World Series CXV Coming Up

CXV?

Well, if you haven't figured it out, that is the Roman numeral for 115, and I just thought that it would be fun if I gave the upcoming Astros-Nationals World Series a bit of NFL-style pretentiousness.

Actually, I cannot recall an MLB post-season that I took less interest in than this current 2019 edition.  I attribute that to two factors.  One, I was out of the country during the Wild Card and Division Series rounds, and even through some early LCS games.  That made it hard to follow what was going on, much less watch and closely follow the games.  And, two, the total buzz-kill that was the performance of the Pittsburgh Pirates throughout the second half of the baseball season, followed by the clown show firing of Clint Hurdle and the retention of Chief Clown GM Neal Huntington killed a lot of the interest that I have always had for the sport, so, thank you for that, Bob Nutting and the Best Management Team in Baseball.

Even last night, with an elimination game being played in the ALCS, I opted instead to watch the Penn State-Michigan football game in spite of the presence of two extremely unlikeable coaches on each sideline.  When that game was over, I switched to the baseball game, saw that the Astros were up 4-2 after seven and opted to go to bed.  Of course, I know now that I missed a very dramatic ninth inning wherein the Yanks tied it in the top half, and Jose Altuve went "Bobby Thomson" and won it in the bottom half to secure the pennant for the Astros.  That, of course, was my loss, but I did take great satisfaction in seeing that Aroldis Chapman got to play the role of Ralph Branca in this little drama.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Still, the World Series is, after all, the WORLD SERIES, and I will look forward to watching this one.  The fact that both teams boast three-deep strong starting pitchers (Scherzer-Strasburg-Corbin vs Verlander-Cole-Grienke) make this an intriguing match up, so I am looking forward to watching this 115th edition of the Fall Classic.

You want a prediction?  I'll go with the Astros in six games, and a Series MVP Award for Gerrit Cole.  

I'll be rooting hard for Cole to shine in this Series (as he has all season long), if only to make GMNH look even more the fool when he tells us how great Joe Musgrove and Michael Feliz are and what value their metrics add to the Pirates.  Even Mrs. Grandstander, who wasn't a fan of Cole's when he was a Pirate, is rooting hard for him in the Series so as to make the Pirates look like chumps (as if THAT notion needs further reinforcement).

So there you have it.  As always, watch, but don't bet.

The Cardinals Do It AGAIN!!!...and Some Predictions

Okay, before I give my LCS and World Series predictions, and word or two on that Cardinals-Nationals game last night:

Unbelievable.....Are you kidding me?....Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma????.....Wow!

If you care enough to be reading this, you already know what happened, so I won't recount the sequence of events, but I ask you, is there anything in sports better than October baseball?

While watching the game, I was also on Facebook and Twitter and  when the eight inning began, I stated that I was giving the Cardinals "a 40% chance of pulling this one out".  After Descalso's home run I raised it to 50%.  In the top of ninth after Beltran doubled, I said that if Holliday got a hit the Cards would win.  That didn't happen, but when Freese walked, I then said 70%.  When Descalso's hit tied the game I stopped setting odds.  I knew, everyone knew, that the Nats were now dead.  Kozma's two RBI's just  made it official.

You know all the cliches, but it is so, so true:  you can't hold the ball and let the clock run out; you have to get 27 outs.  Plain and simple.  It's beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.

As I looked at the crowd shots. my mind flashed on three such moments:

1972 - Bob Moose's wild pitch in LCS.  Reds win.

1992 - Francisco Cabrera and Sid Bream.  Need I say More?

1994 -  In the final seconds of the AFC Championship game, Neil O'Donnell's fourth down pass at the goal line falls incomplete.  Steelers lose, Chargers go to the Super Bowl.  I was at that one, and I will never forget how quiet 60,000 people can become in an instant.

Now, what happens next.

NLCS - Cardinals over the Giants.  Not going to go into a lot of analysis here.  After last year's World Series and then last night's game, somebody is going to actually have to drive a stake through Gussie Busch's heart before I'll pick against the Cardinals again.

ALCS - Those were two pretty dramatic division series staged by the American League, weren't they?  The Yankees are the Yankees, and it's hard to pick against them, but I'm going to pick the Tigers on the hunch that they will be carried by Justin Verlander, and that Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder will come to life and overcome the pinstripers.  I only hope that the pitching rotations for each team will set up so that we will see at least one Verlander-Sabbathia match up.

On the subject of the Yankees, what Joe Girardi did with Alex Rodriguez took a real set of managerial cujones.  Pinch hitting for him not once, but twice, with games and the season on the line, and then outright benching him in Game Five.  Wow.  The NYC tabloids are going to have a field day over the off season with this new chapter in the A-Rod Soap Opera.

World Series - A rematch of the 1934 and 1968 Fall Classics, both won by the Cardinals in seven games.   As I said above, I'm not going to go against the Cardinals again.  Justin Verlander will get two starts and two wins, but St. Louis wins Game Seven, probably in improbable fashion, and get back-to-back Series' titles.

One final observation.  When the TBS cameras zeroed in on Wolf Blitzer sitting in a luxury box, my mind flashed forward to the Nats in the World Series and how the Fox cameras would be giving us crowd shots of every Inside-the-Beltway punjab imaginable.  I'm picturing a scene of John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Harry Reid sitting together while Joe Buck sappily tells the world how "baseball unites everyone"....Cabinet officers, Supreme Court Justices, not to mention  all the Fox News talking heads.  At least we will be spared of that.  Instead, we'll see the usual - stars of Fox's lame sitcoms bundled up in the cold and pretending to be baseball fans. 

Bring it on!!