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October 21, 2004

Comments

That's one of the funniest things I've read in a long time...way to go Moe!

Here's an opposing view from a comment by "Lemon Merengue" from the Poor Man post mentioned below:

Hoping against a TX/MA World Series is crazy talk.

The respective governors should stake their state's electoral votes on the outcome, in a morning-drive-time radio-rival bet between Clear Channel affiliates. 100 pounds of barbecue and 34 electoral votes against 50 gallons of chowder and 12 votes. Massachsetts may have to throw in the rest of New England to keep it fair.

My name is Chuchundra and I approve of this message.

Which countries play in this World Series of yours?

I'm just, you know, asking.

Yeah, because nobody's asked that before.

The United States and Canada, as it happens. Which are two of the three countries that I can think of off the top of my head that have baseball as a national professional sport, and I have no doubt that Japan would be included if they asked to be. (Although having three leagues would be kind of awkward.)

Just asking a question, Mr. Anthony. Just asking a question.

It is of course possible to have national amateur teams.

Amen, brother. My SAN has taken such a beating in the last few months that I've given up calamari. No more, I beg. Let the series live in peace.

Well, Korea and Taiwan have pro baseball leagues. Cuba, well, don't know if you can call it pro, but it is serious. Mexico and several countries in the Caribbean have summer leagues that are pro but function to funnel players to the Big leagues.

The refreshing thing about pro teams is that you don't have the make these ridiculous contortions to that you do with national amatuer teams. Here in Japan, the national Rugby team has a enough Kiwi players who have taken Japanese citizenship that they as a group are sometimes referred to as the 'Cherry Blacks'

As a lifelong Astros fan and somebody who would only vote for Bush if my Diebold machine "accidentally" screwed up, I say it's worth it. Maybe some more astute media types can bring up the fact that Bush was a part-owner of the Texas Rangers, which is located in the Greater D-FW Metroplex, which is technically part of Oklahoma.

As our hippie Vice President would say, get your mind around that.

They do actually play baseball in other countries. We hosted a Spanish exchange student, Maria, this past summer, and we took her (along with her friend Alaya from the exchange program) to an Orioles game. Maria was pretty clueless about what was going on, but Alaya had played on a team in some sort of amateur Spanish girls' baseball league, and was able to explain the game to her. I suspect there was a significant element of boy-watching involved, though, based on some of their side comments.

Elsewhere, yesterday:

"Maybe the Yankees should file an emergency motion with the Supreme Court and say that if the Red Sox win it, will do irreparable harm to the Yankees claim to the World Series chamionship?"

Of course there is a baseball equivalent of Bush v. Gore--a decisive blown call.

I'm rooting for the Cardinals for my own reasons. I can forgive Houston for being from Texas, perhaps--I can for the Rockets and Spurs--but not for Clemens, Petite, and artificial turf.

Also: Bush opposed the Wild Card.

The only baseball owner to vote against the change, which took effect in 1994 before the postseason was canceled by labor strife, was from Texas.

"I made my arguments and went down in flames. History will prove me right," said then-Rangers owner George W. Bush, whose foresight led him to bigger and better things.

"This is an exercise in folly."

To tell you the truth, I wasn't so crazy about it either. And I am totally biased in its favor now, because my two favorite teams--the Mets and the Red Sox--would have been shut out of the playoffs for well over a decade without it, in favor of a mind numbing procession of Yankees-Braves. But I also think it's good for baseball. A much more exciting postseason and regular season, and it makes it harder to buy a championship. The wild card teams usually have a record as good as one of the division winners. Maybe if there weren't three divisions it would be different....you obviously can't have the third division without it, and you can't have only two divisions without contraction.

I do think interleague play should be cut to one three game series a year, especially with the unbalanced schedule & the wild card.

Wow! Both Moe AND Katherine admit to being Mets fans: I KNEW there was a reason to log on to Obsidian Wings all the time (besides the high intellectual content, of course)!
Anyway, Moe, why have to couch your unmistakeable (and unavoidable) glee at the Evil Empire's historic demise in equivocal terms? New York pride? Hell, that's why we have teams in BOTH Major Leagues here!
Unfortunately, one of them is the Mets: but Boston's amazing come-from-behind championship can give us all hope: All we need is great pitching, a strong bullpen, some sluggers, and a capable manager, and, hey! We're set!

I was nominally a Mets fan until I tried the 7 train was late, the hotdog tasted like crap, and the planes kept flying overhead. Get a new stadium; then we'll talk.

The 7 train is underrated, and I don't mind the planes so much, but Shea does suck. I understand that they can't have a park as small as Fenway, but Yankee stadium holds only slightly fewer people than Shea and yet you can actually see the game without binoculars from the upper deck. (I discovered this only this year.)

