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2012 AL Division Series- As at Tigers, Game 3

At least the As are on the right side of the Home/Away equation which means their task is not as hard as the team across the Bay, but it’s still a historical 9% chance they get to teach NYC the Bernie Lean.

Still, they are the favorites to win tonight among those with investments in sports futures and if they manage to eek out a win with Brett Anderson (4 – 2, 2.57 ERA) the prospects aren’t nearly so bleak at 2 – 1 they are at 2 – 0.

They’ll continue to face elimination though even if the manage to get around the Tigers’ lefty Anibal Sanchez (9 – 13, 3.86 ERA) who’s a better pitcher than that and isn’t coming off ligament-replacement surgery and a strained right oblique (ironically coming in a start against the Tigers at Comerica).

It would certainly be easier on me if there were 2 fewer games tomorrow, but I don’t want to be accused of putting on some Bay area jinx.

Since we’re in Extra Innings with the Giants and Reds, they’ll be starting out on TNT.

Back on TBS.

2012 NL Division Series- Reds at Giants, Game 3

So the Giants at Great American Ball Park for the duration, down 2 and facing elimination.

I’m hard put to find a happy face for that, so how about a fight song from 2010 instead?

On the positive side, pitchers very rarely throw 2 No Hitters 2 weeks apart and if you’re a Chicago School Whitewater Economist you have your rattles and dances and expectations that the Giants’ offense will revert to the mean after under performing the first two games.

Also the Reds’ Homer Bailey (13 – 10, 3.68 ERA) is not as good on paper as the Giants’ counter Ryan Vogelsong (14 – 9, 3.37 ERA).  He’s good enough to win though he was better before the All-Star break than after.

And September 28th was so long ago.

A List Of One

Obama Ad About Big Bird Cannot Find One Prominent Wall Street Criminal Prosecuted By Administration

By: David Dayen, Firedog Lake

Tuesday October 9, 2012 7:00 am

There’s only one thing that sticks out to me about this ad, though the casual viewer probably won’t notice it. Let’s look at that litany of Wall Street “criminals” and “gluttons of greed,” which later get juxtaposed with Big Bird. You have Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay and Dennis Kozlowski. So two CEOs prosecuted and convicted by George W. Bush’s Justice Department, and Madoff, whose son turned him in before Obama took office, in December 2008, and who pleaded guilty.

So the Obama campaign could not fill a list of three Wall Street criminals that the Obama Justice Department actually sent to jail. Heck, they couldn’t fill a list of one!

This is despite Eric Holder telling students at Columbia University in February of this year that his Justice Department’s record of success on fighting financial fraud crimes “has been nothing less than historic.” But not historic enough that his boss could point to, well, one Wall Street criminal behind bars as a result of DoJ’s actions.

That’s painfully telling. Nobody from Bank of America or Wells Fargo or Citigroup or JPMorgan Chase or Goldman Sachs or Bear Stearns or Morgan Stanley or Merrill Lynch or even Countrywide or Ameriquest was available to stand in as a “glutton of greed” in this advertisement. Literally no major figure responsible for the financial crisis has gone to jail. So the campaign has to use two CEOs from a decade-old accounting scandal, and a garden-variety Ponzi schemer. The financial crisis plays no role in this advertisement trying to juxtapose cuts to PBS with the financial crisis!

2012 AL Division Series- Yankees at Orioles, Game 2

For me watching Andy Pettitte is a deal with the Devil.  I really despise him and his buddy Steriod Boy.  Also he’s one of those over paid and over rated mercenaries that attach themselves to the Yankees like leeches so they can get famous and then leave at the first better offer only to come slinking back in the twilight of their career when they’re all washed up and no one else will have them.

Pettitte has spent almost all season on the disabled list and despite his carefully orchestrated come back is really a crap shoot.  Nobody knows how he will play or how long he will last.  His record this year is 5-4 with a 2.87 ERA.

Contrasting with the 40 year old (thanks to Roger’s Jungle Juice) veteran is rookie Wei-Yin Chen (12 – 11, 4.02 ERA).  He hasn’t performed well in his last starts, but he does better with longer rest and it’s been 6 days.  Showalter almost has to pitch him or he’ll get stale.

