Humor

There are two sets of Sox in the playoffs.  And Red runs.

Oh, And...

L'shana tova!

Talking More Baseball

Twins and White Sox tied for first.

You realize of course that this means ... one game playoff.

Those fingers drumming on the bench are:  Tampa Bay (East, and I still call them the Devil Rays); Angels (West, and no, the whole Losangelesangelsofanaheim thing is Their Problem); and Boston (Wild Card).

Both Minnesota and Chicago have won Series in the last 20 years, and neither has had to sacrifice a goat.

Smoke, Mirrors, and Sawn Lady

The stock market is down 700+ points at closing.

Chicago White Sox are down to their very last chance to tie and force a playoff with the Twins for AL Central.  And it's raining.

The Mets...

As something of a jinx, I avoided so much as reading Metsgrrl, who's a pretty fair wordslinger, and the standings (the baseball widget uses red type for eliminated teams, and I avoided looking at anything still in white), and any conversation that veered in that direction.  In short, I did my part.

Still, I had something like a lump in my throat.  William A. Shea Stadium, to give it its formal name, has always been something like my home in Queens, unlike my actual home in Queens or the school I attended for a year.  When we got back, the Mets were still playing in the storied Polo Grounds, but Shea was ready for 1964, same time as the World's Fair on the other side of the railyards and tracks (the signs in the station blared "World's Fair - Shea Stadium."  The  "Willets Pt. Blvd." designation was always "Oh, right.").  It was decorated, if you want to call it that, with orange and blue corrugated steel rectangles suspended on cabling.  I think that was supposed to suggest confetti.  It certainly looked wonderfully festive.  My (then) beloved Mets played there, and I thought of it as a shrine.

Although the first time I got to visit the shrine, it was not for a baseball game.

It was to see (what felt like) 70 one-hit wonders opening for The Beatles.  

I think I got to my first game in '67.  I think my uncle was supposed to have taken me, but I never found him, and I had four dollars.  Heh.

Up until then, I'd never seen a live baseball game.  Isn't that weird?  I watched games on TV or listened to them on the radio (Bob Murphy, Lindsay Nelson, Ralph Kiner--how's that for Tinker to Evers to Chance?).  So I spent the whole afternoon not being able to tell what was an actual hit and what was just a long fly ball because wherever I was sitting hid the left(?) fielder, and I didn't know how to follow the ball.

In '69, I vocally rooted on the Cubs.  That's right.  It was my fault.  Neener neener.  After the miraculous victory, I walked all the way around Shea with the sort of feeling that normal people take alcohol to attain.

I remember noticing that the colors on the confetti squares were fading, but it was still a shock whatever year it was when I took the 7 and discovered them gone.

This really wants to be an essay about baseball's loss of soul, but I'm not ready to go there yet, and besides, that probably happened back in the 1800s; baseball has never been particularly pure.  But, y'know, I'd enjoy going to Seaver Park or Metropolitan Stadium or Hodges Field (hell, or even Strawberry Field, although that really is not an option.  Really!); thinking of going to Citi Field feels like visiting a cousin to whom you owe money.

Talking Baseball

The National League is set:

• Eastern Division--Phillies
  
• Central Division--Cubs
  
• Western Division--Dodgers
  
• Wild Card--Brewers
  

(Growls being suppressed.)

AL results tomorrow.

Much too nice a day for this.

Much too nice a day for this.

Tales of the Economists

From Anglachel's Journal.  Because, yum, maple yoghurt with fresh blueberries.

One By One

Philadelphia stands alone in the NL East.

The NL Wild Card is tied.

Irrelevant Factoid #2

• Since 1908, the names of 6 presidents end with an "n."  


• Only two end in a vowel.
  

Paul Newman

1925-2008.  Actor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and racer.

ETA philanthropist.  Forgot the word.

Quit Spit-Shining That Grass

Tampa Bay is AL East Champ.  (Boston has the Wild Card.)  The days dwindle down to a precious few, and only NL East and AL Central are still undecided.  (Minnesota may steal it.)

Schedule of playoffs is probably out there somewhere.

25 Years Ago

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov saved your life.  (See also here.)  From Charlie Stross, by way of Making Light.

Nosh from All Over

Linked from a link at Shakesville: A report on gay Republicans just before the realization that the cliff's edge is Back There.

Pilots flying out of LaGuardia eulogize ballpark as landmark.

Nort Spews

1. Arizona has been eliminated; the Dodgers are N.L. West Champeens.  The Twins are keeping it close, however.
2. The hockey season is getting under way.

A Fable

Once upon a time, there was a sly fox.  This fox went skulking around rural areas periodically eating poultry and the occasional egg (to keep its pelt sleek and shiny, of course).

