What the heck happened to Carpenter last night? What did they put in that rookies Wheaties? Farkin' Pujols. I dub Scot Rolen the neo-Lenny Dykstra(Phillies Lenny Dykstra not the Mets era Lenny Dykstra---Dykstra was a GGHS Argonaught, my alma mater's main rival).

One thing is he ran into a young fella called Maine pitching for the Mets who gave no quarter and allowed Carpenter no run support. Tonight's game should be great.

Tonight's game will be for runner-up status in the World Series, five games tops for either team. My A's were beaten by a better team, which I have no problem with; same in all those losses to the Yankees and in the '90 Series to the Reds. I am still bothered by the '88 Series loss to the Dodgers, though; no way the A's weren't as good as LA, and no way Tony LaRussa isn't a better manager by far than that celebrity kiss-up and overall buffoon Tommy Lasorda.

HMMMPH.

Grumpy? I never knew sports writers to be grumpy.

I think the Mets are the team of a hundred rabbits in hats. They win tonight and anything is up for grabs. If the Cards win, Tigers in 4.

T-bo, then the year the Angels won the WS must really stick in your craw.;)

And St. Tommy(he did beat the Yankees for a WS you know) wasn't that bad a manager. At least not early in his career.
The A's just ran into a Dodgers team that was playing way above its capabilities that year. And Hersheizer was en fuego---kinda like running into the goalie who's in 'the zone'. He pitched in how many of those games? You may have had more talent but other than Steinbach who was a leader on that team who could pull them out of the shellshock of the Gibson homer? Baseball isn't all about stats. It's psychological warfare too.

I say all bets are off whoever wins the NLCS. Neither team(AL champs or eventual NL champs) has seen the opposing pitching. No DH messes stuff up too. The Tigers may have cooled off in the week since they wrapped things up, their young pitchers may have lost their schwerve, or the team just self destructs. The Cards may finally just figure it out and go nuts on the power pitching diet. All bets are off. Though I will say if Pujols boots one(injured first baseman, where have we seen that before?) it's the Ghost of Shea at work, and destiny.

A grumpy sportswriter? Who'da thunk it?

Actually, I was rooting for the Angels that year because I'd seen them play in Toronto during that summer. I had a seat in the first row midway between the dugout and foul pole, and Mike Sciosia went by before the game, en route to the dugout, and kidded with a small child about getting some of his ice cream. After the A's were dusted (mid-August or so, probably), I didn't overtly root for Anaheim, but inwardly hoped they'd do it. I was overjoyed when they beat the Yankees, and it went from there.

Gibson's homer was the Series-winning hit in '88, period. The A's were so down after that ...I myself thought it would be wily veteran Walt Weiss who might pull them out of it...that it didn't matter that their manager was infinitely better than the overrated Tommy-Boy (he wasn't better than Billy Martin, either). Add in Hershiser's dominance..and you can't begrudge a man that talented and who's that good a person anything, he rocks.. and it was no contest.

Actually, the psychological aspect of baseball is way underrated. I learned this at the feet of a master, my high school coach, who once snatched a forfeit from the jaws of impending defeat, to the tune of a late 15-3 deficit, by (unintentionally, he said with a sly smile) getting one of nine remaining opposing players to swear at him, which was an immediate ejection and thus forfeiture due to an incomplete squad. We spent a good bit of time in practice time on such mental gymnastics, and I'll never forget those lessons.

Anyone up for some wagerization on the Series? Oswego hockey tickets riding on the outcome? Other ideas?

Joe Buck: "Endy Chavez! Unbelievable!" Double play from the left field wall to first. Wow.

Wow, did Molina save LaRussa or what?
I don't get why LaRussa didn't have Wilson bunt to move Eckstein to third in the the third. Even had they given the intentional walk to Pujols at that point Encarnacion only needs something he can put into the air and not something that's a base hit. They so lucked out with Rolen and Molina getting hits. Wainwright was kinda rocky but came thru in the end.
That HR rob was sweet though. That might go up there with the Willy Mays over the shoulder.

I'll put pocket lint on the Cards. I'm also hoping for heavy rain this weekend that'll stall the start 'til mon or tuesday.

Lasorda wasn't all bad. When he first came up with Garvey, Guerrero, Valenzuela, Soscia et al in the early 80s, him and almost the entire minor league team he'd been coaching for two years, he was pretty good. He actually tried and did some strategery. Then he got lazy.

I think that Dodger core you speak of, as guided by TL, was the start of a great run over the years by the Albuquerque Dukes, who were a PCL contender just about every year. Tommy got bumped up to the big time when Walter Alston (who never got or gets enough credit, IMO) retired, and Lasorda's guys were there waiting for him or came up with him. He did do a good job with them, and the familiarity bred content, so to speak.

But as noted, he got lazy, and too into the Hollywood "thing." His nickname in baseball circles was "CF"; the "C" stood for celebrity and in deference to whatever family standards exist here, the "F" will remain undeciphered, at least herein.