2019 World Series (ASTROS vs. NATIONALS)

[Uli2001]

4 hours ago, JR Oriole said:

It is amazing how much winning a championship cures everything.  The documentary Catching Hell was all about Steve Bartman and the 03 Cubs, but Bill Buckner was prominently featured.  And it is just amazing how much grief he and Bartman took for their respective roles in the Red Sox and Cubs collapses in those years.  In both situations, extremely long and painful championship droughts were at stake....which meant the pitchforks were ready. 

Of course, the Buckner error was in an already tied game where the Red Sox had somehow blown a 2-out, 2-run lead with nobody even on base.  And it was fascinating to hear Buckner talk about his glove, and then to see what happened to the glove as the ball approached him.  I lived in Chicago near Wrigley in 2003 and I remember all of those events very clearly.  I really do believe that without Bartman's hands touching that ball, Alou catches it and there is no Marlins rally.  But that could have been any one of those fans' hands.  Just an incredible series of events. 

No matter what Houston does or doesn't do in these last few games, they just delivered a title 2 years ago.  So there are no pitchforks. 

Good point. But still a play that people will remember if Houston goes on to lose. It opened up the flood gates, as these kinds of errors often do.

[Uli2001]

31 minutes ago, Chavez Ravine said:

Altuve made a nice play to snag a Zimmerman grounder that finally brought the top of the 8th to an end. Someone in the Nat’s dugout (I didn’t recognize who) clapped their appreciation  of the play (Or perhaps it was just happiness at a good inning). In any case, it looked similar to the applause my mom would give when my little league team finally managed to get off the field.

Thanks, but I was referring to a hand sign that the fans and players are doing.

[Uli2001]

3 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Stoked for the Nats.  Don't care that many here aren't.  But as a Northern VA native, I've followed crap teams for pretty much all my life.  The Redskins, I remember the glory years a little bit but for most of my life they've been crap.  Bullets, crap.  I don't care enough about hockey so the Caps winning was nice but I couldn't pretend to care much.  Was more happy for the fans around here that have been through thick and thin.

But I take a partial interest in the Nats.  Don't watch a lot of the games but I watch from time to time.  And I don't care about the MASN deal.  I don't care about Baltimore's inferiority complex and whatever "rivalry" exists between the areas.  It doesn't exist, it's made up by fans and sportswriters that are looking for an angle where one doesn't exist.  The baseball teams are in different leagues, the football teams are in different conferences.  

Glad to see a DC team in a relevant sport on the brink of a major championship.  Go Nats!

They are in different leagues but the sport is the same. People do not root for two teams in the same sport. So if more people start following the Nationals, fewer will follow the Orioles. It is a zero-sum game, especially now that the overall number of baseball fans does not appear to be increasing. With that said, you are free to root for anyone you want, of course.

[Uli2001]

https://www.thewrap.com/world-series-game-2-tv-ratings/

[SouthRider]

I don't like the Astros.  Too cocky with their bat flips and standing there admiring home runs.  They remind me of the 2014-15 Royals.  I expect Scherzer and Strasburg to shut the door.  I was worried how they both would pitch after the long layoff, but they did their jobs and kept their team in the game.  Don't sleep on Sanchez either. He has been great this post season.   I love the way the Nat's old guys are stepping up.  

[Uli2001]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/24/sport/houston-astros-brandon-taubman/index.html

Forget the bat flips, this whole episode, shows that they do not have good people on the field (Osuna) or in the FO (this guy and those initially covering up for him). Perhaps a sweep by the Nationals is an adequate result.

[Moose Milligan]

50 minutes ago, Uli2001 said:

They are in different leagues but the sport is the same. People do not root for two teams in the same sport. So if more people start following the Nationals, fewer will follow the Orioles. It is a zero-sum game, especially now that the overall number of baseball fans does not appear to be increasing. With that said, you are free to root for anyone you want, of course.

What else do people not do?  

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

What else do people not do?  

I don't care about bat flips.

[backwardsk]

1 hour ago, Uli2001 said:

Good point. But still a play that people will remember if Houston goes on to lose. It opened up the flood gates, as these kinds of errors often do.

Probably true, but don’t walk three guys in an inning if you are trying to minimize runs.

 

[JR Oriole]

4 hours ago, Uli2001 said:

They are in different leagues but the sport is the same. People do not root for two teams in the same sport. So if more people start following the Nationals, fewer will follow the Orioles. It is a zero-sum game, especially now that the overall number of baseball fans does not appear to be increasing. With that said, you are free to root for anyone you want, of course.

The thing I worry about with the Os is that after 3 1/2 decades of relative irrelevance, how many young fans are we really getting?  5 playoff appearances in 36 years makes it very hard to generate a lot of excitement.  Hard to get the kids excited about dad's teams when they rarely appear in important or high profile games.  I wonder the same thing about the Skins.  Only the Dolphins (who happen to be my NFL team) can rival the Skins for complete irrelevance over the last 20 years....both teams are basically schedule-filler.  Not sure where the new fans come from for either team.

I think it would be good for the Nats to win.  At least they aren't from a spoiled sports town like Boston that only knows championships.

[Moose Milligan]

13 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't care about bat flips.

You don't care about much.  It's part of your schtick.

[Uli2001]

17 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

What else do people not do?  

It was of course a generalization, but with not intent to offend.

[OFFNY]

o

 

(GAME THREE)

*************

 

HOUSTON ASTROS

George Chelston Springer III - CF

Jose Altuve - 2B

Michael Charles Brantley, Jr. - LF

Alexander Davis "A.D." Bregman - 3B

Yuliesky Gurriel Castillo - 1B

Carlos Javier Correa Oppenheimer - SS

William Joshua Reddick - RF

Robinson David Chirinos Gonzalez - C

Donald Zachary Greinke - RHP )) (18-5, 2.93 ERA) ) *

 

* )) (10-4, 2.90 ERA) OOO [ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS] OOOOO (8-1, 3.02 ERA) OOO [HOUSTON ASTROS]

 

WASHINGTON NATIONALS

Trea Vance "T.V." Turner - SS

Adam Corey "A.C." Eaton - RF

Anthony Rendon - 3B

Juan Jose Soto Pacheco - LF

Asdrubal Cabrera - 2B

Ryan Zimmerman - 1B

Kurt Suzuki - C

Victor Enrique Robles Brito - CF

Anibal Alejandro Sanchez, Jr. - RHP )) (11-8, 3.85 ERA)

 

https://www.baseballpress.com/lineups

 

o

[Tx Oriole]

On 10/24/2019 at 5:19 PM, Uli2001 said:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/24/sport/houston-astros-brandon-taubman/index.html

Forget the bat flips, this whole episode, shows that they do not have good people on the field (Osuna) or in the FO (this guy and those initially covering up for him). Perhaps a sweep by the Nationals is an adequate result.

I’m a fan of the Stros. Do I think they will win. Nope. As for the idiot in the FO well he was fired and that’s good. 

[Chavez Ravine]

Greinke got nasty on Cabrera. That was impressive.