Well, here we are. After a maddening season that involved Sidney Ponson and Larry Bigbie, crazed monsoons, three games against the White Sox that made our souls die and, of course, that final two weeks, our beloved St. Louis Cardinals are one game away from a most improbable World Series.
We remain less than convinced that it’s going to happen, and we’ve been spinning double-blind reverse jinxes all day. (”No way they’re going to win. Nothing is over. The Mets have two home games and Carpenter has struggled of late. We think Tony La Russa is going to bat the pitcher sixth or something.”) But we’re here anyway, one game away. Some Mets fans think they’re doomed, but we are not falling into that trap.
So, Game 6 tonight, back at Shea, Chris Carpenter vs. John Maine … and yes, thanks to a rather enterprising book editor, we will be there, in the mezzanine, wearing a Cardinals hat and ducking projectiles. Yes, we know, the Cardinals are 0-5 this season when we’ve been in attendance. So we apologize in advance, fellow fans. We couldn’t resist.
When we get home, we’ll update appropriately. We hope to be gleefully covered in champagne; we fear we will be caked in welts.
Discuss the game in the comments if you’d like. Whether we’ll have the intestinal fortitude to read them or not, well, we’ll find out. Enjoy.
This video, shot by a fan from the Comerica Field left-field bleachers just beyond where Maggio Ordonez hit his World Series-trip-clinching home run Saturday afternoon, is yet another example of why baseball is the greatest thing on earth. (At least until the Cardinals blow the next two, which is no way a reverse jinx.) We think Detroit’s going to be pretty ready for Saturday evening.
By the way, a reader sends in the following story:
Will,
I have a quick question for you. About 3 weeks ago, my friend purchased playoff tickets for the Tigers with a few other guys and divided them up so each person got tickets to one game each round. My friend promised me repeatedly over the past 21 days that I would go to the World Series with him because he had 2 tickets for Game 2 in Detroit on Sunday, I was the biggest fan he knew, we’ve been friends for 10 years etc, etc. The ticket was mine, it had been promised to me repeatedly and I couldnt be more excited. So yesterday he calls to tell me that I’m NOT going to the game and instead he’s taking some girl he’s been chasing for years but who has no interest in him whatsoever.
So my question is: What do I do? The only reaction I can think of is murder. If I did murder him would any jury convict me? Can I ever talk to him again? He took away a Tigers World Series ticket; if he had run over my dog and punched my mom in the face, I don’t think I would be this devastated. Help.
You can kill him. Seriously. You can. It’s the law. Need help?
It’s hard to believe, but the NBA season is just around the corner. So come with us now as we present five tiny tidbits on each team, just to get you in the mood. Today we continue with the Southeast Division, so do us a favor and send your tips to tips@deadspin.com.
• 1. A Cat Named Bob. Up close it looks like a big kitty … which can gnaw off your foot. But the Bobcats originally were to be named the Flight; at least that’s the nickname the fans voted for when the Charlotte Hornets left town in 2002. Also, their owner is “A cat named Bob” … Robert L. Johnson.
• 2. “You Have To Look Ahead Or You Are Lost”. Wálter Herrmann, who is of German descent but was born in Argentina, led the Argentines to gold in the Athens Olympics. He lost his mother, sister and girlfriend in a car accident in 2003. Exactly one year later, his father died of a heart attack.
• 3. Fear The Mustache. Adam Morrison likes Rage Against the Machine, X-Raided and Metallica, is friends with J.J. Redick, had posters of Che Guevara and Larry Bird on his wall at Gonzaga and always eats steak and baked potatoes two hours and 15 minutes before a game. Oh, and he cries like a little bitch when there’s still time left in the game and his team has the ball.
• 4. Swat Team. Gerald Wallace averaged 2.19 blocks and 2.44 steals per game last season, making him only the third player in NBA history (those stats have only been kept since 1973) to average 2.0 or more in a season in each category.(David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon).
• 5. Catch This. Kevin Burleson is the older brother of Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Nate Burleson. Tale of the tape: Kevin Burleson, 6-foot-3, 205. Nate Burleson, 6-0, 192.
The best fans in the NFL? According to these guys, it’s the Dawg Pound crazies of the Cleveland Browns, with their “Den-nis! North-cutt!” chants and strangely named absorbent cloth. Our Buzzsaw comes in 30th out of 32nd, avoiding last place only because the imaginary fan base has nothing to root for.
The worst fans in the NFL? These folks say it’s the Oakland Raiders fans, probably because they had a special category for “maiming.”
Vick will provide depth at quarterback while sidelined starter Daunte Culpepper focuses on rehabilitating his surgically repaired right knee. Joey Harrington and Cleo Lemon are the Dolphins’ other quarterbacks.
