And the winners are ….

not the teams I picked. Well not all of them.

The Detroit Tigers were my pick and the Orioles swept them. I also picked the Dodgers and the Cardinals beat them, 3-1. On the other and, the Royals swept the Angels. Giants and Nationals, who I didn’t really care about, went 3-1, with the Giants advancing.

Next up the championship series. And the teams in it are, Kansas City Royals versus the Baltimore Orioles (Series starts 10-10). In the national league it’s the San Francisco Giants vs the Saint Louis Cardinals (Series starts 10-11).

My picks are as follows, Royals over Orioles. I don’t want the Royals to win as much as I want the Orioles to lose. Giants over Cardinals. Again I want the Cardinals to lose more than I want the Giants to win, the Cardinals were supposed to beat the Red Sox last year and failed. So they need to suffer defeat again.

After this series it will be the World Series. If things go the way I want, it’ll be a Royals vs Giants competition. I’m looking forward to it.

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The Post-season begins now

The ALDS starts tonight with games between the Tigers vs Orioles (at Oriole Park, Baltimore MD) and the Royals vs Angels (at Angel Stadium, Anaheim, CA). My picks are Tigers for reasons already stated and Royals. I picked Royals for the Wild Card and am sticking with them.

The NLDS starts Friday, October 3 with the Giants vs Nationals ( at Nationals Park, Washington DC) and Cardinals vs Dodgers (at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles CA). I had already picked the Dodgers and for the NL wild card I picked the Pirates who just happened to get shut out by Bumgarner. A rather amazing feat when you consider he also batted (NL = no DH). I am once again conflicted with my pick. The thing is I don’t follow the NL and have no particular likes or dislikes concerning either of these teams. The Nationals also have an amazing pitcher who in the very last game of the regular season pitched a no-hitter. Even though I said I would pick, I think for this game I will lean back, put my feet up, pop open a cold one and just enjoy watching baseball.

This series is a best of 5. I’ll be back when one team wins 3 if not before.

8 P.M. Sunday games are the best, not really

This is game number four, I forgot to write about the Boston game, well forgot is not the correct word. I kept putting it off, Saturday night I though “I really should write about the last game I went to before I go to the next game.” Then I fell asleep before the game Sunday and had no time. So let me just say, the game was great, the fans pissed me off which is what normally happens.

~~ Yankees 3, Angels 2 ~~

The seat I had for this game was pretty good, on the main level, a little past the visitor’s dugout, nice view, up under the roof, which I didn’t really need since it was a night game, but it was somewhat protected from the wind so I wasn’t freezing. Of course the temperatures weren’t that bad. Not like opening week, when I went to 3 games and swore I wasn’t going to another game until July when it was warm. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a discount, when I got offered a deal I jumped at it, didn’t look at the game time though, thinking it would be a day game. ESPN I hate you.

I’ve developed a bit of a routine when I go to the games, first I get a hot sausage on a gluten-free roll, then I walk to my seat, then turn around and walk toward the seats behind home plate and I keep going till I get to the stairs heading to the bleachers, then turn around and come back. Normally I come back to my seat but this time I decided to stop in the store at the top of the stairs from the Great Hall. I decided to just snap pictures to kill time and give me something to write about, since I am so good at game analysis the real writers beg me not to write about the game in my blog ….. yes that’s a lie. You can click on any of the pictures to get a bigger image.

This little bear is really cute, I didn’t feel it but it looks really soft, perfect for a baby and I will give fans under 12 months of age a pass on wearing team colors. But once you are able to walk by yourself it’s not acceptable. Of course when it comes to pink team apparel, some are worse than others and while I would personally not buy this for any child of mine, I don’t really object to a little pink hat like this. Some hats however are an abomination.

Hot pink with tiger stripes. I don’t even know what to say about this, it’s wrong on so many levels. Pink is bad enough but tiger strips? Not only the wrong colors, but you can’t even see the logo! Don’t even get me started on the pink bats. They are wiffle bats, I hope I got that right, but with a pink cover with hearts on them. All for sale at Yankee Stadium, I suppose other stadiums sell similar items, but I thought it was rather clever of the Yankees to sell baseball cards in a packet with the Angels on the label when they were playing the Angels. Maybe that wasn’t intentional. Also they have the fat bands with Tanaka on them, which I almost bought. But I had told myself before the game I was only buying food, no souvenirs this time.

