RodeoSchro said:

sexton said:

I've found a few reasons why the Nationals will lose the World Series this year. And they have nothing to do with the Astros being one of the most formidable teams in the history of basbeall.

1. Despite the logic expressed by the NY Times here, the jinx was on when a World Series celebration rehearsal took place at Nationals Park last Thursday. Nationals fans are convinced this was very bad mojo. https://www.nytimes.com/2...curse.html

2. Two women behind home plate during game five flashed Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole when he was on the mound as he pitched to Astros batters and was captured on live TV. One of the women claimed it was to promote her digital magazine, but we all know in actuality, they were planted there by the Nationals in an attempt to throw Cole of his game. This kind of shenanigans can only backfire on Washington and give them more bad luck. Both women were unsurprisingly subsequently banned from all MLB stadiums for life. https://www.hollywoodrepo...ra-1250344

3. Lastly, at the risk of getting this thread moved to P&R, game five was also attended by the current U.S. President and when he was shown on the Nationals Park video screen, was greeted by loud boos and later chants of "lock hin up!" Nationals fans showing this level of disrespect to, according to Jon Voight, "the greatest president of this century" can only come back to bite their team, if it wasn't in such a precarious position already. https://www.cnn.com/2019/...index.html

Because of these reasons, the Nationals are done. Their fate sealed by their own hands.

sounds like someone's trying a reverse jinx!

The celebration rehearsal is SOP. I am sure the Astros' organization held one yesterday, and I'm also sure both the Nationals and the Astros have champagne/beer/plastic sheeting/Prince's ski goggles at the ready.

Wow, I hadn't thought of the Nats putting those girls there, but THAT is a conspiracy worthy of P&R! Seriously though - did I see on TV those tickets cost the three women (it was three, wasn't it?) $100,000? I guess if they got TV interviews out of it then they did accomplish their mission, although with all due respect I highly doubt that promoting breast cancer awareness was really part of their mission. I'd bet it was all about self-promotion.

Jon Voight? I think I know of a guy who bought his old LeBaron convertible! But I will be more than happy to blame unrepentant serial adulterer Donald J. Trump for showing up at the game, invoking the wrath of Nats fans, and thus costing their team the World Series, LOL.

The funniest thing about that deal is that all these allegedly "conservative" talking heads are saying the stands were full of "liberals who paid $1,000 a ticket". Honestly, I hope so because if that's true then it means that liberals must make more money than "conservatives" and that's why the stadium was full of libtards, LOL.

And ZOMG my wife just sent me an email from work saying last-minute company tix are available for tonight's game!

No reverse jinx attempt here! It would have been wonderfully poetic if the Nationals won the first year after allowing star-boy, Bryce Harper to leave. It could be said that poetry was achieved simply by being the National League champions after not winning a single postseason series with Harper in all their previous playoff appearances.

Beyond that I don't really care who wins. It would be nice if a home team won for a change though. Why can't the hometown fans leave the stadium happy? I'm sure that will change if not tonight then definitely tomorrow.

poppys said:

sexton said:

I've found a few reasons why the Nationals will lose the World Series this year. And they have nothing to do with the Astros being one of the most formidable teams in the history of baseball.

1. Despite the logic expressed by the NY Times here, the jinx was on when a World Series celebration rehearsal took place at Nationals Park last Thursday. Nationals fans are convinced this was very bad mojo. https://www.nytimes.com/2...curse.html

2. Two women behind home plate during game five flashed Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole when he was on the mound as he pitched to Astros batters and was captured on live TV. One of the women claimed it was to promote her digital magazine, but we all know in actuality, they were planted there by the Nationals in an attempt to throw Cole of his game. This kind of shenanigans can only backfire on Washington and give them more bad luck. Both women were unsurprisingly subsequently banned from all MLB stadiums for life. https://www.hollywoodrepo...ra-1250344


3. Lastly, at the risk of getting this thread moved to P&R, game five was also attended by the current U.S. President and when he was shown on the Nationals Park video screen, was greeted by loud boos and later chants of "lock hin up!" Nationals fans showing this level of disrespect to, according to Jon Voight, "the greatest president of this century" can only come back to bite their team, if it wasn't in such a precarious position already. https://www.cnn.com/2019/...index.html

Because of these reasons, the Nationals are done. Their fate sealed by their own hands.

