Argh, that one was painful even by the rarified standards of painful A’s home playoff losses. To this day I haven’t seen Terrence Long fail to catch the drive to the gap (I was in bleachers).
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Most painful for me is still the one where Tejada gave up running and Byrnes tried to kick the catcher rather than touch home plate. But hey, let’s give a game winning walk off home run to really make you angry.
is that the game zito gave up a half doz in the 1st? i think that’s the game i decided to become an A’s fan and called some friends in oakland from my loft apartment in williamsburg.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
There’s a guy in the crowd behind home plate with a super tiny head dwarfed by a huge Yankees jacket reminiscent of David Byrne’s Big Suit. I paused and looked closer to figure out if it was some poor microcephaly victim…turns out it’s Spike Lee!
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
i cannot imagine what reactions and brainwashing and leg strength it takes to block major league pitches. I can’t imagine why someone that hts like sanchez would even try.
Pitcher drops the throw at first, but runner misses first base completely and is tagged out trying to get back. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
That’s not bad for an 18 year old car, I’d guess that’s a larger fraction of the original cost than any American made car would yield, and most others as well.
That said, bummer! I know you’ve liked that Civic a lot. Where’d it get pinched ftom?
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
In front of my house :( I was not suprised. We had an old Acura stolen about 5 years ago. They abandoned it up on Cragmont with no rims/wheels and a busted ignition.
Can you name a player who had a WPA of 1.5 in a single game? He came off the bench in the 8th inning, and hit three home runs in his three trips to the plate, two run shot to go from one down to one up, two run shot to tie it and a solo shot to tie it.
I found the game, and yes the relief pitching was pretty bad on both sides. As to the 1.5 WPA player, I thought I remembered every Ryan Langerhans-type who appeared for the Oakland A’s, excluding some September call-ups, but I didn’t recall this guy wearing the Green and Gold at all. Steve Vucinich might even have forgotten him. He concluded his career with 8 pinch-hitting appearances for the A’s over about a three-week span, going 0-for-7 with a walk. I’m guessing they didn’t cut him in on a World Series share, or if they did they gave him something like $25.
Whatever is lost in terms of fairness/baseballness, I think we gain a lot on the drama/stakes and what it does for the division champion. Too often second place got to coast and now you actually have to play for something. Though I wouldn’t be opposed to doing a triple header wildcard series all in one day.
Interesting suggestion via Bruce Jenkins (insert blind pig – acorn joke here): in Korean League, the top seed WC team only needs one win to advance, but lower seed must win twice. Played as a doubleheader if game 2 is required.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
This is a pretty good idea. Similar to some of the scenarios you see in CWS where if 1 team makes it through undefeated the other has to take 2 to advance. It definitely makes it more of a challenge which it could/should be. And if both halves of the DH are played it becomes a real impediment for the WC team that wins and has to play again in 2 days-which again should be the way it is.
Darkhorse choice for the Willie Mays Award for World Series MVP. Speaking of which, I noticed that Scott Brosius got a promotion to third base coach for the Mariners for 2018.
Round 1 ends 2-2 in series wins/losses of the more highly rated FSU Rootability Index teams. 10-7 in games on the FSURI. Much better than I usually do.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Two more series wins by higher ranked FSURI teams in the LCS’s, making it 4-2 in more rootable series wins and 18-11 in games. Go Astros! Daddy needs a more likeable pair of shoes.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
hope you get a chance to catch argentina – peru (4:30pacific today) even if only to see my favorite stadium in action. not sure why they switched from the monumental to la bonbonera (prolly cábala / superstitious luck adjustment) but i’m glad my home team is playing at my club team’s home.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
my feed is reverse of what i’m used to. usually you are looking at the dugouts, which are built into the vertical skyboxes on the side. makes it look even more intimate.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
And they pretty much have to win it. A draw would only be good enough to get them to the playoff if Peru loses at home to Colombia AND Paraguay fails to win at home against Venezuela.
A win would assure Argentina of the playoff, and would qualify them directly if Chile fails to win at Brazil OR Peru and Colombia draw OR Peru beats Colombia by a smaller margin than Argentina beats Ecuador.
Disclaimer: I may well have FKed up the math. There are a lot of scenarios.
I mean, I’m sure that would be challenging, but that’s why they are paying Sampaoli the big bucks. To figure out how to maximize the absurd amount of talent at his disposal.
isn’t messi’s heat map on argentina different than on barça though? a bit more forward line on barça, more mid on argentina? or is that just my frustration making me see things?
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
The Red Sox were also going to get the early game today even if the Twins had knocked out the Yankees, because baseball didn’t want to put the Red Sox head to head with the Patriots on Thursday Night Football.
Yesterday was exactly four years from my mom’s first playoff game, a birthday treat of Sonny’s playoff debut shutout gem and Vogt’s walkoff against Tigers in Game 2.
I love the second day of division series play when all teams are playing on the same day. Having gotten too used to A’s being slotted in the morning spot, I’m still getting this weird ghost cocktail of pre-playoff game excitement and anxiety.
I have this premonition that Reddick is going to have a big World Series AB against Scherzer. This time he’ll lay off the slider down and in and then hit a bases clearing triple.
Meanwhile, here’s where they play tomorrow’s final match still needing a result to go through.
The #USMNT encounters a river around the field as it turns up for its official training session at Ato Boldon Stadium this morning. ???? ???? ???? pic.twitter.com/yywxhyeELf
I remember the last time we beat OU – I had just started the agony of writing my thesis. We should’ve beaten them in ’89 when we rolled up over 600 yards on their defense, but we gave up too many big plays, especially an onside kick attempt that bounced perfectly into a receiver’s hands and was returned for a TD.
Pence flew from Vegas to Indy to go to a football game he planned to leave before it even started, then flew back to LA to do fundraisers for shitty congresspeople. All on our dime.
