Blue Jays or Royals? I’m pulling for the Jays because I adore David Price, who is starting pitcher tomorrow.
Watching the pre-game, and Pete Rose is on the panel. He’s turned into the cranky old fart from “Up.”
If you care about baseball, who do you favor in the NLCS? I like the Cubs and the Mets both but am rooting for the Cubs, who have the best damn manager in baseball.
Open thread!
Turgidson
Cubs fan. Very excited about the NLCS, but remaining prepared for the moment when the Cubs grab defeat from the jaws of victory in the most spectacularly gut-wrenching way possible.
The awesome news is that the Cubs roster is full of guys who are barely old enough to drink and many years away from huge paydays, so they are set up to be good for a while. But, they’re the Cubs, so they could find a way to blow that too.
Anniecat45
Pete Rose spent his entire career in the National League. Why is he a commentator for the American League series? (Not to mention the little issue about being banned from baseball because of betting on it, which I don’t believe he’s ever fully come clean about.)
Tom Levenson
Rooting for Toronto, mostly because the team was incredibly h ospitable to me when I was working on a film about domes. (Plus, bottled beer delivered to one’s seat. Awesome.)
Rooting against the Cubs. If George Will’s for ’em, I’m agin ’em.
goblue72
KC or Toronto? Doesn’t matter. They are just playing to see who gets to lose again the NL team. And I’m a Red Sox fan, so if anything, I’m rooting for the Mets to get their dreams crushed.
Personally, I think the Cubs go all the way. They’ve pulled it all together this year and the Mets are over-rated. Plus, Lester hasn’t been “the guy” yet this post-season and he’s the kind of player who thrives on this stuff and generally has at least one “big” game in him during the post-season. I predict he comes up big in the NLCS.
Cubs in 6.
A guy
As a pirates fan I hated the reds. But Pete rose is the best baseball player ever
raven
@A guy: Jesus you are stupid.
Steeplejack
I don’t have strong feelings about any of the teams in the playoffs, but I found myself gravitating toward the Cubs in their series with the Cardinals. So I’m hoping against hope that they can go all the way and lift the curse.
American League, meh. Slight preference for Toronto, dunno why.
I was dithering about what to eat this evening, just pulled the trigger on pizza delivery from Brick’s (h/t to Redshift for the recommendation way back when). Thin crust, spicy sausage (with pepperoni, mushrooms and black olives). Yum.
JMG
Not the best player ever by a long shot, but a very great player just the same. As a Phillies fan, I will always be conflicted about Rose because even though he’s a loony slimeball, without him, the Phils never win the 1980 World Series, their first in 97 years of existence.
Big ole hound
How can you root against the Cubs. They are a national treasure plus the Mets are from NYC.
Mike J
@goblue72:
I’ve finally gotten over ’86.
But if the Mets lost on a bobbled grounder to the Cubs (and their ex sox pres) I wouldn’t cry.
Roger Moore
My rule of thumb when I don’t have an established rooting interest is to go with the team that is most behind on its due number of World Series. In the ALCS, the Blue Jays have won 2 Series in 39 years of existence vs. 1 Series in 47 years for the Royals, so I’ll go for the Royals. In the NLCS, the Mets have 2 Series wins in 54 seasons vs. 2 Series in 113 seasons (since the modern World Series was first played) for the Cubs, so I’ll be rooting for the Cubs. Obviously, I’d take the Cubs over anyone in the Series, followed by the Royals over the Mets and the Mets over the Blue Jays.
redshirt
Cubs v. Jays World Series, with Jays winning in game 7 due to something heartbreaking for the Cubs.
Savor the misery, Cubs fans. It makes you special. Believe me, now that the Red Sox won, it hasn’t been the same. Sure, it’s nice to keep winning titles, but the pain. The pain is precious.
philpm
I want my Royals facing the Cubs in the WS. I’ll accept facing the Mets though.
A guy
Ok start giving me the names of all the folks with over 4000 hits
goblue72
@Mike J: Substitute “I wouldn’t cry” with “I would laugh hysterically until I passed out from oxygen deprivation.”
canuckistani
Long time Jays fan here, patiently waiting for Joey Bats to flip another one.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
Rooting for Toronto, because it’s hockey season.