After all this wandering and photography it was time to sit, so I did, and so did some other people and had me seriously annoyed by the second inning. I will never understand people who come to the game and then proceed to not watch it. Maybe I am being unfair because they had just got there and obviously needed time to catch up with each other, maybe they should have got to the stadium before the game started in that case. Long story short, I got up to walk around. For quite a while then I came back. I was kind of hoping they would be gone, instead they had moved over and one of them was sitting in my seat. I came in the row and sat down in the next seat. So the man in my seat said, someone is sitting there, I told him, well you’re in my seat. This lead to a discussion of seats and people sitting in others seats and blah blah blah, which lead to me once again leaving my seat.

This time I didn’t go far, I just waited around until they left the seats and swooped in and got mine. Only to be told by the man on the other side, that he thought someone was sitting there. So I told HIM, this is my seat, I paid for it. At which point he laughed and said, “Well he told me I was sitting in his seat.” Surprisingly, they never came back to claim their seats. The rest of the game went by in relative peace, except for one really loud fan that kept yelling “SUPER-SIZE ME!” No idea what that means. There was an Angels fan with a rally monkey, at which point I took my hat off and turned it around, “Rally Hat” (it’s only weird if it doesn’t work). Then the Yankees were behind, then they tied it and my battery was dying so I plugged it in to charge it and the Yankees got another run, on a walk, a walk, a passed ball and a wild pitch. With the Yankees only one run ahead, I had to stay where I was, couldn’t risk moving. David Robertson got his 4th save of the season. Cue Frank Sinatra, run to the ladies room before heading to the train.

Tanaka walked more batters during this game than he has walked in all his previous starts. Can I blame the Angels fan with the monkey for that? However, he struck out 11, his ERA is 2.27 and his WHIP is 0.093, in other words, even when he is having an off night, he is still having a good night. Yankees were behind when he left the game so Warren gets the win.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 25
Yankees 15-10 (0.600)

Still the best

The Yankees may be in second place in the AL East but to me they are still the best. The fact that last week they were in third place and this week are in second place and the team that was in second place is now in fourth place shows you just why the saying is: “It’s a long season.” These are Yankees we are talking about not the Mets.

Right now I am waiting for the game to start at 4:00 p.m., yes it is a West coast game. The Yankees have won two of three of a four game series. Depending on what happens today they could win or split. Since Boston (first place) is winning I would really like the Yankees to WIN TODAY!

After this series the Yankees head south to play the Athletics then the Angels. I haven’t been watching the games because the Yankees were losing every time I watched. I am willing to make this sacrifice for my team, since I can still get my baseball fix by watching college ball, for a little while.

So while we’re waiting for today’s game, some interesting things from yesterday in baseball.

First up the Yankees, Andy Pettitte got career win number 250, on the same day his son was drafted by the Yankees. The Yankees also drafted Paul O’Neill’s nephew, Michigan outfielder Michael O’Neill, in the third round.

There were three games with free baseball: Texas vs. Toronto, 3-4(Toronto) 18 innings; Miami vs. NYM, 2-1(Miami) 20 innings; Minnesota vs. Washington, 4-3(Minnesota) 11 innings (amateurs).

In other sports, Nadal Captures His Eighth French Open Title (tennis ~ YAWN), the only excitement there was a protester jumping on the court with a flare. Palace Malice a long Shot wins the 145th Belmont Stakes. The no triple crown winner drought continues.

6 hrs, 32 minutes, 597 pitches

After 19 innings the A’s won the game with a walk off home run. Everyone was excited and happy. Brandon Moss, who hit the home run got two pies in the face, one was self inflicted, and a Gatorade shower. If you wondering why I am writing about Oakland and not the Yankees this was the day that the Astros shut out the Yankees, oh wait they didn’t shut them out they Yankees scored 1 run to the Stros 9.

