Phillies, H2O DrOWNS the Reds
Posted: October 11, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010, ALCS, ALDS, Atlanta, Braves, Fox, Giants, H2O, Minnesota, New York, NLCS, NLDS, Philadelphia, phillies, post season, Rangers, Rays, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, TBS, Texas, Twins, Umpires, World Series, Yankees 9 CommentsCole Hamels, part 3 of the Philadelphia acclaimed H2O trio, took
the mound for the Phillies in what was to be the final game of their 2010 NLDS
series against the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds were countering with Johnny Cueto,
who faced Philadelphia back in June and July, he got the win at home in June,
but had a no decision at CBP in July.
The game started as it finished a game of quality pitching, it
was a duel, the Reds starter and bullpen vs. Cole Hamels. It didn’t seem to
matter what sort of voodoo the commentators tried to inflict on Hamels he was
unwavering in his bid to at least go 9 innings even if it wasn’t a no hitter, it
was to be just a complete game shut out, insert heavy amount of sarcasm
in ‘just’.
The Reds had a hiccup in the first allowing the Phillies to get
the first run on the board, but then it wasn’t till the 5th, when….
….Chase Utley drove a ball deep for the only other scoring
play in the game. Some think it was that he wanted to silence the boo’s, I am
sure it played a part in his need to hit a homer, I think he just plays the game
to win.
The game stayed this way through the remaining innings, which
gave the commentators opportunity for hope that maybe the Reds would come back.
It was not to be, but they looked for every opportunity to attack the Phillies,
especially in the 9th inning when the Reds bullpen produced….
….the hard throwing Chapman. The commentators again chose to
place him on a pedestal, which meant he was in much need of oxygen. After being
surprised that Ibanez hit a ball off him, even though it was caught, they
explained that they really wanted to see….
….Carlos Ruiz face him, as they laugh at his first swing, then
more laughter as he watched a pitch go by, then silence as Chooch slapped a 105
mph fastball down the right field line for a base hit. Then as a way of saving
face they tried to offer explanation as to why Charlie should pull Hamels from
the game, as Cole stood in to face Chapman’s fast ball. The commentators thought
Chapman may hit Cole, ‘WHAT?’ really, but it may have been a ploy to allow them
to interject once more the Utley HBP in game 2. Once again the commentators
should keep opinions to themselves as Cole slapped a 101 mph fast ball into left
center, albeit caught in the outfield.
The bottom of the 9th saw….
….Hamels close out his own game for his longest postseason
outing and thus proving that H2O was too much for the Reds to handle, so it’s
onto the NLCS for the 3rd straight year… well done Philadelphia Phillies….
Yankees headed to ALCS ….
Posted: October 10, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010, ALCS, ALDS, Atlanta, Braves, Fox, Giants, H2O, Minnesota, New York, NLCS, NLDS, Philadelphia, phillies, post season, Rangers, Rays, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, TBS, Texas, Twins, Umpires, World Series, Yankees 4 CommentsThe
road to the LCS takes another step today, with at least two teams hanging by a
thread, hanging onto that glimmer of hope that they can turn it around and win
the remaining games of the LDS series they are in.
The Twins lost all hope yesterday, when once again the Yankees
crushed their hopes of getting beyond the first round of the post season. That
is what happens in all sports when you are involved in a knock out style
tournament, the losing team is ousted and the winning team moves on. Lets face
it last year everyone claimed the Yankees high dollar line up gave them the edge
and eventually gave them the ultimate team status in baseball, World Champions
2009. This year after a few tweaks in the off season, they still maintain the
highest salary, but they aren’t clear cut favorites, in fact a month ago they
weren’t even favored to reach the post season. So to all those Twins fans and
fans of clubs that didn’t reach the post season, this year any claims that the
Yankees brought and paid for the wins are unfounded, they won the Twins series
with quality baseball. Well done Yankees for clinching a spot in the ALCS
again.
No I haven’t turned into a Yankees fan, I still hate the smirk
on Swishers face whenever he seems to be on camera, I still have no intention of
ever giving A-Rod a free pass, but along with those things I also know that
Jeter is a true ball player, that Phil Hughes will be a legit ‘Ace’ one day and
that Granderson always seems like he’s had way to much caffeine. As I said not a
Yankees fan, but a baseball fan, almost every team has players like these, ones
with similar attributes.
