guigsy

never any doubt from this guy. well deserved, he's been great since day 1, but he was a machine this year. interesting stat from that article about the 34 go-ahead hits... i heard another stat about having the most homeruns that either tied, won, or separated from a 1-run lead... baseball stat geeks have a number for everything, christ... but basically, the point being he was such a catalyst for so many good things for the reds this year - and that doesnt even speak to his fielding or baserunning, just an all around complete ballplayer. love his game and i hope the redlegs can lock him up for years to come. the big red machine revival starts with votto.

haha, ya... and bochy seems like a good dude.. i dunno, it'll be good whoever wins, but i've been using rangers players to win my baseball pools for the last few years, so its nice to see 'em win something for themselves finally, hahah.

and another thing... fuck dave ridgeway. tony champion's backbreaker of a catch deserves a better place in history.

the rangers CAN win with the long ball (ahem... nice shot, mr. moreland) - but the beauty of their team is that they're built around a speed/small ball type game - they're lucky to have some serious mashers in the middle of the line-up to balance it out, but generally, they're a 1st to 3rd, high avg., high obp team with speed - probably the most "national league" of any american league team. if my guess is anywhere near close on what might have been wrong with those starters, than im not sure what they're gonna have to do to fix it in games 6 and 7, except for Lee's part, he has to be Cliff Lee. even without his breaking pitches the other night, he wasnt commanding his fastball or cutter at all. they were drifty and ill-placed. if he can correct that, he should still be able to deal with this giants line-up. these runs really have come outta nowhere, its not their game at all.. and nah, i didnt give out - i've been watching every inning i can, hahah... i dont mind that my team went down in the first round, i just hate that they didnt go down playing anywhere near how they played all season. strange 3 games to watch.. but its exciting for next year, considering the team we'll be bringing back.

OSKEEEEEEE WEE-WEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! man, i miss the end zone seats at Ivor Wynne, it would just get fucking ridiculous! used to see a lot of games growing up in the Hammer and have a lot of good memories... was at Earl Winfield's TD Trio game (punt return, kick return, reception), i remember an insanely long "wave" that got up into the 40+ rounds - at one point bob bratina started calling them out ("35.... 36... 37... ") as they went around, and i think that, more than the game, is what kept it going - i dont even remember anything about the actual game, hahah. i was also there the last time hamilton hosted the grey cup, i got to play on the field in my youth, and saw Angelo Mosca make a pansy-assed under hand ceremonial first pitch at the canadian little league championships this year. i love the Ticats. i hope they can make it to Edmonton for ya, Kev - that'd be pretty nuts.

really hopin' the rangers can get back into this at home and make a series out of it. i think the bay area air had a lot to do with the rangers starters losing the feel for their breaking pitches and having to (predictably) rely on the fastball - which'll get ya killed, even by the giants, apparently. its a coastal time of year thing, i think - the same thing happens to the teams from the east that train out west in the spring - all spring you hear about how their breaking pitches wont really develop until they get back east and can get the feel back. seems strange, but in a game of fractions of inches... either way - the big thing is the rangers bats have to show up, and they need to throw Lee in games 4 & 7, regardless of the outcome of game 3. and Feliz should be good to go every game from here on out - you dont save your best arms at this time of year. i still like the rangers in this series, but i dunno if they can run off 4 straight... this has the makings of an epic series if they can push it to 7 from this point.

hope you're passing through in a DeLorean...

butter believe it. that was killer.

no doubt in my mind that he's been trimming up all year just for this moment... a liner down the LEFT field line... gomes trips on a shoelace and goes eye-first into a sprinkler. it wont matter that the ball lands 2 feet foul, of course it'll be a good hit. then we'll balk him in and lose 1-0. an orgy will break out in the mlb offices with Bud and all the network tv sluts. see you next year.

fuckley. wasnt hit, was out at second, and missed 3rd on the run home. fucking christ, is anyone paying attention? dusty didnt argue the hit batsmen or appeal the play at 3rd. what, 5 unearned runs? walks, errors, hit batters, buckners, nubbers. unbelievable. we needed this split, but now we're deep in the shit. never woulda thought we'd lose 2 games by getting no-hit in one and committing 4 errors in the other. what next? :bonghit:

they were using boobuzela's in tampa this aft? maybe i should be switching allegiances...