It’s sparkling clear at Tahoe today but looking over the Sierra from the Nevada side the smoke layer is clearly defined. Depending on wind we may get some tonight or tomorrow. We get smoke from distant fires a few times a year, sometimes more distant than the North Bay.
Yeah, but the footage seems to be contrasting our official comunique, according to which no major structural damage to the main buildings happened. In a different source I found this:
The east end of the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts was scorched, as was part of the Keysight technology park, where a BMW and Audi in the parking lot were burned out, but like so many bizarre scenes from a wind-fueled fire storm, a bright red Porsche Targa two rows over was spared.
The naive notion of win-today-at-all-costs (as presented by many commentators, not you) has been bugging me. If the goal is reaching the next round, then the optimization really has to be over winning the necessary number of games. As a reductio ad absurdum, making a move that guaranteed winning today but also losing tomorrow would not be an effective strategy.
Murphy goes for a ball with his head, and Ramsey goes for it with his foot. Ramsey wins it, and Murphy, in raising an arm to appeal for a free-kick for a dangerously raised foot, accidentally pokes Ramsey in the eye and gets booked.
Why didn’t Hinch argue the decision to send Gattis back to first on the interference? Not only was it a debatable call, at very least you ice a tiring Sale awhile longer.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Depends on what the FIFA rankings that come out next week show. The current rankings would be enough to put Northern Ireland in the top half (with Italy, Croatia, and the loser of Portugal/Switzerland tomorrow).
Sweden and Denmark could both jump them though, and if France chokes tomorrow forget it.
Ah – I’d mistakenly thought it was based on the 2nd place table, which is ridiculously convoluted since you have to ignore games against the team that will finish last in each group.
It seems like half of Twitter suddenly has an opinion on Josh Reddick’s underpants (not that most of them know his name). So once again, we are years ahead of the trend.
It’s been a while since I’ve been around these parts, but I think of you all often. And today is one of those times. See, I was eating breakfast at Mama’s Royal Cafe with my wife and her dad, George, who owns the place. You may have seen that the restaurant went up for sale last summer, well it’s finally happening. The restaurant is officially changing hands next week. And among the incredible art that has hung there for decades is a huge painting by bay area muralist Jon Oshanna with some sexy ladies playing baseball. A photo of the painting is below.
Given the subject matter, the uniform colors, the local history, and the fact that the restaurant used to cater the A’s clubhouse George would like to give the A’s the first option to buy the paining. Which is how we got to you all. I suspect if there’s someone who I know who has an idea how to reach the right person at the A’s, it’s one of you FKers. So what do you think? What’s my best way to contact the A’s?
Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval holds weekly office hours every Tuesday from 3 – 5 p.m. All office hours will be by appointment only and must be secured in advance. To schedule an appointment, please email president@athletics.com for the next available Tuesday date.
You might just email him about it or hit him up on twitter. He seems to engage quite a bit.
i’ve always admired that painting. sad about mama’s getting a different look. the font, the knicnacs, the giant coffee cup, the booths, they always take me back to the kind of capitalized 80s Cool i was juuust a little too young to get.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
The Las Vegas 51s will move into a new ballpark in 2019, leaving the Cashman Field dump. The Mets have already announced that their AAA affiliation will switch from Las Vegas to Syracuse after next season. I think the A’s and the Nashville Sounds have been satisfied with each other, but with new facilities in Las Vegas making that a more appealing option now, I wonder if the more logical geography will win out.
Indirect free kick (meaning it has to be touched by two players before it can be a goal) from about 25 yards out. Rather than touch it to a teammate, the Peruvian curled it first time around the wall, toward the corner of the goal. All the Colombian keeper had to do was let it go in the net, and it would not have counted. But he dove for the save and it went in off his hand, so it counted (because he was the second player to touch it).
The 2004 men’s basketball team was pretty embarrassing.
Not too much shame in being knocked out by that great Argentina team, but they also lost twice in pool play including to Puerto Rico by 19 points. That’s very bad.
It was clear this morning. I had to go to Carson City and in the three hours or so I was down there it moved in. Couldn’t see across the lake when I came back up the hill. The smell is faint this evening but it’s there.
The worst was that huge fire near Yosemite a few years ago that burned FSU’s Berkeley Camp. We were fogged in for about two weeks.
Further sign of the world gone crazy is that they might have a higher chance of experiencing an earthquake (albeit a low magnitude one) in Oklahoma than in the bay area.
I think I said a while ago that nothing he did or said as president really surprised me, since it was all apparent during the campaign. But I did not expect it to get this crazy this fast.
On the subject of dead websites, we decided today to shut down the phpBB hot springs forum after 10 years due to lack of participation. Times change, especially on the Internet, and the traffic we had seems to have migrated to Facebook and people’s blogs.
The issue is that I need to find a good host to switch to, but it never really gets to the top of my queue (and when it does, I quickly remember that I don’t really know why we are unusually resource intensive, or how to ensure the problem won’t persist at a new host).
My newest theory is that the theme requires too many DB calls, so maybe a slimmer theme would solve the problem. There’s an outside chance I could test that theory soon.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
That seems to be the assessment – though the assertion that interference can’t be reviewed seems irrelevant since the rule specifically states that it isn’t interference.
If the umpire misinterpreted which rule applied it seems like a (very rare) case where it would be appropriate to play the rest of the game under protest and (at least in theory) the protest could be upheld.
Note that Layne refers to “my judgment” seven times in two paragraphs. That’s because rulings that are a question of the umpire’s judgment, rather than rule interpretation, can not be protested. He has been trained well. But just because he says repeatedly that this is a judgment issue, does not necessarily mean that it is one. (Edit: The quoted rule above does in fact refer to the umpire’s judgment, but in context it seems like this would apply only to the “unintentional” part, which is not in dispute.)
“You know, the whole rule interpretation — there’s rules, and then there’s instructions to the umpires,” Torre began. “There’s separate books. And what Jerry’s feeling was, that the interference didn’t take precedent over the fact that the ball was already past [Wieters] when the contact took place.
