Nice Prediction, Keith
Cardinals over the Dodgers. Followed by Cardinals rallying tonight to beat the Dodgers in Game Three and then the inevitable great next starts by Carpenter and Wainwright doing in L.A.
The inevitable great next starts by Carpenter and Wainwright will be next April.
Truth be told, a lot of us blew the call on the series. But I’ve been watching Joel Pineiro very closely since mid-season (fantasy league stuff) and about September 10 or so his unhittable and essential sinker stopped doing so. To assume he could be the stopgap in the season-breaking game for the Cards was folly on my part. And Tony LaRussa’s.
And underestimated in the finale, where the heck was Yadier Molina going from second base, with one out and the Cards desperate for a run? Did he lose track of outs? Was he in a hurry to start the off-season?
MEANWHILE IN BOSTON:
Maybe the Red Sox do go out in three or four but at least Jason Bay revived my interest in collecting “You Knows.” Years ago every athlete relied on the verbal crutch to get through many a dimwitted interviewer’s questions, and my first national publicity came when Sports Illustrated featured my little display of the most frequent usage, while I was at UPI Radio in 1980.
Said Jason in a sound bite just played on TBS:
“I think people tend to forget, you know, those guys are trying to get us out. Two guys that are pretty good, that are not just, you know, flipping balls out there underhanded and we’re not getting hits, I mean, you know, I think, you know, not passing the buck by any means, we need to do, you know, a better job offensively but, you know, the guy wasn’t 15-and-whatever he was on the year, because he’s, you know, doesn’t know what he’s doing, you know it’s just, their pitching’s better than our hitting right now.”
Eight in 27 seconds, hardly a record (Micheal Ray Richardson of the Knicks actually managed something like 16 in 32 as I remembered — he was a rehabilitated stutterer who had swapped “you know” in for his other problem, so he was ruled out in favor of somebody who produced about 9 in 20 seconds) but perhaps the MLB mark for the 21st Century.
BABE RUTH AND A BIG CROWD:
As promised, here’s the New York Times follow-up on the September 9, 1928 film just found of Babe Ruth and a crowd of 85,000 at Yankee Stadium. And I hepped!
Baseball Nerd 
Interesting to, you know, hear about the conclusions by, you know, the New York Times, Keith!
I would say more, but, well… you know! 😀
Keith, your record on predictions is mighty good. (Giants/Pats anyone?) We all thought the Cards would beat the Dodgers. I can’t just yet start preparing for the winter, even though my team is down 0-2. The Sox are heading home to Fenway where we have a great winning record. So I’m keeping my hopes alive. Maybe, just maybe, we can tie it up. Maybe.
What is scaring the living daylights out of me is the possibility of watching a World Series with Joe Torre, Manny Ramirez, Derek Jeter, ARod and Rivera.
It just doesn’t seem fair. You know? lol.
“Ty Cobb was still fighting the Civil War, and as far as he was concerned, we were all damn Yankees. But who knows, if he hadn’t had that terrible persecution complex, he never would have been about the best ballplayer who ever lived.” – Sam Crawford
Dodgers… pulled out the game.. the sweep … and the carpet from all prognasticators. . . .
Buz – http://buzblog.mlblogs.com/
You know…
Great job, Keith!
As a Cubs fan I enjoyed the Dodgers sweep of the Cards…it took the sting out of last year a tad. I really deplore the short series in the wild card…I think best of seven more often determine the better team but I wonder if we’ll ever get there.
You know … I am sure that Keith, like all lovers of the English language, often bows in the direction of Edwin Newman, the great former NBC newsman and language expert who once reported that an athlete answered a question by saying, “You know, how do you know, you know?”
Speaking of Newman, he had the honor of announcing the resignation of Spiro Agnew during the Reds-Mets NLCS of 1973. NBC didn’t want to interrupt the game, and Newman, appalled at the lack of journalistic thinking and aware of his own ability, replied that he could do it without missing a pitch. Curt Gowdy threw it to him, Newman announced it and returned it to the game, and NBC didn’t miss anything. That’s also when Justice Potter Stewart, a lifelong Reds fan, had his clerks giving him batter-by-batter updates during oral arguments, and the next note to him read, “Kranepool flies to right. Agnew resigns.”
Now, I have exercised great self-restraint here, being a Dodger fan. I am thrilled, but I also sensed it was possible because, when in doubt, Tony LaRussa will find a way to blow it. Remember: Tommy Lasorda outmanaged him in 1988. That is the cross he always must bear. More important, we couldn’t have the post-season end that quickly for Vin Scully.
Loved your mention of the You Know habit. It’s gotten so bad that I don’t listen to talk radio anymore. The hosts say it over and over. The callers are usually worse. I say usually because we’ve got a guy in the Tampa Bay (FL) sports radio market that is incapable of structuring a single paragraph without using the words ad nauseum. It’s truly the most common obnoxious habit in the United States, you know! (Please forward this email to ESPN’s Joe Morgan)
“You know” isn’t the only over-used verbal tic in the English language…y’know! Like, the word “like” is, like, way overused too. Both are pet peeves of mine, though I’ve been guilty of overusing them, myself, when I get nervous. Does this make me, like, a hypocrite? 🙂
And Keith, thanks for the link to the follow-up article in the NYT. I like history, so I’ve actually found the Ruth film story more interesting than the current post-season action. It looks as if you “hepped” them out quite a bit. Too bad that film didn’t surface while you were still in Cooperstown, as you probably would have had a field day poking around there during the course of your investigation!
I’m a homegrown Dodgers fan and so I just want to say, HA! Honestly, though, St. Louis was NOT IN THE SERIES AT ALL. I thought it was going to be a challenge, and everyone discounted the Dodgers and almost didn’t even count them into the playoff equation but look what happened? Manny did say, “Just watch me in the playoffs” and I think that statement could be extended to the entire Dodgers team.
It’s my not-so-secret dream to see a Yankees-Dodgers World Series match-up. It would sting a lot more should the Dodgers play the Angels in the World Series and lose. It hurts my little soul just thinking about it. I’m getting ahead of myself, we still have the NLCS to go. Go Dodgers! I wear my BK Dodgers hat in New York with pride.