ON TO THE NEXT STEP

## It took 167 games, but the Yankees were finally able to beat down the Baltimore Orioles. In a season when everything seem to go right for them, the Orioles luck ran out but not till the last two innings of the last game. With the bases loaded, one out and down 3-1, CC Sabathia closed the door and then shut the Birds down easily in the ninth. CC was quoted later as saying there was no discussion with Joe Girardi in the dugout after the 8th inning, "...everybody knew I was going out for the ninth."  Now, the Detroit Tigers come to town to battle New York for the right to go to the World Series.

## The other big story of the series was the demise of Alex Rodriguez. It wasn't a mistake to pinch-hit for him, regardless of what Raul Ibanez may or may not have accomplished, and benching him was probably right, too. A secondary story involved the helplessness of Nick Swisher at the plate. The announcers and sportswriters seem to ignore the fact that, as inept as these two were, they both actually outhit Robinson Cano. Neither team hit at all, their combined batting average was .202. Is the pitching that good, or were both teams trying too hard?  I think we'll see a little more offense in the next series.

## Well, it happened: Washington lost the series against the Cardinals. After being down 6-0, they came back to beat the Nats, 9-7. And GM Mike Rizzo will be answering questions and defending his decision to shut down Stephen Strasburg right up until spring training next year. Other than the team management, I haven't heard much in the way of agreement to taking Strasburg out of the rotation.

## The two American League cinderella teams, Oakland & Baltimore are gone. Both of them had better records than Detroit, who is still in, but I believe the Tigers are the better team. In the National League, St. Louis is in the championship series, even though the three teams that are going home, Cincinnati, Atlanta and Washington, ALL had better regular season records than the Cards. If Detroit and St. Louis meet in the World Series, Bud Selig can rejoice in the fact that his playoff system made for exciting baseball, where everyone had a chance. Never mind that those two teams tied for the TENTH best record in the Majors.  Let's hope that San Francisco and New York play in the Series so we can be assured that a team with 88 regular season victories doesn't win the Series for the second year in a row.

## The two analysts in the TBS booth, Cal Ripken and John Smoltz, were both great players and appear to be nice guys, but were unable to bring much in the way of insight into the games. In fact, they were boring. There was no chemistry between them and both seemed very uncomfortable. The "Field Reporter" was so bad, I don't even remember his name. The smartest thing he said in five games, was to agree with the right field crowd in Yankee Stadium, that Nate McClouth's long fly was foul. Even he realized that it was the only way he'd get out of the stands alive.

THEY SAID IT

"We know the Yanks have lots of money, but $28 Million a year for a benchwarmer?" -- TC Chong

"As a baseball fan, I think shutting down Strasburg was one of the stupidest things the Nationals could do. But if they had won the NLDS, as a SF Giants fan I would have learned to live with it."  -- Janice Hough

"Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers has won baseball’s ‘Triple Crown’ award. Say, wasn’t it just last year that he got in trouble at Spring Training in Florida for having a couple of Triple Crowns and getting behind a wheel of a car?"  -- TC Chong
" Ex-military parachutist Felix Baumgartner plans a 37-kilometre jump in a bid to be the first skydiver to break the sound barrier. It'll be the fastest free fall this side of the Texas Rangers."  -- RJ Currie
" The MLB postseason begins. It’s the only time of the year where most pay attention to the game of baseball. And those are the umps."  -- Alan Ray
"A restaurant in Williamsburg, Ky., has been closed after employees were seen taking road kill into the kitchen. The restaurant was named the Houston Astros."  -- Cam Hutchinson


" The NBA players' union is challenging the league's vow to unilaterally institute a system of fines for repeat flopping. In other words, the players won't take this falling down.  -- Dwight Perry
"On their return to the NFL during the Thursday night Baltimore Ravens-Cleveland Brown game, the regular officials were cheered and then booed two minutes later. It was just like my Honeymoon."  -- Alex Kaseberg
"Breaking news from the Major League baseball playoffs: Alex Rodriguez just struck out three times during batting practice.  -- Brad Dickson
"At Coastal Carolina University, someone was charged with public disorderly conduct/intoxication, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and domestic violence. To give you an idea of how troubled college sports are: this was the cheerleading coach."  -- Brad Dickson  

CP-