The Bridegrooms are back home in Chavez Ravine and are hoping for a different result in the game tonight.

The only game: Phillies (Moyer) at Dodgers (Kuroda), 8:22 p.m.

In Jamie "Freaking" Moyer's last start against Milwaukee the Brewers were able to solve him, maybe the Dodgers can too.

Kuroda last start was a gem.  He went 6.1 innings and allowing 0 runs.  Historically he has done very well against the Phillies.

As per the usual, you will be picking the winner of the game, a player of the game and an AAB pick.

Best of Luck to You!

The League Championship Series continues tonight in Saint Petersburg.  And hopefully with a different result.  Now, you maybe for Boston, and that is cool, but I am not.  

The only game: Red Sox (Beckett) at Rays (Kazmir), 8:07 p.m.

Rooting against Beckett is foreign to me, but there are times one must do something that is completely against their nature in this life.  (Anyone buying that explanation?)

I could go into why I tear up a bit every time Kazmir pitches, but then again, that is water under the bridge.

Do the usual: pick the team who you think will win the game, a player of the game and some sort of an Above and Beyond pick.  You know, just the way you have done so many times before.

Have a Great Weekend!  And as always, Best of Luck to You!

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The League Championship Series continue today and the AL coming to the plate for the first time.

Game One: Dodgers (Billingsley) at Phillies (Myers), 4:35 p.m.

Game Two: Red Sox (Matsuzaka) at Rays (Shields), 8:37 p.m.

Of course, the Red Sox game will be in prime time.  It has been that way all playoffs long.  I hope I don't need to go into the reason why this is so.  And believe me, it has absolutely nothing to do with the nation would rather watch a Red Sox game.

The upside to it is that the Rays will get to play in the prime time game.  Something they haven't spent much time doing during the playoffs, so far.

I am soooo outta time.

Best of Luck to You!

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Forbes came up with rating of its 10 Sports Franchises most likely to move and naturally, the Florida Marlins are one of them.

What do the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, New York Islanders and basketball's New Orleans Hornets all have in common?

Dreary stadiums they don't own and stalling businesses eager to rake in more cash. In other words, they're all ripe for a move. And that means city or state governments around the country can expect them to come calling for help financing a new venue.

It is extremely hard to move a MLB franchise.  First, the commissioners office has to approve it and then it needs the approval of the majority of owners of the other baseball teams.  This doesn't happen very often.

Major League Baseball, a world of local TV deals and 81 annual games that make market size much more important, has had just one franchise move since 1970--that being the excursion of the struggling Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C., three years ago.

If any club is going to break that spell, expect it to come from Florida, a seemingly natural baseball market that hasn't lived up to expectations. Both the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays have been at or near the bottom of the league in attendance for a decade, thanks in part to the dreary stadiums they call home. Sports marketing experts call the Marlins' Dolphin Stadium and the Rays' Tropicana Field "major impediments" to success.

Given the economic climate it is possible that Miami-Dade or the City of Miami could kill the deal on the stadium.  They have that option, but it would cost them given the fact they would've to reimburse to other parties for all expenses on the stadium up until the point they called it quits.

It would be very surprising if that were to happen.

And even if the Marlins ended up homeless, exactly where would they go?  It is not like any part of the country is doing well, economically, at the moment.

Take heart, there is a history of building stadiums during economic downturns.  Back during the era of the WPA and the CCC new baseball stadiums were built.  For example: the monstrosity known as Cleveland Municipal Stadium was one of the projects.  The stadium, when finished, was built with...I don't know...about a gazillion bricks.  Not to mention the fact it was much too large to be a decent baseball stadium.  (Though as it turned out, it wasn't a half bad football stadium.)

I guess what I am saying is that in economic downturns and even ones that last for quite sometime, stadiums have been built in the past and they probably will be again in the situation we may find ourselves in.

It is duty of the government to spend money on infrastructure projects if things are looking bad economically.  And believe it or not, baseball stadiums qualify in that category.

So I doubt the Marlins are going anywhere.  Oh, by the way, Forbes celebrated all the so called "wealth" created by the leveraging of derivatives when it was happening -- so what do they know.

It is Friday and with the playoffs in full swing, there isn't much to report.  Oh sure, I could've put together a statistics laden post that may have, or not, shown some insight into the Marlins season.  But that would've taken work and some thought, and that ain't gonna happen today, if ever.

So instead I decided to take the easy road and go with a Marlins Crap post.  Maybe in your life it is different, but in mine, laziness always seems to win out.

Without any other further ado: Here is the Marlins Crap post.

The first one I stumbled upon was this:

MLB Florida Marlins III black silk ties.

The promotion on the site has this to say:

Come celebrate America’s greatest past time, baseball! This delightful necktie celebrates the rich history of the Florida Marlins. Featured within is a stylish pattern of the Marlins’ logo across a rich 100% silk black jacquard background. For true Marlins fans with good taste, few ties look better. Go Marlins!

The good taste part is debatable.

Then it occurred to me that most of the FishStripers, probably, aren't big into wearing ties.

