OT: This is why baseball is great

[tbob]

Oakland 14 Texas 5. Three game sweep of the Rangers to win the West on the last day. Overcoming suspensions, injuries, a brutal September schedule, loss of their best pitchers through trades, relying on 5 rookie starters, etc.
Big money Angels looking up and going home for the fall.
Congrats to the Amazin' A's!!!!

[z28jd]

If baseball was so great, the Pirates could have one year that makes no sense instead of twenty straight that make perfect sense

[CW]

Kudos to the A's!

Another great scene this evening in baseball... the Kansas City fans giving Cabrera a standing ovation as he we pulled in the middle of the game.

[HRBAKER]

The KC fans have been waiting a long time for something to cheer about!
Agreed, very nice gesture.

[Fred]

Another fun moment. The Padres down 6-0 against the Brewers. Braun is one RBI away from tying Chase Headley for the NL RBI crown. Headley gets two more RBIs on hits that went to LF (Brauns position). Pads win 7-6. Braun gets 0 RBI in the series.

Great ending to an otherwise lousy season for the Padres.

No, I'm still not over the way Braun got off the hook for his PED use.... I'd rather see him take the "Melky" way out and own up to it.

Just wait until next year, the Padres will be at .500!

[Runscott]

After blowing the World Series last year, I didn't think things could get worse, but I was wrong. Now it's just up to Baltimore to put them out of their misery.

[itjclarke]

Originally Posted by tbob

Oakland 14 Texas 5. Three game sweep of the Rangers to win the West on the last day. Overcoming suspensions, injuries, a brutal September schedule, loss of their best pitchers through trades, relying on 5 rookie starters, etc.
Big money Angels looking up and going home for the fall.
Congrats to the Amazin' A's!!!!

This Giants fan has to love these A's. Simply amazing.. And Beane and Sabermetrics cannot hog all the credit this time. Bob Melvin did an amazing job, and even though there are a few worthy candidates, he's got to be AL manager of the year.

Bay Area baseball is all the way back!

[Rickyy]

Amazin A's!

Ricky Y

[irishdenny]

I Really wish Brandon Inge didn't get hurt... He Helped them out when they really needed a "Pick me uP"... it also cost him 6 million, TuFF Break!

[barrysloate]

I think the Rangers were in first place for nearly every day of the season except one...the last day! And now they run the risk of having one more bad game and being done for the season. Hats off to Oakland.

And congrats to Miguel Cabrera, for a truly special season.

[Nashvol]

Here in middle Tennessee there is much hope for two Cy Young award winners: R. A. Dickey from Nashville (Univ. of Tennessee) and David Price from Murfreesboro (Vanderbilt Univ.). What are the chances?

[sportscardpete]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

I think the Rangers were in first place for nearly every day of the season except one...the last day! And now they run the risk of having one more bad game and being done for the season. Hats off to Oakland.

And congrats to Miguel Cabrera, for a truly special season.

I'm going to throw up if Trout gets MVP. Not that he doesn't deserve it, but if Cabrera isn't MVP after winning the triple crown, then the voting system is screwed up.

[mets41]

George Anderson had an interesting comment in Cooperstown some years ago (I've been saying this since 1959): "Baseball is a great game and if you don't like it, GET OUT!!!!!!!!!!!"

[tbob]

Congrats to the A's and O's for incredible years and fighting to the last out of the last game of their respective series.
Sympathies to the Nats' fans who had to watch the debacle against the Cards.
Oh those El Birdos! The players change but the team is always gritty, competes and never gives up.
Should be a couple of good championship series- Tigers and Yanks, Jints and Cards.
And oh by the way, another reason baseball is great is you have a guy who hit .230 in the minors this year and was only called up because a regular (Furcal) was hurt and he ends up starting in the playoffs and hits a 2 out 9th inning hit and drives in the winning runs. What a game!

[thekingofclout]

Originally Posted by itjclarke

Beane and Sabermetrics cannot hog all the credit this time. Bob Melvin did an amazing job

Who hired Melvin? After the D-Backs dumped him a month into the 2009 season, his phone didn't ring again until Beane offered him the job in 2011.

As far as Manager of the Year goes, I think he's now a lock, and deservedly so.

[Robextend]

Originally Posted by thekingofclout

Who hired Melvin? After the D-Backs dumped him a month into the 2009 season, his phone didn't ring again until Beane offered him the job in 2011.

As far as Manager of the Year goes, I think he's now a lock, and deservedly so.

Can't go wrong with Melvin or Buck Showalter. I don't know about this board, but virtually everyone I know had the Orioles finishing in dead last place. What they were able to do in the AL East was amazing.

[honus94566]

Originally Posted by itjclarke

Bay Area baseball is all the way back!

WOOT WOOT! Hopin' for another "Battle of the Bay" World Series.

[z28jd]

As far as the MVP voting goes, I think defense should weigh in and I don't think that gives as advantage to Trout. Remember that Cabrera has been a first baseman since 2007 and he moved back to third base to make room for Prince Fielder, then went out and made just 13 errors in 154 starts. That is a wash to me, he needs to get some big time credit for the success he had with that move.

The team records shouldn't go into the discussion, especially when they are so close, because they don't play a balanced schedule. Hard to compare the Central winner to an AL West team and say the Angels were better because they won more. I can't assume that the records would still show the same if they played the same exact schedule

[Fred]

John,

Good point about Miggy. He took over 3B to accommodate the Pig. He could have cried and complained. Instead he does what is best for the team and goes on to have his greatest season ever! If that isn't valuable, then I don't know what is...

[gman]

Originally Posted by Fred

He took over 3B to accommodate the Pig.

But having the pig behind him definately helped with his offensive year. And man wasn't it fun watching his season. To win the triple crown. Amazing.

Another thing about Trout that we don't hear alot about is that he had 30 HR and 83 RBI's as a lead off hitter. As impressive as that is, think of what could have been had he not missed the first month of the season!

Stuff like this is what makes this game so great.