Hello,
First of all, congratulations to the Atlanta Braves. Sadly they'll be the only one of my 5 teams to make the playoffs. (I've adopted the Orioles until the end of this playoffs, assuming they make the playoffs.) The Braves entered the 9th inning down 3-2. However clutch hitter Chipper Jones hit a double and later came home on Freddie Freeman's first career walk-off homer. The Braves prevailed 4-3 and were able to win by the barest of margins. That victory kept alive Atlanta's amazing winning streak when Kris Medlen starts the game. The Braves have now won 22 straight games that Medlen started. What's the more impressive streak, that or the Orioles winning 16 straight extra innings games? In all likelihood they'll play St. Louis in the one game Wild Card playoff. Now the Braves can set up their starting pitching for the playoffs, which hopefully will last longer than one wild card game.
After playing clutch baseball on the road, the Orioles have come home and struggled. They won their first home game on this 7 game home stand. Unfortunately they lost the last couple of games. Thanks to Minnesota beating New York last night, the Yankees lead the Orioles by 1.5 games in the AL East. Baltimore needs to focus more on qualifying for the the Wild Card, rather than winning the AL East. They'll need to win most of their baseball games to ensure they don't get caught. If the playoffs started today Baltimore would host the A's in the AL Wild Card. Of course that's meaningless as the A's have played one less game.
In the AL Wild Card race, the Angels are only 2 games back and the always dangerous Rays are only three games back. I thought the Rays were going to be eliminated from the playoffs by this point. However they just keep on coming. The season closing 3 game series in Tampa between Baltimore and the Rays could be very interesting. Although it has looked like the Orioles would make the playoffs the last several weeks, at this point there aren't any guarantees.
I'm looking forward to an amazing MLB playoffs.
And as to Eric Gagne's stupid comments about 80% of the Dodgers being on PEDs when he was a Dodger. I don't have any doubt that he's telling the truth. But I do have a couple of questions. First of all who cares? This is in his book only to sell copies. There's no other reason to share this information now. Is this information relevant, no not at all. Does anyone care? No. I find it laughable that someone thought it was worthwhile to write a biography of Eric Gagne. Even being a long-time Dodgers fan and these revelations I still have no desire to read this book.
Was anyone surprised that the NFL didn't change the result in the Packers-Seahawks game? Although the replacement refs clearly got the call wrong, it's no surprise a gutless corporate America entity wouldn't make the change. Making a change like that recalls moral courage and a desire to make things right. Those are things rarely found in corporate America. But of course the only criteria for making a decision in corporate America is money. Which is how the NFL got in this mess of replacement officials in the first place. Their only caring about the bottom line ironically could hurt that same bottom line.
It's hilarious to me that after some brutal calls over the weekend that the NFL and the NFLRA are all of a sudden close to an agreement. Start costing the NFL money, then all of a sudden they respond? That's not a coincidence, what it is is pathetic. That exposes the lie that the NFL cares about the players safety. Nobody believed that in the first place, but this extinguishes any doubt.
And just a quick word about the replacement officials, they've been put in an impossible position. And for the most part I think they've done a very respectable job. So please don't hate these men who are doing the best they can. Just a bunch of regular joes trying to support their families and get a bit closer to what probably for many is a dream of theirs. Thanks to the replacement refs for doing a relatively good job and showing a lot of class in an extremely difficult situation.
The NFL also needs to review the rule that the replay officials can't determine possession of the ball. Isn't that the point of replay in the first place? That whole final play of the Packers-Seahawks game was FUBAR.
themusicaddict
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