There is nothing else I like more than play-off baseball, OK I like the Stanley Cup play-offs a little bit more, but this is as good as it gets other than that. Should be a great month for baseball watchers. Glad I took the day off to watch 3 games

Anyone have a count on the number of ex-Jays in the playoffs? Here's my list off the top of my head, but I'm guessing there are many holes:

St. Louis:
Woody Williams
Chris Carpenter
Mike Matheny

Los Angeles:
Jayson Werth
Cesar Izturis
Shawn Green

Houston:
Roger Clemens

Atlanta:
???

New York:
Miguel Cairo
E. L.
Tanyon Sturtze
Felix Heredia

Boston:
???

Anaheim:
Kelvim Escobar

Minnesota:
Shannon Stewart

Hmmm... seemed like more before I wrote them down. Can anyone fill in holes for me?

How not to execute a rundown example #102,439. Perez had Renteria hung out to dry at 2nd after Renteria tried to break for 3rd. It was hilarious how Perez botched it. The ball slipped out of his hand when he tried to throw it to 2nd, he nearly bumped into Izturis, and then nearly threw it over Alex Cora's head at 2nd but Cora was able to snag it. That'll make the blooper reel tonight. Renteria just didn't panic, he waited for Perez to make his move and then when the ball slipped out Perez's hand, he hightailed it back to 2nd. Give Perez credit, though, he settled down and retired the side to keep it 1-0 St. Louis after 2 innings.

Boston: Terry Adams
Atlanta: DeWayne Wise

Can't forget Johnny O.

Is this game on the radio in the Toronto listening area?

Larry Walker hits the second two-out solo homerun of the game to make it 2-0 Saint Louis.

What does the readership think of dubbing the Saint Louis #2 to #5 hitters (Walker, Pujols, Edmonds and Rolen) Assasins' Alley (a take off on Murderers' Row)? Has someone else coined the term?

Edmonds' homerun makes it 6-0, and Odalis Perez is gone. The Dodgers, with ultra-thin starting pitching, were counting on Perez. It looks to me like they are in big trouble in this series already.

Does anyone know why they play these games so damned early?

Agreed. I don't think Lima Time is going to arrive against this lineup. The Cardinals are monsters.

Assasins' Alley (a take off on Murderers' Row)

Good nickname.

Does anyone know why they play these games so damned early?

There's another game at four, and another one at eight. So that the games don't run into each other, it's better to have them start at 12:00 Central.

Gonzo! Matheny HR, 7-0.

Man, I knew these guys had some pop, but damn...

Four bombs in four innings.

The always popular Jays post season connection alert.. Izturis and Werth the only ones hitting the Woody/Matheny combo, now if only Green can get going. Although I'd rather the Cards win with the sentimental Walker connection getting the edge over the Gagne one.

Assasins' Alley

Edmonds, Pujols, Walker, Rolen, Matheny.

:)

Paul Quantrill - NYC. How can the Yanks be in the playoffs with 4 of our weaker castoffs pitchers ?? PQ is the only one that makes sense..


I like WiPER (walker, pujols, edmonds, rolen). These guy's will WIPE you right out man!

Oh yeah, I remember hearing one of the teams (Dodgers?) have Tom Wilson. Not sure how I missed PQ and Johnny Olerud. :-(

That's a lot of ex-players though

Also Ruben Sierra.

How about STL's #1 and #2 Starters in Woody Williams and Chris Carpenter... more cast offs for ya.

Geez, seems like all the Yanks bench players and relievers are x jays

Mike Timlin? He recorded a big out for Toronto I believe...

I knew I recognized that stance!

Tom Wilson hits it out. It's only 8-3.

Good for Tom Wilson! (Although it's keeping the Sox/Angels game from coming on)

One more! Giovanni Carrara.

That is ex-Jay.

I doubt he made the post season roster but Pat Borders was on the Twins this year

hopefully Twins/Yanks is a good game.