That’s right: Vick isn’t just going to be a kick returner, he’s going to maybe play some quarterback. There’s no way any team in recent NFL history has had a more fascinating trio of quarterbacks than Daunte Culpepper, Joey Harrington and New Mexico. Is it too late to sign Jeff George too?
Canvassing the blogs after St. Louis’ 4-2 win over New York in Game 5 of the NLCS …
• Faith And Fear In Flushing. Fear Strikes Out. Great news! We’ve already done what we need to do tonight and tomorrow night 61 times in 2006. We’ve won two games in a row 61 times. It’s about to be 62. October 18 and 19.
• Viva El Birdos. They’re a win away . . . la russa continues to amaze me. bottom 8th, jose valentin at the plate with the tying runs on base. flores was already in the game, and seemingly the right guy to pitch to valentin, who has always been helpless vs left-handed pitchers. this season he’s got a .644 OPS vs lhp, but an .879 OPS vs rhp; over the last 3 years combined he’s got a .676 OPS vs lefties, but an .817 OPS vs righties. and with the left-handed chavez on deck and another lefty, cliff floyd, waiting to pinch-hit for the pitcher, you’d seemingly want a left-hander all the way down the line. so what does la russa do? he removes the left-handed flores and brings in a right-hander, wainwright — seemingly playing into valentin’s hands. why in god’s name? . . . . the curveball, apparently. the scouting reports must have said that valentin can’t handle a hook, because that’s what wainwright fed him — a 1st-pitch fastball for strike 1, then 4 curves in 5 pitches. valentin swung through one, took another for strike 3.
• Mike’s Mets. Home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg had a terribly inconsistent strike zone all night, but he had a better game than most of the Mets hitters, so resist the urge to blame him, please. In a very important game, the Mets reverted to their September offensive approach, with predictable results.
• The Gas House Gang. Alright, Jeff Weaver came through for us big time last night. There’s no travel day because of the rain out. Tonight will be our best chance to win this thing because we’ll have Chris Carpenter going up against John Maine. Our ace is on the mound so it’s imperative we get this done.
• The 26th Man. Aloha, Mr. Hand … Wow. We really are just one win away from the World Series, thanks to yet another stellar outing from Jeff Weaver. He didn’t dominate, but he got the outs when he needed them. I can’t seem to stop gushing about that guy. This whole up-3-games-to-2-in-the-NLCS thing is weird and scary to me. I still can’t believe So Taguchi hit a home run the other day. I’m at a loss for words. Interesting ones, anyway.
The first game we ever saw at the new Busch Stadium was also the first game Jeff Weaver pitched as a Cardinal … and it was rather unpleasant for the both of us. (Our experience would, in fact, get worse.) We couldn’t imagine Weaver lasting longer than a couple of weeks; the best compliments we could give him was that he looked like a bunch of people we went to high school with and that he was not Sidney Ponson.
And now look at him. He’s 2-1 in the postseason and has become as reliable a starter as there has been. And he just pitched the Cardinals to within one game of the World Series. Many heroes emerged from the game last night, from Pujols to Preston Wilson to Josh Kinney to Adam Wainwright to the Skoal-goateed Chris Duncan, but Weaver — who’s a free agent, by the way — was the most important. He has gone from a guy who was so bad a team canned him for his little brother to a big-time postseason pitcher.
And because of him, the Cardinals can win the pennant tonight. We can’t believe we just typed that.
Citing fear that students will get hurt and sue, an elementary school south of Boston has banned tag, touch football, and all other “chase games” from the playground. Students should also be advised to take caution when racing one another; should one student take the lead it might be observed that the other students are merely “chasing” first place. To alleviate confusion, all students should run in straight lines and finish each race in a virtual tie.
Even though 40% of every Joystiq writer’s childhood was wasted on video games, we can’t help but look back fondly on games where we would run around in circles smacking one another until we grew tired or our parents called us in for dinner. This incident is just part of a growing trend. Restricting a child’s choices for recess will impede on their desire to actually enjoy physical activity and increase the chances of obesity, perpetuating an already-growing problem in America. And guess which popular entertainment medium will be faulted for the overweight adolescents?
Next time: basketball, hopscotch, and all other “jump games” are banned from schoolyards everywhere, citing fear that children with no balance will fall down and skin their knees.
Well, here we are. After a maddening season that involved Sidney Ponson and Larry Bigbie, crazed monsoons, three games against the White Sox that made our souls die and, of course, that final two weeks, our beloved St. Louis Cardinals are one game away from a most improbable World Series. 
It’s hard to believe, but the NBA season is just around the corner. So come with us now as we present five tiny tidbits on each team, just to get you in the mood. Today we continue with the Southeast Division, so do us a favor and send your tips to tips@deadspin.com.
This is old, but we hadn’t seen it: Some magazine or something 
Guess who’s back everybody!
Canvassing the blogs after St. Louis’ 4-2 win over New York in Game 5 of the NLCS …
The first game 