“However, the rule states — and you probably have read the rule — that when contact is made — in other words, when the bat came around and hit the catcher’s mask — it’s a dead ball,” Torre went on. “It’s a dead ball. And that’s the one thing that should have taken precedence.”
“And again, the manager — Dusty [Baker] in this case — he could have gone, which we remind the managers,” Torre went on. “If you’ve got a question, a rule question — not a judgment question but a rule question — if you don’t like what the umpire’s telling you, ask him for a rules check. And they can do that. They can go to the replay center on the headset and check a rule.”
I didn’t know about that option, but it makes sense as a way to avoid having to hear an appeal after the fact.
Little slice of the A’s ballpark process. Drawing out opposition and concerns in these early stage community meetings is good. The team and city’s ability to assuage and mitigate will be crucial, but to my eyes certainly possible.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Oh no. Will I have to watch Game 1 of the American League Championship Series Presented by Camping World instead of watching the Golden Bears get pounded by Wazzu?
Ash falling from the sky in Berkeley. Walking around I was short of breath & coughing. Can’t imagine playing football in this. #wildfires
They claim they’re going to play it, but might get enough push back to change that.
Is there somewhere they can move it? Even South Bay would probably be significantly better.
I expect they will make a decision by tomorrow morning. They could keep WSU in the Bay Area and try for sometime Saturday. An alternative would be to put everyone on a bus to somewhere out of the smoke zone. UNR is on the road this week and Fresno State is playing at home at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Yeah, that’s why I’m throwing Reno and Fresno out there. Places where they could arrange bus transport on short notice, leave the Bay Area around noon and be there by 4 p.m. Friday to play on Saturday afternoon. If they play at Mackay I’m dropping everything to be there.
If they did opt for the South Bay, I don’t see anything scheduled at either Levi’s Stadium or SJSU. Furd has an 8 p.m. game at home and while the notion of Cal playing a home game there is cringeworthy, the Pac-12 is used to playing there.
Yes, it’s elaborate, but it makes sure the game is played. Cal’s off day is Nov. 11 and WSU’s is Nov. 18. The only way to make it up later would be to schedule it contingently on Dec. 2. The contingency would be that WSU isn’t in the Pac-12 championship game, and that probably won’t be decided until the Apple Cup on Nov. 25.
The first Twins batter goes deep.
What is this “Take 17” business?
Yankee pitcher might not make it out of the first.
UPDATE: He did not.
Son of a
Argh, that one was painful even by the rarified standards of painful A’s home playoff losses. To this day I haven’t seen Terrence Long fail to catch the drive to the gap (I was in bleachers).
I watched that one in New York. All of the trash I had talked during Game 4 came back to bite me in the ass.
Yeah, but as I remember it the game-long teAse kind of reinvigorated everyone until it fell short.
Most painful for me is still the one where Tejada gave up running and Byrnes tried to kick the catcher rather than touch home plate. But hey, let’s give a game winning walk off home run to really make you angry.
Too soon…all of you!
That was a road game.
2003 Game 3 in Boston.
Let us never speak of it again.
is that the game zito gave up a half doz in the 1st? i think that’s the game i decided to become an A’s fan and called some friends in oakland from my loft apartment in williamsburg.
There’s a guy in the crowd behind home plate with a super tiny head dwarfed by a huge Yankees jacket reminiscent of David Byrne’s Big Suit. I paused and looked closer to figure out if it was some poor microcephaly victim…turns out it’s Spike Lee!
Goddamn it Santana.
Man, Gary Sanchez sucks at the literal act of catching. And now he has the sore balls to prove it.
i cannot imagine what reactions and brainwashing and leg strength it takes to block major league pitches. I can’t imagine why someone that hts like sanchez would even try.
Time stands still during Yankees games. That’s not a compliment.
It’s so unpleasant.
Bah … so much schadenfreude.
Pitcher drops the throw at first, but runner misses first base completely and is tagged out trying to get back. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
Huh. I wouldn’t have guessed the total loss value of a stolen ’99 Honda Civic is $2923.
I wsh my 96 2 door accord had been stolen 10 years ago
That’s not bad for an 18 year old car, I’d guess that’s a larger fraction of the original cost than any American made car would yield, and most others as well.
That said, bummer! I know you’ve liked that Civic a lot. Where’d it get pinched ftom?
In front of my house :( I was not suprised. We had an old Acura stolen about 5 years ago. They abandoned it up on Cragmont with no rims/wheels and a busted ignition.
I looooooved that car. I’m so sad.
FKwiz:
Can you name a player who had a WPA of 1.5 in a single game? He came off the bench in the 8th inning, and hit three home runs in his three trips to the plate, two run shot to go from one down to one up, two run shot to tie it and a solo shot to tie it.
there’s only one answer here:no. no, i can’t.
Talk about a battle of horrible bullpens.
His team still lost by three runs
I found the game, and yes the relief pitching was pretty bad on both sides. As to the 1.5 WPA player, I thought I remembered every Ryan Langerhans-type who appeared for the Oakland A’s, excluding some September call-ups, but I didn’t recall this guy wearing the Green and Gold at all. Steve Vucinich might even have forgotten him. He concluded his career with 8 pinch-hitting appearances for the A’s over about a three-week span, going 0-for-7 with a walk. I’m guessing they didn’t cut him in on a World Series share, or if they did they gave him something like $25.
Let’s go Rockies!
Dan Schulman is the bizarro world Joe Buck. Pleasant and informative. No hair plugs. Just needs a Spock beard.
??? Shulman worked the Yankees game for ESPN last night. The TBS guy working with Darling is Ernie Johnson.
Also re postseason announcers, if you’ve been missing Chris Berman, he is resurfacing on the ESPN Radio broadcasts of Red Sox-Astros.
Oops, Prop 215 moment. Ernie is the anti-Buck. I do like Shulman too though, esp on college hoops calls.