The Orioles find themselves in the same position as every other team that lost their first game at home (Cardinals, Giants, As).  They are in a “must win” situation or they will face elimination every game they play away.  Of that group only the Cardinals have (as I write) eliminated that advantage, we shall see how the Orioles fare.

Be careful in your deals with the devil.

Whatever Lola wants.  Lola gets.

2012 NL Division Series- Nats at Cardinals, Game 2

Get away day.

The same rules apply to the Cardinals as apply to every other team in a playoff situation- it’s a very bad thing to find yourself facing elimination (Sun-Tzu notwithstanding).  Like the Giants last night they really need a win at home.

Thus, the rally squirrel.

Now there are encouraging signs for the Cards.  They only lost by a late game (8th inning) 2 out pinch hit 2 run single and there is no doubt that Gonzales showed considerable frustration early, but age and guile only go so far and by the end the Nationals were looking considerably more “playoff experienced” than they did going in.

Also on the positive side they’ll be facing Jordan Zimmermann.  Don’t let his impressive record (12 – 8, 2.94 ERA) fool you, he’s 0 – 2 lifetime against the Cardinals with a stunning 9.12 ERA.

He’ll be facing Jaime Garcia (7-7, 3.92 ERA) who wasn’t all that impressive in last year’s playoffs, but most of the damage came on the road, he’s much better at Busch Stadium.

And Zimmerman is good on the road, so we shall see shortly how much trouble the Cardinals are in.

Rumblestilskin or Jon the Giant Killer

(1:33)

2012 NL Division Series- Reds at Giants, Game 2

It gets better

I certainly hope so.

It’s really hard to overstate how tough it is to win 3 Sudden Death games on the road.  If they happen to split at AT&T park then it’s no harm no foul, but if the Reds only need to win one then the series could be quite short indeed.

Last night’s game was much more disappointing than the score would indicate.  You would have thought having their ace Cueto out after a mere 8 pitches would have disrupted the Reds more, but instead it was the Giants who seemed out of sync.

Still were it even a hundred run shut out there’s only one W a game and tonight we start fresh with Bumgarner (16 – 11, 3.37 ERA) facing the Reds’ Arroyo (12 – 10, 3.74 ERA).

It may be tonight we see the effects of Cueto’s back spasms, Arroyo’s recent record is not exactly confidence inspiring and I’m sure Dusty Baker would rather have gotten the performance from Cueto and still have Latos in the bag for tonight.  Cueto is listed day to day but certainly will not appear before Game 4.  It’s not like he had a day off, he pitched a full warmup and has an injury.

The Giants need to get some offense going against the lesser part of the rotation if they are to advance this season and Bumgarner must pitch well.  Defense can’t help you against the long ball and the 2 Reds Homers produced enough runs to win all by themselves.

So if you root Giants hope they put on a show tonight.  If on the other hand you’re a Reds fan you can take some encouragement from the fact you crushed their Ace on the field and need perform no better than normal at home to get into the League Championship.

2012 AL Division Series- Yankees at Orioles, Game 1

C’mon, you remember Lola.

Make up your mind to have no regrets.

The Flaws of a Short Series

Purists contend that even a 5 game series doesn’t really give you a sense of how bad or good a team is.  After all, even the worst ones win 40% of the time which means there’s a 6% chance of a bad team sweeping 3 just out of the pure random cussedness of the universe.

In truth the most telling effect is that you don’t get to re-use your pitching aces as much as you’d like to since there are only 5 days from the first to 4th starts.  I say thank goodness because I think seeing the same faces three times in a series is boring.  I also prefer games with lots of hitting and scoring.

Now this year they have a new wrinkle in the rules that gives the team without home field advantage the first 2 games at home.  This reduces the ‘advantage’ of home field advantage because it’s basically unavailable until a final deciding game.  What it does do is eliminate a travel day compared to the old 2-2-1 format with the additional benefit of making it even harder to bore me with another start by one of your 2 Aces.

As you may gather I’m not unalterably opposed to the new scheme other than that I always feel more Baseball is better and were I commissioner you’d have a 5-7-7-7 format.

Damn Yankees

Well they’re not the Senators (now the Rangers and thankfully eliminated) but the Orioles have been huge Yankee killers this season according to members of the Collective (resistance is futile).  In fact they’ve split their 18 games which is  better than the Orioles had any reason to expect and the Hive mind views as a great injustice in their pursuit of 162 game perfection.

