Remember Game 5 of the World Series? Both parts of it? There was major fallout after the game was suspended, because it seemed convenient of the game to get called immediately after the Rays scored the tying run. On the flip-side, had the game been called before the Rays scored and the rulebook was explicitly followed, you would have had a champion crowned after only playing half of a game. Today, Bud Selig revealed that baseball is doing the right thing:
"All postseason games, All-Star games and that, will be full-length affairs, and the rule will be so written," Selig said Thursday following an owners' meeting."
That's a good move, because I'm pretty sure no baseball fan wanted to see that game end after 4 1/2 innings.
Of course, in true Bud fashion, we're left with questions. It was asked if regular season games in late September would be covered in this rule.
"Any game that has significance for the postseason," he said. "It will be very clear now. Everybody will know exactly."
Let's hope it's clear. I immediately question what you would call "significant" to the postseason.
Anytime a powerhouse regular season team (I'm looking at you, Cubbies) gets knocked out in the baseball playoffs, you'll hear someone say "Anything can happen in a short series!" It's true. A bad start from your ace, a mis-timed error and, whoosh, you're playing golf before the next Frank TV commercial. And that's when you've got to lose three of five games. Imagine if it were just one game? If Lew Wolff, owner of the Oakland A's, had Bud Selig's job, we might find out just how harsh that feeling would be.
"I'd make it one-game-and-you're-out for the first series. It would be exciting. It would be great."
Why bother with a whole game? Whoever scores first wins. And use that Olympic rule where the players start on first and second and you can start your lineup wherever you want. That's excitement, buster!
Look, I get the A's have had a hard time over the years once playoff series move past the first game but this is a real stinker of an idea. No team in baseball history has ever won more than 116 games in a season, which means every now and then you lose to the Royals. That's baseball and that's why, imperfect as they are, five and seven game series are the way to determine the champion.
Not much chance of it happening, though. Wolff says he hasn't said anything to Selig because he's afraid of him. On that, Lew, we are agreed.
After the Phillies won the World Series, thousands of fans poured out in the streets of downtown Philadelphia and celebrated in an extremely peaceful manner. Of course, we only remember the idiots. Unfortunately for those who like to park in the street, a favorite pastime among celebrating idiots is flipping over cars.
We saw them in action last week, and in the video above you can see one poor guy dealing with the aftermath. As the car owner explained on his blog, since he wasn't able to afford an insurance policy that covered vandalism, the drunken decision made by a handful of fans has left him completely screwed. So he's asking for help:
So I was thinking...
There was alot of people on Broad Street last night. If all the people who were hanging out near Broad and Washington (where the car was flipped) gave me ten dollars I could probably buy a new car... or if all the people who actually flipped my car gave me a thousand dollars that could work too.
You can go to his blog and make a donation via PayPal. Hopefully enough fans, even if they weren't even out celebrating that night, will feel bad for the guy and toss him a few bucks.
You'll have to excuse Chase Utley here. After all, winning a World Series is pretty awesome, and when you get to celebrate that achievement in front of all your fans, sometimes the emotion can get the best of you.
So what if your celebratory rally is being broadcast on live television throughout Philadelphia, sometimes you really need that F-bomb to drive your point home. Oh, and the video is NSFW if you haven't figured that out already.
While the Phillies celebrate a well-deserved World Series victory, life (and business) goes on for Major League Baseball. 65 players filed for free agency on the first day of the filing period for eligible players, and it's a completely normal but somewhat sad thing to see so many building blocks from playoff teams packing up and hittin' the old dusty trail.
Tonight's Dugout is a two-parter to give Philly their mad, Hammer-like propers, to find out where the Dugout regulars who didn't reach the mountaintop might be headed, and to officially end our season with FanHouse. Tomorrow the season starts over again when we find out what the hell happened to the Twins.
When a regular city wins a championship, they celebrate. When Philadelphia wins one, they burn the city down. Philly Riots chronicles a city finally pushed over the edge.
Alternate title, if only the gag weren't overused: Phillies Phans Phlip Cars Phor Phun!
