CPT Spirits in the Sky - Roy Halladay - Some people are just too good to be here.

.

Spanish

. 

History will be made tonight in World Series Game 7 finale - America's Game is Back with the Cubs and Indians at the Plate - Tens of Millions will Tune In

.

The last Cubs victory in the World Series was 1908, 108 years ago, the longest championship drought in all sports.  For the Cleveland Indians it has been 68 years, since 1948, making the combined total of years without winning the series an astounding 176 years.

The ratings will be through the roof as these two classic franchises take the field, in the  finals of a hard fought series.

Both coaches, Joe Maddon of the Cubs and Terry Francona of the Indians, are class acts.  As Steve Wulf of ESPN sports wrote;

"It's probably time to eject "skipper" from the baseball lexicon. The word is just too inadequate. The modern manager is so much more than the captain of a ship. He is a counselor, a teacher, a leader, a thinker, a storyteller, a cheerleader and a bearer of news, both good and bad.

If there's one thing this epic World Series has demonstrated, it's that the Cubs and Indians are here because of their managers. It's not just a coincidence that two storied Midwestern franchises with Cs on their uniforms are facing each other in the seventh game, hoping to finally write a happy ending. It's also a dazzling demonstration of how the manager has evolved in modern baseball.

Joe Maddon and Terry Francona are both Italian-American, both close to their families, both from small, working-class, Pennsylvania towns. They're not exactly alike -- the ready-for-his-close-up Joe likes fine wine; the self-effacing Tito fondly recalls Boone's Farm -- but they share a sensibility for their players, a willingness to think outside the box and a gift for expressing their thoughts honestly and humorously."

The teams are young, hungry, and gritty with new stars being born in every game.  In spite of the amazing drought in championships, these are two of the best teams in baseball and deserve to be there.  Both are underdogs when it comes to the series but one will reign supreme and cast off the decades old jinx.

The Cubs battled back from a 3-1 deficit and must win two straight in Cleveland to be world champions.  One will win tonight but in truth both are winners as they have brought America's favorite past time back with class and power while for one night will knock politics from the minds of the public hungry for a feel good story.

The following is a great account of game six by Yahoo Sports writer Jeff Passon.

Cubs rout Indians to force Game 7 of World Series

Jeff Passan,Yahoo Sports 8 hours ago 

CLEVELAND – Game 7 of the World Series is coming Wednesday. This seemed almost preordained, even after the Cleveland Indians found themselves in control of the Chicago Cubs. Both of these franchises have spent far too long craving a championship for it to come down to anything less than a do-or-die, empty-the-bullpens, batten-down-the-hatches dance to 27 outs. This is a baseball dream, and it’s coming live at 8 p.m.

Game 6 of the World Series came and went Tuesday. It was a blowout. The Cubs thumped the Indians, 9-3, and made the three-games-to-one advantage Cleveland held seem like a millennium ago. By the third inning, flights were being booked into Cleveland and ticket prices were spiking and the inevitability of 176 years of championship-free baseball boiling down to one game was titillating the collective mind of a country suddenly enthralled with postseason baseball.

Mostly, admittedly, because of the Cubs. Lest this further the Indians’ Other Team™ complex, the Cubs are the story captivating the country, 108 years of heartbreak hanging over their heads, their binary destinies either a delicious, satisfying end to it all or the most painful tease yet. The Indians aren’t some mediocre story, of course, not with their 68 years and the prospect of blowing the same lead their across-the-street neighbors, the Cavs, came back from to steal a championship from the Warriors over the summer.

This is baseball, of course, and there is no singular, transcendent figure like LeBron James patrolling the diamond for the either team. Corey Kluber has been the closest thing, and he’ll start for the third time this series, giving Cleveland its best hope after Trevor Bauer lost Game 5 and Josh Tomlin imploded in Game 6, the latter in a first-inning flurry and third-inning meltdown.

The Cubs’ first run-scoring burst wasn’t entirely Tomlin’s fault. After Kris Bryant walloped a 433-foot home run with two outs, Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist roped back-to-back singles. Addison Russell followed with a fly ball to right-center field that should’ve been an out until a miscommunication between center fielder Tyler Naquin and right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall caused the ball to drop between them. Rizzo and Zobrist scored, staking Cubs starter Jake Arrieta a three-run lead.

