October Beisbol

The New York Yankees made their third straight exit in the first round of the playoffs after losing to the Cleveland Indians last night. And if the "boss" was being honest, the exit may cost Joe Torre his job as the Yankees manager.

This was the only series I predicted right on the nose, with the Indians ending the series in four games. The Indians outplayed the Yankees in every aspect of the game.

Alex Rodriguez may get the most criticism, but the Yankees nation can look at their captain, Derek Jeter, for some answers. Jeter went 3-for-17 in the series, batted into three double plays, and drove in one run.

It makes no difference though. The Indians hit the ball from top-to-bottom in the lineup, and their pitchers kept the Yankees offense at bay.

League championship series predictions to come.

In other baseball news... I am a little late on this one, but thought it was pretty nuts.

A Cubs fan decided to hang a goat carcass from the Harry Caray statue at Wrigley Field in an attempt to rally the Cubs in the NLDS. (Youtube is not allowing to embed the video, so its the link.)

It obviously did not work and am rooting big time for the Cubs to win it all in 2008. If that happens it would be their first World Series title in 100 years.

R.I.P Angels. Hey TBS, Fox, ESPN and every East Coast bias medium out there, you got your wish! The Red Sox made it to the ALCS.

Someone Buy Back The Rights...

to the divisional series and the one league championship series that Turner Sports bought. TBS is in the first year of their seven year contract that allows them to air the division series of the playoffs.

The announcers in the Los Angeles Angels-Boston Red Sox series have been horrible. Their East Coast bias and obvious love for the Red Sox should not be aired on television. In the first game of the series they were already talking about the prospect of a New York Yankees-Red Sox matchup in the ALCS, in the SECOND inning.

I do not know where they found these guys, but they need to slapped around. They obviously do not watch any West Coast teams based on their gushing for the Red Sox.

They are not the only guilty party. The production team is favoring the Red Sox as well. I cannot even count on my hands and feet combined the amount of times that they did not show their "pitchtrax" when Angels pitchers got a questionable call from the homeplate umpire (a whole other issue that makes my blood boil).

But they conveniently continued to show the "pitchtrax" each time the Red Sox pitchers were on the mound.

I do not think I have seen a more screwed up strike zone than the one lat night. I understand that the first couple of innings has a loose strike zone, but later in the game it is supposed to tighten up.

Homeplate umpire, Dan Iassogna, was the second Red Sox player behind the plate. His strike zone mysteriously turned to the size of DVD case when Angels pitchers were on the mound. Yet, somehow when Red Sox pitchers were pitching, the strike zone became the size of a oversized beach towel.

It was the worst pitch calling I have ever seen. In a key at-bat, Kevin Youkilis got away with five strikes looking and ended up drawing a walk on balls. A ball thrown to Chone Figgins that was clearly outside the strike zone (they actually showed this one on "pitchtrax") was called a strike, and would have issued a walk to Figgins.

And now onto the devil... I hate you forever Danny Vinik


Jeff Mathis would have caught that ball if it weren't for the extra wall made for the photographers in the playoffs.

Tomorrow its on.

Drinking rules...

I am really emotional any time that my favorite team is in the playoffs.

I remember when I was 19 I had scored a nice date with a Latina hottie who was the hostess at a restaurant. The Lakers were in the playoffs at the time, trying to go back-to-back.

Her and I went on a date following a Lakers loss, not good. The whole time I thought about the game and ignored anything she was saying to me. Conversations were ruined because all I was thinking about was how the Lakers ruined the opportunity to go undefeated in the playoffs. That stupid step-over-stomp that Allen Iverson did over Tyronne Lue still is a vivid image in my head.

Needless to say, we never went out again but the Lakers won the championship, so all was not lost.

If you are going to be an obnoxious fan, do so where it is welcome. And it is best to keep your mouth shut if your team is not in the playoffs.

Boston Red Sox fans, I hope none of you are sitting in my section on Sunday... yet I know all of you have been scouring and paying any price to see the Red Sox (you should have bought tickets for a game IN Boston). This is Orange County, if you like Boston so much, go back.

*Bar pictured: Mutt Lynch's in Newport Beach - I am going to have to visit this establishment. If you head there before I do, please let me know.*

Lights Out

The Boston Red Sox took a 1-0 series lead over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last night behind a "lights out" performance from starting pitcher Josh Beckett. The Angels were shutout on four hits as Beckett threw a complete game.

Beckett was just straight dealing last night. The NL and AL allstar team could have been in the batter's box last night against Beckett and still would have managed only four hits. He was getting ahead of batters all night and only had one Angels player reach third base.

The sports world is giving the Angels no shot to win this series, and this start with Beckett did nothing to help win the Angels any supporters.

The other two games featured excellent pitching as well; no team scored more than four runs yesterday.

Lou Piniella may have wanted to leave Carlos Zambrano in the game longer as the Cubs' relievers gave up the winning runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks as soon as Zambrano left the game. Not that keeping Zambrano may have helped though, because Brandon Webb pitched just as well, holding the Cubs to one run over seven innings.

It was just one game, and I still like the Cubs in this series because of their starting pitching.

And the Colorado Rockies continued to ride their emotions as they beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 behind Jeff Francis. The Phillies were swinging at everything, striking out a total of ten times, four of which by Chase Utley.

Matt Holliday can just rack. He carried the Rockies throughout the season, "scored" the winning run in the one-game playoff, and is continuing his clutch hitting into the NLDS. He hit a homerun off of Tom Gordon in the eighth inning to add an insurance run for the Rockies relievers. NL MVP anybody?