The Tampa Bay Rays, shocked the crowd in Texas as they hit their
way to a win in the Rangers home ball park. This was supposed to be a
celebratory home coming for the Rangers, but the Tampa Bay Rays have been one of
the strongest road teams all season long, ending the regular season with the
best record on the road, so it shouldn’t have been a shock to anyone that they
were able to win an all or nothing game on the road.
Today is a crowded day for baseball, with 3 games scheduled, the
Rays v. Rangers at 1 PM ET, Giants v. Braves at 4:30 PM ET and finally the
Phillies v. Reds at 8 PM ET. The Rays need a win to even the series and take it
back to Tampa, the Rangers need a win to clinch and meet the Yankees in the ALCS.
The Giants or Braves need to win just to get the series lead and put the other
team on a must win Monday. The Phillies need to win to clinch their 3rd NLCS
playoff spot, where as the Reds need to win just to stay alive in the post
season.
Moments in time:
October 10th, 1582 If you lived in Italy, Spain, Portugal or
Poland this day did not exist.
In 1971 the biggest souvenir from Great Britain was purchased
by an American Tourist. London Bridge was a tourist attraction, a working bridge
that spanned the river Thames in London, this day in 1971 it was sold, then
dismantled and shipped to Arizona where it was rebuilt and opened in Lake Havasu
City.
GO PHILLIES….
Phillies Win, Reds Lose, TBS Sucks ….
Posted: October 9, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010, Atlanta, Braves, Fox, Giants, H2O, Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, phillies, post season, Rangers, Rays, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, TBS, Texas, Twins, Umpires, World Series, Yankees 3 CommentsIt
was the ‘O’ from H2O that took the mound on Friday night for the Phillies facing
off against the Reds in game 2 of this NLDS match up. The stage had been set by
Halladay’s amazing no hitter on Wednesday, the anticipation of what could game 2
give us to rival game 1.
Roy Oswalt was not at his best Friday night, far from it in
fact, giving up a homer in the first at bat seemed to set the stage for his
performance, it certainly gave the TBS commentators added reason to praise the
Reds.
It’s bad enough that TBS and Fox don’t give us local
commentators, but when they give you competitors commentators it’s just a slap
in the face to fans. TBS thought it fitting to put Brewers and Braves
commentators in the booth for game 2, and it was clear that they were very
anti-Philadelphia, right from the introductions to the final pitch.
Things seemed to be going the Reds way, thus the commentators
were able to praise them and tell us all the stats that made the Reds the better
team, especially after Utley made a couple of errors, we heard how the Reds and
Padres had the least errors, etc etc.
Then
came the 7th inning, if these commentators had put Chapman on any higher pedestal
he would have needed oxygen for the altitude. They told us how he went through
an opposing team with 8 pitches in an inning, told us how his fast ball was
un-hittable. Told us his idol as he was growing up was Contreras, whom had just
shut down the Reds 1,2,3 in the top of the 7th.
There is no question this kid has some good stuff, but did the
Reds throw him into the fire too early, did the overwhelming atmosphere at
Citizens Bank Park effect him any, were the Reds fielders expecting no one to
hit a ball. Who knows, but this type of thing could effect a young players
mental attitude going into his next appearance.
It all started with the first hitter he saw, Chase Utley and of
course the commentators who had attacked Utley earlier for his 2 errors, were
quick to attack him again, when his actions indicated….
….he was hit by the 101 mph fast ball that was up and
in, the umpire awarded him first base. It wasn’t enough that they were accusing
Utley of cheating, they then called his action ‘Jeter Like’. Way to go, attack
a guy that isn’t even playing in this game.
It didn’t stop there, Utley got to 2nd on a ground ball by Werth,
the fact that TBS had lousy camera angles for plays that normally are clear to
the camera, or they just didn’t want to show the truth in what happened, but
again they accused Utley of being out.
Still not the end of it, first pitch swinging, Rollins hit a
line drive into right field where the Reds players where sleeping, thus driving
in Utley and Werth, the commentators chose to accuse Utley of not touching the
base has he rounded third, it didn’t matter that the replay clearly showed his
foot hit the bag, they still accused him of being a long way from third.
