Tag Archives: World Series

March 25, 2011

Doin MLB Predictions

By chappy81

For every sport, we make our predictions on how they will play out for the season. Last year By nailed it picking the Giants to win the World Series. We all got some right here and there last season making us feel like our predictions should hold some weight. Even if some of them seem laughable, just remember we did get a lot of stuff right last year!

AL East Winner

Chappy picks Boston Red Sox. If they aren’t the favorite in the AL, I don’t know who is. No need to rattle off their acquisitions because all of them were frontline news with each 9 or 10 figure contract that was signed. This team could set some records on offense. I hope the Rays somehow beat them out, but I’m less than confident that will happen.

By picks Boston Red Sox. Not sure how I feel about the BoSox after this past off-season.  Although the Red Sox have never shied away from spending a boat load of money on their players, they have always been second fiddle to the Yanks in the “shoving dollars down a free-agent’s throat” department.  But not this time.  Chappy won’t mention the names, but I will.  Carl “Freakin'” Crawford and Adrian “God Damn” Gonzalez.  You don’t need much else to say here.  Bahstan takes the AL East.

MCeezy picks New York Yankees. I know Boston looks sexy on paper with Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez in tow, but I see huge question marks in their pitching staff and that’s what may very well kill them. Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon had pretty demoralizing seasons last year. The Yankees on the other hand added the AL leader in Saves last year as their setup man.

AL Central Winner

Chappy picks Chicago White Sox. Chicago came on strong at the end of the year, but their sluggish start killed them. I don’t see that happening this year with basically the same team in tact, and an addition of Adam Dunn to the middle of the order. I picked them last year, and think they got better than they were last year over the off-season, so no reason not to pick them again.

By picks Minnesota Twins. I have to go with Minnesota here.  Joe Mauer and the Playstation guy are at it again, and when those two get together (and are both healthy) the Twins are tough to beat.  All jokes aside, remember, if Justin Morneau doesn’t suffer a season ending injury just prior to the post-season, the Twins could have very well beaten the Yanks in the ALDS last season.  O.K. maybe not.

MCeezy picks Cleveland Indians. Yes, I’m dead serious. Research shows that 1 in 7 division winning teams were not very good the year before. This year, that team will be the Indians. Everybody knows that owner Rachel Phelps just wants the team to tank so they can move to Anaheim with the Kings. But in 2011, the year of winning, how can the Tribe not win the whole f***in thing? Charlie Sheen is going to come back as Ricky Vaughn, whether producers allow him in Major League 3 or not. Since they most likely won’t, we may be lucky enough to see Sheen run onto the field with the Wild Thing hairdo just cause he feels like it.

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November 1, 2010

San Francisco: World Champions

By mceezy

It was a bittersweet victory for me tonight. Although I rep Northern California like nobody’s business, I’m still an A’s fan, so it’s tough to see the other team win it all. The way I looked at it, there were four World Series trophies in Oakland, why do we need any on the other side of the Bay? But the fact remains, San Francisco is my home. I spent 7 of the greatest years of my life there, but I’ll admit I’m a little bitter they did it now, but couldn’t come through back in 2002 when I resided there. Nonetheless, I love this group of players they put together over there in the City. How can you not be happy they won?

Despite all the NorCal love on Doin Work, there’s only one true Giants fan on board here. Congrats to By on seeing his team win the hardware. And even though Chappy and I bleed Green and Gold, it’s GREAT to see Northern California bring home its first major pro sports championship since 1994.

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November 1, 2010

Monday Dribblers…

By chappy81

Even Al is cracking a smile!

Oakland Going Streaking!

