Offishial News: Sandy Alcantara and Dillon Head sightings

RIP, Fernando. He closed the doors on my Expos in 1981, pitching very well on the wet, cold "Blue" Monday in Montréal's Olympic Stadium. Of course, Rick Monday's 9th-inning home run off my all-time favorite, Steve Rogers, is the recurring nightmare for fans of Nos Amours, but Fernando got LA there in the pivotal NLCS after an amazing rookie regular season. 

Unrest in St. Louis. The "best fans in baseball" are howling over the apparent planned tepid response to their disappointing 2024. Goldschmidt is gone and ownership is signaling there are no big FA plans. Perhaps Brown and Jay will make up the difference. Oh, every once in a while, I like to see some of the more "self-assured" fan bases set back a little. Their " We are the Cardinals" schtick needs some whittling down for a decade or so. 

I am not interested in a World Series with the two evil empires.  I did watch the 2019 Series with a buddy who's a huge Nationals fan. Otherwise, meh. Here, though, it is the worst possible matchup. One that MLB and the networks mutually salivate over is, ipso facto, a stink bomb for the rest of us. Accordingly, I pray for a Noah's Ark-esque forty days and forty nights of rain emblematic of this abomination of a World Series and the manifestation of the Divine Will for a thorough cleansing of MLB. In any case, we'll get that reckoning with the next CBA, n'est-ce pas? LOL. 

An outlier comment as I watch the Dominican League: I figure that MLB uniforms will feature the NASCAR-like advertisement array in a few years. The sleeve patch sponsorship was an obvious opening of Pandora's Box for many of us. Advertising on the batting helmets, already. In a few short years, the snorts of Boomer hyperbolism will be hollow as our MLB uniforms resemble soccer shirts. A Middle Eastern airline versus a software company on Saturday afternoon. Progress, huh?

On 10/23/2024 at 9:48 AM, Ely Sussman said:

I am biased in this case by having much of my family based in New York, but distancing myself as much as possible from that, I think it's great to finally have a meeting between the teams who posted the best regular season records in their respective leagues. That rarely happens anymore with such an expanded playoff field.

In addition to outspending their opponents, both teams can point to smart trades and player development practices that were pivotable to getting them over the hump. The quality of competition is going to be outstanding.

Reasonable points, of course. I like underdogs - always rooting against the favorites. There's an element I can appreciate in a chalk faceoff between top single competitors that is undeniably romanticized, but I can't translate it to teams.  It brings to mind Secretariat and Sham, Ali and Frazier, and some big dog final-hole golf tournament matchups.  I can understand your points, even enjoying such a matchup that doesn't include one's favorite team. You know, my intolerance is probably because baseball is the only Big Four I watch anymore. The interest ebbing away there, too, little by little, which makes me testy! Enjoy the Series. I wish I could. Ciao.