IdahoBert

Strike them out throw them out good throw Jake.

At least Wenceel made him work a little.

A graphic on TV said he was 20. The graphic was wrong because I remember looking him up last night and it said he was 22.

The excitement level is rising. I hope the players are able to bracket all this out and remember that this is a game like any other where they do everything possible they can to win. They don’t have to do anything different than what they do every day, which is focus on every step of the game.

That is completely and totally exactly what I was thinking.

Wow, he looks like a high school kid. He looks younger than anybody else on the team.

I’m hoping for a low pressure situation maybe not quite that extreme. Oh hey they’re taking the tarp off the field as I type this in.

He is, however, used to attention and high expectations. He hasn’t been operating in a complete vacuum.

On the mlb.tv advertising feed I’m getting in Idaho I’m impressed with how good looking all the people being bailed out of jail by Aladdin Bail Bonds are. It’s almost as if they’re models or something. Maybe they were all arrested for white-collar crime.

Tarp coming off in the next 10–15 minutes according to Johnny Kane.

Why is that? Never mind, I checked…

I love it when a plan comes together.

So let’s say we make it in. Will the teams that received a bye be as easy pickin’s as the 2006 Tigers are alleged to have been due to the layoff between games? I’ve never liked that assertion, or the one that our pitchers didn’t know how to field. And as much as Tim McCarver relished that 2006 victory over the Tigers and may have traded in those assertions I do take some small comfort in the fact that the loss in 1968 affected him so deeply that his commentary of 2006 was colored by it.

So this game begins at 11:10 AM my time. This is the best of all possible world for me.

This has turned out to be a great off day thread by default.

This team means business.

Yes. I agree. I remember when the Reds traded Frank Robinson to the Orioles and their GM explained why saying “he’s an old 30.“ They were wrong and, of course, he had some of his greatest seasons with the Orioles. But pitchers are different. JV not withstanding, most guys aren’t going to be doing too well to justify a long contract of such gravity, especially when he’s already had problems

Yes, I wondered about that too when I read that, but the extension of his large frame is pretty dramatic to witness.

I remember how unexpected and gratifying it was and then came that last 1/3 of the season where we only won about 1/3 of the games and made the playoffs as wildcard. Then it was like Sherman‘s March to the Sea in the playoffs until we played the Cardinals, a team that was barely above .500. That season was like the work of a great author who ran out of paper in the end and stopped in mid sentence.

A few days ago, I stridently agreed with the statement “I don’t need the playoffs to validate the season for me.“ I was happy with this season and with the promise of what this club could bring next season. That’s still the case, although I do find myself caught up in this tremendous and unexpected stampede to get to the playoffs. Our team’s forward momentum, and the falling dominoes of the fortunes of other clubs right now, is astonishing to witness. We all know, given the strange alchemy of this recent run, that this team is indeed capable of beating anyone even though it’s a team with a lot of rookies who seem mysteriously able to do the right thing at the right time and exceed whatever could rightly be seen as possible. So I would be a little disappointed if they didn’t at least make the playoffs this year, although it wouldn’t be an excoriating disappointment like our last two appearances at the World Series. Overall this season, regardless of its previous downsides, is an extraordinary gift and something memorable and easy to treasure, regardless of what the ultimate payout is in the end.

That’s what I was thinking. The Yankees have won 92 games so the Tigers are 10 games behind with six games left to play. It’s still a mighty accomplishment, but it’s pretty much exclusively in light of wild card possibilities. Same issue with Cleveland.

Sawx sweep Twin bill.

9-3.