American baseball

[Chicago1]

As many of you know, I am a one-eyed Chicago Cubs fan. It's been great that since I've been stuck back home here a little longer than anticipated, that the Cubs have been in fantastic form so far this season. Unfortunately as I write this, the Cubs have just slipped to only 1/2 game in front of Houston in the National League Central Division.

Now that my Doggies are through for the season, at least I still have the Cubs to make my life more interesting for the next two months. A World Series appearance would be a dream come true. I can't even fathom what I'd feel like if we won it all! It's been a LONG time since 1908!

GO CUBBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[carb70]

Chicago1, if by some miracle the Cubs do make the World Series it looks like they will have to play Seattle. I don't know a lot about baseball but why is Seattle so dominant this year?. Especially considering over the last 2 years they have lost 2 superstars in Rodriguez and Griffey Jr.

 

[The Hippie]

Carb, I wouldn't be so sure about Seattle being in the WS. As much as I hate them, those Damn Yankees always seem to save their best for the post-seaon. It would be good to see a couple of new teams in it, although I'd like to see my team, the Braves get another crack at it.

 

[carb70]

Being a Yankee fan myself, I couldn't agree with you more Hippie when you say the Yankees save their best form for the post season. But this year I can see Seattle and Oakland being major threats to the Yankees changes. Especially considering Seattle is 16 games clear of the Yankees at this stage of the season and Oakland has just had a 3-0 clean sweep of the 3 game series against the Yankees on the weekend. The queston has to be asked is the hunger still there for the Yanks considering they have won 3 of the last 4 World Series.

 

[Same Old's]

Originally posted by Chicago1
As many of you know, I am a one-eyed Chicago Cubs fan. It's been great that since I've been stuck back home here a little longer than anticipated, that the Cubs have been in fantastic form so far this season. Unfortunately as I write this, the Cubs have just slipped to only 1/2 game in front of Houston in the National League Central Division.

Now that my Doggies are through for the season, at least I still have the Cubs to make my life more interesting for the next two months. A World Series appearance would be a dream come true. I can't even fathom what I'd feel like if we won it all! It's been a LONG time since 1908!

GO CUBBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could you imagine if both the Cubs and Red Sox made it to the World Series? Na, I wouldn't bet on it this year.

 

[Chicago1]

The Cubs just lost to the Houston Astros 9-5 and are now 1/2 game behind them. Woe is me.

 

[carb70]

Originally posted by Chicago1
The Cubs just lost to the Houston Astros 9-5 and are now 1/2 game behind them. Woe is me.

Sorry to hear about that Chicago1. Does this mean you World Series dream is over.

 

[Chicago1]

Originally posted by carb70


Sorry to hear about that Chicago1. Does this mean you World Series dream is over.

No way!!! The fat lady ain't singing yet! We still have 54 games to go in the regular season.

Carb, I just posted a message on a Seattle Mariners board asking about the big improvement with the Mariners without Rodriguez and Griffey Jr. I only returned to the states last year, so I haven't a great understanding as to the recent history of the clubs. Without cable TV and a computer in Australia I didn't keep up much with American sports. I'll let you know what the Seattle fans post when someone replies to my message. It's a little after 11pm here now so I don't know how quickly replies will come in. I'll let you know.

 

[carb70]

Originally posted by Chicago1


No way!!! The fat lady ain't singing yet! We still have 54 games to go in the regular season.

Carb, I just posted a message on a Seattle Mariners board asking about the big improvement with the Mariners without Rodriguez and Griffey Jr. I only returned to the states last year, so I haven't a great understanding as to the recent history of the clubs. Without cable TV and a computer in Australia I didn't keep up much with American sports. I'll let you know what the Seattle fans post when someone replies to my message. It's a little after 11pm here now so I don't know how quickly replies will come in. I'll let you know.

Thanks for that Chicago, It will interesting to see what they say. Maybe it's comes back to the old saying that a champion team will always beat a team of champions.

