Baseball 2012!

[Aaron W]

I grew up rooting for the Reds, but now that I live in DC, I can't help but root for the Nats as well. It's exciting both the Nats and the Reds appear playoff-bound. Since they're becoming more likely to wind up with the top 2 records in the NL, they'll both have home field advantage in the NLDS and won't have to play each other. Now if they were to both win their NLDS series, it's going to be a tough NLCS for me. I don't want to root against either team! I don't care as much for the AL, so I'll likely end up cheering for the NL team in the World Series (unless it's St. Louis or Atlanta). Having said that, I did grow up rooting for the Tigers (my mom is a Reds fan and my dad is a Tigers fan) and would love to see them prevail over the White Sox for the AL Central title. If they somehow managed to make it into the World Series and they were playing against either the Nats or Reds, I'd probably be unable to pick a side. (I'm sure it would be war between my parents!)

Assuming the Giants win the West and the Braves win the 1 game wildcard playoff:
Nationals vs Giants
Reds vs Braves

Assuming the Giants win the West and the Cardinals/Pirates/Brewers win the 1 game wildcard playoff:
Nationals vs Cardinals/Pirates/Brewers
Reds vs Giants

Assuming the Giants win the West and the Dodgers win the 1 game wildcard playoff:
Nationals (if best NL record) vs Dodgers
Reds vs Giants

or

Nationals vs Giants
Reds (if best NL record) vs Dodgers

[AragornElessar]

I am beyond disgusted and angry over the entire Yunel Escobar situation. Disgusted over what he did, but angry beyond angry that writing an Anti Gay Slur on your Black line underneath your eyes in Spanish, then getting caught, only gets you a Three Game Suspension!?!?!?!

Really?

And now the fan who was the one who posted the photos of Escobar w/this slur on him, is now scared of what could happen to him at the next Jays game and is thinking of turning in his Season Tickets. That would be beyond sad, as what he did, was the action of a real fan IMO.

We don't need this happening. Especially now w/the various Pennant Races being so close and exciting. I would hope that MLB would step in and strongly advise the Jays this dweeb needs to be gone for the rest of the Season. Not for what's a slap on the wrist.

[PrincessLeppard]

Ugh. Sorry that guy plays for your team. And he only got three days? Meh. I hope at least his salary was docked for those days as well.

Of course, the Braves rather quietly hired back Roger McDowell as their pitching coach after that disaster in AT&T Park. So homophobia seems to be semi-tolerated in some places.

But a lot of teams contributed videos to the "It Gets Better" campaign. (The Giants did the first one. )

[professordeb]

PL - he is out for 3 games without pay. Le sigh ... another black eye on the organization.

[AragornElessar]

I heard his pay for the last two games and the one tomorrow is going to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance and another organization that helps Gay and Lesbian Youth.

Regardless, three games suspension is *not* enough and that poor excuse (and I mean that literally...) of a Press Conference yesterday was a laugh and a half. What was it Deb? About fifteen minutes of him going on and on about how many people he "knows" who are Gay. Like his Barber...And his Interior Decorator...And about seven or eight others.

Then he says that it's not a big deal in the Spanish Culture. Uh huh. Last time I looked, Toronto's not in Puerto Rico (I think that's where he's from)

Then to make matters even a bit worse, Jason Frasor during the Pre Game show on Sportsnet answers the question on how he felt about all of this in a matter that just had Mom and me rolling our eyes in disgust. He obviously thinks from the way he answered it's funny and no big deal.

The first game home after this Road Trip should be rather interesting.

[Lara]

Ugh. Went to post that Heather should ban me from ever tuning into Reds games online because every single time I seem to end up watching Votto strike out. No idea why I'm apparently a jinx!

But I'm sad/disgusted to hear about Escobar. Especially being Puerto Rican myself.

ETA - OMG, I know that word and had no idea it actually meant faggot!!! I've heard it way, way too often in that case. Not that it justifies what he did...

[Rob]

Unfortunately that is one of the first Spanish words I learned and the people using it knew exactly what it meant. Working in kitchens can be nasty.

I just told this story to my native Spanish speaking husband from Mexico, and he knows of no alternate meaning for that word. Maricon means faggot, queer, pansy. In some countries, they use pato or patito (which also means duck or duckling) for faggot, but maricon does not mean duck.Why would he write "you're a duck" anyway.

What an idiot. So he is saying that calling people names is not a big deal in the Spanish speaking cultures. Riiiight.


Nationals need one win to clinch a playoff spot and I am going tomorrow! I went Sunday in Atlanta and they lost.

[HeatherC]

Ugh. Went to post that Heather should ban me from ever tuning into Reds games online because every single time I seem to end up watching Votto strike out. No idea why I'm apparently a jinx!

Joey wasn't quite himself for a few games due to all the time he missed but his bat has been heating up lately so you may not see him strike out as much if you decide to watch again. Unless the Reds lose every single time you watch, I will not ban you from watching my guys, LOL

My Reds have finally broken the 90 win mark (only the Reds and Nats have hit that mark so far this season ) and the magic number is now THREE for them to clinch the NL Central title. PLEASE do it on Friday night when I'm there so I can see it in person again!!!!

[Zemgirl]

Of course, the Braves rather quietly hired back Roger McDowell as their pitching coach after that disaster in AT&T Park. So homophobia seems to be semi-tolerated in some places.

But a lot of teams contributed videos to the "It Gets Better" campaign. (The Giants did the first one. )

McDowell wasn't hired back because he was never actually fired. He was suspended, first by the Braves and then by MLB, for two weeks. I don't know what exactly happened (I looked it up on Wikipedia but I don't know what part of the allegations was substantiated) so I can't say if this was reasonable or not. If the allegations were all or mostly true, he should be out of baseball.