Gophers up 7-1 on Ohio State. They’ve outscored the opposition 32-1 so far this year.
Catherine D.
Not a team fan in any sport, but I lived in Chicago for 12 years and I hate the Cubs:
Choke, Cubs, choke
Choke, Cubs, choke
Hey Chicago whaddya say
The Cubs are gonna choke today.
They could at least have played “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request” for Steve Goodman.
Rooting for the Mets against the Flubbies, because my uncle used to be a part-time or volunteer groundskeeper for the Mets way back (my cousins have signed balls from the ’69 team) and I could always spot him on tv pulling the tarp. After that, don’t care.
philpm
Nice start by Volquez.
ms_canadada
Let’s go Blue Jays!!! I was there when Joe Carter hit it out of the park, back in the 1990’s.
However, I’ve been a Cubs’ fan since I was a young girl, (love Wrigley Field and Harry Caray) and will probably hibernate under the bed if the finals find the Jays against the Cubs.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
Ohio State changed coaches, but they’re still a bunch of goons.
max
Blue Jays or Royals? I’m pulling for the Jays because I adore David Price, who is starting pitcher tomorrow.
The Royal look the better team.
I like the Cubs and the Mets both but am rooting for the Cubs, who have the best damn manager in baseball.
I’m rooting for the CUBS!
max
[‘They’re in good shape here on in.’]
Suezboo
OK, as I pick my teams to root for based on their ethics alone, is there a baseball team not owned by a sleazy billionaire that I can support with a clear conscience? If there isn’t, I’ll stick to football. Thank you.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Suezboo: The Detroit Tigers, admittedly not in the playoffs this year, are owned by Mike Illitch, a billionaire but not especially sleazy. Other than charging $5 for truly bad pizza, of course.
eric
@A guy: how many triple crowns? how many gold gloves? how many home runs and rbi? How many stolen bases? How many “how did he do thats?” He is not half the hitter Ted Williams was and Williams had TWO stints in the military. He was not one tenth the fielder Mays was.
redshirt
@Suezboo: The Red Sox owner, while a billionaire, doesn’t seem especially sleazy or bad. He’s more like a robot.
Mike J
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Nintendo owns the Mariners, but the princess is in another castle this year.
Betty Cracker
I love Zobrist too, so I won’t be sad if the Royals win.
Duane
Vlad
After one of the Cubs’ players broke our shortstop’s knee with a takeout slide, their manager told jokes about the injury during his postgame press conference, while the shortstop was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital. Super-classy, given that a shortstop can’t afford to lose any mobility and stay at the position, so the injury could very well end up being a career-altering or even career-ending one for him.
As such, fuck Joe Maddon. I’m fine with anyone winning, as long as it isn’t the Cubs.
Poopyman
I didn’t see any remarks on Wednesday about it being the 55th anniversary of Bill Mazeroski crushing the Yankees’ dreams in Game 7 of the World Series.
Too bad. That’s one of baseball’s iconic moments, and the start of one five-year-old’s lifelong fandom. Plus the Yankees. Heh.
Monkeyhawk
ROYLZ!!
The Golux
@redshirt:
As a Sox fan, I just console myself that no Yankees fan will ever experience the sublime comeuppance that was delivered in 2004.
Renie
I want the Cubs to win cuz I hate the Mets cuz, unlike anyone else here, I’m a huge Yankee fan.
…quickly runs away
Suezboo
@redshirt:
Where are the Red Sox from ? Boston? I like Boston.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@eric: If you believe in advanced stats, Rose comes in tied for 416th for career Adjusted OPS+, along 24 others, including such luminaries as Hideki Matsui and Lonnie Smith. Admittedly, he was a better fielder than Smith
.
Roger Moore
@Suezboo:
There aren’t any MLB teams that are publicly owned like the Packers, but there are some owners who don’t seem to be especially sleazy. For example, as far as I can tell the worst thing Arte Moreno has done is to change the name of the Angels from Anaheim Angels to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He wanted to change the name to try to appeal to the whole region but was contractually required to include Anaheim in the team name, so he chose the ridiculous name to meet his obligation.
SiubhanDuinne
Of course, gotta go for the Cubs! I may not have been much of a baseball fan when I actually lived in Chicagoland, but some things are just in the water, I guess.