Over time, the farmers in the region developed security for the barnyards, including dogs, passwords, and serious agricultural architecture, including a henhouse with penthouse scratching area and a guarded entrance.  

Eventually, the fox found itself craving the taste of chicken.

So first, the fox went to university and majored in poultry management, minoring in architecture.

Then the fox started telling anyone who would listen that the henhouses as built were bad for the chickens, removing them from the sea-level gravel that their talons craved.  The fox produced studies demonstrating that birds kept more than 20 feet above the ground were scrawnier and therefore less valuable at the poultry market.  The fox touted the superior nutritional value and flavor of the totally free-range bird.

To oblige the farmers, periodically the fox would cull out smaller, weaker, unmarketable chickens and cracked eggs.

Eventually the farmers made the fox commissioner of poultry.

And they were very surprised to discover one day that there were no more chickens or eggs, and that the fox had a pelt like a shampoo model.

;)

Oh, And...

Boston clinches the AL Wild Card.

Getting There from Here

Several of the transit systems I have known:

Got at b3co.com!

No New Jersey Transit, sorry.

Like Some Pommes Frites with that?

Jon Carroll, a San Francisco treasure.  Bonus:  Quotation from Cities in Flight.  (You can stop scratching your head now.)

Talking Baseball

Florida will not be in the playoffs (sorry, but that list was getting long) this year.

In reading the various farewell-to Yankee-Stadium essays (Paul Simon wrote one, of course), I was reminded that, though I am not a Yankee fan (1961-2 doesn't really count; I had rooted for the Buffalo Bisons and the Milwaukee Braves previously, and went on to root for other teams), I have seen a couple of games in the House that Ruth Built.  After the mid-'70s renovation, unfortunately, so I missed out on the 79,000 capacity and the gingerbread facade.  The grass was green, I'll say that for them.

The Seven Reasons

Seven reasons to refuse to bail.  Via the Group News Blog.

Minus 372 Today

When my language cools off, there will be email to my Congressperson, not that I don't trust her to do the right thing, but it never hurts to manifest public pressure.

At the beginning of October 2007, the DJI was around 14000.  Today it closed at 11015.  Just so you know.

During the Fafblog interregnum (July 2006-April 2008), there arose a blog which attempted to step into the breach.

It's still around.

It is now called "I Like Pie, Spot," and last week (I just found it today) MarkC invoked the spirit of Zombie Eugene V. Debs.

I don't endorse socialism, but the analysis is right on the money (ouch).

As Siegfried Would Say...

"Prepare to panic!"

In the morning.  FDR, people.

Musical Pennant

Cleveland, New York (Yankees), Milwaukee, Toronto, Houston, Colorado, San Francisco, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Texas, San Diego, Atlanta, Baltimore, Oakland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Washington and Seattle all go home in October.

Bad News. Bears.

Arthur Silber lays it on the line:

The frantic activity in Washington is the hysterical scrambling of terrified and not very bright people faced with unavoidable disaster, still trying to convince themselves and everyone else that "something" can be done to avert catastrophe. This isn't a plan, or even hoping against hope: it's panic, pure and simple.

Read the rest.  Then read his blog.

Excuse me, I need to go into headless chicken mode now.

Cubs Clinch

Chicago Cubs are National League Central Division Champions.

(Milwaukee joins the eliminated.)

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Toronto joins Houston, Colorado, San Francisco, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Texas, San Diego, Atlanta, Baltimore, Oakland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Seattle in the "Let's Preheat the Hot Stove" League.

Dose of truth

Avedon Carol tells it like it is.

Because Good Old American Historical Amnesia is not your friend.  To put it mildly.

Talking Baseball

Houston, Colorado, and San Francisco have joined Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Texas, San Diego, Atlanta, Baltimore, Oakland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Seattle in calls to "Wait Till Next Year!"  I am expecting the Yankees and the Blue Jays to fall later today.

(Because someday, this will be an educational children's chant. Heh.)

(ETA:  And in case you were wondering, yes, I finally noticed that I'd forgotten Texas.)

Also, there is a 25% chance that the World Series will be played in either Chicago or Los Angeles.

Honoring Radical Ancestors

1. One hundred twenty-one years ago today, the U. S. Constitution was signed.
2. I have many radical ancestors (and sometimes they scare me, and sometimes I catch why, and sometimes I can hear that 1950s horror of non-conformity in my head), some of whom probably didn't think themselves radical.  I (for suitable values of "I") am where I am (wherever that is) because many people refused to bend to the status quo.
3. Today I honor my Radical Ancestors (religion, class, gender, race, sexual orientation, genetics, education, and previous condition of servitude).  (Thanks are due to Portly Dyke.)