With Jim Edmonds launching an absolute bomb into the St. Louis night, the 2004 postseason became the all-time single-season leader for postseason walk-off home runs, with five.

As well, David Ortiz became the first player ever to hit two walk-off bombs in the same postseason (to add to his game-winning single in Game 5 of the ALCS), and just the second player ever to hit two walk-off postseason homers in his career, after Bernie Williams.

Meanwhile, Dan Miceli becomes the first pitcher ever to surrender two walk-off homers in the same postseason, and the second pitcher ever to serve up two walk-off postseason gopher balls in his career. The first was not Byung-Hyun Kim, who gave up two game-tying jacks but only one walk-off in 2001. Instead, it's the great Lee Smith.

Finally, the 2004 NLCS became the first series ever with back-to-back walk-off homers, and only the second postseason series of all time with two walk-off jacks. The first? The 1988 World Series, with Kirk Gibson's memorable Game 1 pinch-hit longball and Mark McGwire's game-winner in Game 3.

Of course, the addition of third divisions and the wild card added several postseason games, many of which have been played in parks unprecedentedly friendly to the home run. Still, I find this statistic staggering:

Number of walk-off postseason homers prior to Joe Carter's in baseball history: 19

Number since Joe Carter's homer: 18

Here's the complete list.

You may recall (or not) that when "Baseball's Hall of Names" debuted on Da Box about a year and a half ago, the historical background on the concept dated back to the 1970s when my dad and I would try to come up with a pre-baseballreference.com "All-Food Team," a task handled with true gastrointestinal fortitude here by Bauxites in March 2003.

So now we turn to you again, Bauxites ... help us fill out the All-Baseball-Terms team on today, which is (not coindidentally),dear ol' dad's birthday. The only real difference between developing this one and the old All-Food efforts are that instead of "Hey, what about Bob Lemon?" exchanges in -- naturally -- the dining room, this team developed over e-mail; and, of course, there is a different set of ground rules.

Or one of the seven stars
That shine after 3:30 in the morning
WELL SHE ISN'T

Magpie found a great picture of the A-Rod play from last night. So I thought we could run a caption concept. No prizes, this is all for pride.

Munro, Morris, Lowe, and Brown are starting in today's games which are as follows:

4:00PM - Munro vs. Morris - Astros Lead Series 3-2
8:00PM - Lowe vs. Brown - Series Tied at 3 each

Does anyone know if Wilner is doing a pre-game show?

I’ve been posing down the pub
On seeing my reflection
I’m looking slightly rough

There's a great matchup tonight between Jon Lieber and Curt Schilling starting at 7:30PM. Frequent Batter's Box poster Rob informs us that Mike Wilner will him Frankie Cat on his show starting at 7:00PM. A webcast is available at the Fan 590 website.

watchin' 6 years
slipping through my picket gate.
Like some wounded dog escapin'
through the hole in the kennel fence
The water's boiling, poached eggs waiting
The toast I notice - still on the plate
The queen of diamonds
lying face down
---
Today We Have a Contest!

P. Martinez seeks redemption as the Bosox face the Yankees and Mike Mussina in Game 5 of the Series this afternoon. Boston trails in the series 3 games to one. Tonight the Cards and Astros play Game 5 of their series, with Woody Williams and Brandon Backe starting. The series is tied at 2 games each.

Congratulations to Jason and to John Northey who have won the prizes in our Batter's Box Personal Stories Of Brushes With Third-Rate Celebrity Contest.

Another doubleheader today:

4:00PM - Marquis vs. Oswalt - Cardinals Lead Series 2-1
8:00PM - Hernandez vs. Lowe - Yankees Lead Series 3-0

I like watchin' the puddles gather rain
And all I can do is just pour some tea for two
and speak my point of view
But it's not sane, It's not sane

A couple of games today:

Cardinals vs. Astros - Suppan vs. Clemens - 4:05 PM EST
Yankees vs. Red Sox - Brown vs. Arroyo - 7:35PM EST

Cards and Yanks each up 2-0.

Let's face it ... none of us are MLB GMs, and there's a reason for that. As fans, we spot a young player who is absolutely, positively bound for stardom, the Hall of Fame, even, and for some reason, he ends up spending more time in Syracuse or Toledo than Cooperstown.

Come to think of it, that happens to the pros, too. Sparky Anderson once proclaimed Kirk Gibson was "the next Mickey Mantle" and while KG was pretty good, he was no #7. The Main Spark also once famously guaranteed stardom for a third baseman named Chris Pittaro, who managed to hit .221 in 95 big league at-bats, spending more time with the Twins than Sparky's Tigers after not being able to hold off the immortal Tom Brookens for the starting third base slot on the defending champion 1985 Tigers.

Some dirt on the 2004 draft class...

As Scott pointed out on one of yesterday's threads, Baseball America is reporting that the Tigers have decided to end their pursuit of #2 overall pick Justin Verlander.