MLB: September

If you’re a Dodgers fan who hasn’t been able to watch them in LA this year due to the Time Warner Cable debacle, you might be pleased to know that you’ll be able to catch the last couple of home series on free-to-air TV.

It’s a fucking disgrace that even paying cable subscribers can’t get access to the games in parts of the team’s market area. As the Consumerist website i linked to noted, this move might be related to the fact that many Americans, including Congresscritters, are increasingly wary of the proposed Time Warner/Comcast merger and its potential to leave consumers with even less choice in their cable and internet shopping.

And in Baltimore news, the Orioles took three of four from the Yankees over the weekend, to lower their magic number to 3.

If they take two of three from the Jays in the series that starts tonight, they clinch the division for the first time since 1997.

Let’s Go O’s

A post-season without Yankees or Red Sox?? ESPN and/or Fox may just decide to show reruns of The Love Boat instead.

There was a discussion in our household last night about what poor ESPN is going to do next year without Jeter. I can’t even begin to imagine.

Maybe they’ll actually hire Jeter as an analyst, so the love never dies…

Yeah, i only just realized that this will (likely) be the first postseason without either of those teams since the introduction of the Wild Card.

Proof that there is a God, and she loves us.

I think you can take that to the bank. Assuming Jeter can string 3 English words together. OK, 2.

Derek Jeter has had a great career but the ongoing blowjob is really without precedent in modern baseball history. It makes last year’s Mo Rivera lovefest look almost perfunctory. When the Blue Jays fell all over him to give him gifts, I was disgusted. He’s a great player who played for an opposing team. A nice message on the scoreboard (“Congratulations D. Jeter - NYY - 20 Years In the Major Leagues”) would have been more than enough. They spent more time slurping him off than they’ve ever done for, say, Devon White, who actually was a big part of the team winning the World Series twice.

I do not remember anything like this being done for a baseball player in my lifetime. They didn’t do this for Hank Aaron. Shit, I don’t think the NHL went this ballistic over Wayne Gretzky.

It’s no damn wonder baseball ratings on TV are down. They don’t know how to cover MLB anymore.

In other shocking news, Jonathan Papelbon is a prick.

I don’t understand…what does that have to do with Derek Jeter?

Real dick move by Papelbon, and a good show by the Phillies to *not *stick up for him…though the cynic in me thinks they might have reacted differently if their record were 80-69 instead of 69-80…

I really want to kiss Justin Turner right on the lips about now.

Jacob deGrom of the Mets struck out the first eight batters he faced tonight. But the Mets still lost.

I just read somewhere that we face 4 lefties this week. If that’s the case, we’ll probably see a lot of him this week since Mattingly stubbornly refuses to play Gordon (and Crawford) in those situations. Then again, Barney might get a couple of starts.

Nice to pick up another game on the gnats tonight.

And of course I went to Taxpayer Bailout Field on Sunday rather than Monday…

Tied a ML record, I understand (consecutive strikeouts to start a game, not the Mets losing)

Nats’ magic number is two, they might clinch in Atlanta tonight.

Looking at his stats, he probably should be Rookie of the Year in the NL over Billy Hamilton and his .665 OPS.

I’m going out this evening, and i have to leave home in a few minutes, before the Baltimore game ends, but it looks like the Nats and the Orioles are both going to clinch their divisions on the same night.

Woohoo!

Looks like freeway teams will take the West, and beltway teams take the East. If KC manages to catch Detroit, we could have two Missouri teams taking the Central.

Nats clinch!

I’m sure they loved doing it in Atlanta. Orioles and Nats clinched within a few minutes of each other.

You watching the Nats celebration? It’s insane.