And the League Championship Series keep plugging along.

Game One: Rays (Garza) at Red Sox (Lester), 4:37 p.m.

Game Two: Phillies (Blanton) at Dodgers (Lowe), 8:22 p.m.

OMG, Boston is going to play the early game?!  Who would've thunk it.  I fully expected that the Dodgers and Phillies would've been forced to play one of those breakfast at the park specials.  Wonders never cease.

Lowe will be going on three days rest.  I haven't looked up his stats, but normally sinker ball pitchers aren't hurt by the occasional short rest starts.

Since I am on a little bit of a Dodgers theme, I wanted to relay something to you that I read in ESPN the Magazine, Oct. 6, 2008 edition.  (Yes, I'm behind on my reading.)

It is a sort of interview with the Dodgers middle reliever, Joe Beimel and the second "question" is sort of humorous.

2. WE KNOW WE'RE FANTASY IRRELEVANT. 

"We don't rack up the stats that help fantasy teams, and that doesn't bother me.  But it does make it funny when fans shout, 'You're on my fantasy team!  Throw me a ball!'  "It's like, c'mon.  We both know I'm not on your team."

Do the usual and pick a winner for each game and for the late game: a player of the game and an AAB selection.

Best of Luck to You!

The Arizona Fall League is in full swing and John Raynor is trying to make some noise by hitting for the cycle on Friday.

John Raynor liked what he saw at the plate Friday.

"The ball was really looking big to me today," the Marlins prospect said after hitting for the cycle and driving in three runs to lead the Mesa Solar Sox to a 9-5 victory over the Surprise Rafters.

The 24-year-old center fielder went 4-for-5 with two runs scored to raise his fall average to .462 (6-for-13) through four games for the Solar Sox (2-2).

If you like to follow the young ones, our good friend Matt, aka Maverick, is doing at good job of covering the winter leagues at Future Fish.  So be sure to checkout his site out from time to time.  I must say, I completely agree with Matt about Thompson, it is way too early in his career to have him coming out of the pen.

Should you want to check on all the players cumulative stats, go no further than here:

2008 Arizona Fall League

To refresh your memory: all of the Guppies are playing for the Mesa Solar Sox.

The ones you are looking for are:

Pitchers:

Todd Doolittle

Aaron Thompson

Sean West

Tim Wood

Position players:

Logan Morrison

Scott Cousins

John Raynor

Arizona is where it is at when it comes to watching the young players.  It was in the AFL that Dan Uggla first caught the eye of the Marlins baseball operations people.

Jeff Conine, Mr. Marlin, achieved what he set out to do in Hawaii.

Mr. Clutch came through "in the toughest race of my life" at the Ford Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

With his wife Cindy, three kids, parents and in-laws waiting for him at the finish line, former Florida Marlin Jeff Conine, 42, of Weston completed his first Ironman late Saturday in 14 hours, 43 minutes and 45 seconds. He is the first finisher to also have played in the major leagues.

It was the first time Conine did all three disciplines in one day at the Ironman distance.

The course was a 2.4-mile swim (1:32:41), 112-mile bike (7:35:47) and 26.2-mile run (5:13:56). 

Conine was 1,499th among a field of 1,731. There were only 97 who did not finish.

Even better Conine accomplished what he set out to do: raise awareness and funds for the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines as a tribute to his friend Howard Zimmerman, who lost his battle to cancer in November.

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He bettered the finishing time of Marlins President David Samson, who completed the 2006 Ironman in 15:36:44.

Somehow the part about bettering Samson's time doesn't surprise me at all.

While the Niner did something I would never consider doing.  (For some reason drowning in the first leg of the event has never appealed to me.  Go figure.)  He wasn't the only one from South Florida to compete in the competition.

Carol Hassell of West Palm Beach won her age group and was the top local woman finisher in a career-best 11:52:50.

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Other local finishers: 

Brian Monaghan, Coconut Grove9:36:38; Dean Warhaft, Miami 10:44:01; Shayne Macherowski,Boca Raton 10:47:23; Racheal Wood, Deerfield Beach 12:26:24; Robert Whitmore, North Palm Beach 13:03:50; Robert Anderson, West Palm Beach 13:07:39; Martin Hynes, Oakland Park 14:40:13; Neil Bayer,Coral Gables 15:22:58; Joseph Marx, West Palm Beach 16:02:46.

Congratulations to Jeff and all the other South Floridians!

Job well done!

I was planning on holding off on Marlins Crap for awhile, but then I saw a link that intrigued me:  Classic Furniture: Guidecraft Florida Marlins Rocking Chair.

All my life I have loved rocking chairs, especially the handcrafted wooden ones.  So when I saw the link I got all excited imagining a well crafted wooden rocking chair with the Marlins emblem tastefully embossed into the design.

And then I click on the link, needless to say it didn't meet my expectations.  Classic Furniture, my butt.

Though, perhaps, you may like it.

The Bridegrooms are back home in Chavez Ravine and are hoping for a different result in the game tonight.

The only game: Phillies (Moyer) at Dodgers (Kuroda), 8:22 p.m.

In Jamie "Freaking" Moyer's last start against Milwaukee the Brewers were able to solve him, maybe the Dodgers can too.

Kuroda last start was a gem.  He went 6.1 innings and allowing 0 runs.  Historically he has done very well against the Phillies.

As per the usual, you will be picking the winner of the game, a player of the game and an AAB pick.

Best of Luck to You!

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The League Championship Series continues tonight in Saint Petersburg.  And hopefully with a different result.  Now, you maybe for Boston, and that is cool, but I am not.  

The only game: Red Sox (Beckett) at Rays (Kazmir), 8:07 p.m.