Therefore the search continued.  And then I found this:

Florida Marlins Black Three-Pack Golf Club Headcovers

This site pitches its product in the following way;

Show off your true fanaticism while playing a round with these cushioned sock golf club head covers! Each box includes numbers 1,3 and X.

Of course, golf may not be the leisure activity of choice by anybody who reads this site.  But it does help fill up a post.

Hopefully, we won't have many more Marlins Crap post during the offseason.  But you never know.

And that ends today's Marlins Crap post.  I really need to work on the laziness thing and I get right on it, in the next decade, or two.

The League Championship Series starts today with the National League taking center stage.

Dodgers (Lowe) at Phillies (Hamels), 8:22 p.m.

The National League games will be on Fox, which probably means we will get the...uh..."pleasure" of listening to Jack Buck and Tim McCarver drone on incessantly.  One can only hope they will notice that a game is going on sometime during the series and make intelligent comments about it.  But that is probably too much to ask.

Looking at the early rounds of starting pitching, the Dodgers appear to have the better starters.  While the Phillies have more and better boppers, which should be interesting while the games are being played in that bandbox the Phillies call a stadium.

But if history is any indicator, good pitching normally shuts down good hitting.

Just like in the LDS, you will be picking the winner of the game, player of the game and an AAB pick.

Ichthyomancy is ready to get this party started.  Best of Luck to You!  

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Matt Treanor was less healthy than we were led to believe -- meaning, he was big time hurt.

The muscle tears around catcher Matt Treanor's left hip that sidelined him 24 games last season were worse than anticipated. Yet after undergoing surgery Oct. 1 that also fixed an umbilical hernia, Treanor expects to be at full strength well before he heads to Jupiter.

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Treanor is unsure whether he has played his last game for the only organization he's known since midway through the 1997 season. One of 15 arbitration-eligible Marlins, Treanor will go through the process for the second time. Last season, he didn't know whether the Marlins were keeping him until the December deadline to tender contracts.

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Though Treanor is due a bump over the $705,000 he earned in 2008, he certainly won't break the bank. AJohn Baker-Treanor tandem should cost the Marlins less than $2 million, considering Baker will earn right around the $400,000 league minimum next season.

Treanor is not an impact player offensively, but he's no longer a black hole in the lineup. More importantly, Treanor is a quality catcher and his knowledge of the pitchers would be invaluable to Baker's development.

I've already touch on this before, but I will say it again, assuming he is healthy, it would be in the Marlins best interest to bring Treanor back.  Baker can learn a lot about catching (I said catching; not hitting) from Treanor.  The drills Matt puts himself through to fine tune his defensive skills, can only help the young Mr. Baker, if he will emulate them.

Besides what he brings behind the plate, he is a good guy to have in clubhouse and one of the nicest, if not the nicest guy to the fans.

The Florida Marlins once again finished first in the cost-per-win index.  Big surprise.

Across the Everglades and down Route 95 sits the team with the lowest-cost-per-win in the majors: the Florida Marlins. They spent $259,661 for each victory.

Given that the minimum baseball salary in 2008 reached $390,000 per player, all teams were required to spend at least $9.75 million to field a 25-man roster; the Marlins didn’t earmark a whole lot more, shelling out less than $22 million to the entire squad.

Actually, the numbers aren't quite representative of what the Marlins spent on the field labor cost.  First you have to take out the total of $4,000,000, paid to Delgado, Leiter, Castillo and Urbina.  That's right, the Marlins paid someone in prison.

When the non-roster players are removed from the equation, the Marlins spent only $17,811,500 on the entire squad initially, however, Gonzo made all of his incentives and earned an extra $1,000,000. (200-500 PA appearances).  So the total comes to be $18,811,500, or there about.

Given the fact that the Marlins won 84 games and doing some simple math, the Marlins actually spent $223,946 for each victory.

I'm not sure this is something to proud of, or not.  But it does speak volumes about the job the baseball operations people do given the limited budget they are always saddle with.  (In case you didn't know: baseball operations includes not only Beinfest, Jennings, et al.  But also the scouts and the coaches.)

Welcome to the second day of waiting around for post-season baseball to resume.

There isn't much on the docket in the way of sports.  Oh, sure the NBA has a few games slated but none of them involve the Heat.  At least, not directly.  The NHL may be playing some, but I'm not showing it on my TV schedule.

So I guess were are left to our own devices.  In other words, it's get creative time.

Feel free to discuss anything that is of interest to you.  Whether it be baseball, snipe hunting tips, how to change a tire in the rain without getting your hands all covered in grime, movies, books or why blanching is an important part of freezing produce from your garden.  Really, anything will do.

Have a Great Day!

The be real honest, it is barely stadium news and sort of would be kind.

WPBT is conducting a "Florida Marlins Stadium Poll" with general idea being you listen to what Samson and Braman have to say via video and then vote in the poll.

Most of it you have heard before, but it does serve as reminder that a new stadium won't come easy.

Like anyone needed to be reminded of that.

Florida Marlins Stadium Poll

Click on the link and watch the videos, if you are so inclined, and then vote away.