MLB History

It was the kind of game that fans in 2010 have seen many times.

New York's most beloved team, the New York Mets, a last place team on Sept. 1 and the Cincinnati Reds were playing the first game of the 1973 National League playoffs at Riverfront Stadium.

Tom Seaver, the league's best pitcher who had been nursing a "tired" arm for almost one month, was opposed by the Reds' Jack Billingham, who had been ill the day before and told the press that he was probably dehydrated.

After watching Cliff Lee dominate my Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS, and dominate, well, everybody, throughout the playoffs last season, people are starting to rank him as one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all time.  The only way to compare them is to put Lee up against the greatest postseason pitcher of all time, Sandy Koufax.

Let's take a quick look at the pitching lines.

A few days ago, my friend and I had a debate over the HOF credentials of Fred McGriff.  I said- the guy nearly had 500 Home Runs, that's gotta get him in.  My friend countered back- almost, but not 500.  

When the argument shifted to Mike Mussina, he stood up for him.  He said how Mussina almost had 300 wins.  I countered- almost, but not 300.  

Touche.

In honor of one of the best pitching matchups in NLCS history between the Phillies and Giants starting Saturday night, here are 10 matchups that had the same amount of hype that Halladay-Lincecum, Oswalt-Cain and Hamels-Sanchez provide.

In the past 20 years, many matchups have gotten hype. The most memorable hype for a series had to have been in 2001 when the Diamondbacks and Braves battled it out with five future Hall of Famers,

This list focuses only on individual game pitching matchups.

Alright, the NLCS field is all set. It is going to be the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants. The uniforms have been washed, the shoes have been shined, let's throw on our Roy Halladay replica jerseys and get to the ballpark.

We're going to be playing some championship baseball in just . . . five days?!?!?!

Uh, okay.

(Psst: who's in charge of scheduling around here? Oh right; the networks.)

The 1980's cannot be thirty years in the past already, can they?

Surely there's been some mistake; say it ain't so, Peter Ueberroth.  Please tell me Cheers and The Cosby Show are still atop the ratings, Bruce Springsteen is still The Boss, and Major League Baseball still has 26 teams, four divisions, no interleague play and no wild card.  Or if you can't say all that, at least pretend for the sake of argument.

A dream about spiders, cowboy boots, a DVD, a phone book, food, a tanning both or an iron have been the cause for an injury in the MLB. They weren't too severe, but here are seven of the weirdest injuries ever to happen in the MLB. 

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Three of this year's division series seem all but over. 

The Yankees, Phillies, and Rangers lead their best of five division series by two games to none.  Only a late inning rally by the Atlanta Braves prevented all four baseball series from being two games to none affairs and feeling all but over.

Baseball has been playing five game series since 1969.  In that year baseball added four new teams and expanded each league to two divisions. 

Roy Halladay's no-hitter in Game 1 of the NLDS is without question the greatest starting performance in Phillies' playoff history. But it certainly isn't the only great one.

Here are the 10 best postseason starting pitching performances in Phillies' history.

Keep in mind that the following rankings are not just based on the excellence of the pitching line itself, but also on the relative magnitude of the game in which the performance came (basically, World Series performances counts for extra).

Enjoy this trip through Phillies' history!

Last night's postseason no-hitter by Phillies ace Roy Halladay kind of gets us thinking that maybe people are right when they say that this is the year of the pitcher.  This stands as the sixth no-hitter of the year,  including two perfect games.

There have even been more than just no-hitters and perfect games.  There have been near no-hitters, one-hitters, complete game shutouts, things like that.  Here I am going to recognize some of the games in this season that have hinted that this year may truly be the "year of the pitcher".