Wait, whut? Booing Trump gave the Nationals more mojo. Not saying the Astros won't win but they stalled on firing Taubman for a week, fake calling fake news on an SI reporter. A story which was corroborated by their hometown paper. That ain't mojo.

He is "the greatest president of this century"! (Jon Voight's words, not mine.) You don't treat someone of that stature in that way in the nation's capital without some kind of bad karma coming back at you. (I say facetiously.)

sexton said:

poppys said:

Wait, whut? Booing Trump gave the Nationals more mojo. Not saying the Astros won't win but they stalled on firing Taubman for a week, fake calling fake news on an SI reporter. A story which was corroborated by their hometown paper. That ain't mojo.

He is "the greatest president of this century"! (Jon Voight's words, not mine.) You don't treat someone of that stature in that way in the nation's capital without some kind of bad karma coming back at you. (I say facetiously.)

I thought so. Probably just one of the reasons why Voight's own daughter won't speak to him.

poppys said:

RodeoSchro said:

The inside story is that a Chronicle female reporter (I won't say which one) began wearing a domestic violence awareness bracelet after the 'Stros got Roberto Osuna last year. That made Taubman mad and he finally took out his anger last week.

The weird thing is that he was yelling, "Thank God we got Osuna!" to this woman after a game in which Osuna had blown the save. I was screaming a lot of things too, but compliments about Osuna's choke job wasn't one of them.

I followed the story. Taubman taunted reporters with Osuna because he was suspended for 75 games by MLB last season for credible domestic violence abuses. So it makes sense in a very ugly way.

The Astros released a statement calling the Sports Illustrated story by Stephanie Apstein "misleading and completely irresponsible". They finally had to fire the GM, but they tried not to.

It was more of a case of the Astros believing Taubman's denials and responding in his defense before having all the facts. That was the mistake, and it was a bad one.

When the Astros found out that Taubman had lied or mischaracterized the incident, they fired him and owner Jim Crane personally apologized to Stephanie Apstein.

The Astros no doubt made a mistake believing Taubman so readily but I do give them credit for firing the guy and apologizing nine ways from Sunday after they found out they'd screwed up.

By the way, the Astros received a TON of negative publicity when they traded for Osuna. GM Jeff Luhnow said they never investigated a potential player more than they did with Osuna, and they were convinced he was not the monster portrayed by some. But even then, they ran the proposed trade through team leaders like Jose Altuve and Justin Verlander and wouldn't pull the trigger unless those guys and the rest of the players were behind it. Verlander, by the way, has ZERO tolerance for domestic violence and has said so on Twitter many times.

Some of the players had reservations but in the end the leaders said it was OK to give Osuna a shot if management really did believe in him.

RodeoSchro said:

poppys said:

I followed the story. Taubman taunted reporters with Osuna because he was suspended for 75 games by MLB last season for credible domestic violence abuses. So it makes sense in a very ugly way.

The Astros released a statement calling the Sports Illustrated story by Stephanie Apstein "misleading and completely irresponsible". They finally had to fire the GM, but they tried not to.

It was more of a case of the Astros believing Taubman's denials and responding in his defense before having all the facts. That was the mistake, and it was a bad one.

When the Astros found out that Taubman had lied or mischaracterized the incident, they fired him and owner Jim Crane personally apologized to Stephanie Apstein.

The Astros no doubt made a mistake believing Taubman so readily but I do give them credit for firing the guy and apologizing nine ways from Sunday after they found out they'd screwed up.

By the way, the Astros received a TON of negative publicity when they traded for Osuna. GM Jeff Luhnow said they never investigated a potential player more than they did with Osuna, and they were convinced he was not the monster portrayed by some. But even then, they ran the proposed trade through team leaders like Jose Altuve and Justin Verlander and wouldn't pull the trigger unless those guys and the rest of the players were behind it. Verlander, by the way, has ZERO tolerance for domestic violence and has said so on Twitter many times.

Some of the players had reservations but in the end the leaders said it was OK to give Osuna a shot if management really did believe in him.

Whatever. Follow the leader. Not impressed with any of it. Don't believe all the "explanations" either. They were trying not to fire the GM. Still not good mojo.