Weird trivia: with Cominskey closing, Shea will be the fourth oldest stadium in baseball after Wrigley, Fenway, and Yankee stadium.

Unfortunately Wilpon seems bent on a retractable dome on the same location. Feh.

I like the idea of them playing in Brooklyn but it probably doesn't make sense.

Another reason I prefer the Astros is that as a Red Sox fan, I thing they'd be an easier match. They're a Cinderella team so far, and might let down once they get to the series. Also, I've seen the Cardinals Pujols, and am afraid of him.

And it would interesting to see the Sox go up against Clemens, who is probably the only active player from the last Red Sox world series team ('86)

With the 2012 Olympic bid in tatters, aren't there some sites along the West Side highway that could work? Surely Roland Betts has some pull ...

"Which are two of the three countries that I can think of off the top of my head that have baseball as a national professional sport"

The Dominicans, the Cubans, the Mexicans, and the Koreans are on the phone, and they said something about 'fightin words'.

Of course, if all of the best players play in MLB, it really is a World Series, even if the home cities are only in the US and Canada. And but for the on-again/off-again Cuban embargo, all of the best players play in MLB. Especially now that we're hoovering up Japan's best (sadly too late for the most prolific professional home run hitter in history).

Right on, Moe.

It tells you something that this is an issue where Moe and Atrios strongly concur. Please don't feed the hacks! Go Cardinals! Do those flips, Ozzie Smith … or whoever's on the team this decade … in that strange sport of yours …

Also, they will inevitably ask the players their political views, and my favorite players will inevitably turn out to be Republicans. It's bad enough that most of the Mets are--even (especially) Al Leiter, who might actually run for office one day. If Al Leiter starts voting with Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, I may cry.

If Schilling, Damon, Millar, and the rest of their merry band feel similarly--fine, they're free to. But I don't want to know about it.

Off topic--silly Red Sox quotations of the year:
1. "When Pedro [ Martinez ] or Curt [Schilling] or anybody pitches a bad game, they pitch bad," Lowe said. "I pitch bad and I'm a Mental Gidget. Obviously, it's gotten to the point where I can't take it anymore." (Derek Lowe complaining about the Boston media this summer. Lowe is a bit of a mental gidget sometimes, honestly, but he sure wasn't last night.)

2. "He has such big shoulders and he carries this team on the field and off the field. We're extraordinarily fortunate, and Theo Epstein deserves a big kiss for [acquiring] David Ortiz....He brings a great spirit and sense of humor and a big, bear-like personality to the park. He leads the league in hugs."

(Red Sox president Larry Lucchino on David Ortiz. Pull yourself together, Larry--you didn't hear that kind of talk out of the original Princess Leia.)

Sorry, praktike, but AFAICT, the only place the "new" Mets stadium is being planned for is right next to Shea (where the East parking lot is now). Then Shea will be torn down to make a new parking lot on the West side. So, whatever they can do about the hotdogs (and the food at Shea truly does suck) - Mets fans will still have to deal with planes, since LaGuardia Airport isn't planning on going anywhere.
And the 7 Train may not be the finest thing on rails, even by NYC standards, but it does do the job of getting one to the ballpark without having to use a car - a major plus for us City types.

5-2 Cards. Say, Moe, who do you think should win the series? (for the good of the country and all that, mind you, I'm not thinking of using that information to wager or anything...)

Beats me: now that the crisis has passed, my powers have faded. I mean, normally I can't even reliably lose a football pool*.

Moe

*I think that I've told this one before, but what the heck. I set out one year to be the absolute worst at the football pool; my goal was to be at the absolute bottom every week. If I could just manage it throughout the season, when the playoffs hit I would go around and sell my picks to my coworkers, or auction them off (on the theory that if my guessing consistently got 2 right out of 11 or 13 when pure chance would give 6 or 7 right, all the lucky buyer would have to do would be to reverse my picks and have a winning roster). I kept my streak going six bloody weeks.

And then seven long shots that no sane man or woman would pick came in on the same week.

As I told my then-girlfriend (and now-fiancee) over filet mignon the next evening, the payoff was nice, but it was the sense of artistic loss that rankled. :)

Here in Japan, the national Rugby team has a enough Kiwi players who have taken Japanese citizenship that they as a group are sometimes referred to as the 'Cherry Blacks'

That loss to the All-Blacks still rankles, eh? ;)

[The previous comment was an unintended tribute to Moe's post immediate prior. I swear, I wasn't looking at it! Get outta my head Moe! Get out nooooooooooow!]

That loss to the All-Blacks still rankles, eh? ;)

Nah, since I'm still (and always will be) a foreigner here, that rugby loss was more like watching the Dream Team take apart Angola in Barcelona. All the joys of supporting the home team with none of the heartbreak. Highly recommended.

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