Let's take a trip down memory lane to the last time the Cardinals took three in a row from the Astros: On July 15 of this year, the Cardinals faced the Astros and Pujols was 0-for-4 before hitting a walk-off HR into the visitos bullpen at Busch. Like the NLCS, this was also a series marred by injury. Yadier had already been out for a week and this game featured the collision between Sanders and Edmonds in the outfield that would disabled Sanders for nearly two months. But the Cardinals won in dramatic fashion and went on for a complete three game sweep of the Houston ballclub. Adn who were the Astros pitchers for those three games? Pettite, Oswalt, and Clemens.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 18 October 2005 at 9:14 AM

I knew the Astros had lost the game when the players were shown in the dugout wildly cheering the second out in the ninth inning. If there's one thing I know about the Cardinals this year and last, it's that they play a full nine innings. I've seen way too many ninth inning, two out comebacks from this team to count them out before they've had all twenty-seven of their outs.

At this point in the NLCS, we are exactly where we were last year after game five: Down one game and heading home to finish the series. And, as long as Cuzzi doesn't take a turn behind the plate, I like our chances.

Onward to game six, Busch Memorial Stadium, and the best fans in baseball. Don't let us down.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 October 2005 at 11:01 PM

Here's one more reason why giving the Cardinals no primetime games in the NLDS seems like a big mistake on the part of major league baseball: "For Saturday afternoon games on the Fox network, St. Louis had a 9.9 rating - the highest figure for any market in the 10 seasons Fox has been carrying major-league baseball." (link) Maybe on the basis of this MLB figured St. Louis fans would tune in regardless of the playing time.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 10 October 2005 at 3:52 AM

I'm glad that someone has called out Bud Selig for breaking his three year old promise not to have any more 10:00 pm starting times for playoff baseball games. I wish baseball would just embrace having multiple games on at the same time. It's not like anyone outside of the home markets is going to be watching tonight's game anyway, so why not just air it earlier?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 8 October 2005 at 9:09 AM

Today's Penny Arcade strip speaks directly to me. You could swap out Gabe and put me in his place and everything would be accurate.

I hate cinematic scenes in video games. I especially hate cinematic scenes that don't let you skip through them. I'm not playing a video game in order to follow a story or watch actors. If I wanted to do that I'd rent an actual movie: Then I wouldn't be stuck with nonsensical plots, awful dialog, and oddly rendered people. I want to mash buttons and interact with characters on the screen. Cinematic scenes don't allow that. Which is why they are bad.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 7 October 2005 at 10:37 AM

Trump seems a lot more relaxed and comfortable on "The Apprentice" this season, and that is making for a much improved show. Perhaps it just takes a while to figure out what will work on television, but whatever the reason for his attitude change, it has come none too soon. Last spring he pretty much looked like a fool. Now, he comes across as both intelligent and perceptive. A big difference.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 October 2005 at 10:23 PM

You know how, on "The Apprentice," they often show Trump riding around in his limo, pretending to talk to someone on the phone about what he's about to do? (The dialog is something like: "Cancel all my appointments this afternoon while I stop by the ad agency to check on the teams.") Someday, I wish they show Trump in the limo, but instead of talking on the phone, he was doing a line of coke. Or, in keeping with the existing trend, pretending to do a line of coke.

If Trump did that, he would truly be hard-core.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 October 2005 at 9:33 AM

It's extremely interesting that Bush chose Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court given how easy Michael Brown has made it to level charges of cronyism against his administration. Is being confirmable^* so much more important than legal acumen? I suspect that W simply finds the __________ he knows to be more acceptable than the __________ he doesn't know. In this case, fill in the blank with lawyer, although vice-president and FEMA director seem to have been some of W's past responses to this version of mad libs.

^* Much is being made of Miers' lack of a legal track record, but I assume that the Senators will simply switch from examining legal opinions that the nominee has written to examining cases argued both by Ms. Miers and the firm she headed in Dallas. This is somewhat murky as the firm could easily argue positions that aren't Ms. Miers', but that would only seem to be good news for someone bent on destroying her candidacy.

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 3 October 2005 at 3:33 PM