Neshek vs. Archie Bradley and Soaker rolls the 1-12 ohhh fuuuuuck in pre-computer Strat-O-Matic.
Heh heh, thanks for that.
A 2-run triple to the pitcher? Oh Pat …
True Athletic™
Exciting game!
If you’re going to ask me to sit here for 4 hours watching teams I don’t care about, it can’t be dreck like last night’s.
Less relevant now, maybe, but on checking 2014 A’s-Royals remains the only one-run margin WC game.
Hoping the Rockies come back and win this. These Arizona uniforms cannot be normalized.
i don’t know what they are wearing tonight. the home unis are terrible, but I lke the road charcoals
The new snake/ball cartoon logo is horrible. The old one was so much better.
Both these teams sport matte helmets.
Jeff Mathis is still in baseball.
I began hatng the one and out format, but upon reflection, none of theses teams should be in the playoffs, so who cares
That’s what I was thinking after last night. Thank goodness we weren’t asked to endure a best-of-3 or best-of-5 Yankees-Twins series.
Because of the nature of the sport, its not NBA level futility. 2 Wildcard teams have won the world series since 2012, which seems lame.
Just one WC WS winner since new format 2012 I think.
ack. you are right. there are things i don’t think about too much.
2014 was so horrible it felt like both KC and SF won.
I’ve come to like the one game format, it’s very un-baseball like and thus the drama seems artificial, but I like the high stakes regardless.
Whatever is lost in terms of fairness/baseballness, I think we gain a lot on the drama/stakes and what it does for the division champion. Too often second place got to coast and now you actually have to play for something. Though I wouldn’t be opposed to doing a triple header wildcard series all in one day.
Interesting suggestion via Bruce Jenkins (insert blind pig – acorn joke here): in Korean League, the top seed WC team only needs one win to advance, but lower seed must win twice. Played as a doubleheader if game 2 is required.
This is a pretty good idea. Similar to some of the scenarios you see in CWS where if 1 team makes it through undefeated the other has to take 2 to advance. It definitely makes it more of a challenge which it could/should be. And if both halves of the DH are played it becomes a real impediment for the WC team that wins and has to play again in 2 days-which again should be the way it is.
I like that!
that is how i thought the division series should have been before the extra wild card game
Damn. I really like that one.
Is that Adam Rosales in the D-backs dugout?
Huh, so it is, he’s even active.
Darkhorse choice for the Willie Mays Award for World Series MVP. Speaking of which, I noticed that Scott Brosius got a promotion to third base coach for the Mariners for 2018.
I wish teams didn’t have as many available pitchers as they do.
roster size 20, get rid of divisions.
those would be good changes
Gotta have Sheriff Joe throw out the first pitch at NLDS Game 3, right?
Only if he does an illegal search and profile of both teams afterward.
Christ, what an asshole
If you refer to women as “females”……you might be an asshole.
Also, don’t ever venture into ESPN comment section
That’s just basic hygiene.
That’s why I call them broads.
Thanks, and go As.
Playoff teams ranked by FSU rooting interest:
1. Houston
2. Cleveland
3. NYY
4. Washington
5. LAD
6. Arizona
7. Chicago
8. Getting kicked in the nuts
9. Boston
So Red Sox – Cubs WS it is
And the world gets kicked in the nuts.
I can buy most of this.
Really want to see Houston take it all so the Grizzlies can laugh about this
Only if that is the ring that they use when they get rings.
its hard. based on players, boston isn’t so bad. Every team has a bauer/peroid/gardner/werth/lester.
I dislike the fans of boston, la, and chicago the most. I like sean, brandon, jose altuve, josh reddick, starlin castro, lindor.
i have respect for harper, kershaw and greinke.
If the clevelands name and mascot weren’t so offensive, I might root for them.
I suppose I would be equally OKish with your first 4.
Don’t forget Kate Upton
NYY too high. In our house you have Houston two slots too high after that correction, but that’s Mrs. N’s rooting interests talking.
I’d put NYY #7 because the team is fun.
Once Cleveland and Houston sweep their respective series, I’m good. Although, Altuve is awesome and I wouldn’t mind Houston going all the way.
Round 1 ends 2-2 in series wins/losses of the more highly rated FSU Rootability Index teams. 10-7 in games on the FSURI. Much better than I usually do.
Two more series wins by higher ranked FSURI teams in the LCS’s, making it 4-2 in more rootable series wins and 18-11 in games. Go Astros! Daddy needs a more likeable pair of shoes.
“For maintenance”
hope you get a chance to catch argentina – peru (4:30pacific today) even if only to see my favorite stadium in action. not sure why they switched from the monumental to la bonbonera (prolly cábala / superstitious luck adjustment) but i’m glad my home team is playing at my club team’s home.
Can’t wait for this one.
Stadium looks very cool on tv.
I also only just realized that the name refers to bon bons.
yep, bon bon box.
my feed is reverse of what i’m used to. usually you are looking at the dugouts, which are built into the vertical skyboxes on the side. makes it look even more intimate.
The steep angle looking down from the skyboxes is great, especially when someone leans out of a box right in front of the camera.
halftime.
so far, so nothing.
and with chile scoring, argentina is out of the WC.
Your boys are dominating, but it sure feels like they are depending on Messi to make everything happen.
I might get Biglia off before this Brazilian ref shows him the door on a Peru counter.
biglia is playing good tho. no?
on my drive home, radio said that he was already forgiven a straight red.
He is. Nearly scored right out of halftime.
But man, his yellow was for a nasty, nasty hit. He needs to be careful for sure.
:(((((
That was rough. Sorry man. Not sure how the ball stayed out of the net for you.
Good news is I think you still control your fate because Colombia shat the bed.
Having to play their last game in Quito is tough though.
And they pretty much have to win it. A draw would only be good enough to get them to the playoff if Peru loses at home to Colombia AND Paraguay fails to win at home against Venezuela.
