The Red Sox have a storied history of long-term, very popular left fielders patrolling the grounds in front of the Green Monster at Fenway Park.
Ted Williams spent 16 years in left field for Boston, Carl Yastrzemski lasted 11 and Jim Rice played 12 years. If you add the eight years of Mike Greenwell's tenure and seven from Manny Ramirez, those five players have spent 54 of the 69 years since Williams' first year in 1940 playing left field for the Red Sox.
During FanHouse's marathon live chat of the ALCS and NLCS yesterday, I couldn't help but notice Scott Boras directly behind home plate as the Angels took on the Yankees in Game 3. I was informed during the chat by our own Jeff Fletcher that Boras has season tickets behind home plate at both Angels and Dodger Stadium, and he likes to show up early so he's available to the media.
Contrary to popular belief, Ralph Branca didn't throw away a pennant with his pitch that became Bobby Thomson's shot heard around the world. All of the Brooklyn Dodgers kept themselves out of the World Series back then. They choked away a huge lead in September to force that playoff against the New York Giants.
Remember Bill Buckner's gaffe?
Overrated.
That was in Game 6. The Boston Red Sox still had a chance to win the world championship in Game 7, but they didn't.
It truly was one of the more magical endings to a baseball playoff game we've ever seen, a game that can't be described any better than a Hollywood ending in which the hero miraculously manages to fight off an entire army with one gun and six bullets to save the girl.
In the movies, we never get to see the loser's epilogue. The NLDS between the Dodgers and Cardinals leaves its Hollywood atmosphere and shifts to St. Louis this weekend, where we'll find out if the Cards can bounce back from a game in which both Matt Holliday and the entire roster took a collective line drive to the groin.
LOS ANGELES -- Getting the 27th out against the Dodgers this year has proved very difficult.
The 28th? Forget it.
The Dodgers managed 12 walk-off wins, tops in the National League, throughout the regular season, but none of them were as memorable as their first one in the playoffs, a jaw-dropping 3-2 victory over the Cardinals in Game 2 of their Division Series on Thursday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
They were done. The game was over. James Loney had hit a fly ball to Matt Holliday with two outs in the ninth, trailing by a run. Andre Ethier, standing in the dugout, had already began mentally planning to fly to St. Louis with the series even at a game apiece.
DENVER -- The way the Cardinals have bulldozed through the National League in the second half, it's easy to forget that they were locked in a see-saw battle with the Cubs, barely over .500, a few months ago.
By the time John Smoltz showed up in mid August, the Cardinals were a changed team.
"You get four guys like that, who add postseason experience and most of all a lot of depth to our lineup and our bench," Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick told FanHouse before Friday's potential division-clinching game in Colorado. "We just got better depth-wise. We've just been having a lot of fun. You start winning games and it becomes contagious and you get rolling."
The St. Louis Cardinals will be winning the NL Central this season and could end up with the best record in the National League, and a lot of their success has to do with Albert Pujols. They've made big moves like trading for Matt Holliday, not only for the purpose of chasing a World Series championship, but to show Pujols that they're committed to winning as an organization.
That's because they know Pujols' contract is up in two years and if they're going to keep him in St. Louis, they need to keep him happy. In a way, Pujols is the LeBron James of baseball. He's a cut above everybody else in the league, and he plays in a smaller Midwestern town that can't pay the big bucks of teams in New York, Los Angeles or Boston. So there's always that worry he's going to leave when his contract is up, which is exactly why the Cardinals have already approached him to talk about an extension.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
By now we all know of the greatness of San Francisco pitcher Tim Lincecum. He's the best pitcher in baseball this season, with a 2.34 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 233 strikeouts in 200 1/3 innings. But there's another hard-throwing young kid in the Giants organization that, like Lincecum, has a shot to be one of the league's best very quickly. He's a guy you want to burn that No. 1 waiver priority on, in case he sticks in the rotation for the rest of the season. He is Madison Bumgarner.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday -- it's running Friday this week.
Earlier this week, Brad Lidge's nightmare 2009 season continued, when he allowed a walk-off homer to Andrew McCutchen. Ed Price covered the outing the following morning. The abysmal performance by the Phillies' closer underlines the only weakness of the defending World Series Champions.
As the No. 1 overall pick in 1990, Chipper Jones signed with the Braves for $275,000.
Even in today's dollars, that's about $450,000 -- or about 3 percent of Stephen Strasburg was guaranteed as this year's No. 1 pick.
And Jones agreed to his deal the night before the draft, while Strasburg came within two minutes of missing last Monday's deadline to sign.
"I think the only way that you're going to get kids signed and get them into the various camps is to put some kind of cap on it," Jones said. "I was always of the belief that you make your money at the big-league level."
That's how the teams want it too. When the current collective bargaining agreement is up in two years, Major League Baseball may pursue an NBA-style slotting system -- with signing bonuses locked in depending on how high a player is picked, as opposed to the current non-binding slot recommendations.
The Red Sox have a storied history of long-term, very popular left fielders patrolling the grounds in front of the Green Monster at Fenway Park. 
During FanHouse's marathon live chat of the ALCS and NLCS yesterday, I couldn't help but notice Scott Boras directly behind home plate as the Angels took on the Yankees in Game 3. I was informed during the chat by our own Jeff Fletcher that Boras has season tickets behind home plate at both Angels and Dodger Stadium, and he likes to show up early so he's available to the media.
Contrary to popular belief, Ralph Branca didn't throw away a pennant with his pitch that became Bobby Thomson's shot heard around the world. All of the Brooklyn Dodgers kept themselves out of the World Series back then. They choked away a huge lead in September to force that playoff against the New York Giants.
LOS ANGELES -- Getting the 27th out against the Dodgers this year has proved very difficult.
DENVER -- The way the Cardinals have bulldozed through the National League in the second half, it's easy to forget that they were locked in a see-saw battle with the Cubs, barely over .500, a few months ago.
The St. Louis Cardinals will be winning the NL Central this season and could end up with the best record in the National League, and a lot of their success has to do with Albert Pujols. They've made big moves like trading for Matt Holliday, not only for the purpose of chasing a World Series championship, but to show Pujols that they're committed to winning as an organization.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
