Ok, now that the playoff picture is looking a LITTLE clearer, I thought I'd re-visit this.

AL is shaping up to be:Yankees -vs- Red Socks
Twins -vs- AthleticsNL is a bit murkier...Atlanta -vs- Wildcard (Phillies, Marlins)
Giants -vs- Central (Astros, Cubs)That's not to say that a few teams aren't mathematically eliminated, but The D`backs pretty much made sure that the Dodgers are out of things, and the Mariners, D'backs and Cardinals need maricles.

I honestly think that the Cubs destiny is in their own hands. They have a cakewalk schedule for the rest of the season. Despite losing half their double-header yesterday they have 8 gmes left against the Pirates and Reds.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday might decide the NL wildcard, with FLA and the Phillies locking up. I suppose this gives LA a glimmer of hope, but since they have 5 games left against the giants, I wouldn't count on anything.

So, with my D`backs all but out of things, I get to cheer for the Cubs (growing up in Phoenix makes you a Cubs fan or an Atlanta fan).

Wouldn't a Boston/Chicago WS be fun? I honestly think the world would end if those teams made it that far.

So, with my D`backs all but out of things, I get to cheer for the Cubs (growing up in Phoenix makes you a Cubs fan or an Atlanta fan).

Im sorry to hear that you choose the Cubs Palimax.. We Atlantans will be feeling for you during the playoffs.

Master Damoiel Mindbend
Retired Enchanter of the 60th Season

I'm offering right now to buy everyone an Atlanta WS champs 2003 T-Shirt for only 20 bucks a pop. Expect shipment in October.

ID like to see tha yanks and the cubs in the world series. Even if the Yankess lose, it would be nice to see the Cubs win it after so long.

Im sorry to hear that you choose the Cubs Palimax.. We Atlantans will be feeling for you during the playoffs.Yeah, I love Atlanta in the playoffs too. They're a great team to bet to lose in the NLDS every year.

The only question is WHO will Atlanta lose to in the playoffs this year.

Your matchups are all wrong....

You cant play someone in your division in the first round..

Growing up in Phoenix made you a Harry Carry fan which made you a cubs fan. As far as Atlanta? that gay chant is enough to turn the volume off watching a game....

You cant play someone in your division in the first round..Damnit.

The Rotiserre Geek thread in full effect.

Thats fine, thats fine, you can hate on the Braves all you like. Its a much better choice to root for the Cubs, with their impressive record of 959 - 1152 (.454%) from 1990-02! GO CUBS!!! Hey but they managed to finish second place ONCE in that time period so.. yeah I can see why youre getting all defensive.
Im curious about your counter-argument... "So! The Braves have only ONE World Series title since 1990, and even finished last place in their division in 1990!!! Gugugug!"
Go mediocrity go!

Master Damoiel Mindbend
Retired Enchanter of the 60th Season

Slant, pull your underwear out of your ass. It was your decision to take pot shots at the team I'm cheering for first. I can't help it if your team can't sell out the NLDS series because even your fans know that you go to the dance every year, but you don't dance for long...

I grew up on the cubs. Plain and simple. They'll always have a certain unexplainable coolness factor about them. You can post their medicore stats all you want. It's even more reason why you want to cheer for them.

Pot shots? Im truly offended. I was offering my early condolensences from the bottom of my cold black heart. I have an idea, we should let ALL of the Cubs hitters use corked bats, kind of even the playing field as it were.

Master Damoiel Mindbend
Retired Enchanter of the 60th Season

Sammy's problem isn't cork, it's the random steroid testing this year.


I get to cheer for the Cubs

OK, now I've gotta look up that website you use and DoS it. HEh. I love my Cards, but we were out of it after Morris went down for 6 weeks. The thought of letting Houston win just to stick it to the Cubs did cross my mind.

Twins > All

They will spank the Yanks in round one, rock the Sox in round two, and pwn the Braves..again...

They are still playin' baseball?

Sorry, with football season in full swing and hockey ramping up, didn't realize baseball was still being played :')

Of course, I live in a town that doesn't have a baseball team...Denver :')

Let's revisit that playoff picture. Assuming nothing dramatic happens in the next 7 days, here's the AL (now with correct pairings, I think):Yankees -vs- Twins
A's -vs- Red SoxAnd the NL still much murkier:Braves -vs- Central
Gaints -vs- Wildcard
Unless, of course, the unlikely Wildcard winner is the Dodgers, but that's so ugly I hate to think about it.

