Fisher Times-Post-Dispatch-Courier

World Series game 5 pictures are up, plus one from game 4 of the NLDS.  Coming soon: non-sports-related photos.

Yes, I have an opinion on Kenny-Gate. No, it’s not worth sharing.  The game’s over and there’s plenty of time in the offseason to deal with the what-if’s and what-should-have-happeneds.  For now let’s just say that the umpires need to take a more proactive approach to game management.  Now let’s move on and look forward to tonight’s game.

As usual I am way way behind.  No, not in school work.  Ok, so school work is way behind too, but that’s not the point here.  I’ve been my usual prolific self (within my own personal time restraints) as to getting out and practicing my art (photography, duh).  I haven’t been so up-to-date on my post-processing, which means I’ve got a lot of shots that are potentially share-able, but they’re languishing on my hard drive in unfinished states not ready to be shared.  Rest assured, though, that I will post what I have when it gets done. 

Listening to ESPN Radio for game coverage, and I have two pet peeves to soothe:

Carlos Guillen.  Official pronunciation guide says GEE-un.  The Play-by-play guy grates my nerves every time he says gu-YEN.  AGAIN!  Three times!  Ugh.

Also, I’d love it if baseball announcers were at least somewhat familiar with the rules.  Every slight foul ball that hits the ground is a "foul tip" according to them, they’ve no idea that Professional Baseball has the infield fly rule, and, tonight, they’ve mixed up interference and obstruction.   Scott Rolen collided with Brandon Inge at third base, and Rolen was awarded home on the play.  Obstruction.  Over and over and over they’ve called it "interference."  I at least managed to correct the ESPN SportsNation chat guy, Rob Neyer, after HE called it interference, and managed to get him to admit that it was, in fact, obstruction.

The Olde English "D" versus the Birds on the Bat.

I can’t lose: within ten days I’m going to be celebrating a World Series Championship for either my favorite team or my adopted hometown team.  Finally the Tigers come to St. Louis.  This is going to be sweet.

First - a disgusting performance by: the Redskins, who lost to the winless Titans; the Hokies, getting trounced by BC on Thursday night; and the Cardinals’ bullpen, who lost the game for the team.

On to the main topic of the day:

college football is out of control.  In an atmosphere where millions of dollars are to be made off the physical effort of "amateurs," and where the players receive scholarships but no other significant compensation, the lure of college football lies in the "gods of campus" role - they can do no wrong.  As the financial power of football increases, the more the players get away with before a major rebuke.  Minor infractions are ignored, and the line between acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior blurs and shifts.

Now, completely unacceptable - bordering on criminal - behavior is now commonplace on football fields.  Players no longer respect their opponents (an almost gang mentality of us vs. them has arisen), and while fun and spontaneous displays of joy have been methodically erradicated from the game, minor taunts and displays have become major insults, justifying extreme action in the minds of many players.  "Not in my house," they say.  The result?  South Carolina-Clemson brawling.  Miami players brawling at practice.  Miami players fighting with LSU after the Peach Bowl.  Miami-Florida International brawling.

Did I say college football is out of control?  Larry Coker has lost control of his players.  Partly by recruiting thugs.  Partly by failing to institute strict control of behavior early and often.  Coker should be fired, and never allowed to coach college football again.  His version of "coaching" is something the game can live without.

We here in the construct of my imagination would like to wish the Oakland Athletics a safe and uneventful trip back home, and a peaceful and relaxing offseason.  It’s really in their best interests not to have burdened themselves with the tedium of celebration and the awful pressure attendant with going to the World Series.  I salute them on deciding to bow out as quickly as possible, it was the best thing, really.

As for los Tigres, well, they have the better part of a week to relax and enjoy the remainder of the NLCS, waiting to see who doesn’t lose.  Here’s to hoping to see a third Detroit-St. Louis series, to break the 1-1 tie.

St. Louis is doing its part by trotting out the big bats from all the usual suspects: wiry contact hitter So Taguchi last night and pitcher Jeff Suppan tonight.  Next up, an upper deck blast by Eckstein?  Grand slam from the bat boy?  2-1 Cards. 

7-11 Paid the White Sox for some advertising.

They didn’t buy naming rights to the stadium.

They didn’t buy banners, or advertising boards in the stadium.

They didn’t buy television or radio ads.

They bought the starting time of games.

So now all White Sox home weekday evening games start at … you get the picture.

Went to the game last night courtesy of a friend who had a ticket but wasn’t able to go.  Fun game, great seat, and a nice release of tension - even if for just a few hours.  Now the Cards return to the League Championship Series for the third year in a row, playing the Mets.

Also, there was a video presentation on the jumbotron last night that was very well put together, and was a great reminder that this was a very, very good season of baseball.  Now we just need a postseason worthy of the season, and we’re 4 series towards that, with the important three to go. 

Following a resounding thumping of the Yankees today, 8-3, with the last two Yankee runs coming in "junk time," the Tigers have advanced to the American League Championship Series.  This is the first series win for the Tigers since 1984.  Motown is rocking tonight.

The Cardinals returned to Division Series form of past, building a 2-0 lead over San Diego.  Now the Cardinals have two home games to try to close out the best-of-five series.  Nothing special to report on that front, really.

Detroit today won its first playoff game in a time span just five days shy of 19 years.  They last won against the Minnesota Twins on October 10, 1987.  Now they go back to Detroit with a 1-1 tie in the series.  Next up is Randy Johnson versus Kenny Rodgers.  The battle of the ancients.

But most importantly, there was a double play in the Mets-Dodgers series that deserves special mention.  Two players were tagged out at home by the same player without the ball being thrown around.  What’s so special about that?  Well, it happens in every baseball movie (or the catcher somehow manages to miss both players), the play where a slow player comes around third, followed by the fast player just a few feet behind, there’s a perfect throw and the catcher is able to nail both players at the plate, one after the other.  It NEVER happens in reality.  There was a famous play in the 80s involving Carleton Fisk, but that was a regular season game.  And that’s it.

 So what happened?  Runners on first and second, no outs.  After a clean-hit "should have been RBI" single, there were two outs, a man on second, and no runs scored.  See, the man on second thought the ball was going to be caught, while the man on first expected a crazy carom off the wall.  Man on second held up, jogged back to second to tag up, then had to run.  Man on first just took off as hard as he could, expecting to score from first.  The ball did not carom, it bounced right to the outfielder, who turned and fired to the cut-off man, who turned and fired a perfect relay throw to Paul Lo Duca at home.  Slow-footed, slow-to-react Man on Second wasn’t fast enough to make it home from second, so the 3rd base coach was going to hold him at third.  Except Man on First was about 10 feet behind, and there’s a funny rule in baseball that you can’t have two men on the same base.  So he sends Man on Second home, and he’s predictably tagged out.  Way out.  But his momentum spins Lo Duca around, facing away from third base.  Third Base Coach expected Man on First to hold at third, so was watching the train wreck at home when Man on First zooms by him.  Just kept running.  With Lo Duca spun around, Man on First was hoping to slip by unnoticed.  Which he almost did, except something caught Lo Duca’s attention and he spun around to see what was going on, and happened to tag out Man on First at home.
 

How to score this?  Batter hit a single.  Double play.  Batter-runner to second on the throw.

The best part?  Third base coach was playing second base in 1985 in the game that Fisk tagged two men out at home.