There were times last year when Cubs’ fans would have killed for technical difficulties serious enough to shut up Chip Caray and to keep us from being able to watch the Cubs dogged pursuit of third place.
OK, we say that in jest, because had an important Cubs’ game been unavailable due to technical difficulties, someone would have burned the offending programming “provider” to the ground. Last night the White Sox played their biggest game of the year. A win would give them a 4.5 game lead with only 10 to play. A loss would cut the lead to 2.5 and assure that the Indians left town after gaining ground.
The Cubs were up in Milwaukee doing whatever it is that two out of the race teams do in September (probably braid each other’s hair, make cookies and watch Carlos Lee and Carlos Zambrano smack each other for fun). Then, about twenty after seven, after Mark Prior had again thrown 70 pitches in a first inning, ComcastSports Net Plus went black. So, we do what all Cubs’ fans do in times of crisis. We stared at the TV and drooled on ourselves. Then, we turned to Comcast Sports Net to see if the Sox had fallen behind the Indians yet. It was black.
All we had for a couple hours was a black screen with a little bluish green “No signal” in the upper left hand corner.
Eventually DirecTV put up a banner that read that there were technical problems (no kidding) and you could watch the Cubs on Fox Sports North with Daron Sutton and Bill Schroeder. But the Sox? No such luck.
It was frustrating for those of us who shelled out big bucks for the MLB Extra Innings package back in March, because after a while they were smart enough to switch from the Comcast SportsNet feed to the Fox Sports Ohio one, but then…they blacked it out!
How much sense does that make?
“Gee, nobody can see the game because Comcast SportsNet Chicago has gone dead, we’d better switch to the Indians’ feed.”
This is a good thing.
“Oops, we’d better black it out to Illinois, Indiana and parts of Wisconsin and Iowa so Comcast SportsNets’ territorial rights are protected. They’ll enjoy the black screen some more.”
Guh.
I was looking forward to John Sanders and Mike Hegan calling the action instead of Hawk. But I’d have settled for Hawk over nothing.
Not that it was all that tragic. “Lost” was on and a JetBlue plane was landing on CNN with its front landing gear locked sideways. Could Larry King have been more confused?
Plus, anytime Sox fans are upset, it’s fun. So in the end it worked out fine. The feed came back on for cable, though not DirecTV, just in time for Travis Hafner to pants the Sox…again.
Check out this series for Hafner.
Seven hits in 12 at bats. Ten (TEN!) RBI. Every hit drove in a run. Three homers.
After the game, Jon Garland was in the clubhouse with sunglasses on the back of his head (don’t ask) saying, “I don’t think Hafner killed us. I think Aaron Boone did.”
I think they both did, Jonny.
You can not stress how important that game was for the Sox. A win would have swung two games towards them with just over a week to go. It would have made the Indians’ task of getting the lead down to less than three before next weekend almost impossible. Instead, the lead is 2.5 with the Tribe going to Kansas City for four games and Johan Santana driving to US Comiskular today.
The Twins are a shell of the team they started the season as. Torii Hunter’s gone, Shannon Stewart is gone, Brad Radke’s hurt. But Sox killer Michael Cuddyer warmed up for the weekend by kicking the A’s in the nuts yesterday, Joe Mauer is heating up and Jason Tyner is in the lineup! OK, that’s not all that encouraging about Tyner. He was bad five years ago as a Met.
Sox fans are saying things like, “Well, we don’t even need to beat out the Indians, if we tie we win the tiebreaker because we have already won the season series.”
This is something to be happy about, but it’s only partially true. The tiebreaker only comes into play if the Sox and Indians are tied for the division championship and their record is good enough for the Wild Card. The tiebreaker won’t get you into the playoffs, it will only determine who you play in the first round. For example, in 2001 after the Cubs flirted with first place forever, the Cardinals and Astros finished tied for first in the NL Central at 93-69. The Astros had won the season series over the Cardinals nine games to seven. So the Astros won the NL Central and played Atlanta in the first round and lost in three games, with Gabor Bako hitting a two run homer in the third game for the Braves. Yikes.
The Cardinals were the Wild Card team and lost to Arizona in five games in a series highlighed by a Craig Counsell game winning homer in game three, Scott Rolen wrecking his shoulder the first time in a collision with tiny little Alex Cintron in game two, and Tony Womack winning game five with a hit.
The Cardinals incorrectly have a banner in the Big Urinal Cake that says 2001 NL Central Champions. They didn’t win the division that year.
Should the Indians and White Sox tie for the division and with, say, Boston for the Wild Card, do the White Sox automatically just get to go to the playoffs while Cleveland and Boston duke it out? No. Incredibly, here is how they settle it.
Say the White Sox, the Red Sox and the Indians all finish 97-65. The White Sox and Indians will play on Monday, October 3 at Jacobs Field (the Indians won the coin flip already held). Now this game is actually game 163 of the season, so the loser will be 97-66 and finish .5 game behind the Red Sox.