A win would assure Argentina of the playoff, and would qualify them directly if Chile fails to win at Brazil OR Peru and Colombia draw OR Peru beats Colombia by a smaller margin than Argentina beats Ecuador.
Disclaimer: I may well have FKed up the math. There are a lot of scenarios.
Messi has to be in the World Cup.
Thanks, and go As.
Seriously.
That team is so stacked that Dybala and Icardi, two of the very best players in Serie A, couldn’t even get off the bench last night. And yet.
Rumor has it that they can’t figure out how to get Messi and Dybala on the field together because they play the same position.
There was an interesting discussion on reddit showing their season long heat maps for Juve and Barca, and they are very similar.
IDK though I feel like somehow you need to get both of those dudes on the pitch together.
Thanks, and go As.
I mean, I’m sure that would be challenging, but that’s why they are paying Sampaoli the big bucks. To figure out how to maximize the absurd amount of talent at his disposal.
isn’t messi’s heat map on argentina different than on barça though? a bit more forward line on barça, more mid on argentina? or is that just my frustration making me see things?
no and yet. they should have started.
i like benedetto at boca and all, but boca is not serie A. also, he doesn’t do headers. how did nobody tell messi benedetto doesn’t do headers?
i liked gago going in, but when he had to be taken off, why perez?
who the FK is rigoni??
interactive W/T/L simulator here.
So 3 of the 4 starting pitchers in the one-and-done games gave up 3 runs in the first, and all the runs were scored on homers.
Pitcher nerves, more aggressive hitters, coincidence, other, all of the above?
Working on things
why not? the “Championship Season” is over. these exposition games are for tricks
They’re really shoving the Red Sox onto MLB Network while FS1 shows a World Cup qualifier.
The Red Sox were also going to get the early game today even if the Twins had knocked out the Yankees, because baseball didn’t want to put the Red Sox head to head with the Patriots on Thursday Night Football.
I mean, its a great problem for MLB to have, they chose the one that may get more people to demand subscriptions.
Cy Youngs squaring off, I’m calling a 9:6 ballgame
Cy Youngs only give up *2* first inning runs.
And now only 1 in the second?!
Verlander not getting his A’s playoff game strike zone.
Too soon
Don’t run on Scarlet Pecker!
left in the lineup for offense and defense
this guy needs to see a shrink
FS1: [shows Sonny Gray career postseason #s, 3 starts 17 innings zero runs of support]
Sonny: [gives up moonshot home run]
:(
I’ll root for Cleveland in the series, but would have liked to see Sonny beat Bauer.
Red Sox lose. Yankees lose. Fox execs grab stiff drinks.
Yesterday was exactly four years from my mom’s first playoff game, a birthday treat of Sonny’s playoff debut shutout gem and Vogt’s walkoff against Tigers in Game 2.
Awesome
No more Pete Rose on the Fox pregame chucklefest?
I love the second day of division series play when all teams are playing on the same day. Having gotten too used to A’s being slotted in the morning spot, I’m still getting this weird ghost cocktail of pre-playoff game excitement and anxiety.
The Fox score box is very classy this year. Very unFoxlike.
justin verlander is 2-0 in game 1s of an ALDS where josh reddick starts
I have this premonition that Reddick is going to have a big World Series AB against Scherzer. This time he’ll lay off the slider down and in and then hit a bases clearing triple.
Hah hah, suck it Boston.
Todd Frazier is having a mare … 2 errors responsible for 2 unearned runs and caught stealing to end the inning with Judge at the plate.
yeah, but sonny is a goat
USMNT off to a good start, thank god.
They are kicking some isthmus.
late to the party.
Pulisic is ridiculous.
Also, FK Panama for just trying to injure him outright in the 2nd half. I loved Jozy’s paneka.
Thanks, and go As.
Meanwhile, here’s where they play tomorrow’s final match still needing a result to go through.
Yeah I saw that. Ridiculous.
They only need a draw though. I mean if you can’t get a result from T&T, no matter the condition, you don’t deserve to go to the WC anyway.
Thanks, and go As.
Now the Yankees are on MLB Network? Is this real life?
Big win for the doctorK’s!
HELL YES
I remember the last time we beat OU – I had just started the agony of writing my thesis. We should’ve beaten them in ’89 when we rolled up over 600 yards on their defense, but we gave up too many big plays, especially an onside kick attempt that bounced perfectly into a receiver’s hands and was returned for a TD.
Gio vs Lester, not exactly a close call on the ex-Athletic love scale.
natonal league baseball is soooo stupid
Puig hitting 8th in an NL lineup also seems stupid.
Doooooooooooooooooooo
Sound like the Niners triggered the Vice President and made him run to a safe space.
Pence flew from Vegas to Indy to go to a football game he planned to leave before it even started, then flew back to LA to do fundraisers for shitty congresspeople. All on our dime.
innocent black people should stand for the flag if they want to live
I could live with the Red Sox going 3-and-out.
how s this a close game?
Kooky ballpark.
If only the Raiders had a young skillful fast wide receiver to stretch defenses.
All teams’ fans moan about strike and swing calls, but the New Yorkers seem especially whiny.
5 outs from chapman seems like a stretch
I hope you guys are all OK, with all the fires breaking out. My company’s HQ and biggest labs are in the middle of the evacuation area in SR
You can smell the smoke pretty strongly down here in Berkeley, but so far no news of fires this far south.
Little bits of ash falling steadily in SF.
was very confused last night, feeling all the walls eventually wandering outsde at midnght to try to figure out the smoke.
Frends have marked in safe, though
There was a grass fire in Berkeley Hills overnight also; out now.
I woke at 3:30am with the smell – searched the house for the smoldering socket for a fair while before I went outside and it hit me.
wait, what? i just rolled out of bed on US-rare columbus day off, looking forward to a run at joaquin miller. should i not go?
airqualitywise.
best acronym since tootblan.
http://www.baaqmd.gov
I wouldn’t.
The smoke’s reached Livermore. It’s crazy.
Thanks, and go As.
