2011 MLB Playoffs

[Neutron]

The All-Star game should stay as an exhibition game only. Nothing should ride on the outcome of that game. If they tie they tie.

 

[HD MM]

I'm sorry, but this is FUNNY!!!!!

 

[SandraC]

The team with home field advantage has won 20 of the last 25 World Series.

I'm not sure how much 'home field' actually has to do with that.

In my recent memory, in 1996 the Yankees lost their first two games at home, went to Atlanta and won three straight, then finished them off in game six. So the team with 'home field advantage' won the series...but the home team won only one of six games.

I think the 2-3-2 format mitigates against the advantage to some extent.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

I'm sorry, but this is FUNNY!!!!!

LMAO!

 

[HD MM]

Gotta love NY Print Media!!! LOL!

 

[cosmo_kramer]

I'm not sure how much 'home field' actually has to do with that.

In my recent memory, in 1996 the Yankees lost their first two games at home, went to Atlanta and won three straight, then finished them off in game six. So the team with 'home field advantage' won the series...but the home team won only one of six games.

I think the 2-3-2 format mitigates against the advantage to some extent.


Sandra

There's some interesting league numbers about home team records in the World Series.

In World Series games from 1903 through last year:

The National League home team won-loss-tie record was 155-153-1
The American League home team won-loss-tie record was 184-122-1

 

[SandraC]

There's some interesting league numbers about home team records in the World Series.

In World Series games from 1903 through last year:

The National League home team won-loss-tie record was 155-153-1
The American League home team won-loss-tie record was 184-122-1

cosmo, I read that since divisional playoff baseball began the home team has won 54% of all playoff games. When you consider that, except for the World Series where home field is arbitrary, the team with home field advantage is also the better team and should win more games...you can make the argument that home field advantage does not really exist in MLB.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

Wow...

Pujols taking a good beating in this article concerning that botched relay throw:

Pujols displays zero leadership after Game 2 loss

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports
9 hours, 53 minutes ago

ST. LOUIS – The kids could handle the mess. Never mind that Albert Pujols created it. This is his clubhouse, where his rules apply and where the term leader is thrown around rather liberally considering real leaders, you know, lead. They own their mistakes, like a ninth-inning error in the World Series, and they damn sure don’t let the pups in the clubhouse, the ones in their first postseason, stand and answer questions they’re not equipped to answer.

And yet there it was, an empty locker flanked by an empty chair to match the emptiness in the air. The St. Louis Cardinals had blown Game 2 at home, and it hurt. Two sacrifice flies in the ninth inning proved enough for the Texas Rangers, who turned eight innings of despondence into one of triumph in a pulse-pounding 2-1 victory Thursday night. At the center of it was a cutoff throw on which Pujols whiffed. The ball slipped away, allowing what would be the winning run to advance into scoring position. Pujols mimicked the ball, showering, dressing and dashing before the clubhouse doors opened.

Part of stardom – perhaps the hardest part – is accountability. Pujols is not accountable to the media. This is not about that. Nor is it about his accountability to fans that may or may not want to know how he spit the bit in a crucial game. Pujols, more than anything, must be accountable to his teammates, those he ostensibly leads. He needs to stand up after losses so Jason Motte and Jon Jay and Allen Craig and David Freese don’t have to.

Motte, in his third full season, blew the save by giving up a bloop single to Ian Kinsler(notes) and the line-drive single to Elvis Andrus whose relay Pujols botched. Motte talked for nearly 30 minutes, tackling the same questions again and again, most of them about what this means to the Cardinals’ hopes, something better addressed by someone who has won and lost a World Series and might know.

Across the way was Jay, in his second season. He made the throw to Pujols. It wasn’t a great one. Jay said he “pulled it a little bit.” He felt bad. He executed poorly. He also stood behind it. In fact, Jay said, he had talked about it on the bench with Pujols.

“We both said we should’ve probably did a little bit better,” Jay said.

There, too, were Craig and Freese, both kids themselves, going through the ringer. Combined, Motte, Jay, Craig and Freese have less experience in the major leagues than Pujols. Together, they make about 1/10th the money he does. Also absent were Yadier Molina, Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman, 28 seasons of major league service among them.

They could disappear because of the culture Pujols created, one the organization enables. St. Louis manager Tony La Russa empowers Pujols to do what he pleases, right or wrong, even if it’s the equivalent of ordering the lobster-stuffed filet and sticking the minimum-wage worker with the bill. He will face no discipline. He never does. That is life with Pujols, and the Cardinals’ Omertà means nobody calls him on it.

One Cardinals player, asked why Pujols left, shrugged his shoulders. Another question, about whether that bothered him, produced a smile. He didn’t know what to say. And if he did, he wouldn’t dare say it.

Here’s the thing: The Cardinals wouldn’t be here without Pujols. They would be a .500 team without him. On the field, he earns every bit of his $16 million and is worth twice as much. He is the most spectacular hitting talent of his generation. He might be the best right-handed hitter ever. His ability stupefies almost daily.

It is not his responsibility to be a spokesman for the Cardinals, either. Plenty of superlative players do not like engaging the media. Chase Utley, Miguel Cabrera. It’s understandable. Losses hurt. Talking about losses pours alcohol in that wound. The media can ask uncomfortable questions. It’s a weird give-and-take.

Until it’s not part of Pujols’ job description – and with the media money that helps keep Major League Baseball afloat and Pujols’ salary stratospheric, it is – it’s his responsibility to protect his teammates from having to swallow an excessive portion of that grief, especially when much of it is on him. Leaders do that.

Pujols displays zero leadership after Game 2 loss - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

 

[Neutron]

Wow. I really don't think anyone should get bashed for that relay throw, and this is coming from a Rangers fan. Game 2 was a great game with both teams playing well.

 

[salsadancer7]

Wow. I really don't think anyone should get bashed for that relay throw, and this is coming from a Rangers fan. Game 2 was a great game with both teams playing well.

From what I read, he was not getting bashed for the play, but more for not sticking around to answer to reporters.

 

[BillD1984]

Saturday- 2011 World Series- Game 3

Cardinals (Lohse) at Rangers (Harrison)- 8:05pm ET (FOX) Series tied 1-1

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Wow,now we got a game.

 

[Jimbo]

It was 5-0, I went back to the Badgers / Spartans game , till halftime and turn it back on and it's 5-3 !

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

It was 5-0, I went back to the Badgers / Spartans game , till halftime and turn it back on and it's 5-3 !

Well now it's 8-3,but who knows what the Rangers will do the bottom of the 5th.This is one crazy game.

 

[Jimbo]

Well now it's 8-3,but who knows what the Rangers will do the bottom of the 5th.This is one crazy game.

8-6 .... and counting, in the bottom of 5.

 

[whitewolf8214]

THIS IS GOING TO BE A HIGH SCORING SERIES IN TEXAS AND IN ST LOUIS ITS GOING TO BE LIKE IT WAS FIRST 2 GAMES

 

[Jimbo]

What a game, Cards go up 5-0, Rangers close to 5-3, Cards go up 8-3, Rangers close to 8-6, once again Cards go up by 5 at 11-6, can the Rangers come back again or are they running out of at bats ?

 

[Bogy]

Things improved in the fifth inning when I put my Rally Squirrel shirt on. Go Cards!

 

[Bogy]

Albert Pujols is having a great night.

 

[Bogy]

Evidently Texas fans are somewhat childish.

Who don't want to see the whole game.