The bottom line the Phillies scored on some fielding errors, but
more importantly the raving of Chapman didn’t seem to affect the Phillies who
hit him like any other pitcher, Ibanez and Sweeney both hit his fastball, which
forced Baker to remove him from the game.
We now have to wait till Sunday to see how the 3rd phase of H2O
performs.
In San Francisco the Giants allowed one to get way from
them by giving up 3 runs in the 8th and then the game loser in the 11th, the
Braves take 1-1 series tie back to Turner Field where they were almost
unbeatable during the season.
We have ALDS games today, which could make the ALCS picture
clearer, however for now 3 postseason teams hang on to a life line…
A moment in time: October 9th, 1919 the Cincinnati
Reds clinched the World Series title surrounding the Chicago White Sox or ‘Black
Sox’ as they were to be known for the part they played in the fixing of the
games. All involved players were banned for life, which also included ‘Shoeless’
Joe Jackson, even though any participation he may or may not have had was and is
under controversy.
GO PHILLIES….
Rays and Twins on Post Season Life Support ….
Posted: October 8, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010, Atlanta, Braves, Giants, H2O, Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, phillies, post season, Rangers, Rays, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, Texas, Twins, Umpires, World Series, Yankees 4 CommentsThursday was a day off for the Phillies, a day to reflect on the
near perfecto by Halladay, a day for the grounds crew to perfect their grooming
of…
…Citizens Bank Park in time for game 2 of the NLDS between the
Phillies and Reds on Friday.
Thursday afternoon saw the Tampa Bay Rays, picked apart by a
Texas Rangers pitcher, the Rays went down 6-0 and now must head to Texas down by
2 games, knowing that every game is a life line to the post season, one more
loss and it’s back to booking tee times instead of next round travel
arrangements.
The Minnesota Twins played game 2 of their ALDS series against
the Yankees in their new home. It seems they may be psychologically hampered by
the previous loses in post season to the Yankees, because it doesn’t seem to
matter what they do they can’t get a break. Okay so the umpire made a bad call
on Berkman, but that didn’t lose them this game, it’s their own actions. With
Gardenhire ejected, probably for renaming the home plate umpire, but we’ll just
believe it was for arguing balls and strikes. He shouldn’t feel bad with Maddon
getting ejected in the Rays and Rangers game it’s probably a day for ejections.
The Twins now head to New York with each game a life line to post season, which
means they probably will be with the Rays, booking tee times before Wednesday.
The first game between San Francisco and Atlanta played out at
AT&T Park with the Braves hoping to give Bobby Cox a final season to
remember and the Giants hoping to just get out of the Bay area without a loss,
this could have been the first game into extras if not for the iatrical part the
umpires played in the 4th inning, and ultimately the hit that Ross managed to
squeak out of Lowe to drive in Posey. Giants take a 1-0 game lead into today’s match up.
It seems Halladay set the standard for post season pitching,
with both Lincecum for the Giants and Wilson for the Rangers pitching 2 hit shut
outs Thursday. This post season is definitely shaping up to be in the top few
all time great post seasons and seems to be following the theme of ‘Year of the
Pitcher’.
In addition to the Giants and the Braves game 2 today, we will
also see the ‘O’….
…. of the H2O Phillies post season rotation trio take to the mound
against the Reds. The Reds will be trying to get back on an even keel with the
Phillies or at the very least go back to Cincinnati with a hit, while the Phillies will be looking to go 2 games up before heading
to Ohio this weekend.
GO PHILLIES….
A walk away from Perfection II …
Posted: October 6, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010, game 1, H2O, Halladay, NLDS, No Hitter, perfection, perfet game, phillies, post season, Reds 7 CommentsPhiladelphia,
is experiencing ‘Doctober Halladay’s’, Yes I know another cheesy play on names,
but it seems to be the preferred expression at the moment. It was his first post
season game, it would have been shear magic had he just won it, but the fact
that he won it with style was more than magic, it was history being made right
in front of our eyes as Halladay throws a no hitter in game 1.
I am sure the statisticians will be able to tell us how many
pitchers have thrown a no hitter in their very first post season game, I am sure
they will be able to tell us how many have thrown that no hitter in the post
season the same year they threw a perfect game. Yep there’s no taking your shoes
and socks off to add them all up.
