Anybody else going?

Nope, I'll be in Oakland at the A's game.

skwid, you should just go ahead a make travel arrangements to the VC dinner 10/25. You won't have to worry about your A's still being alive. They ain't gettin' by the Red Sox.

Board-O, if you ever have an extra yankee ticket, I'm your man. Haven't been to the Stadium since I was a teenager.

jb

If your inviting...

I'm sorry, but I really can't stand the Yankees.

Go away, tj! How did the Orioles do this year?

jb

That doesn't sting, jb. I care not for the Orioles. But they did stink it up again this year. P-U!

I am hoping for great things for the Capitals, though, this year. I got my fingers crossed!

Just messin' with ya, dog.

jb

I'll see y'all in Chicago to cheer on the visiting (and ultimately victorious) Red Sox.

We'll see about that JB. Everyone is thinking the A's are going to get wiped by the Red Sox because of their offense. The problem here is the Red Sox pitching stinks and the A's pitching is very good. The A's scored 125 more runs than their opponents while the Red Sox scored 153 more runs. The thing is a run was about 17% more valuable in an A's game because there was typically less runs scored. If you normalize things this would put the Red Sox at about 128 more runs scored, just about the same as the A's. The Red Sox were putting up some eyepopping numbers earlier in the year but tailed off toward the end of the year even though they got to finish the last month against some of the worst pitching in the AL (Cleveland, Tampa, and Baltimore). Meanwhile the A's had to play 13 of their last 20 games against two of the best defensive/pitching teams in the AL (Seattle and Anaheim).

That's kewl, jb, that's kewl.

Extra ticket? Surely you jest. We got four for Thursday game and four for Game 7 of the ALCS. They'rer very hard to come by.

tt, you're welcome to join us for the tailgate party, but I don't have an extra ticket.

YECH! PTOOEY! If they continue to hit like they did today, they'll be playing golf next week.

Forget hitting, how about defense? Bernie Williams is my favorite Yankee, but he is such a poor centerfielder now. He used to be a legitimate gold glover. Now he is a liability.

On the positve side, they did everything wrong and only lost 3-1. The Twinkies played as well as they could. You better be a good luck charm on Thurs, Board-O.

jb

skwid, I'll make you a deal. If the A's go to the World Series, I'l send you a bottle of something serious. If not, you show up in NYC on 10/25. What do ya say?

jb

But, only 1 game.

JB, I'll have to think about that. I'm hoping the A's make it to the series along with the giants so my seats would probably be worth over a grand each per game.

I think Bernie's still an outstanding fielder. I've watched him all year. Unfortunately his arm has always been poor. Seems kind of strange that a man that strong would have such a weak arm.

I'm not privy to all the stats, but I'll bet that he has more errors in the last 2 years than he has had in the previous 5.

jb

I saw a picture of one of the Twins making a catch at the very back of whatever field (center, left???) -- and it showed this Yankee fan doing his darnedest to catch it instead. Shades of that game against the O's what like 8 years ago? Good thing that Twins player made the catch!