter. #Yankees #mlb"
"chris rose is one of the worst post game and pre game analysts!!!"
"the most frequently used phrase in all of sports: chris rose is a fuckin d-bag"

What exacty was so bad about Rose? While I was not paying a whole lot of attention to the trophy presentation and as I was summing up my thoughts about the Phils, the season, and the series on the live blog, lucky for me, Awful Announcing was paying attention.

He's really a terrible announcer, but he hasn't really had the time or training to even be considered one. He has however been a host/interviewer before, and based on last night's postgame performance, I think we can officially say he isn't very good at that either.

Chris not only decided to address Derek Jeter as "Jeets", but he continually tried to go with a GPS joke about the parade route, thus confusing the players to no end

(edit from JFein: AA goes on to mention Twitter and all of the tweets before continuing summing up Rose)

I love how it took a World Series win for people to realize how annoying Chris Rose can be. My personal favorite moment from the postgame was that Mariano Rivera had to bring up the retirement question by himself, and then answer it. Just terrible.

With that said, FOX's attempt at the Series wasn't all that bad this year. I still think that Tim McCarver doesn't know what he's talking about, but he does have his brief moments of genius. And Joe Buck was surprisingly tolerable for once.

I wonder if Nathan Brice saw last night's clusterfuck. He has not yet commented at AA. I'm disappointed.

I do think AA is right about Buck and McCarver. I know I'm beginning to sound like a Dan Levy echo chamber here, but throughout the series he has pointed out how both Phils fans and Yankees fans have thought that Buck was rooting for the other team so maybe there is something to it with Buck being good. Last year, Rays fans were more happy to be here and I'm not sure if they were too concerned with criticizing the announcers. Or if they were even paying attention. Or if even McCarver's Captain Obvious analysis was way over their head, which frankly, may be a possibility.

Personally, I've always had a tolerance for Joe Buck. Maybe it's because I've heard so many of his broadcasts that I'm used to him, but in a way, I sort of have his sense of humor (pity me), he rarely makes mistakes in the booth, and while he is never going to go GuJo on you, I can hear his excitement and get into his calls and what not.

Anyway, back to the original point of the post, Chris Rose sucks!

For more tweets....

People don't seem to like this Chris Rose guy (Awful Announcing)
Chip Caray surrenders his crown to Chris Rose as the most loathed broadcaster in baseball (Deadspin)

The Yankees Win The World Series!

It was not the 5-star classic that I think fans from both teams were expecting, nonetheless, with his World Series record tying 6 RBIs in a game, Hideki Matsui led the New York Yankees to a dominating Game 6 win and was MVP of their 27th World Series championship.

The Phillies gave it everything they had, but in the end, it was not enough. You can put the blame on a number of things, such as Pedro Feliz's ABs ending 4 of the 9 innings, all of which the Phillies had runner(s) on base, the Brad Lidge meltdown in Game 4, the not scoring off of A.J. Burnett in Game 2, the not taking advantage of Andy Pettitte not pitching his best games, but in the end, it all comes down to the simple fact that the Yankees outplayed and were a better team than the Phillies. The only 2 games the Phillies did win were the games that Cliff Lee started. Despite pitching well in game 2 and being more rested than Pettitte, it was Pedro who struggled in this game, giving up crucial runs when the game was still close. And like I stated before, the Phillies are not fans of giving Pedro any run support.

My props and congratulations to the New York Yankees. Anybody can buy a team, but that's only half of the battle. You have to get that team to function as an actual team and the Yankees did that this year and they have been rewarded handsomely for doing so.

Not to slight the Yankees anything, they do deserve it, but I want to spend the rest of this post talking about the Phillies.

What an incredible season.

Sure it startedo out heartbreakingly tragic with the passing of the late great Harry Kalas, but look at how this team came together over it. Hours after learning of his passing, (maybe not even that long) they played a game and they won that game. That's the kind of team they have been all year.

They constantly fought and battled back and even in this game, they tried to mount the rallies, but Yankee pitching along with tyhe fact that eventually the #7 spot in the order must come up, spelt doom for the Phillies in this game. That is nothing to be ashamed of.

After that Game 4 loss, I urged the Phillies to show heart and to care and to never give up and to never surrender, do-da, do-da. Guess what. They did that today. Sure it was a blowout, sure they did not win, but they kept trying to battle on offense. They stuck with it. Even with Rivera on the mound, they were not just randomly waving their bats to get the ordeal over with.

I'm sure you are wondering why I have yet to show the video of the Yankees winning. Frankly, there is no greater piece of evidence of this than the last out of the game. After fouling off pitch after pitch of Rivera, watch Shane Victorino after a groundball.



Never gave up. Never surrendered. Ran it out until there was nothing left. Dedicated to the end. Run it out. Don't have your head down. Be proud of what you've accomplished this year and don't wallow in any self-pity. There should be no self-pity for this team. They've accomplished so much.

Victorino has his detractors outside of Philly and while I'm sure you got a kick of him being the last out of the World Series, that was a real at bat and something he and Phillies fans can be proud of. With that last out, he represented everything this team was about and gosh darn it, watching him run it out like that, even though everyone knew what was about to happen, brought a smile on my face. He knows the game is over and even if there is an error on the throw, the chance of a rally against Rivera is still slim, but despite it all, you never know what can happen, the chance of the rally is slim, not none, and even if it's a sure fire thing, keep on running. No slow pace jog bullshit to let the other team celebrate. Keep fighting and represent your team well. That's what Victorino did.

The Phillies accomplished so much this year. They are NL champions of 2009 and they are still that. That's a title that can't be and won't be taken away from them. A flag will be raised at Citizens Bank Park on opening day commemorating that achievement. It's a proud achievement, one they should still be proud of. It's an achievement and a season that all Phillies fans should be proud of. No shame at all in what they accomplished this year and through it all, they gave us one hell of an entertaining World Series despite the end result.

RIP Harry Kalas. This tremendous season was for you.