When I was watching this video, which is not embedded, this a link that will take you to the MLB website, I had two thoughts and I thought I would share them, since my thoughts about the other baseball game are not printable. The first one was, I felt the shot of the Angels pitcher walking off the mound needed a ‘sad trombone‘ and the second thought was, Brandon Moss is kind of short.

Then I watched the video again and realized he is not really that short, I was just looking at him being hugged by a much taller person.

The plan for today is ….

Or actually what I hope happens today is the Yankees win (of course!) and Texas wins, and Baltimore loses.

We shall see if that actually happens. The Yankees don’t have to do an exact repeat of last night, Andy just need to be dominant, and Ricky needs to not be good.

Frustration

Before the game last night, I was thinking I should write a post about how the Yankees swept the A’s, I was even going to use my little broom gif. However it was beastly hot and I really didn’t want to sit with my laptop making my lap hotter. So I thought I would type it after the game. In the first inning the Yankees scored 3 runs, the Angels came back and scored 4. On the surface that may not seem too bad, but the Yankees got 3 runs because the Angles committed 2 errors. The Angels got 4 runs without any errors by the Yankees. It was a sloppy inning, Phil did not have very good stuff.

At lot of times Phil gets very low run support, on May 22, a game I was at, the Yankees scored 3 runs. It was enough because Phil held the Royals to 2 runs. Last night he gave up 7 runs. The Yankees scored 8 runs, tying it up in the 7th inning. Then the Angels got a home-run in the bottom of the ninth to win it. Mark Trumbo hit it off Cory Wade. But I don’t blame Cory, as he said:

“He got paid to do just what he did with it — hit it out of the ballpark,” Wade said. “If I throw that same pitch 10 more times, he’s going to hit it out 10 more times. It was a pretty bad pitch.”

That gives the Angels 7 wins in a row, and breaks the Yankees winning streak. Tonight Andy pitches, hopefully he can shut down the Angels.

In the third inning Nick and Curtis collided. I confess, I laughed, sorry guys. They both got up, the ball went into Swish’s glove and then bounced out when they collided. Curtis was up first and scrambling after the ball.

Granderson and Swisher collide

Over the slump

The Yankees and I have both been in a slump, there is no reason, I just haven’t really felt like writing here. As you can see I haven’t even written about the games I have been to, my last post was on May 6. I went to the game on Thursday, May 10 by myself and ended sitting next to a creeper. I didn’t write about it because I didn’t want that to dominate the post. I was so annoyed and yet I’m sure that while I was still annoyed he had completely forgotten he had even talked to me. I had bought those tickets because I was buying tickets from a new source so Kasey and I could go to the game Saturday, May 19.

We already had tickets for the next Tuesday, so I don’t know why she wanted to go Saturday. It turned out to be a good thing because Tuesday she was sick and couldn’t go. Kasey left Saturday because she had a nail appointment. Yankees were behind and as soon as she left they started scoring runs. Not enough it turned out, but it was kind of fun to watch. Tuesday I asked Col to come since Kasey couldn’t make it, “PHIL IS PITCHING!” She was thrilled I had thought to offer her the extra ticket, she wanted to see Phil pitch. And he got the win bringing his record to 4-5. “He won for you,” I teased her.

Then Wednesday Sarah want to go to the game, that was a pretty amazing game, one time when A-Rod hit a foul, I said “Alex, that way!” and pointed to Monument Park. He responded by hitting the ball into the bleachers, not Monument Park, brat. Then he went on to hit another home run next at bat. The way the Yankees just kept scoring runs.

Now the Yankees are out of their slump, hopefully I’m out of mine too.

The next opening day

The season opener was in Tampa on Good Friday, April 6. The home opener was the next Friday, April 13 against the Angels, NY Yankees 5, Angels 0. As I have mentioned, to anyone that will listen, I was not at the game and I desperately wanted to go, I wanted to go so bad that up to the last possible minute I kept checking StubHub™ hoping a ticket would magically appear for under $100. Every time I looked up tickets, I noticed that tickets for Sunday, which was also Jackie Robinson Day were really cheap, probably because the game was at 8:00pm on Sunday. I bought two tickets, it was cheaper to get two then one, go figure. Jackie Robinson Day was going to be my opening day.

