Or, as it's known in Ohio, football season

Volquez wild, need to take advantage

Shit.

Yeesh

Modammit

That was the first inning I've seen since Wednesday. Fucking Bollocks!

That was disappointing. Hope we don't sputter on offense for the rest of the game.

Tanaka's splitter is dropping too much. He can't keep it up in the strike zone. Or maybe that's what he's trying to do, dunno.

AB, I do not find the end of summer melancholy. Since my childhood I've thought of "back-to-school" time as the exciting time of the year. Maybe Rosh Hashanah has something to do with it, not sure.

And whaddya mean by "never mind the barbecue"??? Maaaaan...

Judge's verdict: home run!

a verdict!

[12] great minds

[13] need more verdicts! :)

Nice that he didn't waste it on a solo, too.

[15] killed the rally though.

Gritner scores!

hoo yah!

Hooray for Jacoby!

[16[ Or did it???

The Judge makes his own law, son.

And RIYank makes up his own numeral reference convention, apparently. None of your bourgeois right square brackets for me!

[21[ the revolution starts now!

ok, what's with Sanchez suddenly chasing pitches?

Gary might be starting to believe the hype. Some struggle is good long term, so he learns.

[24] noooooooo! just kidding. I mean I agree. I just want him to stop doing that!

Wow, Tanaka just looks great.

Tanaka looks good so far.

Seamus is trying to make me look overly enthusiastic.

RIYank is way too enthusiastic. Agreed?

nice. didi!

And I missed 3 runs due to dinner. I'll just show myself out. Yay, Didi!

MUST SCORE. DO NOT WASTE.

Castro is such a copy cat. Do something original!

I have to admit, I'm glad it's McCann up, because I would not want to see a sacrifice in this situation.

Ah, a hit is better! Even that measly kind.

Can I order up a salami?

Productive.

Hm, the third baseman is playing very close, but the rest of the infield is back for the DP. Interesting.

Well, that'll get it done! Wow, I don't think I've ever seen three runners advance on a sac fly!

Nice job Headley. I have to admit. I didn't think that was going anywhere close to that deep.

I'll take it. Run roh, grounds crew

[9] RIYank, summer here goes on until mid-late Sept. Got 30C and clean skies here today but still with humidity..but I am sad for Sept 1 anyways. Means baseball season is almost done and no more lounging at little japanese drinking dens, sitting outside with endless beers and snacks.

Volquez' shoes look like sneakers rather than cleats?

[40] You can't drink beer in the autumn? Japan is weird.

It will suck if rain cuts Tanaka's start short. Remember last time that happened? Ugh.

[40] Weird for many, many reasons but not that! Just such a 'summery' thing to do, with the very noisy cicadas and sweltering heat. Not as fun in the Fall.

Tanaka, could he have an outside CYA chance?

Hm, well, bases loaded nobody out should yield more than one run.
On the other hand, we'd love to get this game going faster.

Too many RISP left.

Yeah, that's true about summer and beer.
But, fall is better for wine, and the cooler weather rejuvenates me. Tomatoes and corn give way to apples and pears. The days are shorter, but the bugs are gone and the trees catch fire. Fall is my favorite season.

Oh, beautiful. I didn't think Headley had a prayer of getting that out.

[45] Fall in NYC was awesome as a kid. And fun now too watching 'It's The Great Pumpkin..' with the Jazz Kids. Unfortuneatly it's rush hour level crowds when you going to see the 'Fall Colors' here in the Tokyo Metro area..

The Royales don't seem like a very good team and yet..

That's an ouchie for Hedley

Awwwwww. A base runner.

[47] Mmmmmm.

Huh, Tanaka went from utterly unhittable to hit-hard in very short order.

Uh. Except that YouTube link doesn't play "Autumn in New York" at all! It's mislabeled! Sorry. :-(

[50] Now you're talking!

I jinxed 田中選手 with my AL CYA talk..

Wait, I go to refill my drink and there's a run?

The fall of Cain

Cutting back to Nats/phils. Scherzer has 11 ks after 8, Nats up 3-2.

3 hits for Ells!

GARY swinging at everything

The US Open is on.