It’s sparkling clear at Tahoe today but looking over the Sierra from the Nevada side the smoke layer is clearly defined. Depending on wind we may get some tonight or tomorrow. We get smoke from distant fires a few times a year, sometimes more distant than the North Bay.
While Im assuming it isn’t as bad,there is a small layer of smoke hanging over Torrance/Lomita and getting thicker as you go to LB and into the OC.
i declined to run because of it
And you will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.
Ouch
That’s some awful reporting. It ain’t going on the highlight reel.
Yeah, but the footage seems to be contrasting our official comunique, according to which no major structural damage to the main buildings happened. In a different source I found this:
Super-smokey in the Bay Area today – I can’t see San Francisco from my office in the Berkeley hills.
Maybe I’m imagining things, but it actually seems harder to breathe today.
I agree. I feel it in my eyes too.
the air tastes like burnt corn husk.
yes
in honor of the fire and their victims, Boston starts rick porcello
Quite a collection of lowlifes in the FS1 booth, with David Cone and AJ Pierzynski.
Astros players have the astros in 5? s that why they are pissing away all their baserunners?
Porcello has thrown 3 strikes in 11 pitches and stuck out 2 … gah!
8 baserunners. first run only scores because of a wld pitch
Wow, those were some
dubiouswonderful called strikes to get Houston out of that jam.wasn’t paying attentioin for JBJ, but the third strike to pedroia was a strike
2-1, three innings played, 1:40 elapsed game time.
the fuck is happening?
Both teams seem to be counting on a long midgame rain delay and want to use Sale/Verlander for side session stints before that.
Verlamder here seems like a win for the red sox
literal and figurative, i guess
Yes, the Sox using Sale is understandable since it is win or their season’s over, but not sure about Houston’s decision.*
I would think the Astros would take their chances with the bullpen today and then have Verlander vs. not-Sale on Wednesday if necessary.
Keuchel vs. not-Sale is still OK, I guess.
*Opinion formed before Benintendi’s HR.
verlander with a short lease and keuchel waiting seems like better option
I’m not sure that Houston isn’t considering Keuchel later today also.
The naive notion of win-today-at-all-costs (as presented by many commentators, not you) has been bugging me. If the goal is reaching the next round, then the optimization really has to be over winning the necessary number of games. As a reductio ad absurdum, making a move that guaranteed winning today but also losing tomorrow would not be an effective strategy.
Verlander 2 – 0 Sale.
be better william
From the coverage of the Wales/Ireland game:
Ah, the beautiful game.
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
Why didn’t Hinch argue the decision to send Gattis back to first on the interference? Not only was it a debatable call, at very least you ice a tiring Sale awhile longer.
hinch has not been managing well today
fan nterference should penalize the home team for having a shitty stadium design
It was the ballgirl.
even worse
come on william
well done.
sigh
He’s honestly just a much better hitter now than he was then.
Too soon.
C’mon, Josh. Bury’em.
not buried, but definitely gave them a tired feeling.
That’ll do.
Iceland is going to the World Cup!
(At the expense of Croatia, which goes to a playoff)
And Wales is out … Bale’s injury was really bad timing.
Northern Ireland – Republic of Ireland playoff is in play, I believe.
No – they’ll almost certainly both be in the bottom half of the draw.
Depends on what the FIFA rankings that come out next week show. The current rankings would be enough to put Northern Ireland in the top half (with Italy, Croatia, and the loser of Portugal/Switzerland tomorrow).
Sweden and Denmark could both jump them though, and if France chokes tomorrow forget it.
Ah – I’d mistakenly thought it was based on the 2nd place table, which is ridiculously convoluted since you have to ignore games against the team that will finish last in each group.
Meanwhile Scotland’s exit has been blamed on a genetic predisposition to shortness by their manager, wee Gordon Strachan.
I love how he said that while noting that they were the second shortest team in the competition, next to that other doormat Spain.
Free Kraut, where I find out about how Croatian national team played
#notcroatinenough
Kimbrel = Koch, Devers = Ellis
(Still too soon?)
yes
Yay Stros!
You can’t spell Astros without As.
It seems like half of Twitter suddenly has an opinion on Josh Reddick’s underpants (not that most of them know his name). So once again, we are years ahead of the trend.
Speaking of former A’s, Cubs fans seem upset with Zobrist but I didn’t see what he did.
I guess an error, and maybe also a bad AB with men on.
good
Maybe they let his wife sing the anthem again?
unfortunately he looks lke he is going to run the post season for me
Hey there!
It’s been a while since I’ve been around these parts, but I think of you all often. And today is one of those times. See, I was eating breakfast at Mama’s Royal Cafe with my wife and her dad, George, who owns the place. You may have seen that the restaurant went up for sale last summer, well it’s finally happening. The restaurant is officially changing hands next week. And among the incredible art that has hung there for decades is a huge painting by bay area muralist Jon Oshanna with some sexy ladies playing baseball. A photo of the painting is below.
Given the subject matter, the uniform colors, the local history, and the fact that the restaurant used to cater the A’s clubhouse George would like to give the A’s the first option to buy the paining. Which is how we got to you all. I suspect if there’s someone who I know who has an idea how to reach the right person at the A’s, it’s one of you FKers. So what do you think? What’s my best way to contact the A’s?
No idea how to reach right A’s person though the answer is probably Dave Kaval. Love that painting though.
Isn’t it amazing?! It’s like A League of Their Own meets the Gutterballs dream sequence from Big Lebowski.
I’ll see about reaching Kaval, I wonder if he’s still doing office hours.
Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval holds weekly office hours every Tuesday from 3 – 5 p.m. All office hours will be by appointment only and must be secured in advance. To schedule an appointment, please email president@athletics.com for the next available Tuesday date.
You might just email him about it or hit him up on twitter. He seems to engage quite a bit.
