Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Jon's other site:
Screen Jam
TV and more ...
1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
I guess I could say, "Not Bad, 3.5."
LA Dodger Playoff Clinchers
At Home
10/2/04
On the 2nd to last day of the year, Steve Finley's grand slam caps a 7-run 9th inning rally (all with none out) to erase a 3-0 deficit, beating and eliminating the Giants
10/2/85
Hershiser wins #19, Marshall falls a triple short of the cycle to beat Atlanta; Dodgers clinch division over the Reds. (Note: the Reds loss may have been before the Dodger win)
9/30/83
Dave Anderson's 6th inning HR gives LA a 4-0 lead over SF. Fernando holds on to get the win, with a 2-inning save from rookie Orel Hershiser. Dodgers clinch division over the Braves (Note: the Braves loss in San Diego ended before this game)
9/24/78
Rookie Bob Welch shuts out the Padres 4-0 to eliminate the Reds.
10/2/65
The Dodgers, behind a CG, 13-K performance from Koufax, beat the Braves 3-1 on the next to last day of the season to eliminate the Giants. The Dodgers finished the year 15-1.
9/24/63
Don Drysdale's 7 strong IP combined with a 3-run 7th inning rally capped by a walk (to Ken McMullen) and a balk gave the club a 4-1 win over the Mets, eliminating the Cards with 5 games left.
9/29/59
After winning game 1 of a 3-game playoff in Milwaukee, the Dodgers won the pennant by beating the Braves 6-5 in 12 innings. With Gil Hodges on 2B, Carl Furillo singled to SS Felix Mantilla, whose wild throw allowed Hodges to lumber home with the pennant-winning run.
On the Road
9/30/06
On the 2nd to last day of the year, Greg Maddux goes 7 strong innings for a 4-2 win at AT&T Park. The win eliminates the Phillies from wild card contention.
9/30/95
HRs from Piazza and Mondesi back Hideo Nomo's 8 innings for a 7-2 Dodger win in San Diego. This win clinched the division over the Rockies, who ended up as the wild card team
9/26/88
Dodgers beat the Padres 3-2 in San Diego to eliminate Pete Rose's Reds. Fernando goes 3 IP, but got hurt. Peña got the win, his second most important that year. The final out was a Jay Howell-induced popup by Marvell Wynne to Steve Sax. Two nights later, Hershiser went 10 scoreless for the record.
9/20/77
Tommy John outduels Ed Halicki at Candlestick, going 8.2 IP for his 19th win. The immortal Lance Rautzhan strikes out Gary Thomasson with the tying runs on base to preserve the 3-1 win, eliminating the Reds.
10/1/74
The Dodgers amazingly score 5 off fireballer J.R. Richard at the Astrodome, the capper being rookie John Hale's PH 2-run double in the 6th (Hale was 4 for 4 on the season). The Dodgers' balanced attack leads them to an 8-5 win, clinching the division over the Reds on the 2nd to last day of the year.
10/2/66
On the final day of the season, the Dodgers needed to win one game of the doubleheader at Shibe Park in Philly. After Drysdale only lasted 2 IP of a 4-3 loss in game 1, the Dodgers needed to win game 2 to hold off the Giants. Willie Davis hit a 2-run HR off Jim Bunning, and Koufax took a 6-0 lead into the 9th, holding on for a 6-3 win in the final regular season start of his amazing career.
I decided I'm not going to bathe again until the Dodgers win. Since my g/f is gone this week she won't notice. Maybe my coworkers will. Don't worry, Icaros, I'll break this vow for Friday night at the worst. Don't keep me stinky, Dodgers!
Get the bubbles ready because you will be soaking tonight!
vr, Xei
Then I voted for Aubrey Huff, just to anger the other AL fans.
Gary Sheffield, a real class act.
Awesome story.
I think the last week of 2006 I went to 6 of the 7 home games. I needed some sort of support group.
SportsNation Buster Olney: (1:58 PM ET ) Garrett: Pretty fair deal.
No its not!
http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=22575
vr, Xei
Ethier is 2nd only to Sweeney.
I wish that chat didn't end before I could ask him that myself.
That's hilarious.
Somehow this vortex keeps sucking us in. Maybe we should talk about Cano's salary so D4P can express outrage about his relative worth.
If it helps...yesterdays conversation has me valuing Kemp more now, especially with the position he plays and the relative cost for his performance.
We did leave after the 10 and missed the Dodgers' loss which came a few innings later. I also went to a playoff game in Shea that year (I was all over the place that year!). I believe it was a Dodger win in a Belcher start. I was way up in the upper deck in right, couldn't even see part of the outfield from that seat.
Ethier has the 3rd most advantageous actual LH-RH split, behind Sweeney and Manny.