Read that again. If the Indians, White Sox and the second place finisher in the AL East all tie, the AL East team (either the Yankees or Red Sox) is in, and the division champions have to play each other for a playoff spot.
This could also work to the benefit of the Indians and White Sox, of course. Say the Sox hold off the Indians, win the Central and Cleveland ties with Boston and the Yankees. Cleveland’s in. By the same process, New York and Boston will play and the loser will finish .5 game behind the Indians.
What a ludicrous way to end a season.
Remember when the Sox had that game rained out in Boston on a Sunday and didn’t want to make it up on Labor Day? The MLB office wouldn’t let them schedule it as an “if needed” game on October 3 because they need that day (and potentially the next even though they have playoff games scheduled to start on the fourth) for tiebreakers. The Sox wanted to just forfeit. If they had, they’d only have a two game lead right now, because they were “forced” to go to Boston on Labor Day and won.
How great would it be right now if these “blue collar White Sox” had been arrogant enough to follow through on their plan to forfeit a “meaningless” game?
Am I still a hero??
“Now this game is actually game 163 of the season, so the loser will be 97-66 and finish .5 game behind the Red Sox. ”
ESPN reported that this has been changed for this year. Cleveland and Chicago play. Winner takes the division. Loser plays the Red Sox for the Wild Card.
Yes Crede, you still suck. Bad.
Why does everyone look at me like they want to kill me when I go into the locker rooms? I didn’t mess with the teams chemistry this year! Aren’t they thankfull?
“Choke-arama festival”
“Choke-apalooza”
“It’sssss Choke-time!”
“Diet Choke”
etc
Q: what is the Sux favorite vegetable?
A: arti-CHOKE
bada-bin-bada-ban
September
chOke?
eXcellent
We’re not choking…we’ve, um…we’ve just hit a rough patch, is all. Yeah, a rough patch, that’s it. This is NOT indicative of how we’ll play in playoff games…um…yeah…
We are running out of excuses! Hey Dusty, can we use some of yours?
Andy, I busted my shoulder in 2002. In 2001, I was still Larry Bowa’s whipping boy in Philly.
#11, is that photo before or after Gladiator switched the specimen cups?
I’m a snitch bitch! I have no pride. I obviously lack testicular fortitude per my Viagra commercials. I am just a pussy waiting to get my ass handed to me!
It’s one thing to bang your dull teammate’s decent-looking wife, but when you combine that with with Palmeiro’s weasel-like attempt to wriggle off the hook by actually playing the oldest–for a nine year old–trick in the book by shifting the blame to his teammate, well this guy is really proven to be one of the most spineless scumbags to ever put on a big-league uniform.
Raffy is why I never trust a man with a mustache. Except Ditka.
Hey UC! What about me?
“The Sox wanted to just forfeit… How great would it be right now if these “blue collar White Sox†had been arrogant enough to follow through on their plan to forfeit a “meaningless†game?”
This myth was cleared up in every newspaper about a month ago. The NY dumbass reported it wrong in the first place. Apparently you’re the last to know.
That was last night at Comiskular!!!
The only thing the NY papers got wrong was that the Sox never “voted” to forfeit. They had their player rep talk to the league office and he was told it wouldn’t be an option anyway.
The Sox never thought it would matter. Well, it matters now.
I love how everybody rips the Sox for not trading for me. I haven’t played since September 4 and I’ll have yet another season ending surgery this week.
Screw you, Dolan. My interviews are timeless. Just look at some of the questions I asked last night:
-How many pilots are on the airplane?
-Who is the pilot talking to right now?
-Now that the plane has landed, will the airport come pick the people up from the runway?
Wait a sec….sorry, Andy. I have become a rambling assbag and need to retire.
Didn’t Junior injure himself just after the waiver trade deadline on the 31st of August? I know it would have done the Sox no good, but after the 31st, he couldn’t have been traded for anyway.
Hafner should replace my fat, gap-toothed ass in the MVP discussion because I don’t play a lick of defense. Actually people should just stop having the discussion and give the damn thing to A-Rod, the best player in the AL.
Don’t worry Papi, I don’t play defense either.
Somebody asked Bush last night about Roe v. Wade.
He said “I don’t care. I don’t care HOW people got out of New Orleans. They just needed to get out.”
Tribe!!!
Larry King’s got nothing on me, when it comes to being a senile rambling assbag who needs to retire.
What, no one wants to give me some props for my pitching performance today? While you all circle jerk for “The Franchise”, you’ll surely let me know the last time he threw a 4-hit shutout for 8 innings and only needed 85 pitches to do it, right?
Prior needs 85 pitches to get through the first two innings anymore. What a has-been.
Hey, I homered again tonight, I’m the big hero, again!!! Woot woot for me, yay!! Bobby Jenks? Um, not so much. 1.5 up on Cleveland, 3 up on Boston.
Why is Ozzie taking the express vator up the Sears Tower?
Hey, you like how I tried to screw my teammate? Usually, I just screw teammates’ wives!