Once again Roy Halladay gave most of the credit to Chooch
(Carlos Ruiz), for his outstanding performance, and emphasized the team winning
game 1 as the real story.
Game 2 for the Phillies is Friday, and phase II of the H2O trio,
Roy Oswalt, takes the mound. The question is, how does one follow Halladay’s
show, simply with a winning performance.
GO PHILLIES….
World Cup Kicks Off ….
Posted: June 11, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010, Dirty Tackle, England, FIFA, flag, football, FoxSports, Go Forth and Multiply, Rooney, soccer, South Africa, St George Flag, St. George, USA, Yahoo Sports 12 CommentsYes this is still a baseball blog, yes you are still on MLBlogs, but it is my
blog, and since Foxsports decided to cancel and remove my FoxSports blog, I
might add without any notice or reason, I can only think or believe that they
didn’t not see eye to eye with my views of them or their coverage of sports, and
as I told them, quite honestly they can ‘go forth and multiply’.
Which leads me into the next segment nicely, because, as most of you know the
FIFA World Cup starts today, for the most part the game that is being
highlighted by the American media is tomorrow, USA vs. England. It is this that
links to my message to FoxSports, the media here in America seems to be finding
ways to convince itself that it can easily win the game against England, now
okay, it may not be very popular here, but outside of this nation everyone knows
that America and it’s population believes it is the greatest in the world at
everything, lets face it they even recreated the world atlas so that America was
in the center, where as the rest of the world use the zero hour timeline as the
center. Anyway I digress, a recent post by ‘Yahoo
Sports Dirty Tackle’ is telling us that the referee’s for the World Cup have
learned all the English obscenities in an effort to send off England players,
hence giving the USA team the advantage. Okay all those non-knowing football
people, (that’s soccer to those uninformed people, yes football is played
with your feet), when a referee sends you off (ejects you) you are
not replaced by another player.
I think Yahoo Sports is trying to convince itself that just maybe this year
football (soccer) in America may start to pay dividends, because they also want
us to believe that WAG’s are going to somehow cause the England squad to play
badly. This time Martin
Rodgers for Yahoo Sports is trying to convince us, just one problem Mr.
Rodgers, Victoria Beckham
is not really a WAG and your slide
show depicting 15 woman who apparently are going to party so hard it’s going
to knock their men off their game, well check it out Mr. Rodgers, because out of
15, there are actually only 4 of women associated with actual England players, 3
of them the players aren’t even at the World Cup, there is a U.S.A. players
girlfriend, and the rest are from other European teams, hint just cause the
player plays for an English Premier club doesn’t mean they are English
playing for the England team.
Maybe that’s the problem with Ryan Howard, his girlfriend, reportedly his new
contract
allowed him to do a trade of his own, he allegedly traded in the
‘Eagles Cheerleader’ for a ‘Victoria’s Secret’ model. Well wouldn’t you upgrade
something if you got his contract.
Saturday
we will find out if the distractions that Yahoo Sports claims will have an
effect on the England team. I did notice that Yahoo Sports doesn’t reference the
insider claims that the U.S.A. team may target Rooney (England
striker) in an effort to either injure
him or get him banned, since he is known to have a temper which is quick to come
to the surface.
Other effects could be the fact that back in England there has are some
people intent on making it hard to
show support for the team and display the St. Georges flag, due to
claims of it being
offensive and possibly incite anger and violence from people who aren’t English,
personally again those people can ‘go forth and multiply’ , a national newspaper is giving away the
St
Georges flag free with every copy of it’s newspaper tomorrow, only in England
though.
Those that are into the FIFA World Cup enjoy and show support for your team
at every opportunity, for those that aren’t into the FIFA World Cup, ‘WTF are
you doing reading this far down this post’….. GO
ENGLAND!!!
On Reflection….
