Sox, Birds and the color Red

Congrats to your son's program.  Hard not to like the way they do things.  And I like the cast of characters on the Sox as well. Don't care for the full beard thing but like the group of players. Relating to a recent thread, love the fact that two small guys came up big yesterday.

An odd side note - you mentioned the color red.  It always bothered me that 22 of the 30 MLB teams feature red or blue as one of the two primary colors.  Include brick red and that's 23.  Throw in black and that accounts for 6 more, leaving only the A's.

Love tradition but where is the creative marketing?

cabbagedad, it would be hard for the Cardinals to be any other color.  Same with the Red Sox.  

Home field advantage to the Red Sox.  In this series, I do believe that home field is an advantage.  For the Cardinals, the youngins will have to continue stepping up and playing like veterans.  As one article pointed out, it will be the bearded bunch against those that aren't old enough to grow beards.  LOL

Haha, yes, coach, the Cards and Red Sox get a pass as do the Reds, Nats and Blue Jays on the colors but somebody else needs to mix it up a bit.

TPM, sorry, I'm way out of the loop.  I think maybe I was in denial 'cuz I'm a Tribe fan and not allowed to pull for anyone in a Tiger uni.

Red and blue are patriotic.

The cards have guys on the team (not necessarily on the 25 man roster) who have been to WS and passing down their experiences, the Reds have a lot of guys who also have been there. It should be a great dog fight.

Many of my sons friends with the Redbirds, but I am going with the AL champs, 7 games.

Orange & Black is a great color combo.

I think the home field  will be a big advantage this year. The Sox are built for Fenway and play well there.  And of course both teams will be playing by real baseball rules when playing in St. Louis, but playing by Charlie Finley's crackpot rules when playing in Boston.

Sometimes I think the NL team has a small advantage in the WS.  Also in a way that advantage takes place at the AL park.

Boston will play with it's normal lineup and hitting order.  The Cardinals lineup and hitting order will improve a lot with the DH.  At least, on the road.  In St Louis the pitchers will hit.  This too is an advantage to the Cardinals.  At least their pitchers have had some ABs this year.  Either way, the DH or the pitcher hitting is one ninth of the lineup.  That is a small advantage.

If Craig is available, it could be a bigger advantage.

I don't see any advantage in this series except the Red Sox have one more home game. They also have a great storyline. But stories don't win games. 

Another storyline is we won't have to deal with bleeding ears listening to McCarver after this series. I'm really looking forward to listening to a lifelong Cardinal fan and long time Cardinal announcer cover the game with a long time Cardinal player (sarcasm). I can't imagine what Sox fans will have to endure having the Series announced by two Cardinal fans.

The drooling over Verlander and Scherzer was nauseating in the ALCS. Hey Buck and McCarver, Lester and Lackey have won clinching World Series games. Verlander and Scherzer have not. The Sox were 2-1 in games Lester and Lackey started. The Tigers were 0-3 in games Scherzer and Verlander started.

I listened to McCarver and HOF'er Ralph Kiner do a lot of Mets games back in the mid and late 80's. Believe it or not, McCarver was considered to be fresh, enthusiastic, very insightful and deeply knowledgeable back then, and I always felt I was learning something new when he worked a game. But now, yeah, agreed.  His schtick is really tired, and he seems to have read up on the teams the day of the game.

McCarver: That's not a good time to get picked off?

Such astute analysis! When is a good time to get picked off? 

Good post with good points!

The Cardinals also have a great storyline. When was the last time a team that had 20+ rookies on its roster over the course of the season go on to the World Series? And these rookies were actually contributors too, not just roster spots being filled.

Obviously, I'm hoping the Cardinals win because we're die-hard Cardinal fans. And my mom's hoping the Cardinals win it in Game 5 because then she'll likely get to work 3 World Series games

Did people die and hundreds were injured from a terrorist attack in Saint Louis? Did the Cardinals pull the city together with their open support of the city, fundraising and visiting the injured? This is just a little bigger story than have some rookies on the team.

Cards in 7!

Does anyone who follows the Cardinals know if the information in the Post-Dispatch Baseball app is any different than the Sports section of the stltoday.com app? I know it's the same paper.

I don't recall saying a thing about the "Cardinals having a bigger storyline." I said they have a great one too. Last I checked, the World Series was about two baseball teams playing 7 baseball games.

Ok, so having some rookies is a big story like pulling a city together after a terrorist attack where people died and hundreds were injured. This why we have the government we have. Because sports and the Kardashians are more important to people than real events.

I was at the game last night, a great night at Fenway.  Looking forward to the Series.

Few would argue your point that NL teams have the advantage when there is no DH.  The pitchers are experienced hitters and bunters, the subs are more used to pinch-hitting, and the managers have experience running the real game.

As far as your point that NL teams have a slight advantage when playing by AL rules, that's an interesting theory, but I have a  hard time buying it.  AL teams all have a guy who is used to the DH role. NL teams don't. A different kind of guy making a different kind of salary fills that slot on the roster. AL pitchers are used to having no let-up in the lineup, unlike their NL counterparts.