Now I had two tickets and had to think of who did I want to go with me? I put a post on this blog, I casually mentioned it on Twitter, then I saw a tweep that I’ve met a few time, that has a few times tweeted me to “Come on Down to _____ for some drinks”, so I just asked her want to go to the game Sunday? I have an extra ticket. She was thrilled, it was her birthday weekend and she loves the Yankees. In particular Phil Hughes, she wore his shirt, she squealed when his picture came up on the Jumb-o-tron.

It was also calendar night so we got this nice calendar. It has coupons from subway and the Yankees in it are: April: Derek Jeter; May: Mariano Rivera (taken the day he got his 602nd save); June: Alex Rodriguez (he looks like he just hit a home run, he’s got that happy look on his face and relaxed); July: CC Sabathia; August: Robinson Cano; September: Mark Teixeira (I probably should tear September off and send it to Kasey); October: Nick Swisher (not Mr. October but hey, my sweet Nicky! Who two years in a row hit a walk off home run on my birthday. The next year and this year, no home game on my birthday, so no walk-off); November: Curtis Granderson; December: Russell Martin (without his face mask. Very important); January: Ivan Nova; February: David Robertson (who so coolly in this game got the last out with the bases loaded {thank you Rafe you bum}); March: Brett Gardner.

~~ Yankees 11, Angels 5 ~~

Everyone was wearing 42 today, before the game when C and I were eating pizza and drinking beer at the pizza place around the corner from the stadium, I wondered why they were showing an old Yankee game, I mean #42 was pitching, but the uniforms were the wrong color …… Then during the game she showed me a tweet, “I just turned on the Yankee game and couldn’t figure out why Mariano was pitching in the 5th inning.” So I wasn’t the only one confused.

The #42 that was pitching was Ivan Nova, despite having a cold he maintained his winning streak. 6 IP, 4 ER, 8 Ks and his ERA is now down to 4.15 (He ended spring training with an ERA over 8. I guess he needs the adrenalin of regular season). Derek Jeter and Raul Ibanez hit home runs. Then in the 7th inning Rafael comes in, gets two out and then walks two, the bases are loaded, I was screaming at him “You are not David Robertson! You cannot load the bases! If you lose this game for Ivan Nova I will kick your ass!” Since Joe didn’t want to see me get in trouble he called in D-Rob. When Boone came in for the 9th inning C pouted, she wanted to see Mo, but since it wasn’t a save situation no Mo, Boone pitched a scoreless 9th. Good game.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Opening day in the Bronx

Pre-game is on, turning TV on and going to make lunch.

Thunderous applause for Mariano Rivera.

#2 Derek Jeter (and the crowd goes crazy!) ROB(Raw-ob)-INSON CANO! Nicky! (MY sweet Nicky) Hi Russell, (Prrrr)

Ladies and Gentlemen, the 2012 NEW YORK YANKEES!

Bottom 1: Alex with a stolen base, Mark walks, Bases loaded, 3 run double for MY SWEET NICKY!! ♡

Bottom 2: Russell with a lead off single. Then he takes 2nd, then 3rd, I ♡ Russell Martin! (Prrrr) Jeter grounds out, Gardner was SAFE!

Top 3: Aybar is out, but its not called, UMPS SUCK!

Bottom 3: A BOMB FOR A-Rod, leads off the inning with a HR.

Yankees 4, Angels 0

Bottom 4: 6-4-3 double play! Robinson Cano is good at baseball. Cano is the BEST 2nd baseman in baseball.

Yankees lead 5-0. Their pitcher has ‘settled down’, but they are still scoreless!

Yankees 5 (Curtis hit a grand homerun), Angels 0

Kuroda has retired the last 7 hitters, he has settled down too.

New pitcher for the Angels. J. Isringhausen

8 innings pitched by Kuroda! And its a shut out!!

New pitcher for the Angels, D. Carpenter

Kuroda is out in the 9th inning, effing amazing outing!! Shut-out game so far.

And D-Rob shuts them down.