Griffey

I've had this asked of me in regards to football games involving my Redskins and Longhorns, and my response is always, "I've seen a MILLION close/thrilling games already; I'll take a blowout any day". And that applies here as well. But I'll take them all!

I did some quick math and it's possible there is an error in here, but I took a look at how often the team with the best record in each league made/won the World Series by era. Here's what I came up with: Pennant era (pre-1969) - Obviously, the teams with the best records made and won the Series 100% of the time. Divisional era (1969-1993, excluding 1981) - 60% of the teams with the best record in their league made the Series, and 63% of the WS winners had their league's best record. Wild card era (1995-2023, excluding 2020) - 36% of the teams with the best record in their league made the Series, and 39% of the WS winners had their league's best record. It goes without saying that the more teams and rounds you throw into the playoff mix the harder it is for everyone to advance, but this illustrates how seldom the "best" team wins the WS these days. One of the things that I've always loved about baseball is having to prove yourself every day for 6 months. The current post-season tournament certainly waters down the import of that considerably. That being said, it's not going away, so we need to figure out a way to make it happen in the post-season. As others have said, if you consistently make the post-season, the hope is that you'll eventually win it all.

First of all, how good are those little video spots they've been showing the last month or so during the games? They're very well-produced and really capture the feel of this team without being over the top. Huge kudos to the O's and MASN for coming up with them. The "soak it in" motto leads to the second point. This entire season has been an absolute blast, and I hope everyone has had as much fun following the O's as we have. As others have stated, even though we are young and built for future success, nothing is guaranteed so let's all enjoy this amazing ride. It's been a long, hard road for O's fans, but this season has made it all worthwhile.

Tippy Martinez with Lenny Sakata set to catch; but instead of throwing it Lenny, Tippy flips it to Eddie at first.

Nice, easy power is a great description of him so far. That has impressed me as well. It doesn't seem like he really got a hold of either of his 2 bombs so far, but out they went anyway. That's a good omen.

It took him forever to get out there, the pile kept moving away from him. Hilarious!

"Meet the Mets, meet the Mets, Step right up and SWEEP the Mets...."

At this point, Big Papi is just a caricature of himself. Less Big Papi Draft Kings ads, more Justin Tucker Royal Farms ads! That dude is hilarious.

Would he be known as "The Admiral"?

I've already lost the Bullets and Redskins names in hoops and football, along with a bunch of time-honored baseball traditions (I'm looking at you, interleague play... haha). Like some others on here, I love the song because it immediately takes me back to the glory days in the Old Gray Lady of 33rd Street in the late '70s and early '80s. Would hate to lose yet another reminder of that era.

Funny, my wife and I have been referring to him as the Hebrew Hurler the last couple of years. Terrific performance last night.

Street & Smith's baseball yearbook used to be the Bible in my house all summer long.

"When I came to open up one morning, there you were with your head half in the toilet, your hair was in the toilet water... disgusting."

Will always remember him as the middle of the formidable "BOB" bullpen, as Demper used to refer to the Brach/O'Day/Britton combo to close out games.

JJ had just about the best internal clock of any SS I've seen recently. Always seemed to know just how much time he had to make a play and if he needed to hurry a throw.