College Football – MLB Divisional Round
Those rare extended periods of seemingly historical events lining up one after the other, where the second you think it can’t get any better than it already is, something else happens…like Stanford converting a 4th and 20, then scoring to go up on 2nd ranked USC by a point with less than a minute to go. Oklahoma, Florida, West Virginia, Texas and Rutgers all lose last week. The ACC claimed one of those victims, with Maryland taking out Rutgers, but the most brutal ass-kicking of them all was South Florida over West Virginia. That game is one I saw, along with Auburn beating Florida (even the most passive football fan should never miss this annual matchup!), and the euphoria has carried over from 7 days ago, as 6TH RANKED Boston College took it to Bowling Green today, winning 55-24.
USC (2) has now officially lost to unranked Stanford, LSU (1) is down by three in the third quarter to a pissed off Florida team, and Wisconsin (5) already lost to Illinois. Simply put, Boston College is going to at least move up ahead of Wisconsin. Next week vs. Notre Dame, and after that it’s a bloodbath with away games at Virginia Tech, Clemson (in Death Valley, where they won in 2005), Maryland, at home against Florida St. and Miami. Right now, I’m worried most about Virginia Tech and Florida State, with Maryland as the trap game. If they were to make it through that run undefeated, then win the ACC championship game, there wouldn’t be any way the polls could rob them of a shot at the big game. No doubt, they will get robbed in the end, but I’m purposely denying myself a taste of that gruesome reality.
Al on 9/27: “As for the team coming out of the national league, I’m having a hard time figuring out how teams are going to hit against the Diamondback pitchers. If Webb is hitting on all cylinders, he can pitch forever, and their bullpen is better than anyone else’s, especially in the late innings with Lyon, Cruz and Valverde.“
The Phillies weren’t that good of a team, but Chicago had a roster that looked to be built for October. In game one there was a meltdown of sorts, with their most dominant reliever Carlos Marmol giving it up in the 7th, first with a solo homerun, and then two more hits plus a walk for another run. That ended up being the difference, along with Ted Lilly not earning his money in game 2. The Diamondbacks are the most dangerous team besides the Red Sox. I think that’s going to be the world series matchup, and if I had to take one pitching staff or other other, it’d be hard not to take Arizona’s.
The pitching staff for Colorado came out of nowhere, so it seemed. I’m not entirely sold on the concept just yet. Likewise the brilliant future of Joba Chamberlain. It would have been easy to include one of him all covered in buzz-plague from last night, but it’s not the rookie’s fault the Yankees are down 0-2. Once again there are playoff games at stake, and once again Alex Rodriguez can be struck out with three pitches he’d have been able to handle back in September. Luckily, I’m a Red Sox fan.
Down with the Evil Empire yet again! The Cleveland Indians used to be my second-favorite team, and are still one of my favorites. This was a grand series! Indians vs. Red Sox and Rockies vs. Diamondbacks. It’s hard to get better than that!
Maybe all the baseball “fans” who like to root for the Yankees will have to find another dynasty to root for. The Red Sox, perhaps?
Part of me wants Joe Torre to leave, but another part of me loves the way he burns the bullpen. I don’t know whether A-Rod should stay or leave, either. He always helps the Yankees make the playoffs, but his October disappearing acts are wildly entertaining. Derek Jeter joined him in disappearing this October. Don’t ya love the way the Yankees choke in the playoffs?
I love the comments at http://tinyurl.com/289t6b. Especially this one:
sgmax wrote: 8m ago
Nothing sweeter than watching another team celebrate the elimination of the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, as Jeter and A-Rods eyes mist up like they are going to cry.
Hope someone in NY knows the heimlich maneuver because there are a lot of chokers there right now.
GO SOX!!
THIS IS AWESOME!!
This one’s good too: “What do you call 24 guys watching the ALCS on TV? The Yankees….”
Couldn’t agree more! Looking at the season series, the Rockies have taken 10-16 from Arizona this year. That was a statistic I hadn’t been aware of until now.
If the Rockies can beat Brandon Webb, they can win the series.
This looks to be another storybook ending in ALCS history…what a game last night! I thought the Tribe was done. I don’t feel too confident with Westbrook or Byrd…but you never know!
God damn it, CAL!! They do this every year…come within a cunt hair of #1 but somehow find a way to flub it! It just boggles my mind…
How ’bout them Patriots? Assuming he plays all 16 games this year, Tom Brady is on pace for 56 TDs this year!!
Last year Tom Brady was my fantasy team quarterback, I didn’t make that “mistake” again and does my team ever suck.
