Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

Inty, if they end up winning the World Series, I will come in here and say "The Angels have the World Series."

 

Congrats to the Angels. This will be a fun playoffs to watch. Can't wait!

 

Since I so badly want a Freeway Series as the World Series this year, I'll have to begrudgingly root for Anaheim in the playoffs.

 

I would certainly like to see your Dodgers go as well. In the AL it's between the Angels and the Orioles for me. I think I would like to see the Orioles go since they haven't been in forever and they represent my division.

 

Just about this time - the 9th inning, anyhow-, 8-years ago. To date, still the most special, crazy, magical regular season game I've ever been to at Dodger Stadium.




I can never fully explain just how special that night was.

 

http://dodgersdigest.com/2014/09/19/dodgers-clinch-a-postseason-berth/]Dem[/url] Bums have clinched a playoff birth!



1) Obviously, a great thing (back-to-back postseason appearances! ), but...


2) Up 3 1/2 games on the despicable Giants with 8 games to play (9 for San Francisco); of course, 3 of those 8 are here in L.A. next week against San Francisco. The thought of seeing the Bums in that 1-game wild card play-in (and them having to use Kershaw in that situation, thus limiting his starts for a potential NLDS) is too terrifying... they've got to win the West!

 

Why not start Greinke in that instance? I'd feel just as good handing him the ball for that game. Then you could go Kershaw, Haren, Greinke for games 1,2,3 in the first round.

 

We're running low on chaos possibilities. Hopefully the Royals, Tigers, A's, and Mariners all finish with the same record. And the Cardinals, Pirates, Dodgers, and Giants. It would be beautiful.

Amazing.

 

In honor of Lasorda's birthday -Happy 87th!- /and what will be my go-to-video if and/or when the Dodgers screw up in the postseason:



.


language!

 

Well I am done for the Year My Yankees are out of it now all that matters is Jeters Last few games.....

 

A chance for the Bums to clinch the division tomorrow night via a Kershaw start? Niiiiice.



Aside from the inherent joy of hearing Vin Scully again for a full games, tonight (as the Bums lost on Monday) was fun: Kemp hitting a 2-run home run in the 1st, after that "scuffle" with Bumgarner; Turner hitting not 1, but 2 solo home runs! "Ginger shots" as I call 'em. And of course, with each of those home runs, there was...






.



Bubbles, bubbles for all!






http://www.sfgate.com/sports/shea/article/Once-a-Giants-fan-Scully-has-made-Dodgers-his-5769866.php#photo-6891948]How[/url] a once former Giants fan became a Dodger-legend


Very much worth a read.

 

Congrats!!!

 

heels1785 -- on top of that, some other things.

Jeter's probably the fifth greatest shortstop of all time. The fact that people are pooh-poohing him as "not even being the fifth greatest Yankee!!!" is irrelevant as the issue is people should be astounded that the Yankees had five players better than him (four, really) and that those people are Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and (I give the edge to) Yogi Berra. Of which, 3 are in the top-25 of WAR in the history of recorded baseball.

The closest we'll come to "our generation's Babe Ruth" because the real one is A-Rod and we can't have that.

We'll possibly never see someone with 3,000 hits ever again, possibly excepting A-Rod (and Beltre, possibly Cabrera, if they don't fall off a cliff). Just as we'll almost certainly never see someone with 300 wins ever again.

We'll probably never see someone spend their whole career with one team again, as we're already seeing signs of that (Pujols, etc.).

So, to sum up:

YEAH JEETS!

 

I think you have to differentiate between two things:

1. The farewell tour: I love Jeter, and even more so Mariano Rivera, but the farewell tours were absurd. No one deserves that much fanfare unless he puts up numbers comparable to the ones Babe Ruth put up at the time he retired, i.e. on a level far beyond what his contemporaries accomplished.

2. That said, the Jeter bashing has gone so far beyond anything resembling a reasonable assessment of his accomplishments. Of course, what would you expect from Keith Olbermann? Did he really mention Willy Randolph (a player I grew up watching and loving), Greg Nettles (ditto) and Red Ruffing? And he omitted Yogi Berra? Is he smoking crack? Is Jeter on level with Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle and Berra (or Rivera, for that matter)? No. Definitely not. But to completely ignore the consistency with which he performed at a top level shows what an absolute idiot Olbermann and other Jeter-bashers are. Michael Rosenberg wrote a great piece on si.com responding to Olbermann. One of the things he looks at is who Jeter lost out to in MVP voting. Names like Juan Gonzalez and a cavalcade of others who have failed drug tests as their primary legacy.

Is Jeter the greatest shortstop or the greatest Yankee ever? Hell no, not even close. But is he sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer, one of the best players of his generation and a guy who played with class and dignity in an era where those words were largely forgotten? Damned straight he was.

 

I'm not going to lie: I've enjoyed a bit the reaction to the Olbermann-esque anti-Jeter stuff this year, but, I of course can't deny or begrudge anyone who'll feel a bit emotional tonight (and Sunday, too). After all, when Kobe retires, I'll be going through much of the same wave of emotions; of course Jeter & Kobe are vastly different in personality/off the field/court drama, but there are similarities: the career spent with the same franchise, the 5-titles won, knowing what it means to play for the franchise in a big city.

 

I will root for the Nats via my roommates fav team.

Feel free to get knocked out in 3 St. Louis.

 

Assuming they don't play each other in the Fall Classic, my main non-Dodger rooting interest will be for Baltimore.

 

I'm a Sox fan, but I have all the respect in the world for Jeter. Not sure what else to say beyond what has already been said.
When I think of Jeter I always think of the late 90's/early 2000's, which were a really great and exciting time for shortstops. Jeter, Nomar, A-Rod, Omar Vizquel all young and putting up big numbers. Barry Larkin was still a solid player. Then to a lesser degree there were guys like Mike Bordick, Rey Ordonez, Edgar Renteria, Tony Batista, Neifi Perez, Rich Aurilia, Rafael Furcal, and the list goes on.

 

Kansas City