Prof: I stayed up listening to this game on the radio until 1:10 am EST. I’m exhausted. Even though I am a Cubs fan, I was actually kind of rooting for the Rockies, mostly because of the story. And the (Trevor) Story. This was basically two games in one; the first, a shootout between two excellent pitchers. Jon Lester and Kyle Freeland were both absolutely dealing, and both did their teams a great service. It soon became a series of crazy moves and outweirding the other manager in both dugouts. For some reason, Joe Maddon sat Anthony Rizzo and replaced him with speedy Terrance Gore, who stole second and tied the game when Javier Baez drove him in late during regulation.
Afterwards, it came an ever-increasing series of bizarre moves, weird plays, wild pitches, quirks, and jaw-dropping WTFs deep into the thirteenth inning, the longest Wild Card game in MLB history. Most notably, a play in which Javy Baez and Nolan Arenado full on hugged each other on the base path. Yeah, it was as odd as you could imagine.
The Cubs quickly ran out of position players thanks to double switches and the aforementioned Rizzo benching, and started to cannibalize their actual starting rotation, starting with Cole Hamels, who did yeoman’s work. Maddon then moved onto Kyle Hendricks, who would have been a starter had the Cubs gone onto Milwaukee. But I guess to get to the NLDS you have to win this game, so out the Little Professor went.
Bud Black, in the visiting dugout, decided he could do some boneheaded B.S. too, but his boneheaded b.s. wasn’t as costly as Maddon’s was.
Eventually, it came down to exhaustion, nerves, desperation, and as usual for these kind of games, the backup catcher. This time, the hero of the day was Tony Wolters, the third string backstop for the Rox. It was his hit that drove home the winning run and ended this game that lasted five hours in reality but about fifteen years in my head.
Colorado goes to Milwaukee to play a rested Brew Crew at Miller Park, while Chicago lost two one-off games with playoff implications back to back nights at home. That has to hurt.
Did any of you guys watch or listen to this game? What are your thoughts?
The bratty ursines go home after what, for all its protraction, was ackcherly a fun game. Once the Cubs broke their century-and-change curse they ceased to be all that interessin’ anyway, just another musclebound can’t-do upper midwestern Anacharsis Klootz deputation with a wife-beating shortstop and a no doubt sympathetic Trump supporter at the helm. Good riddance. Maddon will find plenty to do over the next month or so campaigning in his faux Woodstock era minivan like an aphasic steam grating preacher, hiding out among the rabble in support of his beloved Pox Trumpiana, so contemptuous of so many of the origins of the guys who make up his team, and then the snow will start softly falling, and falling softly on the living and the dead. And the City of the Beeg Shoulders can return to its invernal regimen of Bulls, Bears and stuffed pizza, oh my.
Does this mean that the Cubs are the Cubs again?
Credentials which cause players to respect his input: first ballot hall of famer who failed to be voted in unanimously .
Opinion of others: AL manager of the year in 2017 but not 2018 or 2016.
Openness to recent tactical trends in baseball: Twins in the top quarter in the utilization of shifts, the opener strategy etc., but several other teams rank a head of them.
Marketing value: Born and raised in Minnesota, same high school as Super Joe, but only played the last part of his career with the Twins and had the gall to have his best years with the Eastern Minnesota team.
I was surprised about Molitor. Who do they go after? Seems weird to me but what do I know.
Oh reet, because it’s really, really hard to find guys who want to be big league managers anymore, innit?
How about a woman for a change?
We need a Becky Hammon in baseball. I hope that day will come soon.
I just hope they don’t do the usual manager-go-round. Kinda sick of the same old guys. I’d be interested in seeing what a younger man who is black, Asian, or Latino could do.
Jennie Finch! Jennie Finch! Actually I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but someday it will be possible. Maybe next month at the rate things are accelerating. But more realistically for now, I’d like to see the Jays give Russell Martin a chance to be a player-manager.
Happy: did you know Triceratops was one of the very last large dinosaurs to die orf after the K/T meteorite hit? Grazers, prolly they could make do with dead grasses for a while. But they most likely weren’t paisley purple.
Are their fossils to be found in the area of any great lakes port we can think of?
Nope. You’re lucky to have Petoskey stones.
I think it was the 10th when we crashed. It was almost midnight and it seemed like the game wasn’t close to over. As our home is not-Cubs, we were rooting for the Rockies. We were pleasantly surprised by the results this am. Between a crappy review and the creative strike zone, we are nervous about post-season officiating. There were some nice plays though, and some high stakes moments — so a good start to the playoffs.
Alas, it has only taken a season for A-Rod and the Pig to make Jessica dumberer. She hyperboles with the best of them now. What a lousy broadcast team. No one agrees with your bunt call, Rodriguez.
I wanted to segregate what follows from my prior post with its mention of the Unmentionable Name (The Ark! It falls! It falls!). One game won’t kill a lot of column inches even with all the weirdness that went on. Ergo, I figgered you might be passingly innerested in the breakfast I cooked up today: garlic pesto baked eggs.
I took a bunch of nice fat organic garlic cloves, one organic pastured egg, a half cup of olive oil and a hearty dash of coarse-ground black pepper and whizzed them together in a mini-blender, then packed in a couple of generous handfuls of Italian basil, a single splash of Tabasco sauce and whizzed it again until smooth and uniformly anole-skin green.
Next, I sauteed a quarter cup of diced onions in a bit of olive oil, and when the onions were translucent took a hefty double handful of coarsely shredded baby kale mix (in this case kale, red chard and spinach) and sauteed them together until the greens were wilted.
Then, I poured the pesto and egg mix over the greens and stirred them loosely together with my beloved wooden spoon and scooped about a quarter of a cupfull into each of three six ounce ramekins. I broke one egg into each ramekin and topped each one with the remaining mix of pesto and greens, finally topping each one with a heaping tablespoon of fresh grated imported Parmesan cheese.
I baked them at 360 degrees for fifteen minutes, until the egg whites turned visibly white and the yolks glazed over, then turned orf the heat for another five minutes. Then I finished ’em up with a five minute blast from the upper broiler, or just until the cheese browned slightly.
How good were they when the yolks broke under the impact of my elegant long spoon and ran together with the greens, pesto and garlic? Heh, heh….M F K Fischer lives!
Baked egg? A White Castel Sunshine Slider (with Ortega sliced jalapenos and horseradish sauce). Thanks for getting the wheels turning.
I once saw a fly land on a White Castle hamburger and die.
Tom Ricketts penned support of Judge Kavanaugh, he who foamed at the mouth accusing the Clinton family of a conspiracy against him. Man, I wish I had all the time Bill and Hillary have to secretly pull all the world’s strings. Also funny how Bill became way more powerful after he stopped being President, you’d think he wouldn’t have as much pull. But oh well.
Conspiracy theorist! Just what we need in the Supremes!
Clearly, they are illuminati. They’re not only hiding in Kavanaugh’s closet and under his bed. They’re hiding under yours and mine too!
My Illuminati are more efficient. They hid microcams in several places in my room, my truck and inside my brain. Then they told the NSA to “keep an eye on that one (me).” So they can just kick back and not worry, sorta like Bill and Hitlery.
Baer is basically the HBT equivalent of gaslighting.
Gore didn’t help, but he wasn’t there if Maddon didn’t put him there.
Baer is a jackass, wear your banning with pride.
six nothing Yankees in the sixth. my son is off his rocker break your heart. I’m going to your tube for some nineties Stones cry myself to sleep music.