Manny Ramirez 1.190
Matt Kemp 0.850
Andre Ethier 0.822
Pablo Ozuna 0.813
N. Garciaparra 0.783
R. Martin 0.757
Blake DeWitt 0.750
Jeff Kent 0.749
James Loney 0.747
Casey Blake 0.740
Delwyn Young 0.691
Juan Pierre 0.671
Gary Bennett 0.657
Andy LaRoche 0.652
Angel Berroa 0.649
Danny Ardoin 0.578
Andruw Jones 0.534
Mark Sweeney 0.364
Mark Sweeney 0.062
Manny Ramirez 0.055
Andre Ethier 0.054
James Loney 0.029
Casey Blake 0.025
Danny Ardoin 0.018
R. Martin 0.008
Andy LaRoche -0.011
Gary Bennett -0.015
Jeff Kent -0.015
Angel Berroa -0.020
Delwyn Young -0.021
Andruw Jones -0.029
Juan Pierre -0.037
Blake DeWitt -0.046
N. Garciaparra -0.054
Matt Kemp -0.058
Pablo Ozuna -0.105
And Sweeney would be even worse if he had an even LH-RH split. Unfathomable.
To the chagrin of Bob Timmermann and Andrew Shinmin
The strong growth area continues to be MLB Advanced Media. While revenues have not been formally disclosed, BusinessWeek reported in August that MLBAM brings in about $450 million per year, about half of which comes from live game streaming.
According to Sports Business Journal, MLBAM set records in a number of areas for the digital media arm:
Online ticket sales - 31.5 million and counting;
All-Star Game votes cast - 262.6 million;
Total multimedia consumption - 3.6 billion minutes through Aug. 31;
Wireless page views - more than 450 million.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BibWZZb6ZpM
He's younger than Billingsley, but has comparable stuff. I REALLY hope we target him this offseason.
Japanese Baseball needs to work harder to get those videos off youtube. It could hurt revenue.
42
I have consumed a few thousand minutes of Dodger games via MLB.tv (Mosaic) and have little to complain about, particularly now that both home and away announcers are available to choose from. My wife can't change the channel on my laptop so it beats extra innings.
I don't know Japanese, but I'm guessing the chart that they show is saying that he threw 158 pitches in 9 innings?
Anyone have some stats on the guy?
The Rays or Marlins should move to Portland.
I wonder how all other major sports due also.
You would think that the Eastern counties of Riverside/San Berdo would be able to support a major league franchise but I expect the McCourts and Moreno's would frown on such a thing.
158 pitches in 9 innings for a young Japanese pitcher is nothing. Mere child's play.
On July 24, Yu Darvish of Nippon Ham threw 165 pitches in 8 innings.
You cannot, and will not, shake me of this belief.
The Rays and Orioles doubleheader! Especially Game 2 in which the vaunted Mitch Talbot tangles with the great Alfredo Simon.
Yup it was us and not the teams involved in the actual playing of the games who caused the lead to shrink to two games.
That's crazy talk in the land of Rule 9.
Guadalajara or Monterey are much better options but yeah Mexico city is a great baseball town as well.
how about the yucatan peninsula. :0)
I think Angst+ would've been around 80 as opposed to the 120 that it is now.
Now, eating a certain cereal on game day or wearing your UCLA Adidas shorts to night games does affect what happens.
I blame myself for wearing cargo shorts on Sunday (though I did match LAT) instead of my trusty UCLA shorts for the lack of runs scored.
GARY MATTHEWS JR.
Jon, I agree about Hu, though I thought he got a good jump on the ball. He looked tentative making the throw, though. But, yeah, again, if one of Loney's hits had fallen in there would no need to discuss that 11th inning, and a bit less angst right now.
Does it feature a large serpentine "D"...?
Krusty: Was it a nice hat?
Bart: Oh yeah.
Krusty: [horrified] Oh My God!!
'06 - 90
'07 - 147
'08 - 192.7
i'm not paraniod, just checking. ;o)
Arizona
6-0 2.2%
5-1 12.2%
4-2 27.0%
3-3 31.6%
2-4 19.8%
1-5 6.3%
0-6 0.8%
Dodgers
6-0 5.5%
5-1 20.7%
4-2 32.3%
3-3 26.3%
2-4 12.0%
1-5 2.8%
0-6 0.3%
Arizona has a 58.5% chance of finishing 3-3 or worse, and LA has 84.8% chance of finishing 3-3 or better. With the most likely outcome being a Dodger finish of 4-2 and Arizona at 3-3 (10.2%). The least likely finish is both teams finishing 0-6 which would happen 3 times in 125,000 tries.
You almost have to root for the 0-6 for both teams. The carnage that would result would be priceless. Then we'd romp through the 1st round and we'd get the pleasure of hearing Casey Blake saying that the 0-6 stretch made the team closer and that is how they were able to handle the playoff pressure.
To the extent that those figures are accurate and that the records of LA and AZ the rest of the way are completely independent of one another, it looks like AZ has an 11.8% chance of gaining at least 2 games on LA the rest of the way.
I hedge my bets.
In agreement on this point. I nearly threw something at the television when this play occured. Hu took three quick tiny steps as he squared up to field the ball into his glove(right foot - left foot - right foot) and his feet were flat on the ground when the ball enetered his glove. Hu needed to come through the ball and scoop it as his momentum carried him toward first base. He would have picked the ball up more quickly and gotten more on the throw - saving precious time. This reminds me of a post that I came across in the DT archives regarding the difference in the tenths of a second gained or lost from playing the infielders "in" or "back".
The outcome of the inning would have been much different if that play had been made.
My resident baseball expert has maintained from Spring Training that Hu's hands/fingers are too small/short and this is the reason that he seems to be always double clutching the ball in the glove before he throws when he fields - making sure of his grip.
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