Any predictions? Can the Cubs make it in by virtue of their schedule? Atlanta keeping home field?

sports.espn.go.com/mlb/pl...push/stand (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/push/stand)

I think the Giants will come out of the N.L. Atlanta doesn't have smackdown pitching like they used to. The Cubs were on a roll, but now they're having problems again - Wood and Zambrano look great for the future, but they're always 1 to 2 pitches away from the inning that will lose the game.

Houston has an effective offense, but they're a one-horse-and-pray-we-get-to-the-7th-inning train.

The A's have a nice new pitcher, but they just lost their #1. The Yankees are at least a little vulnerable, and the Red Sox organization seems to be building some momentum.

The Cubs were on a roll, but now they're having problems again - Wood and Zambrano look great for the future, but they're always 1 to 2 pitches away from the inning that will lose the game.Houston's last 6 games are 3 against Frisco and 3 against the Brewers. I think they can hope to go 4-2 in that period at best and 3-3 is more than possible.

Chicago has 5 games left (and an extra loss), but their games are against the Reds and they've got this lineup planned:

9/23 K. Wood at Cin (Randall)
9/24 C. Zambrano at Cin (Hall)
9/25 J. Cruz at Cin (Van Poppel)

Randall, Hall and Van Poppel are a COMBINED! 4-5 w/l. The Reds have thrown it in.

The Cubs finish off the season with two games against the Pirates. So, if they can honestly go 4-1 or 3-2 in that period, they end up tied, and they have a 9-7 record head-to-head against the Astros, so.... ...the Cubs have the tiebreak (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_press_release.jsp?ymd=20030908&content_id=517243&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb).

i totally agree with mirrdor, but i still think atlanta is a pitching juggernaut, just not as big as they were in the mid to late 90's

i'm sorry for all the atlanta fans out there, because the giants are gonna roll'em over :smokin

Sox pwn all and will take the WS for sure this year, I'll put 10 grand on it!...hmm, not that I have more than 10 dollars but oh well.....

Think about:

1. Zambrano's last outing
2. Almost any Cruz outing this year.
3. It most likely won't be Cruz, it'll be Estes.

Hey, I gotta try to keep hopes up.....

Hey Saeeliel! Long time no see bro. How have you been?

Oh, and Red Sox suck. :p

Frisco beat Houston tonight (as expected). So the NL-Central is knotted up with the Cubs on top by tie-break. They've both got 5 games left, and the Cubs have the easy schedule.

Florida won tonight too, giving Frisco a look at home-field again.

Btw, neither team would make the wild card, so if they're tied, there will be a playoff game.

SYSTAH!!!!

Being an atlalien yes the braves will loose in the NLDC. Pali is right, that is why they cant sell out a playoff game.

Btw, neither team would make the wild card, so if they're tied, there will be a playoff game.You're right, there's gonna be a play-off if they end up tied, but not for the reason you seem to think they are. The teams are playing for the DIVISION right now, not the wildcard, so there would be a one-game playoff, but only because they have a lesser winning percentage than the Giants/Braves. If you tie for your division, AND you have a higher winning percentage than the other two first place teams, you win the division, and the other team is the wildcard (because they have a better percentage than the other two first-place division teams).

Basicly, what that says is that if you tie, and one of you is gonna end up as the wildcard anyway, you don't bother playing it, and the division/wildcard is determined by head-to-head, then intraleage, and then last-half intraleague, then finally, if necessary a game-by-game analysis for tie-break. It's all pretty stupid.

mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/ml...p&c_id=mlb (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_press_release.jsp?ymd=20030908&content_id=517243&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb)

This would be possible only if there were a tie with another 96+ game winner - then there'd be no playoff, so it's pretty academic.

so it's pretty academic.

Academy's werent my best subject in school! :(

Hey Selwen, hey Gerf......been awhile guys :) .

And Red Sox suck eh?! I'm gonna add this thread to my favorites so I can remember to laugh at you when they win the WS! :)

Giants crush Houston again today.
Cubs blank Cinci for the win today.