Cool, I’ll email/tweet. Thanks
i’ve always admired that painting. sad about mama’s getting a different look. the font, the knicnacs, the giant coffee cup, the booths, they always take me back to the kind of capitalized 80s Cool i was juuust a little too young to get.
Some of the art will stay, including the rotating apron collection as those are from one of the long time wait staff.
Is that Mama’s Royal Cafe owned by the same people as the one in Mill Valley?
No, although I believe the one in Mill Valley was started by alumni from the Oakland location. There’s also one in Cabo San Lucas.
I guess Scherzer healed up ok.
I guess Schwarber kinda sucks on defense.
I like how Bill Murray disappeared from his front row seat and a small kid dressed the same appeared.
That was some top notch TOOTBLANning there Cubs.
Nothingsomething is changingCleveland is starting to look a little A’s-y.
I hope we see 2014 sonny in game 5
Watching his team get eliminated from the bench?
I am waffling on this series. I just hate duke loving trevor bauer so much.
Those Dodger fans who brought in the giant flag on a pole are really pushing it.
Portugal are edging Switzerland into the play-offs, and the Netherlands only need 5 more goals to overtake Sweden!
Portugal through
Netherlands out
It’s kind of sad that it comes down to who thrashes the minnows worse.
wat? like, out out?
yup
crazy.
and not reassuring to me, personally, that some teams… how can you even have a WC without them??
On the plus side, it’s not unprecedented for the Dutch to boot qualification, unlike…
REALLY?
*now* is when you choose to remind me of mexico ’70?
NOW??
whoops
’74, ’78 and ’94.
On the upside, Scotland’s qualification in ’78 gave us the wonderful couplet from Ally’s Tartan Army
that group that greece is in, that’s some bullshit.
Holy FK:
The Las Vegas 51s will move into a new ballpark in 2019, leaving the Cashman Field dump. The Mets have already announced that their AAA affiliation will switch from Las Vegas to Syracuse after next season. I think the A’s and the Nashville Sounds have been satisfied with each other, but with new facilities in Las Vegas making that a more appealing option now, I wonder if the more logical geography will win out.
I heard AV’s scream from here.
That was a real kick in the balls. This is going to be a hellish 90 minutes for him.
worse. i’m stuck in a meeting.
i just screamed silently 15 minutes late via newspaper headline.
In 15 minutes time you’ll be all smiles.
out of meeting and i’m confused. got 1 goal in my ear but 2 in my eyes.
The little guy with the beard is pretty good.
mascherano’s going as wooly willy for halloween.
Now you just heard me scream.
Trinidad AND Tobago? That’s like two against one, no wonder the US is losing.
Yeah, but there are 50 of the United States.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
oh man. sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry.
Someone should check on MikeV.
he’s vaguebooking obscenities.
Well that wasn’t the exit we were expecting!
Does this mean I don’t need to request a separate World Cup thread next year?
No, you’ll just have even less reason to read it.
Gotta be the biggest choke in US international team sports history. Even the big Olympics hoops losses were all in the medal rounds.
And on top of choking, both Honduras and Panama had to beat superior opponents for it to come to this.
One of Panama’s two necessary goals not actually crossing the line is the cherry on top.
Honduras’ second goal – off the crossbar, the back of the Mexican keeper’s head, the post, and in – was also a peach.
Oh my god
Did you all see how Peru scored the goal it needed to edge out Chile?
Indirect free kick (meaning it has to be touched by two players before it can be a goal) from about 25 yards out. Rather than touch it to a teammate, the Peruvian curled it first time around the wall, toward the corner of the goal. All the Colombian keeper had to do was let it go in the net, and it would not have counted. But he dove for the save and it went in off his hand, so it counted (because he was the second player to touch it).
ha!
fuck chile. yes, i know i didn’t use to feel this way.
The 2004 men’s basketball team was pretty embarrassing.
Not too much shame in being knocked out by that great Argentina team, but they also lost twice in pool play including to Puerto Rico by 19 points. That’s very bad.
I know Fox paid a lot of money for the US television rights. Fluuuusssshhhh.
Stop trying to make me feel better.
Legitimately in tears earlier. Now I’m just numb.
Thanks, and go As.
I’m sad that we failed to qualify.
I’m mad about the way we failed. Arena completely blew it with the way he set the team up on that field, needing only a draw.
https://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?subset=AERONET_Fresno.2017283.terra.250m
That was yesterday. Today is much smokier – I can’t see anything past my building from the hill.
It is smoky inside my Berkeley office building today. Crazy.
Definitely worse today.
Oddly, it’s much better today on the other side of the bay.
– Yesterday Berkeley hit 193 at 11 AM. May be that bad again by now.
– SF is just off the screenshot, but was still only 97 at 10 AM
It was clear this morning. I had to go to Carson City and in the three hours or so I was down there it moved in. Couldn’t see across the lake when I came back up the hill. The smell is faint this evening but it’s there.
The worst was that huge fire near Yosemite a few years ago that burned FSU’s Berkeley Camp. We were fogged in for about two weeks.
Mrs. N is taking the kids to Oklahoma. For better air. The world has gone crazy.
Further sign of the world gone crazy is that they might have a higher chance of experiencing an earthquake (albeit a low magnitude one) in Oklahoma than in the bay area.
I’ll allow this comment only if you admit THIS FACT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FRACKING. NOTHING AT ALL.
Madison wept
The abnormal weather isn’t from climate change, it’s from all the former Presidents and our Founding Fathers turning over in their graves… non-stop.
I think I said a while ago that nothing he did or said as president really surprised me, since it was all apparent during the campaign. But I did not expect it to get this crazy this fast.
To be fair, though, I also hate everyone in the White House.
Strasburg getting the start today after all. Either Dusty is a genius, keeping his opponents off balance, or the Nats are a chaotic mess.
I vote chaotic mess.
Dusty is such a drama queen. I’m glad he’s still around FKing up playoff series.
The Cubs have Lester in the game in the 5th rather than saving him to start game 5 on full rest.
Lester throwing out a runner on first stung.