The page linked below shows the year-by-year results of inter-league play.  Unfortunately they don't break it down to home and away. But the AL has such a significantly higher winning percentage over the years, especially the last 10 or so,  that you have to conclude that either it's the more talented league, or the rule discrepancy favors them, or both. 

BTW the Cards played 6 games in AL parks this year. They lost 2 out of 3 to the Angels and 2 out of 3 to the A's.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history...erleague/records.jsp

Don't go there! These days baseball is about the only thing that people of all political persuasions can agree about.  Take that away, and all will truly be lost.

TPM -- Here's to hoping you get to cut and paste these words on HSBW late Halloween night!

"I underestimated the Cardinals."

btw -- I know I'm not the only one who knows this ... but the best way to avoid TV announcers we don't like is to buy the MLB app and listen to the hometown announcers on wireless devices.

The TRICK ... is syncing the audio with the video. Video is always about 6-10 seconds ahead ... so I have to pause the DVR -- and hope anyone else in the house watching the game "live" doesn't scream too loud when something good or bad happens!

It's a blast!

Our kitchen TV and our living room TV are not synced. So if someone is watching the game in the kitchen, they can easily give it away for those seeing it in the living room. I believe that happened when the Cardinals beat the Pirates in the NLDS; my mom let out a scream and we all said we could just turn it off since we knew the result

Life-long Cardinal fan, thanks to inheriting them from my Dad.  The easiest job in sports is being a Cardinals fan, they always make smart decisions (see:  Pujols, Albert) and they never under-deliver.

Will be interested to see how Ferrell manages the games in StL.  He needs Napoli's bat in the lineup, but not sure how he can do it.

That said, I think the Red Sox have all the momentum and a sense of destiny, so I won't he surprised or angry if they win it.

This may be sacrilegious to Sox fans, but this team reminds me of the late 90's Yankees.  A couple stars working with a bunch of grinders that don't mind doing the dirty work to win.

Probably doesn't mean much but the NL has won the last three WS.  They have won 12 games and lost 4. 

I anticipate Ferrell will keep Napoli in the lineup and use Papi as a pinch hitter in St Louis.  Ortiz is having a dreadful post season at the plate except for one at bat.   It was easy to bench Middlebrooks for Boegarts due to a failing bat, but Farrell will have a difficult decision with Ortiz's popularity.

I don't see the Yankee resemblance at all.  I see a 2004 Sox resemblance in a big way (idiots with beards), and this team has a similar attitude.  I also think these two World Series  teams are very similar in makeup (grinders), chemistry and management styles.  It amazes me that both managers have found incredible success at this point in their new careers.  Metheny may be a little more intense, but I really like and respect both of these managers. 

Under no circumstances will McCarver and Buck find the airwaves in casa de Fenwaysouth.  I will synch my TV with the beautiful radio broadcasting style of Joe Castiglione of WEEI.  I'd rather watch and listen to "the most annoying sound in the world" ten thousand times over http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cVlTeIATBs than listen to Buck and McCarver. 

National League has won the last 3 years and also been the home team due to winning the All-Star game.  That is a rant for another day.  However, it is a slight advantage for the Red Sox.

St Louis's offensive reputation (and stats)  is they don't do nearly as well against lefty pitchers.  I'm wondering if Farrell is considering moving Dubront (LHP out of long relief) up into his starting rotation with Lester and Buckholtz to replace Peavey who had a less than stellar outing a few days ago.  This would give the Sox a starting rotation of two leftys and shutdown lefty in the bullen (Breslow) that can go multiple innings.  Just a Monday AM thought.....

I tried the radio and the MLB package. I knew Iglesias struck out as the pitch was being released.

I think it means as much as the Red Sox are 8-0 in their last eight World Series games. I believe the word is bupkis.

Farrell will have a difficult decision with Ortiz's popularity.

Not to mention his ego. Ortiz can be a drama queen at times.

I thought some of you might be interested in reading this article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports...82-1a249cc50e9c.html

Go Cardinals!

It's been so warm all fall. I haven't used the heat yet. It's even been mid 60's into this week. It's going to be 70 Tuesday. Forecast for Wednesday night: 55 and damp. Thursday: 50 with wind chill in low 40's.

In 2004 the same two teams played.They played two games in Boston then two in St. Louis. Red Sox won each game.

I don't think anybody was stopping Boston after they got rolling in the ALCS. And I heard on the news today them talking about the Cardinals playing late because of a rain delay or something and getting into Boston late.

86 and sunny here in Las Vegas with an overnight low of 57 and a calm breeze.  In my living room, it'll be 77 with the AC and beer on tap.  St. Louis in 6 games.

I don't care its getting cold other than baseball players typically perform better when they aren't freezing. I lived in CA for twenty years. I have no desire to live there again. 

I was hoping for a Dodgers/Red Sox World Series, but it wasn't meant to be.  I'll be rooting for the Cardinals.  The Cards pitching was lights out in the NLCS, and I'm happy that local product Allen Craig is back!

Lastly, not to jump in the weather discussion between RJM & Bum...but it's tough to beat the weather here, 84 today.  Besides, if I want to visit the snow or the desert, it's less than an hour drive away.

LOL I grew up in Seattle, RJM, and lived 23 years in Spokane.  I'm good anywhere between 0 and 105.