Yes, the Oakland Raiders finally can say they’ve won two in a row. It predates Doin Work’s existence, and is the first time that it’s happened since 2008 when Jamarcus made us think he was improving. This time it’s much different though as we are actually in the divisional race. We’ve looked good on both sides of the ball, and I think the guys are finally starting to believe they can win. McFadden finally has decided to be one of those elite backs we were all hoping he would be. Yesterday was the first time we’ve put up 500 yards of offense since 2002 when we had Gannon. It’s also the first time we’ve had fantasy relevant players! Heyward-Bey finally got over the century mark in receiving yards for a game, and scored his second career TD. Our defense has been sacking QB’s at an amazing rate, and already have 24 on the season witch is good enough to tie the Giants for third in the league. They are ranked 9th in defense overall, and getting pressure on the QB has helped the not as good corner opposite Nnamdi look a little better. The offense hasn’t been explosive per say, but just efficient enough, and chewing up enough clock to keep our defense from being tired like they were at the end of every game last year. That has been the biggest difference this year by a long shot. It feels foreign to me to see them actually improving from week to week instead of improving then regressing. I’m happy to say that my prediction for them making the AFC Championship game is still alive 8 weeks in. This weekend we have a huge divisional match up for what could be a factor in deciding the division as they take on the first place Chiefs. Thankfully this match up is at home and is supposedly sold out, so it should be on TV for once! Another thing I’m starting to love about these wins is it’s pissing off Patriots fans because they see their possibilities of having a top ten pick next year dwindle by the week!

Watching lots of NBA action, and I forgot about a team in the West…

Since we are all blessed with the NBA League pass for the first week of the season for free, I ended up seeing quite a few teams that I normally don’t get to see much since they aren’t contenders or in a big market. A few teams impressed me like Indiana, Portland, New Orleans, and Sacramento, but one team made more of an impression on me for some reason was the Memphis Grizzlies. Are they actually a good team? Memphis was nearly .500 last year, but I wasn’t really sure if they were a “good” close to .500 team or a “lucky” close to .500 team, since I didn’t get to see them play much. I watched good portions of them beating Dallas and Minnesota over the weekend, and have to say that this team actually has some solid potential. They got 22 steals against Minnesota, and pretty much dominated them. Dallas they snuck away with a victory, but got the W nonetheless. This team is very young, but they have all their starting spots filled with quality guys that are just entering their 2nd or 3rd seasons. Even though I don’t see any of them being superstars, much like OKC they have a solid core of young talent that likes playing with eachother. Everyone knocks Rudy Gay, but the guy was clutch against Dallas, and if they have a closer, they already have more than some teams. OJ Mayo is a great scorer. He’s not as exciting as I originally thought he’d be coming out of college, but he can fill up the cup. Marc Gasol is improving about as fast as his older brother did. Mike Conley is shockingly better than I thought he’d be when he was playing at Ohio State. Darell Arthur seems to be a great glue guy who you don’t have to run plays for but still finds a way to chip in 15 on any given night, and is filling in admirably for Zach Randolph nursing his tailbone. Their bench isn’t all that exciting, and may hold this team back, but just based off the starting five, they are pretty solid.

World Series Ratings

Yes, we get it, the World Series ratings are extremely low. So what if it means more people would rather watch a regular season matchup of either MIN/NYJ or PIT/NO. Does that influence me to watch those games over the WS? Not really, I still took in the fall classic, because I’m intrigued by the teams and storylines. I think this once again proves that the Eastcoast media bias has too strong of a hold on what were supposed to care about. Just because it’s non-Eastcoast teams we are lead to believe that we aren’t supposed to care about it. If you like baseball, why wouldn’t you be into the WS? I for one find the most important games of a sport that I watched for 7 months more intriguing than football games midway through the regular season… I think the problem with the ratings is more that far more people like football, its just a fact. If baseball had half of the football audience, and everyone didn’t hate listening to Joe Buck,  I’m sure they’d have higher ratings. If Lincecum vs. Lee doesn’t get you excited, then you probably aren’t a baseball fan.

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October 20, 2010

MLB Playoff Gloating, and Some Old Wounds

By chappy81

Rangers and Giants World Series

Did you seriously think I couldn't out coach Girardi!?! What planet are you on?

