Twins Won
 

Okay I'm a little excited. Just needed to share. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Anaheim looks like the class of the AL right now. St. Louis from the NL. It should be a great WS no matter who gets in though, I like all the remaining teams. (this from a Yankee fan)

Yes yes yes...I'm going to sound biased seeing as I am a Cardinals fan.

Nevertheless, the Cardinals have eliminated the D'Backs. They shouldn't have too much trouble with the Braves (who are perennial chokers) or the Giants (also chokers). Now, once we hit the series...*shrugs*...it's a pure toss-up. I don't like the prospect of playing the Twins *recalls bad memories of 1987*, although we should have won game 7...stupid fucking umpire. That was as bad as 1985 game 6.

Anyhoo...I'm just glad the Yanks are out of it. While there's no doubt that they were the team of the 90s, the last 2 years are proof positive that big payroll does not mean automatic world championship.

I wouldn't be dissapointed if the Cardinals beat the Twins in the Series, though I will be cheering against them in that case, but if it the Cardinals and Anaheim I'm going for the Cards. If any team deserves the Ring this year it's them, to overcome what they have this year is truely unbelievable.

Yeah, it's been a strange sports year in my hometown:

--Super Bowl loss in January
--The death of Jack Buck
--The sudden death of Darryl Kile
--The Rams start 0-5, Warner's out for the season

On the other hand, Ozzie Smith was inducted into the HOF, and I'm looking forward to what will hopefully be a Stanley Cup season for the Blues.

I have a lot of sympathy for long time St. Louis fans. I was going to say I didn't feel sorry about the Rams season but then I realized that it would suck to be a fan becuase you have to watch Martz ruin what should have been one of the greatest teams in NFL history.
Of course if you just jumped on the Rams bandwagon you don't get any of my sympathy just a big :D .

I faithfully followed the Rams for their first 3 seasons in St. Louis. I got sick of them during year 4, but still followed them. I didn't follow them for the first few weeks of the '99 season (b/c I had just moved to DC), then saw they were 5-0 at the time and was floored.

I love the Rams, and I wouldn't quit following them unless Georgia Frontiere turns into Bill Bidwell. I am going to go ahead and write this season off now though, and shoot for 0-16. :) I think Martz is a great coach, but he has to realize that the Rams have been figured out on offense.

Personally I think Martz has a great offensive mind, but I think he should be an offensive coordinator and have a head coach that actually calls the shots and tries to motivate the team. I don't think that Martz is completely to blame this year truely the team isn't exactly performing well. The offensive line has been atrocious, part of the reason that Warner was doing so terrible.

That would be quite a turn around, go from getting to the Superbowl to going through the entire season without a win. Now that would be almost unbelievable. actually more ridiculous then a good season after a poor season turaround.

I found this quote from Carl Pohlad (the Twins owner) after the Twins won the series in this article.

ESPN Article

"If you had to pay the bills and they were $15 million to $20 million a year, you would make the same decision, too."

Oh god I don't know if I should be laughing or just plain pissed off. Can you imagine?

Sorry to burst the bubble for those of you who are fans of St. Louis, and are expecting a Twins vs. St. Louis match-up, but you're selling Anaheim short. This is, of course, coming from a long-time Angels fan, but this is the year they're going to prove themselves. (Of course, they already have...) Even if I weren't an Angels fan, though, I'd just be happy that the freaking Yankees are out.

And the Rams...
They abandoned my hometown. They're on my blacklist for a couple more decades.

The Twins won and DIDN'T NEED the dome-field advantage to do it; they won twice on the road. Now THAT'S spooky.

Right now, there are TV executives across the nation waving voodoo dolls and tikis in the direction of tonight's Braves/Giants Game 5, praying for an Atlanta victory. San Francisco has Barry Bonds (not exactly Mr. October OR Mr. Congeniality) and a cast of thousands. Minnesota is a feel-good story, but a small TV market. St. Louis isn't exactly a ratings dynamo. Anaheim: see Minnesota.

I shudder to think what kind of ratings disaster could come out of an Anaheim-San Fran series, or a Minnesota-St. Louis rematch...

Anaheim has proven themselves, they beat the world champs, but unless they are as hot as they were during the last series Minnesota isn't going to die. Maybe.

I'm hoping for a St. Louis Minnesota series personally, I think that those two teams have overcome so much this season that they both should be able to play in the series.

But that's my opinion, I just hope the best team wins.

San Fran/Oak/SJ has a huge TV market, as does Anaheim (since they're part of the LA market)...although I don't know how many LA folks would be on the Angels' bandwagon and Oak/SJ folks on the Giants'. Atlanta wouldn't be bad either. Now Mpls-St. Paul or St. Louis...yep, that'd be like the Florida-Cleveland series.

Which one? LA/Anaheim?