Yesterday I was listening to sportstalk radio during my afternoon commute. Someone wondered if you have to be an asshole to be a great -- as in one of the all-time greats -- athlete. So, they thought no, but the counterexamples are very, very rare. They mentioned Jeter (which is kind of cool considering it's New England radio), and someone said Tim Duncan.

But nobody thought of Serena Williams, who I think is the most striking opposition to that stereotype. I mean, she's arguably arguably dominating her sport more thoroughly than anybody we've seen dominate theirs, maybe in my whole lifetime, and although she's obviously super-competitive, absolutely everyone who knows her likes her.

(I also thought of Kareem, by the way.)

[58] there's a fine line between being confident in your ability and being an asshole. Many cross it often. Don't think Mo ever did. Or Gehrig, but he was slightly before my time

[58] Interesting. I think to dominate at that level, especially in sports, you have to have zero sentimentality on the field/court. I would imagine turning that off is kind of hard, hence the off-field assholism? Serena is amazing in many ways, regardless.

I'm sure they would have agreed about Mo if they'd thought of him.
Someone did mention Nicklaus, but, come on. A-T-H-L-E-T-E.

Shit. We need more than 4 runs

I think in a lot of cases, the training kind of destroys a significant part of an athlete's basic human personality. Anyone read Andre Agassi's autobiography?

Oof. This lead does not feel safe at all.

Buchholz out of the bullpen in Fenway coughs up what we may hope is the winning run in the eighth.

[63] Does that bio go into detail on Brooke Sheilds 'indoor sports'? :)

MJ is always the prime example right? Someone seemingly unable to ever turn off the competitive instinct.

I love a good live f-bomb.

Time for a couple of more runs.

[65] Brooke Shields, bah. He's married to Steffi Graf!

Yeah, MJ. I don't know if he was truly an asshole, but he did not seem like he would have been fun to hang out with. Same with Larry, and I suspect Magic too although he always seemed to have a sunnier disposition.
Babe Ruth. Ty Cobb. Ted Williams.

I've heard Mantle was cool, I dunno.

Getting tired, night all

Hey, Brett! Beautiful. Wow, nice throw, nice play.

Serena had that one run in with the line or chair judge. That is the lone mistake I know. She's flat out amazing at tennis.

Holy cow. Another great play by Brett. Damn.

Goddamn. Double star inning.

The Gritner inning!

You're right, I remember that heated disagreement with the chair. But that's on the court.

The thing is, everyone roots for her, everywhere. All over the US of course, but also Paris, Wimbledon, Melbourne, South America, everywhere. And, if you think about it, she has nearly single-handedly wiped out a generation or two of up-and-coming young tennis players. We've been waiting for the next great kid to come along and dethrone Serena... and waiting... and waiting.

Well, we got five innings in! Probably they'll continue later, but maybe much later.
I'm outa here. See youse all.

Guess it's raining

alrighty. Yep, i'm out of here too. Enjoy your evenings. I'll check back later.

[65] Now that would be a helluva threesome. Miles and miles of legs. Be still my heart. But the weird part is shawty's the boy.

I usedta love watching Steffi play. Her and Monica. Oh, did I have huge crush on Monica.

Ooops. Ref in [79] should be [68]. ごめん!

[72]. I liked Seles and Monica. I've stopped paying attention since Sharapova got suspended. Lol..

I meant Stefi and Seles. Whoops.

[81] I know. Right? ;>)

Anybody still watching? Yanks are up to their old RISP tricks.

They are begging the Royals to win. Fuck!

Austin looks like he has a chaw of loose leaf in his mug. He and Sanchez are bucking the trend.

[85] Yes this has all the markings of a giveaway game.

Chase made a quick throw. Holeeeshit.

Lead off walk. Always a good idea.

4-3. Top 8. Zzzzzzz... Go Yankees! Zzzzzzz...

Trying hard to stay awake.

[84] Back from grub, surprised the game is still on!

I call a decision from the Judge next inning..a WINNING decision..

jesus judge that was terrible.

yes!

That was bizarre but i'll take the run any day. Now the sheriff just needs to secure this and make it easy for our bullpen.

Can't believe I'm still watching. Maybe took a little nap...

Who the heck is pitching?

Ugly

Uglier