Your take is pretty interesting, given your hard line on cheating. In my book, beating is worse. And 75 games is a lot of games. Moving on.

[Edited 10/29/19 10:07am]

Wellllllllll...Game 6 was not fun! I think I know what the problem is, though.

In each of our three losses, we've scored exactly 2 runs in the first inning. We need to stop doing that! It's obviously bad luck!

Last night I thought Strasburg was tipping his pitches and sure enough - he was! But only in the first inning. He realized what he was doing, and that's why he started shaking his glove before each pitch. You've got to give Straburg HUGE props for his performance last night. As good as it gets!

And now Max Scherzer is healthy and ready to go. So it won't be easy for the Astros but nothing ever is!

On that play involving Trea Turner last night - there is a little-known rule in baseball that if a runner is running INSIDE the line on his way to first base, and he gets hit by the throw from an infielder before he touches first, then he is out.

I remember finding out about this rule when I was a kid. Like everyone else, we played baseball in the backyard with tennis balls, rubber balls and plastic balls. And we always had a rule that you could throw at the runner. I remember when I found out that in a certain situation in major league baseball that you could throw at the runner too, I thought, "Awesome! i'm going to peg that jerk Billy the next time we meet in Little League!" (NOTE: I never did peg Billy, so don't start hating me.)

I thought the umps would pull that rule out last night but they didn't. it looked like Turner got hit by the ball a split second before he touched the bag but whatever. MLB said the interference call was right, too.

So it all comes down to the greatest event in sports - Game 7! One Hall-of-Famer-to-be (Scherzer) against a borderline Hall-of-Famer (Greinke). The bats are flying and flipping. Nothing will be left on the table. I will absolutely guarantee you that unless Greinke is throwing a no-hitter, we'll see Gerrit Cole at some point. Anibel Sanchez, too.

Can't wait! Go Astros! Take it back!

Go Nationals. The city of Washington D.C deserves a championship of some kind while

dealing with the mess that is the Redskins, Wizards-Bullets or whatever they are called

these days.

I really did reverse-jinx the Nationals

So much power in my hands...

sexton said:

I really did reverse-jinx the Nationals

So much power in my hands...

sharky gris-gris

What else can I say but congratulations to the Nationals! Winning four road games is something no playoff team in any sport has ever done. What an accomplishment!

In my opinion, the real World Series MVP was Paul Menhart, the Nats' pitching coach. He was somehow able to get the worst bullpen of any playoff team to shut down the best-hitting team in baseball four different times. Hat's off to Paul Menhart!

It was a great season for the Astros but it didn't meet expectations given our record. But that's sports. You just keep plugging away and you don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't win.

The Washington Nationals sure didn't! Again, congratulations to the 2019 World Series Champions Washington Nationals!

RodeoSchro said:

What else can I say but congratulations to the Nationals! Winning four road games is something no playoff team in any sport has ever done. What an accomplishment!

In my opinion, the real World Series MVP was Paul Menhart, the Nats' pitching coach. He was somehow able to get the worst bullpen of any playoff team to shut down the best-hitting team in baseball four different times. Hat's off to Paul Menhart!

It was a great season for the Astros but it didn't meet expectations given our record. But that's sports. You just keep plugging away and you don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't win.

The Washington Nationals sure didn't! Again, congratulations to the 2019 World Series Champions Washington Nationals!

Next year Rodeo!

poppys said:

RodeoSchro said:

What else can I say but congratulations to the Nationals! Winning four road games is something no playoff team in any sport has ever done. What an accomplishment!

In my opinion, the real World Series MVP was Paul Menhart, the Nats' pitching coach. He was somehow able to get the worst bullpen of any playoff team to shut down the best-hitting team in baseball four different times. Hat's off to Paul Menhart!

It was a great season for the Astros but it didn't meet expectations given our record. But that's sports. You just keep plugging away and you don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't win.

The Washington Nationals sure didn't! Again, congratulations to the 2019 World Series Champions Washington Nationals!

Next year Rodeo!

Thanks!

BTW, you may have heard of the story of Houston furniture store owner Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale and the bets he placed.

