Remember last week? That was pretty cool, huh? I haven’t even been paying all that much attention to the playoffs due to a combination of busyness and the knowledge that nothing will top last Wednesday night. The simultaneous collapses of the Red Sox and Braves, along with the all-but-impossible comeback by the Rays, have been discussed endlessly already, and I feel like most people (other than Red Sox and Braves fans) have moved on. So while the framework of this post will be the events of the end of the regular season, it’s really just about how freaking awesome baseball fans are. I guess “people with the same interests as me are the coolest” could also work.

Baseball lends itself to absolute obsession. Something like football — or even soccer over in Europe, from what I know about the schedule — is more compatible with, you know, having a life. Football allows you to set one day of the week away (and ok, Monday night, too) to turn into a worthless slob on the couch and watch either your local games or the Red Zone channel if you an ADD-addled fantasy player. Baseball is there almost every night you come home from work and on the weekends, too. This constant availability aligns perfectly with platforms like สนุกกับการเดิมพันกีฬาที่ยูฟ่าเบท, enticing fans to elevate their engagement through sports betting, adding an extra layer of excitement to each game.

Please direct your eyes to the chart on the right. Look at that time commitment. So try to imagine what it’s like if a person is a baseball fan in the sense of attempting to follow all 30 teams — usually for fantasy knowledge purposes. I know that I became a better and more intelligent fan once I delved into fantasy baseball head-first a few years back. The result is being able to talk to any other baseball fan for practically an infinite amount of time. Not that I wasn’t able to do that already, but now I can do it with fans of any team almost as well as with Mets fans. I would joke about the Astros possibly being an exception, but past Tuesday night is evidence against this.

After a Sunday where I had a great time hanging out with fellow Mets fans during a Fangraphs (and River Avenue Blues and Amazin’ Avenue) meetup that turned into a middle school dance where girls and boys were replaced with Yankees and Mets fans, my hunger for real life baseball discussion had been whetted. While our Mets fan contingent did talk a bit about the depressing topic of our chosen team, there was also plenty of discussion about the on-going football games and good television shows. If I truly wanted to immerse myself in baseball, I would have to watch teams that still actually mattered, so Tuesday night on my home after a late class, I decided I should go to Foley’s NY to check out the four games that would help decide whether the Red Sox and Braves would provide schadenfreude for the rest of the country.

I had already been there before and knew that it is baseball fan heaven, with every television showing a baseball game, signed balls lining the walls, and a Don Zimmer fathead in the bathroom watching you piss into the urinals. I sat down at the bar and saw that the four televisions situated along its length were showing the four relevant games. There was probably no place on earth I would have rather been. Oh, I’m sure the MLB FanCave had all the games on, but fuck that place.

The night didn’t get really good until an older Astros fan sat down next to me and started berating the Cardinals fans sitting a few stools down on the other side of me. I just laughed and told him that I was with those “pussy Cardinals fans” for tonight, considering I wanted the Braves to miss the playoffs. From then on, we talked about 1986 (even though I was born during that season), Roger Clemens being an asshole, Nolan Ryan being a steroid user, Carlos Beltran being a clutch player, “Harvard turds” ruining baseball with stats, and how much the Cardinals suck. All right, it was mostly him talking, but it was immensely entertaining. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to turn away at some point to talk more to the attractive girl with an Irish accent who had sat down next to me, but the Texan would not stop talking. He had now moved on to other things, like his brother who had written for SNL and had made some YouTube videos. By the time the siege on my attention had been lifted, it was too late to stick around any longer, unless I wanted to get home on the LIRR as the sun was coming up. I wasn’t upset though, as I was able to have a conversation with a fan of the terrible organization that is the Astros for the sole reason that we shared love for baseball. Sure, his opinions might have been all over the place, but sometimes you have to hear from people outside of the saber-twitter-blogsphere, right?

Sometime during the night, I overheard a girl ask about a Cardinals fan meetup at Foley’s. It explained the Cardinals fans strewn around the bar, and also made me think of God Save The Fan, which I had recently read (and I’ve been meaning to write a review of along with the book I bought it with on Amazon, The Postmortal). In it, Will Leitch talks about finding a bar in Manhattan to watch the 2006 NLCS with other Cardinals fans (this is where I stopped reading the book). I told myself I’d ask him on Twitter whether he was talking about Foley’s. But not before I was at Foley’s again the very next night to watch the same eight teams play four games on the last night of the regular season.