Anyway as far as your Cubs go. I think their season is over because I saw Oprah signing on TV the other day and she would have to be the most famous fat lady in Chicago.

Anyway it would be good for baseball to see a team like the Cubs in the World Series.

 

[Chicago1]

Carb,
Seem to have lost my message on the AOL Seattle board. Left another on another AOL site a few minutes ago. I like Same Old's idea about a Cubs/Red Sox World Series! That would be similar to a Bulldogs/ St Kilda Grand Final in '97 if it would have happened. Those **** Crows! ( I'm sure you'll agree with me on that one!)

And leave Oprah alone! In fact I just turned on a rerun of her show from this morning. We get double Oprah here in Chicago! Or is that quadruple??? Today's program was on women who take sabbaticals from their families. Yeah, like my mom could have done that with five kids to raise! LOL

 

[Chicago1]

carb.......Posted by Seattle Mariner fans :
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"Better pitching, better defense, and they have to execute as a team offesively. This means moving runners over, hit and run, not striking out. I think Griffey and Arod either poped up or stuck out way too much especialy in critical situations. This year they seem to make things happen, especially with team speed, and execution of the hit and run."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>This means moving runners over, hit and run, not striking out. I think
>Griffey and Arod either poped up or stuck out way too much especialy in
>critical situations.

"i cant totally agree with this comment.. they came up a lot of times and blasted that game winning hr or a game winning single.. rather then point to those players, i think the team has benefited from overall balance of the team.. Almost everyone in the lineup has been patient with pitches and some key additions aka boone, sasaki, suzuki, nelson, olerud plugged in some defensive holes as well as one of our major weakness b4 in the
bullpen"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll take a look tomorrow to see if there are any more responses.

 

[QT]

Originally posted by Chicago1
Those **** Crows! ( I'm sure you'll agree with me on that one!)

Jealous?? loser

 

[Chicago1]

Originally posted by QT



Jealous?? loser

You'll get yours, QT!

Now go and finish your homework........ PRONTO!

 

[QT]

Originally posted by Chicago1


You'll get yours, QT!

Now go and finish your homework........ PRONTO!

How bout your Bulldogs finishing a season once in a while

 

[Chicago1]

Originally posted by QT


How bout your Bulldogs finishing a season once in a while

You young people today have no respect for your teachers!

Now get off your computer and do your homework! Surely you must have an English essay to complete! Let me know if you need any help!

Gotta go..... it's almost 3.15am here and I need my sleep or else I'll be crabbier than usual tomorrow! Talk to ya later, QT.

 

[oh_my_hat]

I can't say that I have a MLB team but if you put a gun to my head I would say the Atlanta Braves mainly because they have been successful for quite a long period of time and they seem to have had less personnel changes than most of the other teams so you can actually follow a group of players and not cheer for 'the clothes' as Jerry Seinfeld so cleverly noted.

 

[The Hippie]

Chicago1, I would imagine the reason the Mariners have improved as a team after Griffey and A Rod left would be that the room left under the cap allowed them to get some better pitching and and some more offense, (Boone, Ichiro, Olerud,etc), plus they would have got a lot of cash for Griffey and Rodriguez so they could splash out a little more. That just a guess, though. It might not be strictly the case.

 

[Chicago1]

Hippie, That's what I think, too. It seems to me that a strong bullpen is what makes or breaks a club nowadays. When I last lived here I seem to remember more starting pitchers completing games. Don't know if that's really the case, but it appears so to me. I also think the comment by the Mariner fan about Arod and Griffey Jr striking out in critical situations is quite valid. The Mariners seem to produce the hit and run to great advantage this year from the little I've seen of them. Being an AL team, unless I'm forced to watch the White Sox on TV, I haven't seen many AL games.

Just checked this morning's paper and Suzuki and Boone are in the top five for batting percentage, runs and hits. Boone also leads the AL in RBI. FIVE Mariner pitchers are in the top seven in the AL for winning percentage : Abbott 12-2, Sele 12-3, Garcia 13-4 and Moyer 13-5! Gosh, after reading those stats I'm not too confident about the Cubbies going all the way!