Yunel Escobar has always been an idiot, which is why he was traded to Toronto to begin with; the Braves didn't want him around. Maybe the Blue Jays can find another taker for him, but it'll get progressively more difficult to find someone willing to take on someone like that.

Baseball suspensions tend to be short, I guess because the MLBPA is so strong. Still, the short suspension Escobar received sends the wrong message - to him and to the public. It would have been better to give him a longer suspension, even if it were ultimately shortened on appeal.

Re It Gets Better: when it started out the focus was on LGBT kids, they were the target audience and the videos were mainly by unknown people. As it became bigger and more famous people got involved, it seemed to become less LGBT-oriented and more of a general anti-bullying initiative. I'm not sure that I'd consider participation to be support of the original objectives of the project.

[PrincessLeppard]

The Giants It Gets Better specifically mentions GLBT youth. Maybe it's because they're from SF.

Giants magic number is 5.

[Zemgirl]

The Giants It Gets Better specifically mentions GLBT youth. Maybe it's because they're from SF.

That's good, then - not that there's anything wrong with an anti-bullying initiative, but I did feel the message of the original campaign was kind of swept aside at times. And it sometimes seems like baseball culture is less progressive when it comes to gay rights compared to other sports, so I'm happy that's not the case everywhere. Now if we could just get a baseball player to write up something like Chris Kluwe's letter and columns...

BTW, do you have the link to the Giants' It Gets Better video?

[PrincessLeppard]

I do!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1TcD95kmGQ

[AragornElessar]

Anyone else wondering just how high Rob's floating off the ground right now on his way home after seeing the Nats clinch at the very least a Wild Card spot? (As I understand it from what the commentators are saying during the massacre of the Jays at the hands of the Yankees going on at the moment...) Aaron must also be in the same situation right now too.

And the Reds also clinched a Wild Card at the very least too tonight?

If so...Congrats to Heather and the rest of the Reds fans around here and to Rob, Aaron and the rest of the Nationals/Expos fans around here. If what I've heard was right, you're off to October Baseball!!

[PrincessLeppard]

I was cheering for the Nationals because they were playing the Dodgers. I didn't realize it clinched them a spot.

Giants magic number is 3. *fingerscrossed*

[HeatherC]

Thanks Aragorn! Yes, the Reds indeed clinched at the very least a wild card spot for the playoffs and I LOVED seeing that little X appear next to their name on the MLB homepage indicating they're now postseason bound! The Reds Magic Number is now 2 for them to win the NL Central so they should be able to do that at home now. I'm hoping the Cards lose tomorrow afternoon so the Reds can then win and clinch the division tomorrow night here in Cincy. I'm going to be there and I REALLY want to see them clinch again! There is nothing like watching your team go totally bonkers after winning the division and I want to see that again SO bad tomorrow. GO REDS!!!

Congrats Rob on your Nats clinching their spot today too!

[Aaron W]

I could have been at the game last night where the Nats beat the Dodgers to clinch at least a wild card spot. There was a Groupon late last month for several different Nats games. I had a few friends who were interested in going and we'd settled on the game scheduled for last night against the Dodgers. Unfortunately by the time I went to purchase the Groupon, it had sold out. Oh well. Clinching at least a wild card spot used to have a little more significance. As it stands now, clinching a wild card spot is only a guarantee for a 1 game playoff for the right to play one of the division champs. I'll be more excited next week assuming they're able to clinch the NL East and therefore avoid the 1 game playoff!

[elka_sk8]

I could have been at the game last night where the Nats beat the Dodgers to clinch at least a wild card spot. There was a Groupon late last month for several different Nats games. I had a few friends who were interested in going and we'd settled on the game scheduled for last night against the Dodgers. Unfortunately by the time I went to purchase the Groupon, it had sold out. Oh well. Clinching at least a wild card spot used to have a little more significance. As it stands now, clinching a wild card spot is only a guarantee for a 1 game playoff for the right to play one of the division champs. I'll be more excited next week assuming they're able to clinch the NL East and therefore avoid the 1 game playoff!

We took a risk and got tickets today for NLDS home games 2 and 3 when they went on sale. Let's hope they make it that far!

I also grew up rooting for the Reds so happy to see them in the playoffs too!

[PrincessLeppard]

Thanks to Heather's Reds beating up on the Dodgers today, the Giants clinched the NL West with their win tonight.

[HeatherC]

Thanks to Heather's Reds beating up on the Dodgers today, the Giants clinched the NL West with their win tonight.

That win more importantly clinched the NL Central title for my Reds so I am BEYOND stoked for my guys right now!! I cannot wait to go to the game tomorrow night and buy some 2012 NL Central championship gear! Not going crazy because I hope there's more gear to buy later in the post season....

In the epic fail department though, you gotta love our local Fox Sports Ohio asshats who promoted ALL DAY LONG that they would have live post game stuff if the Reds clinched today and then EPICALLY DID NOT SHOW A DARN THING because of an alleged transmission failure. They're supposedly going to air the celebration on Monday evening now which is kind of like celebrating New Year's Eve at 12:45 AM. Yeah, thanks for nothing jerks. EPIC.FAIL.

[PrincessLeppard]

Yeah. I have to watch the mlb.tv feed on my computer, and they cut off the celebration as the guys went into the clubhouse. Apparently, Brian Wilson danced to "Gangnam Style" and I missed it.