Posted: April 2, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010, American League, Boston Red Sox, Cardinals, Chicago, Colorado, divorce, Dodgers, Los Angeles, Mariners, McCourts, National League, Outside the Phillies Looking In, Philadelphia, phillies, Phillies Outside, Predictions, Rays, Rockies, sarcasm, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, The Rock, White Sox, World Series, WWE, WWF, Yankees, you tube 6 CommentsJust in case no one even noticed, the name changed from ‘Outside the
Phillies Looking In‘ to ‘Phillies Outside‘ as part of a concerted effort
to make everything a little more unified, in other words, most
everything else is labeled Phillies Outside so is this blog now, so it’s easier for me, not
that anyone gives a crap, and yes you will still find the same
rambling, sarcastic, drivel as always here, unless I am feeling
particularly friendly then I may up the sarcasm a little more, no it’s not always like a kindergarten playground where you punch the ones you really like, sometimes you actually have to smack the crap out of someone cause they deserve it…
On
to the post at hand, a review of my past predictions and I can assure
everyone that there is absolutely no bias on these predictions, there is
no hatred targeted at any team, and just because some see a certain
blue team as the ‘Evil Empire’ and the fact that some Philadelphia
Phillies players have inferred a wish to exact revenge on that said evil empire,
I would like to assure everyone that none of that was taken into
consideration when constructing my predictions.
I see the American
League like this:

…Yes much to the pleasure of some and displeasure of others I did not select the Yankees to make the post season this year, there jump to the top of the leader board for most global denominated currency spent on average per player for a sports franchise for last year, (in case you didn’t know, the most spent per player on average is normally monopolized by English Premiership Football Teams or soccer teams to those less edumacated, last year the Yankees jumped into the top 10 at number 1), this will come back to bite them this year, as it has with other sports franchises before them in there respective sporting championships. The American League playoff picture will look like this:
Seattle Mariners vs Chicago White Sox – Mariners win
Boston Red Sox vs Tampa Bay Rays – Rays win
ALCS Mariners vs Rays – Mariners win
I see the National League like this:

…No I didn’t make a mistake with the picture, this is just a reminder that the Yankees couldn’t even buy there way in via the National League, although inside sources inferred that they tried, by way of offering Mr. McCourt some under the table assistance with the silencing and/or gratifying of the soon to be ex-Mrs McCourt. The National League playoff picture will look like this:
St. Louis Cardinals vs Colorado Rockies – Cardinals win
Philadelphia Phillies vs Los Angeles Dodgers – Phillies win
NLCS – Phillies vs Cardinals – Phillies win
The World Series – Phillies vs Mariners – Phillies win in 5
HAPPY NEW YEAR…
Posted: January 2, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2009, 2010, future, Hot Stove, Philadelphia, phillies, review, Spring Training, year in review 6 Comments
Happy New Year to all, yes even Yankee fans… It’s a new year and spring training is just around the corner, which means everyone is back to even, well for the first day of baseball anyway, after that it’s anyone’s guess as to who ends up where. It’s to early for predictions, for me anyway, but I have already had a glimpse into the future as this picture was taken at 12:48am January 1st 2010 and I actually received it at 7:48pm December 31st 2009, so here is my son, Dave and daughter-in-law , Lucy as I saw them in the future, as you can see a small amount of motion blur from traveling through time, that or the celebratory New Years beverages had gotten the best of them… …it’s a little soon
|
The Phillies get a well earned rest…
Posted: November 5, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010, DH, money, MVP, NY Post, Philadelphia, phillies, taxes, Yankees 8 CommentsThe New York Yankees are the new World Series Champions, after defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in 6 games. It’s not easy to win the World Series, and is a great accomplishment each time. For that I give a congratulatory nod to the Yankees.
The Phillies will get a well deserved rest and return in 2010 with all the other teams, with their eye on the ultimate goal once more. During this time we will be able to speculate on who will be back, who will move on, and who will just simply be released.
It would be too easy to write about the money the Yankees spent to achieve the prize, or to speculate on the tax burden residents will be facing to pay for the new stadium. I could also stoop to the levels of the NY Post and make a half-hearted, but tackey attempt at poking fun at players, especially since a DH won the MVP award, but at this point I will refrain from drawing anymore attention to a group of individuals who believe the world revolves around them and that they are the largest sports franchise in the world, of which the majority probably didn’t even know where Philadelphia was until this past week or that any other sport even exists.
I am at peace with all this, knowing that next year things will be different. So during the off season I will as often as possible write about things that have no relevance to anything whatsoever, but will, I am sure from time to time irritate the sh!t out of people.
~peter