Youk Of The Nation

I hope they Neverauskas how to pronounce that.

Getting this up early because I am super-excited about the beginning of baseball season. I don't know why, but this offseason seemed longer than they usually do. Even the offseasons after the Sox had a bad year didn't seem to drag on like this. Maybe it's because baseball is all I have going, maybe it's because the weather keeps going nuts on us. 70 degrees for a week, then nine inches of snow less than two weeks later. I have no idea. All I know is that f***ING BASEBALL IS ALMOST BACK and that's all that matters in the end. This will be the first true "Opening Day" since 1968, in that all MLB teams will begin on the same day. No one-game opener on the West Coast the night before everyone else, no games in Japan or Mexico or Puerto Rico or Liechtenstein a few days ahead of time, just 15 games all on the same day. f***ing yes. So this is our discussion thread for in-game happenings other than those of the Red Sox or the, uh, I forget their name. That team full of *******s with the fanbase full of even more *******s, plus Billy Crystal. Anyways, Go Sox! And Rockies! And Pirates! And...well, go everyone, baseball rules! Except, you know, that other team. Oh, and the Orioles, f*** those guys.

Jim Golden Silver Flint (My new favorite name, though maybe he doesn't count since he played in the 1870s-80s, before the MLB) Chief Yellow Horse (pitched for Pittsburgh in 1921 and 1922 apparently. I love BR.com. ) Jimmy Lavender Also, not a color but while looking for colors I stumbled upon Beiker Graterol, who played in exactly one game for the Tigers in 1999. He started it, pitched 4 innings, and lost. I know that it's only funny sounding because I am not Venezuelan, but he's the only player in MLB history, at least according to BR.com, with a first name that begins with Bei-. It's 2:20AM which makes that an interesting fact to me.

That joke would only be funny if I were stoned.

I don't need nearly that many words or numbers to say "Yankees Suck". Brevity is the soul of wit.

I have to admire the craftsmanship of this sentence.

Let's just let the same guy bat repeatedly, subbing with pinch-runners. Imagine a ninth-inning game with David Ortiz batting six times in a row, how cool would that have been? Or maybe we could just start every inning after the sixth with the bases loaded.

No. No no no no no no no no no no no. Non, nyet, nein, nej, nei, nao, and ghobe', no no no no no. That's the worst idea I've heard since last year when they suggested starting extra innings with a free baserunner. I'm all for progress in certain areas of the game. Getting calls correct with replay is fine by me. Limiting mound visits is fine by me, because it does not fundamentally alter what the game is about. Abandoning the lineup structure most emphatically does.

I think it might have more to do with the fact that NYC fans and media kind of expect people to act like unmitigated *******s. "Acting like an unapologetic douchebag for even the smallest reason" is the official sport of New York City (and I think it might actually be on the seal of the state of New Jersey).

JD Martinez? That's pretty surprising, I hadn't heard anything about him until now. I'm surprised that people on this site weren't discussing this for the last few months. This signing has completely blindsided me, I'm disappointed in you guys for not talking this up during the offseason.

It was pretty funny.

Oh, f- off.

If I ever become famous, I swear I will only ever take commercial flights. No private planes, and I certainly will never try to fly one myself. The fatality numbers among celebrities are lower in absolute terms compared to regular people, but the percentage is so much higher. How many athletes, musicians, actors, and politicians have died in plane crashes? s***, there was a time a few decades ago where it seemed like there was a band or musician dying in a plane crash every other day. RIP Roy Halladay. He was a hell of a pitcher and from what little we know as fans, seemed like a hell of a guy too.

Then Johnson could call the police at his leisure while Kruk is stuck in the window frame.

J.D. Murders what? Fausto Carmona! Badum-chh

Randy Johnson is 54 years old and hasn't played baseball in almost a decade, and I bet he could still decapitate someone with a few baseballs.

Tampa, Milwaukee, and San Diego too. I think I'm happiest for Verlander. Guy deserved a WS and the Tigers just couldn't quite get it for him despite having a worthy team a few times.

Yeah, I agree. The networks were probably salivating at the prospect, but for me it would have been tough to enjoy. Obviously I'd root for the Dodgers, but it wouldn't be fun. It'd be like a Patriots-Cowboys Super Bowl, I'd be rooting for a giant sinkhole or something.

Okay, wow. Let's not let this subject go any further. That includes responding to this post I am making now. Let's talk about how much everyone hates the Dodgers, I liked that. f*** the Dodgers.

Definitely one of the best WS games of all time. That was stressful to watch and I'm not even a fan of either team.

Francona "presided" over an epic collapse in 2011 (in that he was the manager), but he found another job easily, and is now the manager of one of the best teams in baseball and seems poised to bring them back to the postseason for at least a few more seasons. I agree that there has to be something more to Randolph's lack of a job, but we probably will never know exactly what it is. It could be a combination of reasons, or one large reason, it could even be that he has had the opportunity and simply doesn't want to manage anymore. God knows it probably does nothing positive for your stress levels or mental health.

Actually, they tied a record. I looked it up last night after I asked my question, out of curiosity. The 2008 Phillies went 7-0 at home in that postseason. The Astros will break that record, though, if they win out because the 2008 Phillies didn't go to 5 games in the DS or 7 in the NLCS or WS, so they had far less games to win at home.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Astros win out at this point. Has any team ever gone undefeated at home in a single postseason since divisional play started? Every team that swept the WS back when there was no LCS, obviously, but has anyone ever won every home game from DS through LCS all the way to the WS?

Exactly. And if you recall that Kang named his son after Curzon Dax (The host of the symbiont before Jadzia), that name is actually spelled Daqs.

Interesting side note: Despite the many 'K's in Klingon names, the actual language contains very few of them, those are the anglicized versions. In Klingon, the 'q' is used for both the 'k' and the hard 'c'. (Also, the Klingon word for Klingon is "tlhIngan"). The closest Klingon word(s) to Klel (seriously, who named that guy?) would be qul'el, which translates as "to enter the fire" or "go into the fire" or something along those lines. Which, when you think about it, is an apt description for taking the Sox managing job. Also, TWO Trek references in one baseball thread, neither initiated by me? Awesome.