the Official Baseball thread

[pholtos]

Cards are about 1 inning away from beating Kershaw twice and moving on to the NLCS. How poetic in a way. (and how annoying for those who don't like the Cards that much, I'd wager.)

[YelseyKing]

Cards are about 1 inning away from beating Kershaw twice and moving on to the NLCS. How poetic in a way. (and how annoying for those who don't like the Cards that much, I'd wager.)

You don't know the half of it. I've never seen a team live or die on the "miracle" as much as the Cardinals do, year after year after freaking year. They're like the protagonists on an never-ending sports movie, and all 29 other teams are the antagonist.

I genuinely do not get how everyone still sees them as the underdog when they have some of the best pitching in all of baseball, and often boast one of the league's best records. Even last year, when they had the NL's best record, they were treated like some scrappy bunch of underdogs "with something to prove" the whole time. Um. No. It doesn't work that way. You don't get to be "underdog" if you have the best record in the game and have three pitchers with ERAs lower than Cy Young's. The Cardinals are a dynasty, plain and simple. They've made the postseason more times than the *Yankees* have during since the 2000s, have made the World Series more times (four) than any other team in that period except the Yankees, who also went four times, and have the second most world series wins overall, behind only the Yankees.

I intensely loathe "dynasty" teams, but even moreso when they're constantly treated as something they're decidedly *not*.

[pholtos]

Well you can blame ESPN on the whole treating as not a favorite thing.

There's a 25% shot not for that I-70 series I'm hoping for to happen. I hope it does. :3

Also, I enjoy the fact that ESPN's darlings, the LA teams, the duo of yankees and redsox, and the Nationals are all pretty much out now, with the exception of the nationals who have to win twice to move on.

[YelseyKing]

Well you can blame ESPN on the whole treating as not a favorite thing.

There's a 25% shot not for that I-70 series I'm hoping for to happen. I hope it does. :3

That would actually be interesting, I'll grant that. Not sure if it's ever happened before... it's a rarity, at any rate.

Also, I enjoy the fact that ESPN's darlings, the LA teams, the duo of yankees and redsox, and the Nationals are all pretty much out now, with the exception of the nationals who have to win twice to move on.

Hah. Yeah, I concede, that's actually pretty awesome, seeing most of the "media darling" teams not make it very far. Oh noes. We may have an actually unusual World Series matchup.

That said, if the Cardinals *do* make the World Series again, it's poetic justice that they have no one but themselves to blame for not getting home field advantage.

(Amusing side-note: Firefox underlines "matchup" as misspelled, but accepts "noes" as a word. Haha.)

[pholtos]

To be honest I expect the Giants to make it as the last team, since the Cards and Giants have been the two teams with a heck of a lot of success in the postseason the last like... 5 seasons.

[YelseyKing]

To be honest I expect the Giants to make it as the last team, since the Cards and Giants have been the two teams with a heck of a lot of success in the postseason the last like... 5 seasons.

Ehhh, I'm pulling for an AL series win either way. I think it'd be hilariously awesome for a perpetual bottom-dweller like Kansas City or Baltimore to win it all.

[RedMageSusie]

Regardless, we're guaranteed to have a team that hasn't seen the World Series since the 80s to make it. That's pretty awesome.

[pholtos]

Congrats to ESPN for being wrong on every series so far.

[YelseyKing]

I guess I should be glad that at least the A's and Angels were eliminated. They're the Mariners' biggest rivals. And the Mariners *just* missed getting in, because the A's won on the final day of the season. Seeing the Royals bump them out on the Wild Card game made me happy. *trollface*

Congrats to ESPN for being wrong on every series so far.

They had Dodgers vs. National and Angels vs. Tigers in the LCS, huh? lul

[Bean]

That home run from Adams in the 7th was a thing of beauty. It's amazing how the Cardinals just seem to always fly under the radar year in and year out with some analysts. The run's going to end at some point, but I want Matheny to win a championship with this club before that happens.

