Al Lopez Ghost (old)

Kumbaya, Lord, Kumbaya. Oh Lord, Kumbaya.

Long off-season? Try long post-season! ALtho even if they do make it, the Cubs post-season ends quickly, probably at the hands of the Braves.

KW says he wants Sandy back as a player next year. That's step one in resigning Roberto. He says he's happy here. I think he'll be back for one and an option, probably around the 4-5million mark. He sure has made a difference in our quality of play.

Hey I like Paulie too, and he's a far better first baseman that Frank, but gold glove? No. No. No.(repeat many times) By the way, fan of 14, be careful. Paulie seems to have a few detractors around here, you may have notice.

Well, you don't win "most of your games in September" when you wind up with 14. Did you notice that when Wright when to the bench, Buhrle went over and kind of hugged him for what seemed to be more than 30 seconds? I'm sure he was telling him what a great job he did for the club. I thought that was a very class, leadership thing to do by MB.

With all the days off we had between the end of August and now, starting Cotts in NY had NOTHING to do with our current rotation. He could have started Buhrle in NY and still had our big 4 ready for Minny. He also said after the game Sunday that Marte, used all 3 games this weekend, is unavailable. So let's go nine, Bartolo.

Juan Carlos Pulido is 32. He made his major league debut in 1994 and has not been in the majors since. Twinkies signed him out of Mexico last winter. He pitched in relief for 2 innings on 8/29, 2 2/3 innings on 8/31 and 3 2/3 on 9/3. So far in his return, one unearned run, no walks, five K's. If he's like most Mexican leaguers, and at his age, he's probably all breaking stuff, changeups, that sort of thing. He's a lefty. His career ERA is 5.44, but you may have to disregard that, since it's heavily weighted by his 1994 performance. He should be hittable.

In the paper this week, KW was quoted as saying he wants Sandy Alomar back as a player next year, a good idea if you want to keep Robbie, so don't think you can economize with Jamie Burke.

here is his game by game this year: 6//30 He 3 hit KC at KC over 6 innings, 5Ks, 3Ws, got the win; 8/16 lost at home against Tampa Bay, 6 innings, 8 hits, 3 Earned Runs, 5K, 1W; 8/22 He beat Tampa at Tampa, 8 innings, 6 hits, 2 ER, 7K, 0W; 8/22 He beat Tiggers, 7 innings, 5 hits, 3 ER, 7K, 2W; 9/2 No decision against Tiggers, 3 innings, 4 hits, 6 runs, but only 2 earned, 3K, 2W. Let's go with the thought that he's due for a bad game. 27 Ks to 8 W's, he probably is nasty.

I believe Jose has 14 errors.

If you didn't watch the game on TV today, the Crede's crew guys did something hysterical. They dressed a cardboard cutout of Magglio in a white Tshirt, with an E on it, and put him in the middle of their group. It really looked funny. Gotta admire fans with a little imagination. Remember Ozzie's Amigos?

Marte and Gordon went Friday and Saturday - you gotta have them fresh Monday, so there's no way they can be used tomorrow.

Gotta figure that on Sunday, no Marte, no Gordon, so we're gonna need a lot of runs and Wunsch, Sullivan, Shony, maybe even Paneagua. GULP.

ElRocknMT - we are contemporaries. I was just talking about 1967 today. Still hurts. I'm enjoying the team, the ups and downs. I think if a person can't stomach a lot of frustration, they should think about a different sport, cause baseball will just hand it to you over and over. Unless you have a magic year, and this could still be one of those. It's a big week, and we gotta let it roll. Royals just lost game one.

I know you can nit pick things to death, but there are so many examples of not putting his players in a position to succeed. The thing with Ortiz on Wednesday, not having any of your lefties face him, was egregiously wrong. By having Sully face him the first time with the 3 lefties in the pen, that's not putting your players in the best position to succeed. And I thing starting Cotts in Yankee stadium, rather than Comerica Park, that was not putting your players in the best position to succeed. I know Jiminez was disastrously bad, and that wasn't Jerry's fault. But unless he gets them into postseason, I'd fire him.

Plus the 4 or 5 post season victories.

It's a time-honored tradition: you can't fire the players, so.... The manager's prime duty is to put his players in the best position to win, and Jerry fails at that.

We're facing 3 lefties. Frank will have a huge series. We need to win one at a time, 3 times in a row. I'll be there Sat and Sunday, with one eye on the scoreboard. It's crunch time, my stomach hurts, but I'm confident.

Let me just throw one more log on the fire. Manuel has shown himself to be a progressively worse manager, the more choices he is faced with. Case in point. Wednesday night he pinch hit Daubach for the catcher, probably anticipating that Boston would bring in the lefty, and he'd counter with Graf. We've seen that before. BUT HE DIDN"T HAVE TO BURN DAUBACH. He had Rios, that would have either produced the same result but kept Daubach in play for later (like when Willie came up!), or he would have had lefty righty advantage with Rios in there. This is elemental stuff. His loyalty to guys who have been here, like Willie Harris on Wednesday, is wishful thinking, and losing baseball. I think he's a bad manager.

There's always Koch.

The Warrior just got thrown out of the game for calling the first base ump a bad name in earshot of the homeplate ump, over a check swing. Is this true Warrior conduct? Na Na Na Na....

Letting Ortiz face Sullivan with 3 lefties in the pen, and then letting him face Gordon with 2 lefties in the pen, were flat out blunders that cost the ball game.

You notice no one's wearing #18, obviously in tribute to Terry Bevington. The media guide says Tim Hummel was assigned 18. Coincidence? I think not!

For the record, Thompson pitched Wednesday night for the Rangers, so the Twins will miss him.

Manuel was so bad last night. I think he has this misguided sense of loyalty to the guys who have been here most of the year - here it was Willie Harris - and he wants them to have the chance to win the game. Dumbs***, every game is vital, so start managing like that. No way Harris should have been allowed to hit. Rios was the way to go, but even Aaron Miles would have been a better choice than Harris.