Even though he needed no more, the Cubs provided it in the third. A walk and two singles loaded the bases and prompted Indians manager Terry Francona to pull Tomlin. Russell deposited the third pitch from reliever Dan Otero 434 feet over the left-center field wall, becoming the youngest player to hit a grand slam in a World Series since Mickey Mantle and tying a World Series record with six RBIs. It was the third inning, the Cubs led 7-0 and Game 7 was practically inevitable.

Cleveland did muster a pair of runs and was threatening in the seventh, with two on and two out. Cubs manager Joe Maddon summoned closer Aroldis Chapman, who squeezed out of the jam by a hundredth of a second. Francisco Lindor hit a chopper to Rizzo, whose flip to Chapman came just in time to get Lindor – a call that was reversed after first-base umpire Sam Holbrook called him safe.

The next inning was little trouble for Chapman, and Maddon pulled him after a walk in the ninth at 20 pitches, a number that shouldn’t significantly affect his ability to pitch multiple innings in Game 7. It was a call made easier by Anthony Rizzo’s two-run home run in the top of the ninth that gave Chicago a seven-run lead. Pedro Strop gave up a run and Travis Wood recorded the final out for the Cubs. With starters Jon Lester and John Lackey both available to pitch in Game 7, Chicago’s bullpen is fortified for its run at history.

The Cubs are trying to do something only the 1925 Pirates, 1958 Yankees, 1968 Tigers, 1979 Pirates and 1985 Royals have done: come back from a 3-1 deficit in the World Series. Here’s an even more heartening note for Chicago: Only the 1967 Red Sox and 1972 Reds game back to force a Game 7 after being down 3-1 and lost the finale. These Cubs have adopted something of a Rocky theme, with the original film and its sequels playing on clubhouse TVs before Game 5, a tense 3-2 affair, nothing like the blowout of Game 6. It still imbued in Chicago a greater sense of hope than the gloom that hung over the city after Cleveland took Games 3 and 4 at Wrigley Field. Game 5 brought back the signs that said It’s Gonna Happen and left at least some semblance of optimism going into Tuesday.

It was warranted, and now, with standing-room-only tickets starting at $2,000 and actual seats running closer to $2,500, with the highest TV ratings in decades expected, with Major League Baseball riding this close-to-a-dream series to its close-to-a-dream conclusion. Now all it needs is a compelling Game 7 that will remind one city why the wait is worth it and the other about how getting so close can feel worse than not being there at all.

Kansas City gives royal welcome to Royals, World Series Champions!

.

[CPT Twit - for those not capable of reading a 140 character Tweet, the CPT Twit tells the story through pictures.]

A royal welcome awaited the Kansas City Royals as they returned with their first World Series championship in 30 years and only the second in franchise history.

Over half a million people came out to greet the team and celebrate the stunning victory and in the tradition of American baseball, the kids were part of the celebration.  Babe Ruth first brought kids into baseball and the Kansas City Royals are helping to continue that great American tradition.

.

Obamaville April 17 - Promises, Politics and Prostitutes

.

Did you see the Baseball Standings Today?

I checked the Major League baseball standings this morning and now I am more convinced than ever we are approaching the Mayan End Times.  The top three teams in the northeast are Washington Nationals - first place, Baltimore Orioles - first place and New York Mets - second to the Nationals but tied in losses.

The Nationals, Orioles and Mets?  Are you kidding me?  Where are the Red Socks, Yankees and Phillies, the perennial powerhouses of the northeast?  Well, the Red Socks are in fifth place behind Baltimore, the Yankees third behind Baltimore, and the Phillies fourth behind the Nationals and Mets.

There may be more parity in the MLB than we thought which is a good thing for all the teams and fans.  However, in our nation's capitol the people promised to support moving the Nationals to DC by supporting the team and yesterday, Sunday, a beautiful day in Washington with the Nationals in first place, and only 16,000 fans were at the game.

Out west the Los Angeles Dodgers must be feeling the "Magic" effect of Magic Johnson and his groups purchase of the Dodgers as they are also in first place in the west.  Maybe Don Mattingly, the Yankee great, can manage the Dodgers back to the glory days of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

  Obama in Columbia - Prostitution trumps Politics

President Obama was on his Don Quixote trip to South America to encourage Brazil to drill baby drill more oil for America to buy.  Are you serious?  We can't drill for energy independence in the gulf, off the coast or in Alaska, and we can't build the Keystone pipeline to secure crude oil from Canada, but we can tell Brazil to drill and we will buy it at their higher prices.