Ooof … that’s a pure A’s move.
I hate the way you have to reload the page to have subsequent comments appear in the right place!
The Fox Apocalypse is still in play.
Red SoxUSMNTYankees
Cubs
Apocalypse averted. Nationals-Astros probably isn’t what they want, but any of the other remaining possibilities should be a win.
Cleveland needs Rajai.
So A’s-y
That’s a bad time for the 2017 A’s defense to make a Division Series cameo.
Cleveland had the fewest errors in the AL this year.
(Fewest in MLB was … Miami)
Sabathia was getting the VerlAnder strike zone.
Yuck
what the fuck is this shit?
And we’re back.
Hosting issue again? I’ll float some $$$ towards the cause if we need it again
Thanks, and go As.
On the subject of dead websites, we decided today to shut down the phpBB hot springs forum after 10 years due to lack of participation. Times change, especially on the Internet, and the traffic we had seems to have migrated to Facebook and people’s blogs.
Same Just say the word
slack. channel.
The issue is that I need to find a good host to switch to, but it never really gets to the top of my queue (and when it does, I quickly remember that I don’t really know why we are unusually resource intensive, or how to ensure the problem won’t persist at a new host).
My newest theory is that the theme requires too many DB calls, so maybe a slimmer theme would solve the problem. There’s an outside chance I could test that theory soon.
Me, too
i totally heard that in the astonishing legends voice.
That was exactly the Gio I remember, mostly. How good might he be if he’d just throw fucking strikes.
Dusty seemed pretty irritated with him in that dugout interview.
Going to Scherzer in relief in an elimination game is only “foolproof” against the A’s.
Man this game is kinda ugly.
First in War
First in Peace
First in Choking
Jesus is Wieters in debt to Canadian gamblers?
so much back bacon
Hmmmmmm
That does sound clear, is that “interpretation” section of the rulebook considered definitive?
i dont get what the umpire is interpreting
So how do you interpret the rule when it’s a 3rd strike? If the ball is dead is the batter out?
It must be. otherwise it would insentivize hitting the catcher wth a backswing.
That seems to be the assessment – though the assertion that interference can’t be reviewed seems irrelevant since the rule specifically states that it isn’t interference.
If the umpire misinterpreted which rule applied it seems like a (very rare) case where it would be appropriate to play the rest of the game under protest and (at least in theory) the protest could be upheld.
Note that Layne refers to “my judgment” seven times in two paragraphs. That’s because rulings that are a question of the umpire’s judgment, rather than rule interpretation, can not be protested. He has been trained well. But just because he says repeatedly that this is a judgment issue, does not necessarily mean that it is one. (Edit: The quoted rule above does in fact refer to the umpire’s judgment, but in context it seems like this would apply only to the “unintentional” part, which is not in dispute.)
which begs (I think that is proper usage) the question, what if it was intentional?
Then the batter would be out and the ball would be dead. Which is just one more reason their fuck up was insanely bad.
Welp
I didn’t know about that option, but it makes sense as a way to avoid having to hear an appeal after the fact.
If they knew about it, they should definitely be asking for it. And either way, should definitely have been protesting it.
affirmatively asking for a rule check is so mind bogglingly redundent when you are asking for a replay.
Get the fucking call right.
fuck MLB
Oh, you wanted us to know the RULES??? Why didnt you say so!??!
This.
Little slice of the A’s ballpark process. Drawing out opposition and concerns in these early stage community meetings is good. The team and city’s ability to assuage and mitigate will be crucial, but to my eyes certainly possible.
the only A’s at laney should be on report cards!
Ooof – wA’shington
The ugliness is strong in this one. Also for a supposed smart guy Ron Darling rambles on like an idiot.
i like him with the mets. probably trying too hard
Oh no. Will I have to watch Game 1 of the American League Championship Series Presented by Camping World instead of watching the Golden Bears get pounded by Wazzu?
At the moment the air here is better than any of the last 48 hours. Supposed to get worse though by tomorrow PM.
They claim they’re going to play it, but might get enough push back to change that.
Is there somewhere they can move it? Even South Bay would probably be significantly better.
I expect they will make a decision by tomorrow morning. They could keep WSU in the Bay Area and try for sometime Saturday. An alternative would be to put everyone on a bus to somewhere out of the smoke zone. UNR is on the road this week and Fresno State is playing at home at 7 p.m. Saturday.
idk. its shitty there too
Yeah, that’s why I’m throwing Reno and Fresno out there. Places where they could arrange bus transport on short notice, leave the Bay Area around noon and be there by 4 p.m. Friday to play on Saturday afternoon. If they play at Mackay I’m dropping everything to be there.
If they did opt for the South Bay, I don’t see anything scheduled at either Levi’s Stadium or SJSU. Furd has an 8 p.m. game at home and while the notion of Cal playing a home game there is cringeworthy, the Pac-12 is used to playing there.
That all sounds way too elaborate for such a late change. A mutual off day later seems more likely to me, if they cancelled.
Yes, it’s elaborate, but it makes sure the game is played. Cal’s off day is Nov. 11 and WSU’s is Nov. 18. The only way to make it up later would be to schedule it contingently on Dec. 2. The contingency would be that WSU isn’t in the Pac-12 championship game, and that probably won’t be decided until the Apple Cup on Nov. 25.
That was a flimsy overturn I thought.
Crazy game
Try as they might to collapse, the Nats keep getting dragged back into this game by bad Cubs pitching.
Bad pitching beats bad hitting
seeing wade davis’ success, makes me hope the A’s can convert a frustrating starter into a dominant reliever, (sean…looking at you)
Nats leadoff hitters have walked in three of last four innings.
The A’s would never get that overturned.
Werth’s last career at bat?
Dusty’s last career screwed-up game?
0 wins in last 10 elimination games, that’s brutal.
I’ll never forgive him for not killing the 2012 Giants.
he did pretty good with the 2002 team!
They won on Wednesday
heh
well poop