Every other division leader appears to be winning or to have won already...

saee is gay

He sure is, as gay as can be!

Unless they can have Pedro pitch every game, they arent gonna get very far.The sox have absolutely no bullpen. They have lost a lot of games in the late innings whne they were ahead for most of the game :(

Baseball would be vastly improved if we let the runners keep the bats and gave the baseman shields.

I would watch the game 24/7 if they made this minor change. Hell i would buy the pay per view!

Woot Twins clinched last night!

The Cubs and Astros both win today. Cubs keep a 1-game lead. The Cubs in the post-season is undoubtedly the first sign of the apocalypse.

With Boston leading the AL wildcard, we can all cheer for the possible end of the world - where Boston and Chicago lock up in the World Series...

Cubs lose. Astros win. All tied. Every other spot locked up. Here's what MLB had to say:It's come to this. One weekend. Three days. The Cubs and Astros are all even in the NL Central, and Chicago goes first today as Mark Prior faces the Pirates at Wrigley Field.

Heck of a weekend...

definetly exciting watching that going on

and as of last night, dodgers are out of it

The final weekend of the deadlocked NL Central race is off to a wet start. The Cubs-Pirates game has been called due to rain and will be part of a 1 ET doubleheader tomorrow.Houston plays in 2 and a half hours.

Everyone's locked up their positions except Chicago/Houston.

Cubs take the doubleheader to clinch the division...

Sosa becomes the first player to hit 40 or more homers in 6 seasons...

Double post, what teh hell?

It's the A's, they're way too good to go out in the first round every year, and they're due.

<---- Isn't happy, can't believe I took 2 days off for that shit :( :(

I hate to say I told ya so....

Pedro had the Sox in good position,then of course, the bullpen lost it for em. Again.
On the other hand my Yanks are finally getting focused.

Braves/Cubs series turning out to be quite good - And Im mad at myself, had a chance to catch today's game and I passed it up, now Im regretting it.

And on another note, Yankees suck!

Master Damoiel Mindbend
Retired Enchanter of the 60th Season

Watching the game now in the top of ninth cubs winning 5 to 1...

The real sad thing is that the crowd seems to for the cubs..

Well, I am on the cubs side but it goes to show you what kind of fans the braves have.....

Last game I caught at the Ted was in the 40 buck seats...

There was a guy 3 feet ahead of me working on a laptop the entire game, a guy reading a book, and 2 gay guys talking about some new Buckhead club.

Atlanta doesn't have baseball fans...thats why home field doesnt matter.

/sigh

Atlanta has been in the playoffs too many times, people expect it.

Too bad the Twins got spanked, their hitting was teh suck. Guess I have to support the Cubs now!

You can't tell from the cheering who the fans are for. The Cub fans didn't have a cheer of their own, so they use the one the Braves fans use. So now even the TV announcers think everyone is cheering for the Cubs.

The thing that really sucks is that the Marlins won, so the Cubs will have it easier. That BLOWS.

7 hours untill the A's are eliminated at the hands of Pedro and the Sox!

Warning: incoming sappiness alert :) I'm not, myself, a big baseball fan, but thought I'd share this...

My sweet grandmother, Ruth Conwell Henry, who passed away this February, was a lifelong Cubs fan. Despite being almost completely deaf and blind for the last 5 years of her life (but in possession of her faculties), she would watch their games religiously on WGN, and my uncle would dutifully go to their Spring training every year and send her programs and other assorted goodies.

For her 80th birthday, we all got her a Cubs stadium chair, autographed by Ernie Banks. She would sit in it, put her old style Cubs hat (the black one with the little white felt bear on it) on, put her feet up on a hassock that just 'happened' to match the chair, and watch the games in her glasses taped up to block her blind right eye from straining on the TV. Since they never made the playoffs, and she spent the latter half of her life in Jacksonville Florida, the Atlanta Braves became her 'backup' team. She was a great Sammy Sosa fan, shunned the American League, and cursed when they started Interleague play, which she termed 'stupid' (which was about as close to a curse that ever came out of her mouth).

I can just imagine how excited she would have been able to see her Cubs actually in the playoffs, and playing Atlanta at that! I was glad to see the Cubbies win their first playoff series (well, since 1908) , beating the Braves who look to fulfill their annual role of 'also-rans' once again... ;) Go Cubs!