These first two have been duds.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/min/news/min_news.jsp?ymd=20040831&content_id=843297&vkey=news_min&fext=.jsp
I doubt he made the post season roster but Pat Borders was on the Twins this year

Actually, he is on the team. MLB's gameday feature has him sitting on the bench, and the Twins' depth chart has him (inaccurately) listed as the team's top catcher. I read on one page that he'll be a defensive replacement, if needed.

From the official release that announced his trade to the Twins (COMN if you really want to):

"The number that drew Minnesota's attention to Borders was .372 -- his career average in World Series games. He was part of the Blue Jays' world championship teams in 1992-93 and was the MVP of the '92 World Series.

I don't even know what to say to that. Write your own joke, I guess.

I much prefer baseball's playoff system to any other sports. They make it so you can basically watch every single game if you choose.

I missed the first two, but am going to reserve 2.5 hours to watch Johan make the Yankee offence look foolish.

John Kruk's MVP has had a pretty tough day for the Angels.

Well you might like it, but the younger generation of fans (which baseball wonders why its not attracting) is sitting in classrooms.

10:30 AM Starts for the Dodgers wont exactly draw any younger fans to the tube, which is essential for the gam to grow.

Yep, the guy on Sportsnet just said "coming up, Mike Mussina vs. Johan Sebastien".

With a runner on, he just might Bach.

CaramonLS, the point is that if all the games are on at night, it's impossible to watch all of them. Even students could not watch all of them. This way, it is almost possible to watch every single game. Besides, it's not an anti-young person policy----it's not just students who are unable to watch games during the day.

That reminds me of when I was in grade six---my teacher brought a TV into class and we watched the Jays/Oakland games. Good times.

I know, but regardless, most people are not going to watch every game... and it would be really great if the young people in the LA area could watch the game they wanted to.

Make it kind of like the HNIC... 7PM EST 1st and 2nd Games, 10PMEST for the West coast game.

Even knocking those back an hour would still be good.

In Ottawa, AM 1200 is carrying the ESPN Radio broadcast of Yankees/Twins (Shulman/Campbell announcing I believe).

I wish they would lockout hockey every October (AM 1200 normally does Sens games).

Whoa.....that almost overhead of the pitcher camera angle from yankee stadium is making me dizzy.

Oh lord......scooter's back

Scooter did a shitty job. I wanted him to tell me about all the different types of changeups and why they are like that.

I hate that baseball.

"A changeup is just a fastball that the pitcher throws really really really slowly"

Thank you Scooter, for being both annoying and inncorrect. You're a regular McCowan.

Oy. It's a great game so far (the Yankees keep pressing, Santana looks mortal, etc), but I just can't watch it anymore. Every October, I remember how much I dislike Fox's coverage. Not only is there the Scooter, but that pitch speed meter / flame for fastball is terrible. But you need to ask why Fox drew the line at flame graphics. Why isn't their icicle graphics for a change / knuckleball? Why not add "BOOM" sound effects when A-Rod gets a hit? Why not pipe in "Overrated" chants when Jeter's up? Ugh.

I'm enjoying the Shulman/Campbell announcing on the radio, and I'm getting the Fox pictures in HD. Great combination.

Thanks, I'd forgotten that I could just listen to it via internet radio. I'd just been following it through Gameday after I turned off Fox.

Nice HR but don't wake up the Yanks JJ.

Twins are getting to Mussina. Hunter homer, Morneau up with a man on. Lets go kid

Okay, I'm loving the radio broadcast.

Somehow the subject of Tinker to Evers to Chance came up, and one of the announcers brought up how few double plays they actually turned, another mentioned that he read that "most of the double plays wre Evers to Tinker to Chance".

I noticed that Koskie is following Morneau in the lineup today.

Any team ever had back-to-back Canucks before? :)

Music to my ears: "Tanyon Sturtze is warming in the pen".

Wow, thankfully I missed Scooter. However, the flaming sound effect and the little burst of flames over the pitch speed when it's 93 or higher is so very very annoying. The overall swooshiness of the sound effects whenever any kind of graphic does anything is a real detriment to the broadcast, as are the overkill graphics. Especially since it's an exceptionally well put-together broadcast otherwise.

