Getty Images The last weekend of the regular season brought us all kinds of interestingness:
- Walt Jocketty got a new deal from the Reds.
- Denard Span‘s fine in the kangaroo court may be five or six figures. You just don’t do that to a teammate, dude.
- Baseball wants the Dodgers sold. And if McCourt doesn’t do it, baseball wants them gone. McCourt is in his office this morning saying “say, I’m beginning to think they don’t like me that much.”
- Theo Epstein: “if you insist on blaming me, blame Tito too!” At least that’s how I’m going to choose to interpret that.
- They gave Jim Thome a statue. I was at the game when they announced it all. A dude sitting near me insisted that Thome was a bum that isn’t nice to people and that his whole nice guy persona is an act. I don’t know Jim Thome and I suppose it’s possible that every single person who has ever met him or written about him is wrong and this one guy at the ballpark on Friday has the real poop on that sonofabitch. I just kind of doubt it.
- The Brewers, Diamondbacks and Rangers all clinched their divisions. I would like to give a shoutout to our D.J. Short for finding all of the champagne celebration photos so quickly after the games ended. That’s some professional blogging right there, my friends.
- There’s gonna be an extra wild card next season. If we had it this season we’d be talking no race in the NL and almost nothing worth mentioning in the AL. Can’t wait!
- We’re gonna have Mets/Madoff lawsuit news as early as this morning.
- Wang extension. Snicker snicker. Snort snort.
- This is really the new Marlins’ cap? And people in a position of authority are just going to let it happen?
- The “Leo Nunez” saga is taking on operatic proportions.
- Wow, the Cardinals look like they really may lowball Albert Pujols.
- Sabermetrics have made a lot of money for at least one guy.
- The current thinking is that Toronto has decided that knucklehead malcontents are the new market inefficiency. Colby Rasmus isn’t doing anything to disabuse us of that notion.
- Manny Acta stole my idea! I swear, it was my idea to put Jim Thome at third two days before it happened!
- Jacoby Ellsbury is your … 30/30 man. The men don’t know, but the little girls … understand.
- Brian Matusz breaks a record held by Roy Halladay!
- Clayton Kershaw may very well follow Halladay as Cy Young award winner.
Three games left, kids. And then the season changes into something different. Something good and valuable and exciting. But something different. I always feel bittersweet about that.
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- Francisco (FC) - Sep 26, 2011 at 10:34 AM
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The board position was impossible to refute; Detwiler to Q8, Checkmate! And the Nationals took another series from the Braves. The white pieces with their curly Ws on their caps looked smug and triumphant. The grey pieces with the A’s on their caps looked sullen, defeated. The man on the high chair could only puff bubbles in frustration from his pipe. Adjusting his robe there was nothing more to do but to collect the pieces and put them away.
There was one final shot, the Braves would have to take the series from the Phillies to at least guarantee a one game tie breaker. Curse the schedule; The Cardinals would play the ASTROS of all teams! He was not optimistic as he looked at the starting pitchers Atlanta would trot out; how could they have fallen so Lowe? … even his puns weren’t as amusing anymore.
He pressed a button on his chair, and the large 1995 Braves Championship Team portrait above the fireplace, recessed into the wall to give way to the massive 70″ LED screen. He stood up, holding his pipe to his mouth; there was much to analyze, the Phillies were tuning up for the post-season so they were not going to do Atlanta any favors by filling the lineup with dregs. On the other hand, their starting pitchers were working on pitch counts, so Atlanta would face them 2/3s of each game… tops. The last game may even be a bullpen game. Even if Hamels pitches it wouldn’t be for more than 2 innings, maybe 3 tops… too many variables. He would need a top baseball analyst, an intelligent GM to help him sort this all out. Who to call?
Pressing the communications button on his chair that activated his microphone he spoke into thin air: “Computer, establish secure comm link with Brad Pitt…