In the light of day, with the hangover subsiding and memories from before blacking out re-entering the consciousness, a lot of fans in Philly are realizing just how stupid they acted last night. Sadly, too many fans cross the line from "just plain dumb" to "just plain cruel." It's dumb to climb an extremely tall traffic sign; it's cruel to try maiming a guy climbing said sign by chucking a bottle of vodka at his face. Or, like the video above: it's dumb to jump on some stranger's car, but it's downright cruel to flip it completely over. (via WW & PWD)
When a regular city wins a championship, they celebrate. When Philadelphia wins one, they burn the city down. Philly Riots chronicles a city finally pushed over the edge.
Just when you think Philadelphians can't be any more whacked out about their sports teams, just when you start to believe that maybe this whole Philly World Series thing will be kind of calm, well, some guy decided to go and rob a bank in order to purchase Phillies merchandise.
But one fan may have taken his devotion a bit too far when police say he robbed a bank and later allegedly funded a shopping spree for Phillies gear with the stolen cash.
About 10 a.m. yesterday, a man, who police did not identify, entered a PNC Bank on Welsh Road near Roosevelt Boulevard and slipped the teller a demand note.
[...]About 20 minutes later, cops found the suspect, who police have not identified, a few miles away coming out of the Modell's Sporting Goods store at the Roosevelt Mall, Cottman and Bustleton avenues.
Nothing says "staying classy" like hijacking a bank in order to hop on a bandwagon. No, seriously, there's nothing cool about breaking the law just to pretend your a Phillies fan because they're winning the World Series.
Also, what makes a guy think that this is somehow going to improve his life in any fashion? And, alternately, if you're going to rob a bank, don't you immediately get as far away from said bank as possible and then use the cash to purchase a ticket to the game? Classy and smart.
When a regular city wins a championship, they celebrate. When Philadelphia wins one, they burn the city down. Philly Riots chronicles a city finally pushed over the edge.
While calling Philly citizens out for their early World Series parade plans, we were besieged by kind words like "HEY! &#%!FACE -- how can you say Philly fans are rioters?!?!?!!!1" and "YOURZE A BLOGGER FOR LIVES, WILL BRINZON!!?" So it's encouraging to get (relative) proof that Phillie fans are in fact doing stupid and dangerous things. Like climbing traffic poles and getting beaned in the head by what appears to be a Grey Goose bottle.
Yeah. So how you like us now. (Disclaimer: Yes, I am aware that all people who live in Philadelphia are not represented by this idiot, and I hope he's alright.)
From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.
You've hopefully heard the news by now. The Philadelphia Phillies are the World Series champions of baseball after knocking off the heavily favored Tampa Bay Rays.
The other night, during a live chat, I mentioned something about how the die-hard Phillies fans deserve this more than the Rays fans. It's a slippery slope to be sure, and likely just a bad choice of words, to say something like this. Frankly, no fan deserves anything. We voluntarily spend our time and money on these teams, and probably care way too much about them -- if you ask the majority of Americans. That's the thing, though, we die-hards know this and embrace it.
You want to know why I said the fans of Philly deserve it more? Because they've had more suffering. The only reason a fan puts himself/herself through the ringer for six months every season is the hope that there will eventually be some sort of payoff. The fans of Philadelphia had been waiting for another one since 1980. The Rays didn't even come into existence until 1998.
Remember Game 5 of the World Series? Both parts of it? There was major fallout after the game was suspended, because it seemed convenient of the game to get called immediately after the Rays scored the tying run. On the flip-side, had the game been called before the Rays scored and the rulebook was explicitly followed, you would have had a champion crowned after only playing half of a game. Today, Bud Selig revealed that baseball is doing the right thing: 
Anytime a powerhouse regular season team (I'm looking at you, Cubbies) gets knocked out in the baseball playoffs, you'll hear someone say "Anything can happen in a short series!" It's true. A bad start from your ace, a mis-timed error and, whoosh, you're playing golf before the next Frank TV commercial. And that's when you've got to lose three of five games. 
While the Phillies celebrate a well-deserved World Series victory, life (and business) goes on for Major League Baseball. 65 players filed for free agency on the first day of the filing period for eligible players, and it's a completely normal but somewhat sad thing to see so many building blocks from playoff teams packing up and hittin' the old dusty trail. 
When a regular city wins a championship, they celebrate. When Philadelphia wins one, they burn the city down. Philly Riots chronicles a city finally pushed over the edge.