Now we've got a rematch from two years ago with the Giants coming in to St. Louis this time around. They're the one team in the NL I was nervous about seeing the Cards face since they've had their number like the Cards do just about anyone not named them or Boston lately.

[pholtos]

Oh man that Royals lead getting in extras.

AKA The Kansas City "Extras" Royals are looking to go 1-0 in the ALCS.

[YelseyKing]

Oh man that Royals lead getting in extras.

AKA The Kansas City "Extras" Royals are looking to go 1-0 in the ALCS.

They've... now managed to win all four road games this postseason in extra innings. Wow.

[Bean]

Looks like the Giants have that even year magic going again. Even made the umpires believe in it with not calling a blatant balk that could've given the Cards a chance tonight. Still, I thought SF could beat St. Louis if they got this far. It's just one of those bad match-ups for the Cards.

[pholtos]

I haven't been watching the game, the way fox sports is showing the game is annoying me. They keep splitting the game into like three different screens and I tend to concentrate on all three, which leads to concentration on none.

Blargh.

[Bean]

Long-suffering Cardinals fans can enjoy a win over the oh-so tiresome even year Giants tonight... although they might've lost Yadier Molina for the rest of the way.

[pholtos]

In today's ya just can't predict baseball... let's talk about two of the worst home run hitting teams in the league... and their numerous homers in the postseason. Oddest thing ever.

[YelseyKing]

Payback's a bitch. ^___________________^

Also: The Cardinals this postseason seem physically incapable of homering unless it either A) ties the game, or B) gives them a one run lead. I think only one of their homers has been outside of that criteria (Wong's homer in game 3 of the LDS).

Edit: Unless the Orioles can channel the 2004 Red Sox, it looks like the Royals are headed for the World Series. That's... awesome. They haven't actually *lost* the entire postseason. That's even *crazier*.

[Bean]

And that's why I hope the Cards rally. I want to see an I-70 rematch, but the Giants are going to do their best to ruin that. Bah. Bah, I say!

[YelseyKing]

The Royals have ousted the Orioles, and are headed to the World Series. I'm rooting for them, both because I've never seen them have success since I started watching baseball, and because the alternative is the Giants or the Cardinals, both of who have won two World Series in the last decade. I want to see someone *else* win it for a change.

[pholtos]

The Royals swept the postseason series.

Which one?

Every one.

[RedMageSusie]

One more win and they tie the all time record for a postseason winning streak

[pholtos]

I've learned to stop watching Cards games in the postseason. When I watch the Cards do terrible and the opposite team scores. When I don't the Cards score a lot. So yeah, not going to watch anymore this series.

[Compound Fraxure]

So, I live close to Kansas City, and everyone in my town and every surrounding town could not be more excited. I even went to a game earlier in the season (they lost to Detroit, though), and to say that I saw the winning team play would be awesome.

[Bean]

Looks like another case of even year magic. If trends hold, this means the Cards win next year's World Series due to losing in the WS, then losing in the NLCS. Now they'll go on a ridiculous run in 2015 and win it all somehow.

I really want to see Matheny win one. He's been ripped apart the last couple of years by people here because he's not Tony LaRussa... who fans didn't like much anyway.

[YelseyKing]

Looks like another case of even year magic. If trends hold, this means the Cards win next year's World Series due to losing in the WS, then losing in the NLCS. Now they'll go on a ridiculous run in 2015 and win it all somehow.

Oh god I hope not.

Let's see... my prediction for next year's World Series... I think the Nationals will take it over the Tigers in six games. I'm basing this on absolutely nothing in particular. I just picked two random teams and hey.

Maybe I got spoiled by seeing so many different teams win the World Series since I started watching it, but I get so underwhelmed when teams win it over and over again. I make an exception only for the Red Sox, since they went almost a century without a title, so they're just playing catch-up. Though considering 2012 and 2014, last year's win almost felt like a complete fluke.

I want another Diamondbacks world championship, dangit. They've only even made the postseason like three times since then, and only got past the NLDS once. Or even better: a *Cubs* world championship. But I predict that'll happen sometime around when the sun explodes. Sigh.

I ramble.