 

[Chicago1]

Cubs back in first place!

The Cubs have just beaten the Houston Astros 3-1 to return to their rightful position of First Place in the National League Central Division. Sammy Sosa hit a homer (number 43) in the 7th inning which turned out to be the winning run. Deo gratias.

 

[Same Old's]

Originally posted by The Hippie
Chicago1, I would imagine the reason the Mariners have improved as a team after Griffey and A Rod left would be that the room left under the cap allowed them to get some better pitching and and some more offense, (Boone, Ichiro, Olerud,etc), plus they would have got a lot of cash for Griffey and Rodriguez so they could splash out a little more. That just a guess, though. It might not be strictly the case.

Just to inform you there is no salary cap in Baseball. Plus, I'm pretty sure that they got nothing for Griffey and Rodriguez since they were both free agents.

I guess the Mariners have a lot of depth so that might be one of the for their success so far this season. However, who's to say that would not have been even better with Griffey and Rodreguez in the team.

 

[carb70]

Originally posted by Same Old's


I guess the Mariners have a lot of depth so that might be one of the for their success so far this season.

I think you have hit the nail on the head, Same Old's. I think Seattle has good depth especially with their pitching. I have just looked up the teams from the recent All Star game and they had 8 players in that game. 4 of those players were starters in John Olerud 1st base, Bret Boone 2nd base, Edgar Martinez designated hitter and Ichiro Suzuki outfield. they also had 3 pitchers in that team.

So it appears even though they lost those 2 superstars they still apper to be a pretty good team with a bit of talent.

 

[The Hippie]

If that's the case, Same Old's, I wonder where they've got there money from. They must have got a good backer from somewhere, the Mariners had alway's been one of the smaller market clubs that stuggled to match the buying power of the Yanks, Dodgers, Braves etc. They are certainly proving they are the best team in baseball at the minute. Good on them, anyway. I hope they can pull it off.

While we're on the Mariners, did anybody happen to see their game against the Indians I think it was a week or so ago, on pay TV? The Mariners jumped them and led 12 to 2 after 2 or 3 innings and loked like they were cruising, then about the 7th inning, the Indians started to come back at them and ended up winning 15 to 14 in extra innings. It was the biggest comeback in something like a century in the Majors and a very exciting game.
I thought that might have started a fall for the M's, but they've put it behind them well and have gone 6-2 since the loss, so they haven't suffered a let down. That's a sign of a good side.

 

[Chicago1]

Cubs beat Astros 5-1!!!

The Cubs have just beaten the Houston Astros 5-1 to go 1 and 1/2 games up in the NL Central Division. Jon Lieber had a 3 hitter and retired the last 18 batters in a row. This series has shown the tremendous fighting character of the Cubs. After losing the first game AND losing the NLC lead to the Astros, to come back as they did proves we're the real thing in '01!

If only the Doggies would have shown the same G & D against the Magpies last weekend!

 

[CURVE]

Dudes, forget the Cubs, forget the Mariners, the sun is finally gonna shine Atlanta way this season.

I hope

 

[The Hippie]

Originally posted by DEVO
Dudes, forget the Cubs, forget the Mariners, the sun is finally gonna shine Atlanta way this season.

I hope

As a Braves man, Devo, I hope they can too, but they need to start hitting better. Their pitching is a good as any, just can't score enough runs. Watched the game today on ESPN, they had chances in the 4th and 5th innings, 2 on and none out both innings and could only get one run in, that won't win enough games to win a Series. And they are going to have to win their division to make the playoffs, I don't think they can make it as a wildcard.

Have you noticed the similarties between the Braves and North, Devo? They have both been struggling clubs for years and then had a great run of success at about the same time. That's when I started following them, when they went from last to first and made the playoffs, could see the parallels with the Roos and it's still happening. If the Braves don't make the playoffs, it will be the first time in about 10 years, so there is a lot of similarity.