Baseball Thread

Indians hit 20 in a row. They look damn near unstoppable right now. . . but then, so did the Dodgers not too long ago.

Okay, with the help of the DBacks broadcast and the SB Nation DBacks board, I now understand the DBacks magic numbers for the playoffs and for home field in the WC.

Dbacks playoffs magic number: 9
Dbacks WC home field magic number: 12

The playoff Magic Number is a bit complicated due to the NL Central situation. Can't just calculate it like normal. Have to factor in all the games the NL Central teams play against each other. Someone on the Dbacks SB Nation page hand calculated it. It is indeed 9.

We calculated the WC home field magic number today during the game. It was 15 before the game. It is 12 after the game! Gotta love gaining 3 on the magic number in one game! The win today gives the Dbacks the win in the season series vs the Rockies. So, they hold the tie breaker. Dbacks win + Rockies loss + Dbacks win tie breaker = 3 off the magic number. Wooo!

Come on, DBacks! Get that WC Home Field! If they get that WC game, I have an invite to view the game from one of the suites.

Damn it, one strike away from ending the Indians' streak and the Royals blew it. Sure, we still would have been 16.5 games behind them in the standings, but you better believe I'd have jumped on the chance to gloat about it in what's been a rough year for us.

Clinch! Woooo! DBacks win the #1 Wild Card spot. Will host the Wild Card game here on October 4th.

I am going to that game! Have an invite from a friend with access to one of the corporate suites. Wooo!

DBacks exceeded all expectations this season. How exciting to have even this one (freaking scary) playoff game here.

Good luck!

If the Dbacks are to lose that WC game, I'd prefer to lose to the Rockies. If the Dbacks are to win that WC game, I'd prefer to beat the Brewers. Because fuck the Brewers and their cheater Ryan Braun. Dbacks fans have neither forgotten nor forgiven what happened in 2011. Would love to deny them the NLDS and really rub it in their faces.

But, if the Dbacks lose, I'd rather it be to the Rockies. Because I could never root for the Brewers, even if they were playing the Dodgers. Would have to just hope Cubs/Nats could take out the winner in the next round. I would absolutely root for the Rockies over the Dodgers, though.

Exciting! Just promise that if your team gets in and wins that WC game that the Rockies will go crush the Dodgers in the NLDS?

May the best team win and then proceed to shred the Dodgers to pieces. Thankfully we both appear to be pretty good at that this year. I'm hoping for a fantastic game either way. Ahhh this feels good. Glad to see CarGo in one more of these, he's the last left from the '09 team.

For a collective curtain call, the Royals pull the four guys who came up together, who changed baseball forever in my city, and who will never play together again. I am ugly crying.

ESPN is "chronicling" Aaron Judge's first playoff game. I hate the yankees more than any other sports team.

There are times when I can tolerate the Yankees, and because I run hot and cold on baseball in general they've kind of been off my radar the last few years.  Turned the game on last night, was kind of attempting to remain neutral on it... and then ESPN started showing reaction shots of fans in the stands and I lost it.  I kept shouting at the TV, "Don't show that!  You're making it worse!!"  Oh, Yankee Stadium attendees in October... is there anything worse?  (Also, Aaron Judge is something that makes me irrationally angry.  I should post about it in that thread because he just makes me lose my mind with fury.)

I am a Yankee fan, was at that game with my wife, and will pretend not to be offended by your comment.

I ordinarily hated the Yankees but the current squad is a lot of fun.

As for the way baseball losses hurt more than any other, no-one will ever say it better than Bart Giamatti:
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone....

It breaks my heart because it was meant to, because it was meant to foster in me again the illusion that there was something abiding, some pattern and some impulse that could come together to make a reality that would resist the corrosion; and because, after it had fostered again that most hungered-for illusion, the game was meant to stop, and betray precisely what it promised.

Of course, there are those who learn after the first few times. They grow out of sports. And there are others who were born with the wisdom to know that nothing lasts. These are the truly tough among us, the ones who can live without illusion, or without even the hope of illusion. I am not that grown-up or up-to-date. I am a simpler creature, tied to more primitive patterns and cycles. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game; it might as well be that, in a green field, in the sun."

There's an entire essay, of which this is only the beginning and end. You should read it.

I'd like to thank Grienke for stinking in that WC game, forcing the DBacks to use Ray in relief. And then Lovullo somehow thought pitching the DBacks worst starter in Game 1 vs the Dodgers was a good idea. Why? Because, hey, it's Kershaw, so we're gonna lose anyway? Ugh.

Whatever. I went to that NL WC game and it was amazing! And totally bonkers crazy. I nearly lost it when Archie Bradley hit that triple against Neshek. That was easily the most insane thing I've ever seen happen at a game I've attended. My buddy invited me to watch that game from one of the corporate suites. It was fantastic. Private bathroom. Tons of food. Couches and a big screen tv. Our own box of seats. We also all got a commemorative baseball with the Dbacks logo and "2017 Postseason" on it.

I'm totally expecting the Dbacks to lose this series with the Dodgers due to how their pitching rotation was blown up by Greinke sucking in that game. Still, it is so fun to see the Dbacks actually playing in the postseason after how awful the previous few seasons were. Went 69-93 in 2016, then went 93-69 in 2017. So, there is at least one part of 2017 which does not suck.

Also, if this series goes to Game 4, I've been offered a lower level ticket for that game. That will require the Dbacks to actually win a game, so cross your fingers!