Baseball

I bet you can remember your first kiss. It’s likely that you can remember your first car. And I’m sure you can remember your first drink, right? …right?

How about that second kiss? What car did you drive after your first lemon? And after that first drink, well, it’s all down hill from there.

The point is familiarity begins to set in. That first kiss created a feeling unlike anything you had ever felt before. The first time you revved your engine etched a memory forever in your consciousness. And the first drink, actually, never mind.

JC over at Sabernomics hits us with the Hitter and Pitcher projections from The Bill James Handbook 2010.

The current story about ESPN analyst Steve Phillips making the rounds is a prime example of what’s truly wrong with this society, and how web sites purporting to report news and instead dealing in little more than salacious gossip pollute the Internet like so much toxic waste.

It’s not about what Phillips did.

Rather about the hysteria in following a story where one thing is inescapably apparent to anyone with a single  brain cell firing.

You practically can feel the loving wealth, spreading around the streets of Philly. At a point when Philly cheese steaks aren’t as tasty or lovable as the Philadelphia Phillies, the rabid town has again gone nuts, not over the Eagles or Michael Vick’s craze, not over the Sixers season-opener next week, and definitely not over the Flyers.

This segment is taking forever, but I’m having a good time so I’m going to stick with it.  Here we go, part five.

The fighting Philadelphia Phillies eliminated the Dodgers in the NLCS 4 Games to 1 and await the winner of the Yankees and Angels in the ALCS.

The Yankees currently lead the Angels 3-1 and could wrap it up tonight. Let’s not count the Angels out just yet, but with some some heartbreaking extra inning defeats to the Yankees early in the series, I think the Angels can not recover.

So that leaves us with the heavyweight showdown between the Yankees and the Phillies in the World Series. Let’s look at some of the points of interest for the possible upcoming World Series.  

Professional baseball is at a crossroads. I truly believe that. I don't have any data and no one has conducted a study on the sport that I know of. It's just a gut feeling.

We're learning that Manny Acta and Terry Francona's bench coach Brad Mills are among the finalists for the new Houston Astros managerial job.

Article originally posted on www.stadiumjourney.com

Many long-time White Sox fans continue to refer to the park as Comiskey, but when U.S. Cellular Field is referred to as “The Cell,” it conjures up images of a dark and foreboding fortress.  This image does not do the park justice.  It is a wide open structure with great sight lines and large concourses that will be enjoyed by most fans of the great sport of baseball.

FANFARE Score: 25

There were four references to the 2004 ALCS in one hour of SportsCenter this morning. Your friends who are Red Sox fans have joked about the series on Facebook and Twitter since Tuesday. If you step outside your home or office, there's probably a single-engine plane flying overhead with a "2004 ALCS: You Blew It" message tailing behind.

You had to expect this. This is the Yankees' first opportunity to clinch an American League pennant since the team's infamous collapse against the Red Sox five Octobers ago. It would be weird if it didn't come up.