Baseball

When you lose, there's always a goat, always someone to blame.

Remember when the Cubs turned on fan Steve Bartman for stopping Moises Alou from catching that foul ball in Game Six of the NLCS against the Marlins in 2003?

Remember when Alex Rodriguez was slammed for being unable to perform in the playoffs when he batted just .159 over 13 divisional championship games against the Angels, Tigers and Indians in 2005, 2006 and 2007?

Remember Bill Buckner?

Reports are flying out of Arizona, where the Chicago Cubs are having their first winter management meetings with new owner Tom Ricketts, that apparently 2009 hasn't bottomed out just yet.

Apparently, the team's only All Star might be a question mark to begin the 2010 season.

That's right folks, it appears that Ted Lilly had arthroscopic surgery on his left (pitching) shoulder yesterday.  The Cubs aren't releasing a lot of details, obviously, but they did say they hope Lilly's ready "within the month of April."

Hollywood would be hard pressed to write a better script than the one we have today in real life.

The New York Yankees go after their 27th World Title in the spanking brand new $1.2 billion stadium replica of the House That Ruth Built. They will attempt this monumental feat on the back of 37-year old Andy Pettitte, who has won more postseason games than anyone else in the history of the sport.

He was without a doubt the most dominant, feared, respected and admired pitcher in all of baseball during the steroid-era. He was the one pitcher that you felt the need to watch every single time he took to the mound.

For seven years, Pedro Martinez was Boston.

Akinori Iwamura isn't going to make the Pirates a winning baseball team.

He's a nice player and a viable starting second baseman, provided he is healthy. His bat plays well at the position—his .354 career on-base percentage is actually significantly better than Freddy Sanchez', although he does not have as much gap power—and he has an average glove for a second baseman.

The Houston Astros have named Jamie Quirk their new bullpen coach, according to senior director of digital media Alyson Footer.

Quirk was the bench coach for the Colorado Rockies from 2003-08 before joining the Cincinnati Reds last season as a scout.

“Jamie has a wealth of experience and comes highly recommended,” Astros general manager Ed Wade told Footer on Wednesday, Nov. 4. “He had a long playing career and spent 15 seasons as a Major League coach. He’s another solid addition to our staff.”

Ernest Lawrence Thayer's classic poem "Casey at the Bat" is perhaps the greatest baseball story of all time. Period.

The only possible criticism one could make of the story is the lack of personality exhibited by the titular titan, Casey.

The story is much improved when Casey is replaced with a more colorful character, like Milton Bradley (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/248205).

Therefore, I humbly submit a story of one of the greatest characters in Major League Baseball: Manny Ramirez.

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How ironic is it that the capital of our great nation, the brick and mortar embodiment of “Of the People, By the People and For the People,” is just just now permeating the myopic brains of Redskins fans fed up with Daniel Snyder?

The great thing about the postseason, and the World Series in particular, is that redemption is always just around the corner.

Alex Rodriguez knows all about that. He entered last month as a playoff pariah—his October failures as big a part of his identity as his three MVP awards.

It took just 14 games (and 18 RBI) to change all that.

Playoff baseball is convenient like that: It's a one-stop shop for re-shaping your legacy.

There's been much talk of who might start a possible game seven for Philadelphia should we get to that point.

But before that can ever happen, they must first focus on getting a win tonight to stay alive in the World Series.  If they can do that, then the first six games will be meaningless and it'll be mano y mano for the title of World Champions.

The goal in any series is clear: to win the next game.  It's the only thing you have to do.  It doesn't matter if you're up 3-0 or down 0-3, if you win the game in front of you, you'll take home the trophy.