In case you hadn't, Mac ran a promotion all season long whereby if you bought at least $3,000 in furniture (I think it was mattresses this time) and the Astros won the World Series, you got all your money back. Your furniture was free!

To hedge his promotion, Mac placed almost $12 million in legal bets at sports books on the Astros winning the World Series. If the Astros won, Mac would collect $19.6 million, which he'd use to pay off the mattress refunds.

But we lost, and so did Mac's bets. He did, however, get to keep the profit from the estimated $20 million in sales he made under this promotion. Plus, he got $$$millions in free publicity. Mac made out just fine!

I'm glad, too. He is an incredible philanthropist. He gives away more money and furniture than anyone in Houston. He provides free furniture for people who suffer devastating losses, and never wants any publicity.

During Hurricane Harvey, he sent out his furniture trucks to rescue people trapped in flooded houses. They rescured hundreds, if not thousands, of Houstonians during Harvey.

I'm sure he'll do this promotion again next year. And I'm pretty sure he'll do a similar promotion for the Houston Rockets' basketball season.

Here is a nice story wrapping up Mac's baseball gambit:

https://sports.yahoo.com/...39791.html


.

[Edited 10/31/19 9:29am]

RodeoSchro said:

What else can I say but congratulations to the Nationals! Winning four road games is something no playoff team in any sport has ever done. What an accomplishment!

In my opinion, the real World Series MVP was Paul Menhart, the Nats' pitching coach. He was somehow able to get the worst bullpen of any playoff team to shut down the best-hitting team in baseball four different times. Hat's off to Paul Menhart!

It was a great season for the Astros but it didn't meet expectations given our record. But that's sports. You just keep plugging away and you don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't win.

The Washington Nationals sure didn't! Again, congratulations to the 2019 World Series Champions Washington Nationals!

You're a big man Rodeo! Better luck next year.

Congratulations to the Nationals

They earned it. I'm quite sure the majority of citizens of DC don't want

to hear any remarks from Donald Duck.

phunkdaddy said:

Congratulations to the Nationals

They earned it. I'm quite sure the majority of citizens of DC don't want

to hear any remarks from Donald Duck.

No, they don't! Did you see the video of the DC reporter interviewing a fan, who said, "This is great for DC! We need this! We have an a**hole in the f***ing White House!"

Also, unrepentant serial adulterer Donald J. Trump bought an ad during last night's broadcast. All the videos from places in DC that were showing the game - including at the Nats' stadium - had crowds that booed that commercial mercilessly.

Empress said:

RodeoSchro said:

What else can I say but congratulations to the Nationals! Winning four road games is something no playoff team in any sport has ever done. What an accomplishment!

In my opinion, the real World Series MVP was Paul Menhart, the Nats' pitching coach. He was somehow able to get the worst bullpen of any playoff team to shut down the best-hitting team in baseball four different times. Hat's off to Paul Menhart!

It was a great season for the Astros but it didn't meet expectations given our record. But that's sports. You just keep plugging away and you don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't win.

The Washington Nationals sure didn't! Again, congratulations to the 2019 World Series Champions Washington Nationals!

You're a big man Rodeo! Better luck next year.

Thanks!

It's ridiculous Cole didn't pitch last night.

uPtoWnNY said:

It's ridiculous Cole didn't pitch last night.

Not really. Hitch's plan was to bring in the best pitcher in baseball to hold the lead and get the win. He couldn't do that in the 7th inning; Cole didn't have 2+ innings left in his arm. He'd just gone 7 innings/110 pitches three nights earlier, meaning he was on two days' rest instead of the normal four days.

Everyone says "Bring in a starter as a reliever!" but if you look at history, that doesn't work as often as it fails. Just ask the Dodgers or Clayton Kershaw about that.

The Nationals have already planned their visit to the White House for Monday. I wonder if the Latin players will decline like when the Red Sox went to the White House earlier this year.

I got my answer to the question of who attended the White House visit today and who didn't:

[Edited 11/4/19 13:00pm]

sexton said:

I got my answer to the question of who attended the White House visit today and who didn't:

Nationals visit White House, Trump, who says ‘America fell in love with Nats baseball’

https://www.washingtonpos...ouse-visit/

Good article Thanks for posting. Don't understnd why Suzuki would don a MAGA hat and then complain about baseball being politicized.