In 1992, as a YOOOOGE Braves fan, I was faced with a World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays — and my employer was the Government of Canada. To complicate things even more, our Consulate General office was located in CNN Center. Ted Turner was still very active and present in those days, and of course he owned the Braves. Also too, the Braves’ management office was right across the hall from our own front door. All in all, I think you could define “divided loyalties” by the emotions of those of us at the ConGen who were Atlantans vs. the Canadian staffers. (And my Canadian friends/former colleagues from 23 years ago still won’t shut up about the stupid upside-down maple leaf flag, even though it was the Marines’ fault and not the Braves’ responsibility at all.)
Anyhow — because I still have a lot of residual love for and loyalty to Canada, but also love my Cubbies — this year might end up feeling like 1992 redux.
A guy
I invite all to look at Pete’s stats. They clearly show he’s the best ever. I hate to say it but he is. Willie mays is around 1,000 hits short of Pete. 1,000!
Roger Moore
@Poopyman:
FTMFYWAVRPF!
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
In other breaking news, water is wet.
Betty Cracker
@Vlad: Doesn’t sound like Maddon, who can be feisty but isn’t cruel that I’ve seen. Got a link?
The Golux
@A guy:
You can get there if you hang on long after your prime. The 67 hits that put Rose past Cobb required 2,619 more at-bats, for a sparkling .026 average.
SiubhanDuinne
@ms_canadada:
I wrote my long screed at #38 before I saw your post, but it sounds as though we suffer from similar feelings of torn loyalties.
SiubhanDuinne
@Suezboo:
Where all that happens is that the sleazy billionaire owners look the other way while the players’ brains turn to Cream of Wheat.
Roger Moore
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Which is a ridiculous comparison. OPS+ measures rate of production, and measures it crudely, too. Since one of Rose’s big selling points was his longevity, it completely ignores his strengths. A more reasonable stat to look at would be something like Offensive Wins Above Replacement, which includes both rate of production and longevity, where he’s tied for 29th with Robin Yount. If you want to factor in fielding, you could use Wins Above Replacement, where he’s 40th, between Dan Brouthers and Brooks Robinson. I think those both give a better picture of who Rose was as a player: a great player who would have waltzed into the HOF if he hadn’t been caught gambling, but nowhere close to the greatest of all time.
Peale
Gotta go with the mets. Not because I’m a homer. I will watch the mets when they win and the Yankees as well. But I like the idea of suffering Cubs fans.
benw
@Roger Moore: Rough Pitch Fork?
And Go Mets!
And ALCS don’t care!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@efgoldman: Probably, but he’s pretty quiet about it, and he’s done a lot for the city of Detroit.
Mike J
@efgoldman: He was given the key to Detroit, an honor accorded to only 4 other people including Saddam Hussein.
kped
Toronto born and raised, i live steps from the SkyDome (i don’t like calling it the Rogers Centre).
Totally rooting for the Blue Jays, love this team, they have so much fun playing the game. And Bautista is probably in my top 3 Blue Jays ever. Top 4 at least. Alomar, Delgado, Halladay, Bautista. Not sure the order, but he belongs in that group.
Tractarian
@Big ole hound:
But they are a national treasure only because they are lovable losers! Once they win a title – poof! No longer lovable.
Let’s Go Mets!
Schlemazel
@Roger Moore:
How about we average the 4 opinions? That makes Rose the 121.5th greatest player of all time.
If I were to compile an NL all-time all-star team I’d take Rose as a bench player but I don’t know crap.
JPL
The local high school is playing at home and every time they score a touch down, there is a loud boom. There were seven of those the first half. Hopefully, they put in the B team during the second half. By car the school is two miles, but as the crow flies, much less that that.
lgerard
@A guy:
Well Ty Cobb does, and he was an asshole too
Icharo does as well
LETS GO METS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
burnspbesq
Mets in five. The Cubs win game 2 behind Arietta (against Matz), but can’t do anything against the Mets troika.
benw
I love the various choreographed high-five celebrations baseball players do. They must sit around practicing them.
rikyrah
Go Toronto!
I am a long suffering Cubs fan. My heart has been broken too many times for me to have too much enthusiasm.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Roger Moore: Well, sure, but I didn’t like Rose even when he played for the team I rooted for, so I’ll stick with whatever method makes him look as weak as possible.