The bar was a bit more packed on Wednesday night, though. When I managed to find a seat at the bar after a little while, it was pretty much in the same spot as before. This time, I was situated next to a Cards fan. This might have had to do with pretty much everyone at the bar being a Cards fan. There were a few Red Sox fans, too. If you magically appeared in the bar, I’m pretty sure you couldn’t have guessed it was in NYC. This Cards fan was surprised that I was rooting for his team, considering 2006; I told him that the Braves were like a sadistic bully that beat on Mets fans for most of their childhood. Comparatively, I still remember thinking the 2006 NLCS would just be a bump in the road. Sigh.

We sat there talking about the state of the Mets, how much money Albert Pujols will get this offseason (and from which team), the young pitching staff of the Rays, the embarrassment that is Carl Crawford, among other things. Meanwhile, the Rays had spotted a huge lead to the Yankees, the Cards had crushed the Astros in the first inning, and the Phillies-Braves and Red Sox-Orioles matchups were tight games. I downed beer and beer, sharing a bucket of bottles with the Cards fan, while watching the drama unfold with hardcore baseball fans all around me. To be a Cards fan out to watch the game in a NYC midtown bar on a weeknight means you are most likely dedicated. And at one point, I turned around to see the very guy who I wanted to ask about his Cards fan NYC bar story.

As Leitch seemed involved with a conversation with a lady, I struck up a conversation with his buddy (who looked vaguely familiar and whose name I cannot remember now). But once I mentioned that I wanted to ask Leitch something, he introduced me as awkwardly as possible to embarrass me. I probably deserved it. The minute I mentioned God Save The Fan, Leitch apologized for it being out-of-date already. Even when I said the only reasons I bought his book were its bargain price and Amazon recommending it when I bought The Postmortal, Leitch was suitably self-deprecating. I guess that should probably be expected from a guy whose first book was titled Life as a Loser. Leitch was also surprised to hear I was rooting for the Cards, but I told him how I want Braves fans to feel my pain. I bet some Braves fans think they’ll be back in the playoffs next year and for years to come (like I felt about the Mets in 2006), but maybe Jason Heyward won’t become a Hall of Famer and maybe Tommy Hanson will have injury issues. Or maybe the Mets will become the best te. . . nevermind.

But once again, I was able to effortlessly strike up a baseball conversation with another person, albeit a much shorter one, before I returned to my seat and my original Cards fan companion for the night. Leitch really did seem like a nice guy (he even offered me a beer!), which makes sense considering the transformation Deadspin has made since he gave up his editing duties. Despite Buzz Bissinger ripping him on Costas Live years ago for lack of integrity, the site has only gotten progressively more grimy under A.J. Daulerio. But I know Leitch and other people support him, so whatever, I won’t make this about how Deadspin was better with Leitch was editor. I mean, it was, but let’s get back on topic. Is there a topic here?

Oh yeah, despite Evan Longoria going into beast mode, the Rays were still trailing the Yankees; the Phillies-Braves game had gone into extras; and the Red Sox were looking like they were going to win their game against the Orioles. Then the timeline of madness that I can’t remember nor be bothered to look up broke out, starting with the Phillies beating the Braves to knock the latter out of the playoffs, making the Cardinals fans go crazy. Then a little while later, Dan Johnson hit a 9th-inning, game-tying home run with two outs and two strikes. Then a beer later, the Red Sox choked away a 9th-inning lead for the first time all year. Then only a few sips later, Longoria hit another home run to send the Rays to the playoffs and Red Sox home. It was a blurry night of cheers and high-fives by then, as I guess everyone not from Boston was happy to see Red Sox fans suffer again. It’s like order was restored in the baseball universe, and I was in the NYC nexus of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8IKDeH9SEg

The dude could be a shortstop. He’d be a better shortstop than Derek Jeter, that’s for sure. I want one of these compilation videos for Scott Rolen. Get on it, internet.

The Yankees pitching staff has done well for me in fantasy the past two days, what with a combined 15 and 1/3 scoreless innings from Burnett and Sabathia. Conversely, I’m glad that I don’t have K-Rod on either of my fantasy teams. I’m also glad I haven’t watched the past two Mets games, and Bobby Parnell’s first ML start is the only reason I’m tuning in at the moment.