The Orioles will have to be every bit as fierce as they’re imagined because on paper they’re over matched and today’s starting pitching is a typical example.  Jason Hammel (8 – 6, 3.43 ERA) went down mid-season with a knee injury and is fresh back from rehab.  CC Sabathia (15 – 6, 3.38 ERA) should be better, but is 0 – 2 at Camden Yard this year.  Before we see Saunders again we will have 2 rookies, Wei-Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzalez, against Pettit and Kuroda.  Saunders will face Hughes (if necessary) in Game 4.

It’s easy to mistake me for a Yankees fan because I’m exposed to so much of them, but the truth is I can take them or leave them.  I think they’re uninteresting between the lines and have no appetite for gossip, but I do admire their ambition and ruthlessness (though in a world devoid of unintentional irony that word would be associated with the Red Sox).

No, no Nanette, that’s how I’ve been able to weather all the financial crises of my life.  My money is invested in triple A gold plated secure vehicles like off, off Broadway shows.

That and sports futures.

2012 NL Division Series- Nats at Cardinals, Game 1

Hmm… let’s see if I can explain that Infield Fly Rule to you.

The infield fly rule is a rule in baseball intended to prevent infielders from intentionally dropping pop-ups in order to turn double plays (or triple plays). Without this rule, a defense could easily turn a pop fly into a double play when there are runners at first and second base.

Back in the days when you sharpened your own spikes for a ‘friendly game’ what would happen a lot is the fielder would drop an easily catchable fly so they could get a force play on the lead runner and fire off a throw to the next base for additional outs they wouldn’t get if they had simply caught the ball and put only the hitter out.

From the moment the call is made the hitter is out and runners are free to tag and advance and indeed should the batter be hit by a throw intended to double up a runner returning to tag it’s interference and an additional out can be called.

Now it was always basically impossible for the Braves to win an appeal because the rule is by definition unappealable (“this call can not be reversed on appeal”) but they did so anyway based on the interpretations of easy and routine (the ball was dropped after all, and it was well into the Outfield though still being played by the Infielder) and timeliness (and no, it wasn’t at all timely).

If, however, the call had not been made it still would have been a 4 – 2 game with the bases loaded and 2 out.  In other words the Braves would have been just as likely to lose so this was not a ‘game changing’ call.

But die hard Braves fans are free to root for the Nationals because of the injustice of it all.  The sad fact for the Cardinals is that they hardly need your help.

The Nats were the best team in the regular season this year and are the favorites in any matchup right through to the World Series.  I hate them because they play in the same League and Division as my Mets and they represent a town so shamelessly corrupt and stupid that it makes one long for the days of Lot and divine wrath.

So yeah, I got squirrels in my pants, the Nats can’t go home soon enough to suit me even if they are really the Expos.

Today’s pitching matchup is Adam Wainwright (14 – 13, 3.94) against the Nats Gio Gonzalez (21 – 8, 2.89 ERA).

The Cards have a better hitting lineup by average, but the Nats have more Home Runs.  On the other hand the Cardinals have 5 players with over 20 Homers and tons of Playoff experience for whatever that’s worth.  They will be hurt most by the fact Lohse will only be available once.

Opiate of the Masses

Romney captures the God vote at first debate

By Sally Quinn, Washington Post

Published: October 4

This is a religious country. Part of claiming your citizenship is claiming a belief in God, even if you are not Christian.. We’ve got the Creator in our Declaration of Independence. We’ve got “In God We Trust” on our coins. We’ve got “one nation under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance. And we say prayers in the Senate and the House of Representatives to God.

An atheist could never get elected dog catcher, much less president.



Up until now, the idea of being American and believing in God were synonymous.



The Republicans have claimed God as their own this entire campaign, each candidate trying to out-Christian the other. Even Obama, though 17 percent of registered voters think he is a Muslim, has talked about being a Christian as often as he can.



If Obama wants to win the next debate, he needs to wear God, as much as it offends him to do so, the same way he captured the flag for this one.

Pulpit Freedom Sunday

Jim Garlow

My God is better than yours!

Buddhism

Scientology

Catholicism

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