Regards,
Nydia Ywalmoriel
Autonomous Collective

Nice story, but I won't fall for it. I still hate the Cubs.

The Woman and I went to see some friends Saturday night to look at their house under construction. I got out and said something like "Dammit, they've got men in scoring position."

He was a big Cubs fan, and asked why I couldn't cheer for them temporarily even though I wasn't originally from Chicago.

I held out my arm - The Woman had gotten me a Cardinals watch for my birthday or something (yeah, cheesy, but you've gotta wear it, you know?) and I was wearing it.

He sighed and said "ah, I see."

I'm waiting for the cub fans dressing up as pigs with wings or satan on iceskates.

You realize of course, that if the cubs win the world series, Mr. Bush will have the perfect excuse to begin nuking North Korea.....

What was that, Selwen?!?! :)

Bring on the yankees please :)

Yanks will own the sox man.

Christ what a ballgame tonight. Unfuckingbelievablegame.

Sosa hitting that ball was a thing of beauty. I can't believe they let it slip away.

Sosa hitting that ball made me want to punch a hole in the wall! Damn good game, though. Pudge is having the playoffs of his life so far.

It was a lot of fun. I have drinks every Tuesday night at a bar with a bunch of alums. Usually, I'm the only guy there who cares about sports. It was pretty funny to see 2 tables of geeks enjoying a ball game and making fun of me when I cheered for a Marlins score or a Sosa strikeout.

Take pitches. Wear the starter down. Get to that Cubs bullpen.....

Mirdorr, I can't *believe* you're a Marlins fan :/. My own grandmother wouldn't have a thing to do with them after Florida got their own franchise after so many years...

That was an awesome game though, even if the outcome wasn't. And /agree on Pudge, he is just incredible year after year (and incredible longevity for a catcher), and was what made the Texas Rangers worth cheering for when I was in Dallas...

Regards,
Nydia

If they play against the Cubs, I'm a fan!

I don't like watching games in bars, but we've caught 2 great games on our last 2 Beer Tuesdays.

DAMN I loved last night's game. Everyone blamed the fan for touching a ball that was out of play, and no one blamed Gonzalez for his error or Baker for exhausting his starting pitcher. Typical.

wow, last three innings of the sox vs. yanks game was outstanding

and to open up to the cubs, to see wood hitting that homer, the alou hitting his, definetly great games today

Why do they call it the world series anyway? it is not like anyone in the world outside of America gives a shit about the sport anyway.

1. (X) "MLB ALCS Game 7: Boston vs. N.Y. Yankees," Fox, 27.5 million viewers.

2. (X) "MLB NLCS Game 7: Florida vs. Chicago," Fox, 26.5 million viewers.

In Japan, Dentsu Communications holds rights to MLB's TV package. Dentsu sells the rights to broadcast outlets (NHK, Fuji, TBS, and Jolf Radio) in Japan that air a total of about 300 games on TV and radio.

The emergence of Matsui and a three-game series with Ichiro's Mariners come at an opportune time for MLB International. MLB is in the final year of its five-year contract with Dentsu. The higher the ratings, the better chance of getting a more lucrative deal. Since 1999, viewership for MLB games as well as the number of games broadcast in Japan have increased.

sportsillustrated.cnn.com....expos.ap/ (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/baseball/mlb/09/30/bc.bbn.mexico.expos.ap/)

pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~jtorr.../baseball/ (http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~jtorres/domrep/baseball/)
Not mention Venuzula, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Haiti, Cuba....

www.geocities.com/Colosse...EBALL.html (http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Sideline/5515/BASEBALL.html)


So.. Thats alot..
27 Million people alone in the US.. thats nothing to sneeze at. That fucking huge.

Also as the USA is the most ethnically diverse nation on the Earth..

So.. Thats alot..
27 Million people alone in the US.. thats nothing to sneeze at. That fucking huge.


true, but world the population is somewhere close to 6.5 billion. Even though no sport could possibly cover this amount, 27 million is very small in comparison.

Also the world series is only played with American teams.

They had to name it something, and "Grandest Baseball Game of the Year in America and sometimes Canada, with Guest Stars from all Sorts of Kookie Countries!" was taken.