Docg
Watching ALCS. If the color commentator doesn’t knock off the nonstop puking of far too much information, I am driving to KC and punching him in the throat!
Mike E
@lgerard: I’d wear a Suzuki jersey, tho I’d prefer a Griffey to his…the Kid was my fave player from that era.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
Christ, 3-on-3 overtime is stupid. Just let the game end in a tie.
philpm
@Docg: One of the fans here in KC started a petition to have Joe Buck removed from the broadcast after his series-long orgasm for Madison Bumgarner during the World Series last year.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Suezboo: They’ve been eliminated from 2015 playoff contention, but if it’s a community-owned pro sports team you want, can I interest you in the Saskatchewan Roughriders?
BBA
As a Mets fan, I’m confused. I know the Mets are going to let me down, except they’re playing the Cubs, who always let their fans down.
Something’s got to give, unless there’s a massive brawl in game 7 that leads to every player on both teams getting suspended and the pennant being awarded to the Cardinals (because Joe Buck).
Steeplejack (phone)
Okay, I sort of get why baseball players don’t want to wear stockings but instead have their pants full length. But why do the pants all look like they’re about an inch or two too long? Like catching on your heel and tripping you too long. What’s up with that?
Schlemazel
@efgoldman:
Its rampant in all sports now, you can’t just enjoy the game you have to endure a tsunami of BS. The local baseball team’s radio team gets bored and starts talking about other stuff, you can hear the game going on (ball hitting catcher mitt, ball being hit, crowd reacting) while they discuss great players of the past or recently hot players in the minors or a really good lunch they had one time in Kansas. I never listen to them any more
Betty Cracker
If we have to watch boner pill ads every commercial break, I wish they´d bring back the ones with the hot middle aged dudes and shitcan the commercial with that smarmy woman in the football jersey.
Oh, and sweet crooning Jeebus, that Apple Watch ad with the kid singing a text message is the most powerful product purchase DETERRENT in the history of the world.
Steeplejack (phone)
@efgoldman:
Now I am hyper aware. Toronto pitcher Estrada looking stylish in stockings. He has calves like cantaloupes!
Center fielder in distant background from home plate camera also sporting stockings.
benw
@efgoldman: while mustard and mud brown might not be your thing, the Padres unis from the early 80’s remain the gold standard of awesome.
@Betty Cracker: yep, they’ve officially switched from marketing boner pills to women – ads with couples featuring hot middle-aged dudes – to men – ads with slutty chicks. I for one wholly approve of this. More slutty women on TV!
ThresherK (GPad)
@Steeplejack (phone): The extra-long ones I call Manny Jammies, for Manny Ramirez. Cuffing the pant, especially with stirrups or with striped socks, is held in high esteem by the folks at Uni-Watch, a place to really geek out over uniforms.
gian
@Anniecat45:
Didn’t see it was he doing the old Jimmy the Greek thing?
I suspect there is a portion of the media that wants him in the hall, every few years they try to sell it and then the leaks about him probably betting as a player start…
redshirt
@efgoldman:
I’m not sure Merloni’s accent will work for broadcast.
RIP Orsillo.
Joel
Pulling (slightly) for the Royals, ’cause the Jays are AL East rivals. But you have to love Bautista’s bat flip. A thing of beauty.
Betty Cracker
I guess we´re stuck with ¨God Bless America¨ in the 7th inning stretch forever thanks to that scumbag bin Laden, the fish food mofo.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Betty Cracker:
Amen on that Apple Watch ad. But I figured I hate it because I’m old.
The other two ads I’ve seen are kind of weird too: the young Asian woman on the moped (just pure WTF) and the woman finishing her workout on a stationary bicycle—because of course that wouldn’t have a timer or stopwatch on it. (Yeah, I know you can probably save your data and do whatever with it, but the ad doesn’t really show that.)
The ads that I have found surprisingly funny lately are the McDonald’s ones where people narrate their tweets.
philpm
@Steeplejack (phone): Better not let Steve King know.
Betty Cracker
@efgoldman: Yeah, but the idea of it bothers me. If we don´t go back to ¨Take Me Out to the Ballgame,¨ the terrorists win!
