I thank Russ for filling in for me on Friday as I was taking care of some family business. I was driving in my car listening to KNBR when Travis Ishikawa hit the pennant-winning home run and yes, I did say to my wife "THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT" just because how could you resist?
By the way, here's Russ Hodges calling the Ishikawa home run.
You also all realize that Bruce Bochy just punched his ticket to the Hall of Fame, right? He now has as many pennants as Tommy Lasorda and as many World Series titles, with the possibility of going one ahead of Lasorda in titles if the Giants beat the Royals.
Still no baseball game today. But if the rest of the postseason is any indication, we'll get a great one tomorrow.
- If you thought Travis Ishikawa was an unlikely hero for the NLCS, Ishikawa agrees with you saying "It looks like me. It just doesn't seem like me."
- Ishikawa had a similar out-of-body experience in 2001 when he led his high school team to the Washington State Championship.
- Understandably, much of the credit doesn't go to Ishikawa as much as the blame went to Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, who put Michael Wacha in to pitch in a crucial situation despite Wacha not having pitched in over three weeks. Cardinals fan Will Leitch thinks that managing in the playoffs is too just hard for Matheny, who thrives on consistency and everyone knowing their role.
- Matthew Pouliot writes that the biggest mismatch in the NLCS was Bruce Bochy versus Mike Matheny.
- Keith Olbermann defends Matheny by saying that Matheny went to Wacha because everyone else in the Cardinals bullpen was terrible. (VIDEO)
- Rob Neyer isn't responding to Olbermann, but he does knock down Olbermann's arguments by saying that you don't stop trusting pitchers because they had one bad outing. Neyer believes Matheny lost faith in pitchers who he trusted all season too quickly, which is why he went to Wacha.
- Grant Brisbee tries to come up with a defense of Matheny and pretty much gives up.
- Our friends over at Viva El Birdos (and be nice, they are our friends) wonder if the Cardinals will ever be able to win the World Series in spite of Matheny? I'll just say both the Cubs and Giants failed to win the World Series in spite of Dusty Baker, so the odds probably aren't good.
- By the way, Ishikawa got the game-winning home run ball back.
- Giant GM Brian Sabean shed some tears when the Giants won the pennant, and Bruce Jenkins says that's just fine and that he wasn't the only one.
- And here's something I said after game four of the NLCS. For all the talk this season about who will be the next "face of baseball" now that Derek Jeter has retired, Joel Sherman asks "What about Buster Posey?" Certainly if the Giants win the World Series this year, Posey will have won three titles in his first five years in the majors (and he was injured for most of one of those seasons). Jeter won four in his first five full seasons, but he was healthy for all five.
- David Schoenfield is a party-pooper and says this is the worst World Series matchup ever.
- Jeff Sullivan says that while that may (or may not) be true, just shut up and enjoy the game.
- A Boston sportswriter who grew up in Kansas City explains what the Royals mean to him. He admits it's tough for him to put aside his fandom and be a reporter.
- Jay Jaffe examines the Royals and explains how they built a pennant-winner in KC.
- Dave Cameron explains why he misjudged the Royals.
- I believe I've called Royals manager Ned Yost "The worst manager in baseball™" on more than one occasion. I'm not the only one. Yost has heard the criticism and doesn't care what I or anyone else thinks.
- Joe Posnanski tries to head off those who think that the Royals making the World Series means that all those "stat guys" have no idea what they're talking about. Three words: Small Sample Size.
- How Lorenzo Cain turned his career around. Essentially, he had to learn how to run. It's harder than it sounds.
- David Schoenfield explains how difficult it is to beat the Royals bullpen.
- Of course, the Giants bullpen is pretty tough to beat too.
- Matt Snyder thinks that Michael Morse could be the Giants secret weapon in the World Series.
- The Royals and Giants met this season in Kansas City and the Royals swept the three-game series. The Royals players say that sweep is meaningless now.
- Korean Royals superfan SungWoo Lee is going to be at Game 1 of the World Series in Kansas City.
- San Francisco radio stations are refusing to play that Lorde song until the World Series is over. You know the one I mean.
- Pirates bench coach Jeff Bannister is the new manager of the Rangers.
- The Twins are getting closer to hiring a new manager.
- The Red Sox plan to hire Chili Davis as their new hitting coach. He'd held the same job with Oakland the past three seasons.
- Josh Byrnes is the favorite to be the Dodgers new "Jed." By that I mean he'd be the Dodgers GM to team president Andrew Friedman's "Theo." It certainly looks like having a Theo and a Jed is the wave of the future in baseball
- The Red Sox may trade Yoenis Cespedes this off-season.
- The Rangers want to re-sign Colby Lewis.
- Ben Lindbergh picks five 2014 playoff teams to be back in the postseason in 2015 and five to miss the cut.
- Matthew Leach is very impressed with Pedro Martinez's broadcasting skills.
- Russell Carleton attacks five "baseball postseason myths."
- Adam LaRoche wants to end his career with the Nationals. That's easy. He should just announce his retirement tomorrow. Otherwise he's probably out of luck.
- That's what Brian Roberts did, announcing his retirement after 14 seasons. Although he retired as a Yankee.
- Mark Teixeira is definitely not retiring, but Wallace Matthews thinks he's not as dedicated to baseball as he should be.
- Paul Casella looks at the the top "franchise" ballplayers in baseball history. Whatever that means. (He does explain what he means. Whether or not you agree with the definition is up to you.)
- If you want to see how the pitch clock is working in the Arizona Fall League, here's some video of it in action.
- More on the lawsuit about our criminally-underpaid minor leaguers.
- Sympathy for the Devil. ESPN Outside the Lines has a profile of outgoing commissioner Bud Selig. (video)
- One thing you won't see in the World Series is fans storming the field. Slate has a video history of baseball fans storming the field. Seem the last time it was generally accepted was the last time the Royals were in the World Series.
- Finally, I got a chuckle out of this one. David Eckstein reads mean blog posts about himself.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Because the World Series is going to start!