Rooting against Beckett is foreign to me, but there are times one must do something that is completely against their nature in this life.  (Anyone buying that explanation?)

I could go into why I tear up a bit every time Kazmir pitches, but then again, that is water under the bridge.

Do the usual: pick the team who you think will win the game, a player of the game and some sort of an Above and Beyond pick.  You know, just the way you have done so many times before.

Have a Great Weekend!  And as always, Best of Luck to You!

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The League Championship Series continue today and the AL coming to the plate for the first time.

Game One: Dodgers (Billingsley) at Phillies (Myers), 4:35 p.m.

Game Two: Red Sox (Matsuzaka) at Rays (Shields), 8:37 p.m.

Of course, the Red Sox game will be in prime time.  It has been that way all playoffs long.  I hope I don't need to go into the reason why this is so.  And believe me, it has absolutely nothing to do with the nation would rather watch a Red Sox game.

The upside to it is that the Rays will get to play in the prime time game.  Something they haven't spent much time doing during the playoffs, so far.

I am soooo outta time.

Best of Luck to You!

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Forbes came up with rating of its 10 Sports Franchises most likely to move and naturally, the Florida Marlins are one of them.

What do the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, New York Islanders and basketball's New Orleans Hornets all have in common?

Dreary stadiums they don't own and stalling businesses eager to rake in more cash. In other words, they're all ripe for a move. And that means city or state governments around the country can expect them to come calling for help financing a new venue.

It is extremely hard to move a MLB franchise.  First, the commissioners office has to approve it and then it needs the approval of the majority of owners of the other baseball teams.  This doesn't happen very often.

Major League Baseball, a world of local TV deals and 81 annual games that make market size much more important, has had just one franchise move since 1970--that being the excursion of the struggling Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C., three years ago.

If any club is going to break that spell, expect it to come from Florida, a seemingly natural baseball market that hasn't lived up to expectations. Both the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays have been at or near the bottom of the league in attendance for a decade, thanks in part to the dreary stadiums they call home. Sports marketing experts call the Marlins' Dolphin Stadium and the Rays' Tropicana Field "major impediments" to success.

Given the economic climate it is possible that Miami-Dade or the City of Miami could kill the deal on the stadium.  They have that option, but it would cost them given the fact they would've to reimburse to other parties for all expenses on the stadium up until the point they called it quits.

It would be very surprising if that were to happen.

And even if the Marlins ended up homeless, exactly where would they go?  It is not like any part of the country is doing well, economically, at the moment.

Take heart, there is a history of building stadiums during economic downturns.  Back during the era of the WPA and the CCC new baseball stadiums were built.  For example: the monstrosity known as Cleveland Municipal Stadium was one of the projects.  The stadium, when finished, was built with...I don't know...about a gazillion bricks.  Not to mention the fact it was much too large to be a decent baseball stadium.  (Though as it turned out, it wasn't a half bad football stadium.)

I guess what I am saying is that in economic downturns and even ones that last for quite sometime, stadiums have been built in the past and they probably will be again in the situation we may find ourselves in.

It is duty of the government to spend money on infrastructure projects if things are looking bad economically.  And believe it or not, baseball stadiums qualify in that category.

So I doubt the Marlins are going anywhere.  Oh, by the way, Forbes celebrated all the so called "wealth" created by the leveraging of derivatives when it was happening -- so what do they know.

It is Friday and with the playoffs in full swing, there isn't much to report.  Oh sure, I could've put together a statistics laden post that may have, or not, shown some insight into the Marlins season.  But that would've taken work and some thought, and that ain't gonna happen today, if ever.

So instead I decided to take the easy road and go with a Marlins Crap post.  Maybe in your life it is different, but in mine, laziness always seems to win out.

Without any other further ado: Here is the Marlins Crap post.

The first one I stumbled upon was this:

MLB Florida Marlins III black silk ties.

The promotion on the site has this to say:

Come celebrate America’s greatest past time, baseball! This delightful necktie celebrates the rich history of the Florida Marlins. Featured within is a stylish pattern of the Marlins’ logo across a rich 100% silk black jacquard background. For true Marlins fans with good taste, few ties look better. Go Marlins!

The good taste part is debatable.

Then it occurred to me that most of the FishStripers, probably, aren't big into wearing ties.

Therefore the search continued.  And then I found this:

Florida Marlins Black Three-Pack Golf Club Headcovers

This site pitches its product in the following way;

Show off your true fanaticism while playing a round with these cushioned sock golf club head covers! Each box includes numbers 1,3 and X.

Of course, golf may not be the leisure activity of choice by anybody who reads this site.  But it does help fill up a post.

Hopefully, we won't have many more Marlins Crap post during the offseason.  But you never know.

And that ends today's Marlins Crap post.  I really need to work on the laziness thing and I get right on it, in the next decade, or two.

The League Championship Series starts today with the National League taking center stage.

Dodgers (Lowe) at Phillies (Hamels), 8:22 p.m.

The National League games will be on Fox, which probably means we will get the...uh..."pleasure" of listening to Jack Buck and Tim McCarver drone on incessantly.  One can only hope they will notice that a game is going on sometime during the series and make intelligent comments about it.  But that is probably too much to ask.

Looking at the early rounds of starting pitching, the Dodgers appear to have the better starters.  While the Phillies have more and better boppers, which should be interesting while the games are being played in that bandbox the Phillies call a stadium.

But if history is any indicator, good pitching normally shuts down good hitting.

Just like in the LDS, you will be picking the winner of the game, player of the game and an AAB pick.

Ichthyomancy is ready to get this party started.  Best of Luck to You!  

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