MLB 2014 season thread

I'm splitting hairs here, but they could probably find at least a slight upgrade from Nori "GPS on the Fritz" Aoki in right.

 

I really dig these O's but good for the Royals. KC's going to be nuts when they close this out today.

 

I'm real tempted to call my boss that I'm sick......make the 5 1/2 hour drive up and soak it all in. It's going to be surreal.

 

The Yankees have the longest postseason win streak of 12. They did it across two seasons beginning in the 1998 LCS against Cleveland, and ending in the 1999 ALDS against the Red Sox. They also won 12 straight spanning the 1927, 28 and 32 seasons.

Yankees also hold the consecutive World Series wins record of 13 games spanning 1996, 98, 99 and 2000.

 

It isn't a single season -- it's the last three games of '85 too. Which just makes it more awesome. Fuck the Cardinals.

Giants also won 10 in a row, the last seven of 2012 and the first three this year. Yankees had 12 twice, once the time you mention and once between 1927 and '32.

 

Yeah, I realized that moments after I posted that they couldn't have won 10 this season. I initially just read Kirk's number and assumed he meant this year.

 

Posnanski in SI, March, 2011:

http://www.si.com/vault/2011/03/21/106048204/royals-flush

 

You get a X amount of sick days a year. This is a day to utilize one of them, even if they don't close it out.

In '98, Year of the Great Chase, to make a few bucks between newspaper jobs, I washed dishes in a restaurant here in town. McGwire had 60 jacks at the time. Cards were playing a day game. The TV above the bar showed it. At one point I emerged from the kitchen to watch a McGwire at-bat as he tried to tie Maris. The owner -- a nasty old bitch -- told me to go back into the kitchen. I said I'd go right after this at-bat. She said I couldn't be at the bar and to go back into the kitchen. I told her why this was an important moment for me, but she didn't budge and ordered me back to the kitchen, and I fumed.

I went back into the kitchen, thew the apron to the floor, went out the back door and sprinted around the block to the pool hall because it had a TV and I knew I'd be able to turn it to the baseball game. I got there a few seconds too late -- after McGwire grounded out to second. He didn't tie the record, and I missed the moment live. But I also wasn't going to let someone else dictate my life and make me feel so low like that woman did in front of everyone. I watched the rest of the game in the pool hall, shot a few games, then went back to my tiny abode without a source of income. It was all worth it.

Take the day off. Go watch the Royals (as they try to) advance to the World Series for the first time in your lifetime. Go be a part of it.

 

Win one game. See what happens next. That's all I can hope for now.

 

Everybody, get ready. When KC closes it out, there is going to be a plethora of 1985 World Series trivia on here....

A sample question......We all know who scored the winning run in Game 6.....who scored the tying run?

 

1) (for now) There are "hot streaks". That is to say that players put up stretches that would be statistically highly improbable given a random production of events and their season rates. We would have to look at other issues like who they hit or pitched against to see for sure, but there tend to be physiological/psychological crests and troughs in performance. Not linking to situations at this point.

Of course just having these crests and troughs would tend to create an appearance that some players may be clutch, and some poor in clutch, as some will tend to have crests at the end of the season or the middle etc.

2) In exercise physiology it is pretty much axiomatic that individuals performance of tasks follows an upside down U pattern as stress increases. Low stakes produces lower performance, but so does extreme high stakes. Different players should "peak" at slightly different perceived stress levels. The more advanced the athlete, in general the higher stress will produce the higher performance. Also the more complex the activity, the lower the peak will occur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerkes%...rkesDodson.svg

 

Onix Concepcion. He was pinch running for Steve Balboni, who only reached after a missed foul pop up by Jack Clark.