K-Rod is regressing in a spectacular fashion. The first half of the year was not his true performance level, but even I didn’t expect him to have a stretch like this. Everyone was praising Minaya early this year for getting K-Rod at a “bargain” price, but it’s only going to look worse and worse as the contract runs its course, if this disturbing trend line continues:

Fangraphs

K-Rod’s XFIP by year:

2004: 2.63
2005: 2.97
2006: 3.22
2007: 3.53
2008: 3.71
2009: 4.27

XFIP, according to Hardball Times:

Expected Fielding Independent Pitching. This is an experimental stat that adjusts FIP and “normalizes” the home run component. Research has shown that home runs allowed are pretty much a function of flyballs allowed and home park, so xFIP is based on the average number of home runs allowed per outfield fly. Theoretically, this should be a better predicter of a pitcher’s future ERA.

So yeah, K-Rod is only going to get worse, so his signing can be put in the corner with Oliver Perez’s. Oh, and the Angels’ closer this year is tied for the league lead. Saves and closers as a whole are such a joke (except Mariano Rivera).

New York Times

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, the sluggers who helped the Boston Red Sox end an 86-year World Series championship drought and capture another title three years later, were among the roughly 100 Major League Baseball players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the results.

I was so shocked that it took me a day to post this news. Either that, or I couldn’t bring myself to give a shit. Maybe if I were a Yankee fan who resided right outside Boston from 2004-2008, and was subjected to thousands of Red Sox fan gloating for years, then maybe I would care. As it is now, I don’t want to have these names leak out over the course of five years; I would have to hear and read sportswriters complain, and then have bloggers complain about the sportswriters, and then write about it all myself.

Everyone took steroids. What happens if Griffey is outed? Jeter? The shitstorm would be priceless. Personally, I think the only guy I wouldn’t want to hear about is Mariano Rivera. I don’t even see how he could have taken them, but I just want to keep imagining him as some freak of nature.

The Rays won Game 7 of the ALCS 3-1. I like being wrong sometimes.

Almost the entire game I thought the Red Sox were going to win. Dustin Pedroia’s home run in the first inning may have had something to do with that. Even as the Rays held a 3-1 lead, I figured the Sox would find a way back. After the error in the 8th inning — with the middle of the Sox order coming up — I really thought it was over. Yet somehow the Rays managed to stop it from falling apart. Coco Crisp not sliding straight into second base helped.

They deserve the AL pennant. They beat the best. The Red Sox were on their way to becoming the 90′s Yankees of this decade, but this loss signals the end of any dynasty talk. The Rays, at the very least, look like they’ll be competitive for a few years. The AL East is just STACKED.

I’ve said it before, but the Rays better not shit the bed in the World Series. I don’t want this to be another 2006.

And I wonder if Dick Vitale had a heart attack. That’d be awesome.

Edit: Welp, MLB.com has video of it right here. Anddd that doesn’t directly link to the video. Goddamn it, MLB.com. Just find the “Kotsay comes around to score the tying run” video.

I hope you’re not a baseball fan that turned the Rays-Red Sox game off when the score was 7-0 in the 7th inning. You missed the second biggest comeback in playoff history, and I don’t think the 8-run one happened over the course of the last three innings. The Rays bullpen pulled a choke job worthy of the Mets. As for Red Sox fans that left the stadium at the point of desperation: fuck you. You missed your Fat Papi hit one of his patented late-game clutch home runs, and J.D. Drew showing off his MICKEY MANTLE POWER. God, I hate J.D. Drew.

I think Joe Maddon may have had a stroke in the 7th inning while he watched that 7th inning. That’s the only explanation I can come with for how he handled the bullpen. I’ve almost become numb to watching such a trainwreck in motion, after seeing so many the past season and a half, but blowing a seven-run lead in three innings is impressive.

The guys over at fangraphs.com produce a win probability for every game, so you can see just how likely a comeback was at that point:

Who doesn’t love graphs?

Anyhow, the throw that spurred the title of this post occurred in the 8th inning. The Red Sox had the tying run in Mark Kotsay on second base with two outs. Coco Crisp (after an incredible at-bat) hit a line-drive single into right-field. As the Rays’ right-fielder Gross rushed in to field the ball and make the throw home, he had to be no further than 200 feet from plate. Not only that, but Kotsay was JUST rounding third. He was dead. He had to run home in that situation, but he was going to be thrown out by 20 feet. But then the camera cut for the throw, and I watched the ball bounce into the dirt of the infield. It was the most pathetic thing I had ever seen. He better have a torn rotator cuff or something. Making an error on a groundball or making an errant throw up the line is one thing. Throwing the ball straight into the goddamn ground is pretty much inexcuseable. I don’t even know how that’s possible. You don’t forget how to throw. The ball can’t take a bad hop in your hand. You can have a bad grip, but that would cause the ball to sail, not to go into the ground. What the shit.

