Couple of games today. First, the Red Sox will beat Justin Verlander in Detroit. Later, the Cards will take a 3-1 NLCS lead in Los Angeles.

Least that’s how I see it.

Never mind me: Let’s Go Base-ball!

Benjamin Hoffman on David Ortiz, Derek Jeter, Carlos Beltran, Alex Rodriguez and clutch hitting.

[Photo Credit: Jeff Curry/ USA TODAY Sports]

Dodgers look to stay alive. They host the Cards tonight in Los Angeles.

Let’s Go Base-Ball.

[Photo Via: The Minimalisto]

Tough loss for the Tigers. They had the Sox where they wanted them. They were poised to take a 2-0 lead. But they failed.

A split on the road is good. Verlander in Game 3 is good. Losing last night: rough.

[Photo Credit: Charlie Riedel/AP]

Let’s Go Ti-Gers!

[Picture Via: This Isn’t Happiness]

Couple of games today–we’ll be rooting for the visitors in both.

Let’s Go Base-ball!

[Photo Via: It’s a Long Season]

Game 1 of the NLCS. Dodgers vs. the Cards.

Let’s Go Base-ball!

[Photo Credit: Nick Gerber]

That’s the old term for a fastball pitcher who always has a lethal curve ball. Yeah, the home plate umpire had a generous strike zone last night, but Justin Verlander was a load. What an impressive performance.

I liked the A’s chances against the Red Sox more than I like the Tigers’ chances, but so be it:

Let’s Go Tigers.

For our man Ken:

Let’s Go A’s!

[Photo Via: It’s a Long Season]

Never mind nuthin’:

Let’s Go Buc-cos!

Say the Pirates lose today, what’s worse the pain Pirates fans will feel or the pain Braves fans feel right now? Or the pain that A’s fans would feel should they lose tomorrow night. The Pirates are the Cinderella team of the 2013 playoffs. But the Braves and A’s keep making the playoffs only to get knocked out before they reach the Whirled Serious.

Last night I IM’d with an A’s fan and he said the Game 4 loss would haunt him for the rest of the winter. Unless, I said, they win Game 5.

He said, “The A’s never win Game 5.”

And what could I say to that? Other than I hope they prove him wrong.

[Photo Credit: Rob Carr/Getty Images]

Couple of Game 4’s today in the ALDS. I say the Tigers force a Game 5 and the Red Sox finish off the Rays.

Hope I’m wrong, of course, on both counts.

Never mind those nerves:

Let’s Go Base-Ball!

[Image Credit: Churchman73; Mike Sudal/WSJ]

There are 23 large iron lamps affixed to the ceiling. The tints of neon light they throw down into the indoor batting cage, a concrete room tucked deep into the guts of Yankee Stadium, vary according to when they were last smashed out by errant balls and replaced. Under these lights, largely out of sight, Bam Bam (or “Sir Bam Bam” – but we’ll get to that later) is at the pinnacle of the game that promised much, disappointed more, and then came through for him after all. Across the street, the much brighter lights under which he and all that he was supposed to be receded and then disappeared have been leveled, along with the rest of the old Yankee Stadium.

From up close, the blunt crack of a Major Leaguer striking a ball with a bat – even on a tee – will startle almost anyone every single time. Not Bam Bam. He doesn’t even flinch anymore. He watches, and then places yet another ball onto the batting tee for his latest charge to smack into the netting that encases them both.

It has been 24 years since he first arrived at Yankee Stadium; 20 since the Yankees pawned their phenom off to Japan. This is his first time back, the culmination of one of the most interesting journeys in baseball, a bridge from the place baseball was to where it seems headed. His family is in town from Curacao on one of the last days of a season long since lost, with another loss a full seven hours away. But Bam Bam, who wore World Series championship rings on both his middle fingers before changing into a pair of San Francisco Giants shorts and a T-shirt, is mending the mechanical defect in the swing of a 27-year-old backup catcher five at-bats – one hit – into his first big-league call-up.

That’s the beginning of Leander Schaerlaeckens’ fine portrait of Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens. Head on over the SB Nation Longform and dig the rest of it.

The Dodgers are the first team to advance to the championship series. Over at ESPN, Howard Bryant has a long piece on the rebuilding of a once-proud franchise:

For Johnson, being in the ownership circle is new in baseball, but not new personally. Johnson sold both his equity stakes in Starbucks Coffee and in the Lakers at least in part to finance joining Guggenheim’s bid. Internally, Johnson did not want to be patronized, the athlete, especially the African-American athlete, who lends his name to a venture and then has little say in its operation. In one of his first meetings with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Johnson convinced the chain to remake its food menu at the Harlem restaurants because while the African-American clientele would purchase coffee like any other consumer, “Black people,” Johnson told Schultz, “don’t eat scones.” It was a small but shrewd example of the different lens Johnson brought to the table.

“I want to show these athletes and entertainers that we can be owners,” Johnson said. “Now, going in with Stan and Mark and Todd has been a great experience, but I want them to respect me, too. And the way you get that respect is to write a check. And not to say they wouldn’t if I didn’t, but the real respect comes from when you’ve got skin in the game. And that’s what it’s been for all my partnerships. Howard Schultz [said] if I didn’t write the check, he wasn’t going to do that deal with Starbucks. Go down the line. [Late Lakers owner] Dr. [Jerry] Buss told me, ‘Hey, I love you like a son, but you have to write a check.’

“When you have to write a $50 million check, you have to say, ‘OK, is the investment going to pay off? Is it the right move? Is it the right decision?’ ” Johnson said. “To me, your name is not enough. And I’ll say it because first of all I think that fans react different. The players act different. The players when they’re alone are saying, ‘What? Magic wrote a check?’ So they understand that, and it’s also different for me because I want to make sure I make it right, make sure it goes the way of our strategy. I want to be part of the strategy. I want to be a part of everything. I’ve never not written a check. I want to be invested in the deal. I want everyone to look at me as a real owner and not just some guy who put his name on it.”

Rainy Monday in New York but today gives four playoff games. A’s and the Tigers up first. Then Pirates, Cards. Tonight gives the Rays trying to extend their season and later, the Dodgers try to move on to the NLCS.

Have at it, folks.

Let’s Go Base-ball.

[Photo Credit:  Jared Wickerham/Getty Images North America]

If you don’t follow It’s a Long Season, no better time to start than now.

[Photo Credit:  Justin K. Aller/Getty Images North America]

Four games today on Funski Friday.

Have at it.

Let’s Go Base-ball!

[Photo Via: It’s a Long Season]

Ah, 2004, when the Yanks decided not to sign Carlos Beltran. It was a move we talked about over and again in this space. And so yesterday, there was Beltran, still playing well, hitting a home run against AJ Burnett, who is still doing his thing.  Burnett was a mess in Game 1 of the NLDS and while I felt bad for him and the Pirates fans I also felt relieved that he was someone else’s headache.

[Photo Credit: Elsa/Getty Images North America]

The National League plays today. Cards vs. the Pirates, Braves vs. the Dodgers.

Enjoy it, y’all and:

Let’s Go Base-ball!

[Painting by Aleksander Balos]

I’ll be rooting for the winner of tonight’s game vs. Boston so in one way I don’t care who wins. Ideally, whichever team matches up better against the Sox, right? But Hell, I’m pulling for the Indians. Nineteen-forty-eight? C’mon. Gotta go for the Dream.

[Photo Via: Seconds from Disaster]