Therein lies the rub. Anaheim has _always_ been the weak sister of the California teams, fan support-wise. Quick -- ask a casual fan to name three Angels players. How about two? One? Does Gene Autry count?

The LA Clippers are in a large market, but you don't see them competing for that TV-and-merchandising dollar, do you?

San Fran-Anaheim would be an all-California matchup with exactly one marquee player -- Barry Bonds, who has a history of vanishing when October arrives and the personality of an eggplant.

Atlanta would bring three things -- post-season credibility (they're ALWAYS in the NLCS), familiar faces (due to all those post-season appearances) and an East Coast presence to the Series. Without them, it's a cast of thousands in a battle between California and/or the Heartland of America, and millions will explore their cable-TV options.

That having been said, I hope the Giants boot their tomahawk-chopping asses halfway to Calcutta tonight. But that's just me...

One series at a time.:) Eddie owes me 10 fingernails.

10 Fingernails and an entire index finger. :)

Not exactly the best of examples. the Clippers have been one of the worst team in the last decade and that's due to poor management, and this is the same management that runs the marketing and advertising. Also the LA Lakers benefit tremendously from the NBA marketing office promoting it's marquee players for them nationaly.

The hometown teams for anyone in So Cal (North of San Diego County) are any LA/Orange County team - which means the Kings and the Ducks, the Dodgers and the Angels, the Lakers and the Clippers. Some people like one over the other, obviously; but generally, any of those are considered the hometown team. So when the Rams/Raiders skipped town, they were abandoning So Cal, and are both on the blacklist in my book.

Back to the Angels. I admit that I don't know about the seasons of the Twins or the Cards (outside of the Angels and the Cubs, I just don't pay attention to baseball), but the Angels have gone further this year than ever before - and that after the worst beginning of the season ever (I think they lost the first 20 games or so). I'd say that probably trumps any season those teams have had - at least, it does in the deserving category. They have a charismatic and likable team this year, one that could gain a following on national tv.

Of course, I am biased. I'll be the first to admit that. :)

Yah gotta like Rex Hudler as well.

Two things-I don't want to leave the impression that I'd approve of the Braves being in the series or that I want to see the series played on a carpet.

Okay I need to explain why I feel the cards and Twins deserve to play in the World Series. First let's start with the Twins. They were targeted for contraction during the off-season. That pretty much meant that the team could not make any off-season moves and there players felt like the league didn't want them. Not only that but their owner doesn't care about the team, just about the profits.

The Cardinals on the other hand deserve it for a totally different reason. They lost not only a great member of there organization in Jack Buck. This loss, though painful wasn't terribly unexpected. But then shortly after this loss they experienced an even more painful loss. Daryl Kile, a young very talented pitched died of a heart attack in his hotel room. The amazing thing about this is that instead of falling apart. The team held together and kept the lead, which Daryl Kile had actually won in his last start before his death.

Those are the reason that I feel these two teams deserve to go to the World Series. The Angels certainly deserve it because of there heart and the long times fans in Anaheim deserve it because of the years of heartbreak in Anaheim. But the team hasn't overcome anything compared to the Twins and Cardinals this season.

However, the Cardinals have J. D. Drew on their roster, and thus are unworthy of postseason play. The Scott Rolen injury merely adds to the schadenfreude effect for Philadelphia fans.

Come to think of it, there's no one left that I can root for in the NL. It would take a lobotomy for me to root for the Braves, and the Giants would only get my vote from a "lesser evil" standpoint.

The teams that can hold it together, focus, and play the best ball deserve to go. Its hard not to root for everyone. One of the best things about the Twins is that they've built the team like you're supposed to- from the farm. If the Yanks had advanced, it would be more emotionally clear- they're so easy to hate.

Cheers to that warch! :beer:

If feeling like the owners didn't care about them, then the Angels deserve it as much as the Twins. Even though they weren't under the threat of contraction, Disney's been talking about selling the Angels all season.

And thed Angels are all about farm and bottom of the barrel players. The most accurate description was a sign at the Angel game on Friday night - "Angels - Half the money, twice the heart".

True Herm, but I think there is a difference between a corporation threatening to sell the team and having an single owner bitch and moan becuase the team is costing him a few of his billions of dollars. Then again I don't live in LA so I don't pay a lot of attention to local news reports about Anaheim so maybe I'm wrong. But when your owner shows no happiness when his team wins and advances to the NLCS, that's got to piss you off. Disney actually seemed genuinly impressed when the Angels won and have actually seemed interested in retaining the team.

I wish that were true. Disney announced last week that they were still looking for a buyer, even though they would consider retaining partial ownership. Hardly a "hey, that was a great win, let's see what more you guys can do."

But then again, I don't pay attention to Minnesota sports, so who knows? :)