Day: October 4, 2004

The end of the baseball season hits home

Today, store the shelf space at my local Ralphs that had been set aside for Hostess Baseballs since March was now filled with some Halloween snack cake instead: chocolate cupcakes covered with orange frosting, called something like Hostess Booballs (not the real name, but it should be).

And what a season it was

Levi’s obviously extremely busy at work, but if we all clap our hands, maybe he’ll show up and make some observations on the playoffs once they get under way tomorrow.

Subheads in today’s L.A. Times: “Angels have conjured a special season, and if the franchise is haunted by ghosts of ’86 playoff loss to Boston, the players seem unaware of it” and “The Dodgers had 53 come-from-behind wins, 26 in final at-bat, but keeping that magic going against powerful Cardinals won’t be easy.”

Now we get to make fun of Sports Illustrated for being very wrong about the National League division winners in their before-the-season predictions. The teams we saw on the trip are in bold.


SI Prediction              Actual Results

                     NL East
Philadelphia Phillies      Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins            Philadelphia Phillies
Atlanta Braves             Florida Marlins
Montreal Expos             New York Mets
New York Mets              Montreal Expos

                    NL Central
Chicago Cubs               St. Louis Cardinals
Houston Astros             Houston Astros
St. Louis Cardinals        Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds            Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers          Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates         Milwaukee Brewers

                     NL West
Arizona Diamondbacks       L.A. Dodgers
San Francisco Giants       San Francisco Giants
San Diego Padres           San Diego Padres
L.A. Dodgers               Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies           Arizona Diamondbacks

                     AL East
New York Yankees           New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox             Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays          Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles          Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Tampa Bay Devil Rays       Toronto Blue Jays

                   AL Central
Minnesota Twins            Minnesota Twins
Chicago White Sox          Chicago White Sox
Kansas City Royals         Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians          Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers             Kansas City Royals

                     AL West
Oakland A's                Anaheim Angels
Anaheim Angels             Oakland A's
Seattle Mariners           Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers              Seattle Mariners

In other news, over the offseason, the Dodgers are going to add 1,600 more ridiculously expensive seats to Dodger Stadium by moving the dugouts forward into what’s now foul territory and putting in more seats between the current ridiculously expensive seats behind home plate and the new dugouts. They’ll also be transforming the current rubberized warning track into a dirt track. I hope having the new expensive seats distracts them from raising ticket prices elsewhere in the stadium, namely, the reserved level (third deck) tickets that are currently $17, $12, and $10.

Original comments…

Toby: Levi is probably too busy still celebrating NU’s big win over Ohio State Saturday. …And rightfully so.

Jim: But he’s not posting on the Football-Related Program Activities blog, either! Oh, wait, there is no such thing. Football ticket prices (especially in the NFL) and game schedules don’t lend themselves to road trips.

An e-mail from my father: “Wore my NU hat to the Bucs game and was literally hugged by Buckeye haters.” That’s “Bucs” for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, not the Pittsburgh Pirates.