Patriots – Cowboys postgame presscon
I love the Genius’s style! Others (especially media figures) may not, but I sure do!
By the way, Al, what do you make of the Rockies now? You’re the one who said they were for real after they beat the Red Sox and Yankees earlier this year. Speaking of the Red Sox, this is an ugly series so far. Hopefully they can turn it around, but I’m not optimistic.
The Rockies surprised the hell out of me with the sweep. Odds have to favor them out of the three teams left. Great young pitching…once they got to Webb in game 1, I had a feeling they’d win the series…I was shocked that they made it seem so easy!
The Sox may be done, on account of these names: Lugo, Crisp, Pedroia, Drew – – – I’d be apt to fault the manager when Manny Delcarmen is brought into men-on-base situations twice, but Cleveland’s pitching has gone through our lineup like a hot knife through butter.
Last two nights, the umpires have had a stupidly wide strike zone. The difference though, is clearly our inability to hit.
With Beckett in game 5, they can still not hit and have a good chance of winning. Once the series returns to Fenway, our chances are good. Schilling will be up for his start, I’ll guarantee that. Once Dice-K gets in trouble in game 7, even if it’s in the 2nd inning, he’s gone. Beckett, Papelbon, Wakefield, Lester, Timlin, Okajima…the whole gang will be used if necessary.
We just need 7 from Beckett, so Okajima and Papelbon can take care of business. Sabathia isn’t ready for prime time. Carmona on the other hand…that guy is fierce, scary as hell. If Schilling doesn’t step up in game 6, he’s officially done.
A Rockies vs. Red Sox World Series would be great. the only trouble would be that one of them would have to lose. I don’t think it’ll happen, though.
Two in a row against anybody in Fenway Park isn’t as crazy as it sounds. Here I’ll lay it on Francona, his game 2 decision to bring in a rookie (Manny Delcarmen – going to be great, but not the right spot for any rookie) to handle a situation w/ 2 on, no outs and a one run lead.
Historically, Mike Timlin is much less effective when brought into the game with men on, but I’d still have gone to him over Delcarmen. The answer might be to bring on Papelbon and let someone else close the game. Crucial spots like that are too important to hand the ball to a rookie.
If game 1 was any indication…the Sox will have Sabathia up to 100 pitches by the 5th inning. As effective as the Indians’ pen has been, they’ve also pitched an awful lot of innings. Lowry and Bettencort are getting more work in these October games than they did all year. Eventually that can become a factor.
And IF IF IF IF IF that turns out to be the case in the last couple games of this series, the Sox could win, and Cleveland will be calling for Eric Wedge’s head…wouldn’t that be great?
One change Francona has to make for game 5 is to replace Coco Crisp with our rookie center fielder…either him or Drew. Ellsbury can at least get out by putting the ball in play, extend counts, and not strike out as much as both of those guys.
Screw this bullshit about playing the scrub we got off of the waiver wire (Bobby Kielty) because he hit Sabathia good 6 years ago…Ellsbury is a gamer. Drew and Crisp have Kool-Aid flowing through their veins.
I think the Sox will win behind Beckett in game five, and send it back to Boston. Whether they win there or not, I’m not sure. There’s plenty of other great rallies to draw on, like Beckett’s 2003 Marlins against the Cubs and the 2004 Red Sox. I hope the Red Sox don’t go quietly, at least, and I don’t really think they will.
Maybe I shouldn’t have predicted a Red Sox victory; I remember how in 2004 I predicted the Red Sox would win before each of the first three games they lost to the Yankees. Then, I started predicting they would lose, and they started winning. In fact, I predicted eight consecutive times that they would lose, and they won all eight of those games!
I’ve got my football picks posted on my blog, Al. By the way, I smoked you a couple of weeks ago 😉 Go Pats!
How good was Josh Beckett? I saw a headline proclaiming him the new Mr. October. Even his ex-girlfriend couldn’t slow him down. On a sidenote, she’s pretty hot.
Now it’s on Schilling. My mom was here visiting, and it was negativity the whole day about the Red Sox. It actually got me more pumped up for the game. When Coco failed to lay down that bunt, I was doing a spontaneous Sopranos’ style “this fuckin’ guy”
Manny’s ball was over the yellow line. Fox failed to get a closeup of the back of that outfield fence. They want more baseball contracts in the future. I guarantee you there is a space behind that wall between it and the concrete section it bounced off of. Without an edge like that, it wouldn’t have bounced like it did…
That’s my story at least.