Fox seems obsessed with swooshing graphics. It reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer was creating a dating service tape for Ned Flanders, and ends every scene with a star wipe.

I can't understand the whole flame effect. It's totally unnecessary, but then again, so is explaining what the mysterious pitch known as the "change-up" is.

I can see explaining a change-up. I was at a Carolina Hurricanes home game, and they explained every call and every whistle clearly and concisely on the scoreboard. Not everyone is well-educated about the sport they're watching, and that's fine.

However, you don't need a giggling animated ball to do it. If he was anything like he was during the All-Star broadcast, he'd make me feel like an idiot for learning something from him.

On the other hand, take a retired superstar pitcher, put him on the mound, have him explain the pitch -- what it's supposed to do, and why -- and then throw it, repeated in slow motion (or with that strobe effect that they used to track pitches in the game), show a couple of highlights of that pitch fooling batters throughout baseball history, and voila, you have a great demo that doesn't call the audience stupid for not knowing what happens when a change-up is thrown, and even the folks who do know it can enjoy seeing the retired superstar and the archival footage.

Sportsnet, TSN, feel free to take this idea. I'd love to see it on a broadcast. And if you like it, gimme a call, I got lots more in my head. ;)

Wow. This is the longest 2-0 game I've ever seen. The Twins have just assembled a tremendous pitching staff. It would be hard for any team to beat Santana, Rincon, Nathan with the defence fielded behind them. Joe Nathan has a nuclear-powered fastball.

I should've rephrased that. Immediately after that, they showed the grip of a change, and a circle-change, and that's useful information, especially at playoff time.

Good to see the Twins win it. As I watched the first few innings, I was surprised by how many runs the Yankees threw away : that hit-and-run that had A-Rod gunned out at third, Posada lumbering towards home, the double plays, etc. I didn't think that Santana would manage to hold off the Yankees, but those gaffes proved costly.

I'm unsure as to why Bernie was hitting fourth. I know Torre has run with this lineup for a while (at least I think so, I remember during that last Blue Jays series, the commentators mentioned that the Yankees started winning when Jeter and A-Rod were placed 1-2 in the order), but it seems odd to see Bernie Williams, cleanup hitter.

I should've rephrased that. Immediately after that, they showed the grip of a change, and a circle-change, and that's useful information, especially at playoff time.

Good to see the Twins win it. As I watched the first few innings, I was surprised by how many runs the Yankees threw away : that hit-and-run that had A-Rod gunned out at third, Posada lumbering towards home, the double plays, etc. I didn't think that Santana would manage to hold off the Yankees, but those gaffes proved costly.

I'm unsure as to why Bernie was hitting fourth. I know Torre has run with this lineup for a while (at least I think so, I remember during that last Blue Jays series, the commentators mentioned that the Yankees started winning when Jeter and A-Rod were placed 1-2 in the order), but it seems odd to see Bernie Williams, cleanup hitter.

Santana pitched a Halladay game today.

http://bat-girl.com
I've got to say - BatGirl (COMN) is on to something. I found that yelling "Siddown bee-yatch!" at the screen everytime Santana struck someone out to be very theraputic.

:)

Yesterday was full of statements. St. Louis slapped down the Dodgers and I don't see them recovering. When you look at the starters for game 2 and 3 in Weaver and Lima, I think you can pretty much take "sweep" to the bank. The other two games were huge statements in which I can't wait to see how the Angels and Yankees react. Schilling didn't have his best stuff and still smacked the Angels. I think the Angels still have a whimper left in them, but they have to hit. When you're game 2 starter has an ERA over 5.00, you better damn well hit. But Pedro is going tonight and he isn't as dominate as he once was. Now for the Yankees. Oh how sweet to see them get shut out 2-0 in too straight post season games in the Bronx. Santana didn't have his best last night either and still shut them out. I would have killed to hear what Steinbrenner was muttering to himself. I'm sure he wasn't too upset...haha.