The Rays better win Game 6, or else we’re going to see a Red Sox-Phillies World Series, and no one wants to see that. Josh Beckett is going for the Red Sox, and everyone seems to be talking about his oblique. Torn, strained, bruised, whatever. I smell Bloody Sock: The Sequel.

Fuck.

Red Sox vs. Angels – Red Sox in 4
White Sox vs. Rays – Rays in 3
Dodgers vs. Cubs – Dodgers in 5
Brewers vs. Phillies – Brewers in 5

Red Sox vs. Rays – Red Sox in 6
Brewers vs. Dodgers – Dodgers in 5

Dodgers vs. Red Sox – Red Sox in 5

I picked the Red Sox, but I rather have the Rays or Dodgers win. So I’ll win either way. Unless the Cubs win, in which case it will be known as the beginning of 2 Great 2 Depressing for years to come.

Ok, I need to sleep. Or study.

Now I wait six months for another Mets season to start.

Edit: I’m already thinking of changing my pick to the Rays. I shouldn’t be denying the Year of 200Rayght.

A decade ago, the entire country could rest easy knowing that while the Bruins and Celtics were respectable franchises, the Patriots and Red Sox would always ultimately end up losers. And football and baseball are the two big sports anyway, with the Red Sox being THE team of Boston. Since the dawn of the 21st century, both the Red Sox and Patriots have been dominant teams, with the latter being a historic juggernaut. The Red Sox winning their first World Series in 82 years was enough to make people start going to church in preparation for the Apocalypse.

Boston fans no longer wait the wheels to fall off. It looked like they were about to in the 7th inning tonight, but a bonehead move by the Indians’ third base coach cost the Indians the tying run, and then the Indians’ bus subsequently had its wheels fall off, tumbled down a cliff, and burned in a massive inferno. A Game 7 that was on its way to being an all-time classic ended up being an embarrassing 11-2 win for the Red Sox. They won the last two games of the series at Fenway Park by a combined score of 23-4. The Indians shit the bed and then proceeded to roll in the sheets.

Now only God’s Wrath in the form of the Colorado Rockies can stop the Red Sox. Ultimately, I think the massive layoff will hurt them. Plus, I just can’t imagine them keeping this insanity any longer, especially against this Red Sox team. They are just incredible. Josh Beckett is like Roger Clemens in his prime — a nasty, hard-throwing Texan — only he’s actually good in the postseason. He’s just amazing to watch, even in postgame conferences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw8zHUjwvCo

He fits right in with the rest of team. Manny tells it like it is, saying that it wouldn’t be the “end of the world” if the Sox lost — something Red Sox fans definitely don’t want to hear. Dustin Pedroia was caught partying it up after the Red Sox clinched the AL East title. The entire bullpen plays fucking songs out in the outfield throughout the game with whatever objects they can find. And Papelbon has his tough guy face, and goggles:

I’m absolutely disgusted right now. In addition to the Red Sox completing their ALCS comeback, the Jets blew their game today against the fucking BENGALS in the second half while the Patriots continued their march to an inevitable Super Bowl win and possible undefeated season (it’s all riding on that Colts game coming up). How did this happen?

A comment from GAF:

Massachusetts is like Israel and Brady is our lord returning from Heaven, the Red Sox are Brady’s Angels obviously. It all makes sense. Such a beautiful moment.

To which I replied:

If that’s truly the case, this will all be worth it to see Brady die on a crucifix.

It would truly be glorious. Here’s to hoping this is God’s master plan.

- A-Rod is hitting for a higher average than Derek Jeter so far this postseason. The over/under for newspaper articles talking about that is 0.

- The Mets can take solace in one fact after their massive collapse at the hands of the Phillies. They won as the same amount of postseason games.

- George Steinbrenner needs to be fired. From life.

- Turns out Lou Pinella did save Carlos Zambrano until next season.

- Bob Sheppard wasn’t at Yankee Stadium tonight. That has to be the first time he missed a Yankee playoff game in 50 games. He won’t be the PA announcer tomorrow either. I think Tony Gwynn ate him.

- Whichever team faces the Red Sox in the ALCS has to deal with Ortiz and Manny both hitting very, very well. I think Manny’s last two home runs have traveled a combined quarter-mile.

- The Colorado Rockies. Are in. The NLCS. God is clearly on their side.

- The Cubs will be able to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their last World Series win next season.

- Three sweeps. And the Rockies and D-Backs in the NLCS. TBS must be PISSED.