the good news is he can throw a perfect game next time out, and we can still take this thing. i love halladay, too, so that was a tough game to watch... dying on one hand, but having those butterfly feelings of watching history go down in a good way for one of the good ones.. makes a great story, sucks it had to be us. he was pretty incredible, tonight, though.. ball moving everywhere, obviously outsmarting our hitters in just about every at-bat.. the one thing i wish someone in the broadcast woulda piped up about, though, was that most of his so-called "first pitch strikes" that were making him so dominant were ball widths off the plate - not even borderline, but calls that pitchers of his stature will get. the announcers made a big deal out of his rbi single as well, but to me that inning was lost on the at-bats sandwhiching him - the botched groundball up the middle that cabrera shoulda just taken to first to end the inning, and then the walk to rollins - volquez just got squeezed. the pitch tracks indicators had his pitches a lot closer than roy's, and he got none of those calls - difference between being a vet at home and a youngster on the road. at least we got halladay out of the way for a couple games. we need to pounce on oswalt early on friday to get into their pen, and bronson needs to go deep to keep us in the game. worry about beating everyone but halladay, and we'll be ok, hahah. fuck, great game as a baseball fan, though. terrible as a reds fan. but i cant even say i got to see a no-hitter first pitch to last pitch... i missed the top of the 1st stuck in rush hour, nearly having a coronary. i waited half my life to see another Reds playoff game, i work mostly part time, and THIS is the day i get stuck in traffic??? i knew something was up...

sweet boobuzela.

texas would be a good story, too, with the ron washington cocaine-positive test, and a possible volquez vs. hamilton match-up... it would also be nice to see one final bobby cox run, if it aint us... but damn.. Halladay-Hamels-Oswalt is about as daunting as it gets. i actually think the AL is a crapshoot at this point - they're all good teams capable of beating the snot out of each other on any given night.. i think the biggest surprise will be if anybody beats the phillies.

i can guess how 2 of our young pitchers are feeling today....

me too, sloth. that'd be a helluva series, i think. if it ended now we'd draw the phillies, and call me crazy, but that doesnt bother me. we've fixed the oswalt curse this season, beaten halladay, and had a rookie pitcher take a perfect game into the 9th against them. we lost a series of heartbreakers against them at end of the 1st half, but they were all great games - and hey, if you're gonna be the best, ya gotta beat the best. get after 'em. i kinda fear going out west more than either of the east teams, just because of our past history out there - we're a traditionally bad team in california, all the way back to the '70s. but we can hang with any of these teams, i've been witness to that. its all new to them, though, lets see how they respond.. who's gonna crack and who's gonna step up? i'm really interested to see how our young pitchers handle themselves, i think our bats will be swingin'. i got my eye on cueto in game 2 - pivotal spot for him in a short series.

actually, you should know better than anyone that doesnt mean shit come the post-season... right, mr. 8th seed? and we've played the likely play-off teams tough all season (phils, braves, giants).. 4 1-run games with the phillies, see-saw battles with the braves and giants... how many of those games have you seen? i'll take any of them in october, espcecially since we werent even supposed to sniff this. bring it. :chug:

come one, come all.. damn right!

it's safe now, Ollie. 15 years of futility gone with a bottom 9 Jay Bruce BLAST!!! i might watch this clip 30 times today. edit: damn, not that one - this one. i dont even know what to say.. i havent stopped smiling since the ball left his bat. i said to crystal during the commercial break that he was gonna hit the first pitch out, and sure as shit... i remember being at skydome in '89 when tom henke struck out whoever the fuck on the orioles to clinch the divison and how that place exploded, i can just imagine the atmosphere last night in that yard.. the mlb feeds cut off all post-game stuff (makes no sense, i know), but the highlight clips this morning look like it was a good party. fuck, i cant wait for the play-offs... god damn it feels so good to even say that!!

snagfilms.com

CAVERN!

hahah, let's wait till October for that, Ollie... i still dont even wanna use the "P" word... 15 years of futility will do that to ya.. deep down, tho, no one believes more than i do. i've had the mlb package basically since the young core of this team starting coming together ('06/'07) and seeing them go from a team that couldnt even spell "fundamentals" to a team that has spent this season giving a clinic in how to play the game "properly" (hard nosed, going first to third, taking the ball the other way, sacrificing at-bats, solid D, etc etc) has been amazing. a serious transformation in only a couple years. gotta credit the F/O for bringing in the key vets to set the tone (hernandez, rolen, rhodes, cabrera), and though i wasnt thrilled with the dusty hiring in the beginning, gotta say, his fingerprints are all over this team. i hope they can find a way to extend him, because i think there's a lot to be said for a team growing together, manager, players, et al. Sloth, you better be touchin' a lotta wood over there.

he's arrived. and he's incredible. hitting 103 on the gun. an 89mph slider that breaks a foot and a half. have mercy! shoulda heard the crowd "oooohhhhhhh" after his first slider - bigger reaction than 100+ heaters. i think it was in the Votto-All-Star Game thread i started that i said i'd wait to see where my boys were come september 1st... well... 7 fucking games up!!!! best record in the NL.... and we just re-loaded with the Cuban Missile... 1 month to go. just hope no one's arms or legs fall off....

by the time he's back to being what he should be, he'll probably be in the last or 2nd to last year of that contract, and looking at a new big one because we all know Boras wont allow anything less... so yeah, for this contract, its kinda like 15 mil down the tubes - what are they gonna get out of him for the next year and a half to 2 years, maybe longer? i do agree that in time he could ressurect his career though - look at Francisco Liriano in Minnesota - the guy is a beast, but i think he had his surgery in 2007. it takes a while to get it back.

uh-oh... 15 mil down the tubes.