There are times when it sure seems Obama should have gone to Harvard Business School to learn economics rather than Harvard Law School to learn Constitutional law.  His energy math is all wrong and policy is not existent.  So it was a good thing the South American trip was buried in a White House Secret Service prostitution scandal involving the White House advance team in Columbia.

About 11 Secret Service and 5-10 military personnel were involved in some kind of party. Seems like they were trying to compete with the party masters at GSA who were pleading the 5th amendment .over their multi-million dollar taxpayer paid parties and incentive programs.

It all blew up when one of the agents refused to pay for all night services from a Columbian prostitute.  She rightfully complained to the hotel manager as there are places in Columbia where prostitution is legal, and legal or not do you think a foreign government will not go out of it's way to please the powerful White House staff when the president comes a calling.

The presidential travel budget has skyrocketed with the debt and deficit and the extensive travel appetite of the president and his family.  Big bucks are spent when they reach Hawaii or a foreign capitol.  Perhaps this prostitution explains why the travel costs have increased along with the frequency of trips.


Back in America nothing much happened except the following.

Goldman Sachs sells stake in Backpage trafficking website

New York Times columnist and anti-human trafficking crusader Nicholas Kristof discovered that Goldman Sachs used to own 16 percent of Village Voice Media, which operates prostitution site Backstage.com.

Backpage.com has dominated the market for sex ads since Craigslist stopped running them. The site earns Village Voice Media $25.4 million a year. In his article, Kristof calls Backpage the “biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States” and says that while many ads run in Backpage.com are for adult escorts, Backpage also “plays a major role in the trafficking of women or minors who are coerced” into prostitution.

Goldman Sachs was “mortified” when Kristof began his reporting, Kristof says, and began to “frantically” unload its Backpage shares. The day before his article was published on the New York Times website, Goldman called to report that it had signed an agreement to sell its shares to Backpage management.

A Goldman Sachs director sat on the Village Voice board for four years, but Goldman claimed it had no influence on the direction of the company. Wall Street bankers are frequent users of prostitutes. Perhaps Goldman was playing both side of the trade?

Source: Huffington Post
.

Die Hard Yankees fan Sees Phillies win World Series

.

Okay, so the playoffs haven't even started.  And yes the Yankees are in the playoffs for the 100th or so year.  They are the defending champions and they have won so many World Series NYC lost track.

Then this is the year old George Steinbrenner died and the Yankees broke the bank spending on talent.  When talent fails a team like the Yankees tradition can usually carry them.  Coach Girardi is a clever dude and he may have been resting some the the Yanks these last few weeks and they may suddenly come to life.

But I have an instinct about some things.  I had it when I was in the clubhouse of Yankee stadium and then the dugout with the likes of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford back in the early 1960's.  Even when I attended parties at Yogi's house in Jersey when I worked for the New Jersey governor.  Of course Yogi was a Jersey treasure longbefore he was a national treasure.

But my instinct tells me the Yankees are a little too tired to win the Series this year.  I think the Philadelphia Phillies will win the world championship because the are the hottest and most fearless team in the majors right now.  If they don't Ihope it is the Yankees.

.
         

Was Perfection Stolen or can it be Restored? The Saga of Armando Galarraga!

.
Check out the finish of the perfect game from YouTube for yourself.



While the media and social web sites were flooded last night with stories of how unknown Armando Galarraga of Venezuela, a pitcher for Detroit who had never pitched a complete game in his 56 major league appearances, almost tasted baseball immortality with the 21st perfect game in history and was robbed by a wrong call by the umpire.

It is a crying shame that he missed his footnote in history but did he? According to Major League rules the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, can reverse the call if he sees fit. It is rather odd that the media don't know that obscure fact but it was the last play of the game, since the next batter also was out it made no difference to the stats, scoring or outcome, and the umpire apologized for robbing the player from making history, so I say give him the game and approve the instant replay so no one will ever be robbed again.



Here are various reports on the incident.

In a postgame interview, Armando Galarraga took the high road in defending umpire Jim Joyce. "Nobody's perfect."

Here it is, Bud Selig. Here is your chance to make sure what happened in Detroit on Wednesday night never, ever happens again.