Is it really going to happen? The two teams I wanted to win could be squaring off in the World Series. I’m always a fan of the underdog, so usually my teams get knocked out just after I decide to root for them. Naturally, it makes me not care much who wins the championship when the teams I don’t care about are in the final series. This year has been different though, and the teams that I’m rooting for, for some reason, are actually winning. It’s like when I get excited seeing one of my bets at halftime correct, only to see said team fail to cover. Maybe, because neither series is over, especially the Giants and Phillies because it’s only a 2-1 series lead, and the Phillies have the pitching and hitting to come back. Plus the Giants seem to have a hard time closing out their opponent, (see the regular season against the Padres). The only reason I feel like that series is a done deal is because my 80 year old grandpa said to me over the phone last night that the Giants would win the WS. Sure, he’s been a big Giants fan his whole life, but MCeezy will vouch for him that if he says it, it will come true! It’s one heart attack win after another for the Giants all season long, so I hope grandpa didn’t jinx them. In the other league, my ALCS prediction was spot on. It’s been awhile since I was able to gloat about a prediction, so here it goes with the things I was right about! The Rangers made the Yankees look old, check. They scored every way imaginable while running all over Posada, check. Ron Washington out coached Joe Girardi by not over managing and getting his players motivated, check. The only thing I didn’t predict was how good the Rangers pitchers would be, and honestly aside from the bullpen meltdown in game 1, they dominated the best hitting lineup in the league. Now that the Rangers are up 3-1 I feel comfortable saying they will be in the World Series. Even if the Yankees somehow shake it off, and win the next two games they will have to face Cliff Lee in game 7. I’d say that means series over anyway you look at it.

Kirk Gibson Still Grinds My Gears

It’s been 22 years since Kirk broke my heart as a young baseball fan with his gimp pinch hit home run off the A’s unstoppable Eckersly. At seven years old, I didn’t think I’d hate his name still 22 years later, but reading about him selling off that historic pinch hit bat making me relive that experience yet again filled me with that same hatred. It’s bad enough they show his fist pumps around the bases every month or two during the season, but having to read about the intricacies of the bat and jersey made me throw up in my mouth a little. Here’s what Gibson said that made me relive one of my worst childhood sports moments,

If you look at the handle on the end of that bat, there’s an ‘x’ because it was a reject. I really only got it because it was so light, I was hurt, so I started to get that ready,” he said. “The cleat marks at the head of the bat where I hit my shoes, there’s indentations at the beginning of the bat. At the end of the bat, it was so deep, there’s really deep indentations, the red ink from the foul balls I hit is on it. You can actually see the spot where I made contact with the ball. It’s preserved very well.”

I can take a little solace in the fact that he is a dick, and many people don’t like him, but it just reminds me that some things you never really get over. I guess holding grudges is part of being a fan. Devastating moment #2 was probably the “Tuck Rule.”

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November 1, 2009

World Series Game 4 Preview

By chappy81

Joe Blanton PhilliesI’m still having trouble getting excited about the World Series this year. This game is intriguing to me though. I guess it took sending a former A’s player to the mound in Joe Blanton for me to get excited about it. I think Blanton will do better than people expect him to, especially since fans in Philly and New York are doubting him. He could go six and hold the Yankees to two or three. I was kind of excited to see Swisher actually do something last night, but in the midst of Halloween celebrations, there were other things that were more worthy of my attention. The old CC on short rest storyline is always over hyped. The guy has done it like fifty times already, we don’t need to keep hearing about it. I’m sure he’ll be extra fired up after losing the first one to Lee. One thing I’ll never understand about A-Rod is how all of New York forgives him when he gets one hit. If we start hearing the Mr. October bs again, I might have to boycott the rest of the series. Hasn’t he been sucking just as bad as Ryan Howard this whole series? Hopefully Blanton’s tendency to give up the long ball doesn’t include him serving one up to A-Rod… Jayson Werth has been hands down the scariest hitter on either team. I hope Philly can pull out a win, but they might have to wait another night like when they have Lee on the mound. I’m hoping for a slugfest tonight, which would improve Philly’s winning odds. Hopefully they can get to CC early or else they probably won’t get to him at all.

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