MLB 2011!!

[OzzyKP]

4 important games.

That's what is so great about today. Not only were there the four hugely important games to determine the wild card, but the Tigers & Rangers were still fighting it out for homefield advantage as well. SIX meaningful games on the last day of the season. All of which, with the exception of Cards-Astros was decided in the 8th inning or later. TWO games went to the 12th or 13th inning. It was just so exciting to be following all these different games at the same time. All of which were amazing, high drama games all on their own.

The MLB network announcers were all saying it was the greatest night of baseball (or even of all of sports) they had ever seen. Whew, just amazing.

[Ben Kenobi]

Will be cheering for the Rangers and Phillies, oh and for the Tigers to KO the Yankees. Then the circle will be complete. No Giants, no Braves. No BoSox. Just the Yankees.

[Ben Kenobi]

http://www.nesn.com/2011/01/2011-red-sox-will-challenge-1927-yankees-for-title-of-greatest-team-in-major-league-history.html

"Yet one run is all it might take to win a game on some days with the starting staff the Red Sox have assembled"

[Imran Siddiqui]

Good for them.

Gotta respect a team (grudgingly in the case of the Yankees) who play hard to the end and go for the win, even though the game is meaningless for them.

Um... that's not exactly what I said. The Yankees were throwing all sorts of players... players who likely won't be on the postseason roster. The ONLY pitcher who threw more than 2 innings was Scott Proctor.

[OzzyKP]

Someone posted on another forum that as of today the 2011 Red Sox are 77-1 when leading after 8 innings.

Damn.

[Guynemer]

From fivethirtyeight.com:

The following is not mathematically rigorous, since the events of yesterday evening were contingent upon one another in various ways. But just for fun, let’s put all of them together in sequence:

The Red Sox had just a 0.3 percent chance of failing to make the playoffs on Sept. 3.
The Rays had just a 0.3 percent chance of coming back after trailing 7-0 with two innings to play.
The Red Sox had only about a 2 percent chance of losing their game against Baltimore, when the Orioles were down to their last strike.
The Rays had about a 2 percent chance of winning in the bottom of the 9th, with Johnson also down to his last strike.

Multiply those four probabilities together, and you get a combined probability of about one chance in 278 million of all these events coming together in quite this way.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm just saying, God hates the Red Sox. He just got bored during the 00's.

[OzzyKP]

Also, the Yankees have not lost a game when they had a 7 run lead in the 8th inning or later since 1953. What a convergence.

[Imran Siddiqui]

In the Yankees side, you could make a good case that they were trying to lose as best they can . Though the Rays sure did take advantage.

[rah]

If I had been the Yankees I would have wanted to play Boston. Definitely not hot like the Rays, more hatred, and more hype for the Eastern Seaboard Programming Network.

[Ben Kenobi]

Don't they get the Chicago Broadcasting Station out there?

[rah]

What station is that?

[Ben Kenobi]

You know - See BS.

[OzzyKP]

Are you saying they have a Chicago bias? Or did you just pick a network with a C in their name?

[Imran Siddiqui]

If I had been the Yankees I would have wanted to play Boston. Definitely not hot like the Rays, more hatred, and more hype for the Eastern Seaboard Programming Network.

I think the Yankees feel they can beat either. But it makes it sweeter for them to deny the Red Sox the playoffs.