Armando Galarraga was robbed. Stone-cold fleeced. The Detroit Tigers right-hander retired the first 26 Cleveland Indians he faced, and the 27th, Jason Donald, sliced a ground ball wide of first base. Miguel Cabrera fielded it and threw it to a Galarraga, whose foot hit the bag before Donald's did.. It was the 21st perfect game in major league history.

Until Jim Joyce opened his mouth.

Safe,” said the umpire, a 21-year veteran, flailing his arms sideways for emphasis. Of all the umpiring malfeasance in the last year, this was the worst.

History denied by a blown call.

Here is your straw, commish. The camel’s back is broken.

Institute widespread instant replay.

Now.



It should’ve been in place the moment Major League Baseball agreed that technology was sufficient to double-check home run calls. That came in August 2008. In the middle of the season. Selig is not against changing rules on the fly. The slope is already greased.

And this is how he should do it: announce on Thursday morning that he’s putting together a committee of executives, players, MLB officials and union officials to discuss the proper parameters of replay. Weigh, over the next five weeks, the benefits and detriments of different options, like the NFL’s red-flag system that limits teams to two replays per game or a broader option that allows operators in MLB’s central replay office to stop the game to review a call.



Then, at the All-Star Game, announce the new rules and implement them starting in the second half.

It is long overdue. The blown calls in the 2009 playoffs were bad enough. From Phil Cuzzi’s 20/10,000 vision that missed Joe Mauer's shot inside the line during the Division Series to a number of blown calls in Game 2 of the World Series, umpires dished out disappointment with far too much regularity for the most important time of the year.

Still, a postseason replete with embarrassment didn’t compel Selig to change. He defended the game’s human element as if it was some mystical life force that keeps baseball right and fair and just.

Tell that to Armando Galarraga.

He is a 28-year-old from Venezuela. He spent the season’s first five weeks pitching for Detroit’s Triple-A team in Toledo, Ohio. If he isn’t the unlikeliest candidate to achieve baseball immortality, he’s in the picture. Never had he thrown a complete game in any of his previous 56 starts, let alone one approaching perfection.

And yet there he was. Austin Jackson made an amazing over-the-shoulder catch in center field for the first out of the ninth. A groundout to shortstop left him one away, with a rookie at the plate, the perfect formula to flare Galarraga’s senses. He could smell perfection in the air, hear it from the Comerica Park crowd, feel it coursing through his veins, taste its sweetness, see it right in front of him, 60 feet, 6 inches away. It was his..



"I just cost that kid a perfect game," umpire Jim Joyce said. "I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay."

It is his.

In the eyes of everyone who saw the replay – television’s, not baseball’s – Galarraga pitched a perfect game. It was a 28-out perfect game, to be specific, as he retired Trevor Crowe for the final out amid the cacophony at the stadium. Fans were mad. They had every right to be.

Joyce stole history.

He feels awful, of course. He should. He screwed up. Even though it wasn’t malicious, intent doesn’t matter. His job is to get the call right. He didn’t do his job.

Replay would’ve. Joyce would’ve been able to laugh it off afterward – saved by something with better eyes than him. He and Galarraga would’ve laughed about it. The perfect game would’ve been legitimate, not something to which baseball fans assign a personal asterisk.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland stood in Joyce’s face after the 28th out and berated him, mimicking the emotions of everyone in the stadium, everyone around the country, everyone who wondered: How dare you? A better question is how dare the commissioner and how dare the umpires’ union and how dare the other Luddites who try to sell the red herring that a few extra minutes here and there aren’t worth it to get the call right every time?



“I don’t know what to say,” Galarraga said.

No one did.

Baseball is stuck with another humiliation. On the day Ken Griffey, Jr. retired, all the sport could talk about was Galarraga and Joyce and the perfect game with the imperfect call. On the same night referees in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals used replay to reverse a missed call and gave the Philadelphia Flyers a goal, baseball let its technology rot on something as infrequent as boundary calls on home runs.

The onus returns to the commissioner. If ever there were a time to invoke the best-interests-of-baseball clause, this is it. Selig must swallow whatever romanticism remains regarding the subject of replay and do right by the game.

If Commissioner Selig reverses the call as he should the following will be true.

It will be the fewest pitches (88) in a perfect game since Addie Joss' 74 in 1908

It will be the shortest perfect game (1:44) since Koufax's 1:43 in 1965

It will be the third perfect game in the 2010s, which would have put them one behind the 1990s for most perfect games thrown in a decade — just one year into the new decade.

.