Joel
Irving Berlin seems like he was a good guy, but God Bless America. Yeeeesh.
Suezboo
@ThresherK (GPad):
Saskatchewan it is ! But do they play in the US league, being Canadian and all ?
Thought : I’ll check out their website. Thanks again.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack (phone): I´ve always hated that whiny ass boy band sound. Haven´t seen the McDs ads about the tweets.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@benw: I don’t want slutty women on TV; I want them in my life.
Suezboo
On further thought, I’ll google their website. Thanks again.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@benw:
Gotta disagree. The Astros Million Shades of Orange unis from the same era were one of the signs of the apocalypse.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@efgoldman:
You haven’t heard inarticulate until you’ve listened to A.J. Mleczko do the color on a women’s hockey game.
Honus
@A guy: @eric: not as good s hitter either. A scratch singles hitter.
Bill james list me when he ranked Pete rose above Roberto Clemente as a right fielder. First of all Rose only played right for about twenty minutes. Clemente has a higher lifetime batting average (and he didn’t die young; Clemente was 38 when he was killed) and won four batting titles. More to the point, if they were both on the same team, there was never a manager who on any dsy would start rose in RF ahead of Clemente.
Honus
@Vlad: this. Fuck Joe Maddon.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
McDonald’s Twitter ads. “Retweet.” “Favorite your retweet.”
Suezboo
@ThresherK (GPad):
I am deceived ! And by a Canadian ! This is another futbol team ! And I am already pledged to the Packers ! I was hoping for a baseball team, so , sigh, it is the Red Sox for me.
Honus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: what about those White Sox uniforms with the big collars and the shorts? They were truly awful.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Honus: Those didn’t really exist. They were just a hallucination caused by too much exposure to those Astros unis.
redshirt
@Suezboo: Yeah! Another Sox fan is born!
Now learn our motto: Yankees suck
ThresherK (GPad)
@Suezboo: No, Canadian Football League. Twelve men a side, a 55-yard-line, and lots of unique rules. Plus the best fan base in the land.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@redshirt: I’m not sure Suezboo has the overinflated sense of self importance necessary to be a Red Sox fan.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@ThresherK (GPad): And it’s possible to win a CFL game 1-0.
Honus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I suspected that. I was doing a lot of acid at that time.
redshirt
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: She will learn.
Suezboo
@ThresherK (GPad):
OK then – I will add Saskatchewan to my growing list of teams that enjoy my support. I will have to find my vuvuzela – it is mysteriously missing. I blame the neighbours.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Honus: You took acid and watched the Astros?
Are the Republicans less insane in your world?
Betty Cracker
@efgoldman: They did in Tampa, for all three fans!
philpm
ROYALS WIN!!!! Nice way to start the series, a 5-0 shutout!
Jparente
@Betty Cracker: Amen!
Duane
Honus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I was a big jimmy Wynn fan.
benw
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Look, I admit that slutty women in RL will have nothing to do with me. I mean even they have standards. So I take what I can get from slutty women in boner ads on the TV.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: In Toronto will we get God Bless Canada?
or maybe God Bless North America, north of the United States?
I hate that 7th inning stretch.
catclub
@efgoldman:
Which is STILL far better than GBA.
Gin & Tonic
@Suezboo: I will have to find my vuvuzela
Don’t you just need a small mirror?
Cacti
@A guy:
Pete Rose doesn’t come within 50 miles of being the best baseball player ever.
As for the OP, I hate the Cubs and the Royals, so I figure one of them will win it all. That’s how my luck usually goes.
SWMBO
My niece’s boyfriend is a RWNJ and an officious little prick. He is insufferable. Now layer his being an obnoxious Cubs fan over all that. Anybody But the Cubs.
ellie
The Cubs. Definitely.
Vlad
@Betty Cracker: Here’s a link about Maddon joking about Kang’s injury: http://triblive.com/mobile/9152431-96/pirates-cubs-kang
The Pirates were PISSED.
A guy
Cobb played without black pitchers throwing to him. Like bob Gibson. And without black outfielders sagging his line drives in the gap like nothing. Like willie mays. Pete is best all time.
chromeagnomen
@The Golux: said what??? late to the party here, but rose had 159 hits in his last 642 at bats. you may not like him, but he was a great player.