dr. b

Probably not until the World Series. I hope we'll see a Dodgers/Dads matchup in the NLDS. That will be good. Nobody is picking the Jays to get past the Rays, which of course isn't surprising... but oh man that would be nice. If they could beat the Rays and then the Yankees to get to the ALCS, that would be incredible. Gotta love taking down division rivals.

The bracket! I hope all Wild Card Series go 3 games. I want to see some fun, exciting, crazy baseball. So many weird things can happen in a short series. There's definitely a chance for some upsets. All it takes is for one random dude to go off for a bunch of hits, or pitch a few scoreless innings, and next thing you know the underdog has won a game.

The Beantown Boys are out! I'm 100% on the Heat bandwagon. Finals game #1 is Wednesday night.

All I keep hearing about here is that bars and restaurants are the biggest problem. Indoor dining and bars might get shutdown again, or at least have their hours and capacities curtailed. Strip clubs will get shutdown first, I'm sure. Not sure why they even bothered re-opening some of these places

Altuve really dropped off in production this year and the Astros' pitching staff isn't what it used to be. It sucks for the White Sox and Jays that the Astros get to be seeded ahead of them just because they're in a weaker division. Oh well. The Yankees held up their end of the bargain and lost to the Marlins today. The Jays couldn't beat the stupid O's though. I've come around a bit on my thinking re: the 1/8 matchup against the Rays though. The Trop is still a house of horrors for Toronto, so a 3-game series there is a worrisome... but they at least know the Rays pretty well having played them 10 times this summer. If they had jumped up to the #5 seed, it would have been a series against either Chicago or Cleveland. A bit harder to game plan against teams you haven't played even once this year. I think if they don't crack under the pressure (lots of young players) the Jays can give the Rays a really good challenge. Quite a few hot bats in the Toronto lineup right now. But those pesky Rays are always tricky.

The Brewers are in, Giants lost. 4 NLC teams in the postseason (Cubs, Cards, Reds, Brewers).

The game is about to start - the last game of the season - and I'm sitting here sort of in disbelief that we managed to get this far. I legit thought it was all going to fall apart after the Marlins' and then Cards' outbreaks. Sports have been a nice distraction while the world is in shambles all around us OK, Blue Jays, let's play ball!

Well I guess we're officially in the second wave Ontario has been reporting 300+ new cases everyday for a while now, some days 400+ IIRC. It's mostly the GTA and Ottawa driving that, locally the case numbers haven't gone up a ton... but I don't live very far away from the GTA so it's not like it's a a world away from me. Not too much cases have been confirmed at schools in our region though. Unless something new was reported over the weekend, I don't think any schools have been closed due to outbreaks. Sure hope my 9 year old doesn't get stuck having to do remote learning again. Being at home all the time drove us all nuts. We are also supposed to start the toddler in childcare on October 5th. This week I'll be finalizing our registration, signing up for childcare subsidies, etc. Hopefully it isn't all a waste of time!

Big day of games today! Some are meaningless of course, but there are still some races to watch. Last night they said on the Jays broadcast that if they win today and the Yankees lose then they can jump up in the standings and be the ALE 2nd place team instead of a Wild Card team. If I'm reading the standings correctly, that would put the Jays in 5th place. A 4/5 matchup (likely against Chicago) might not be much better for them because the White Sox have a lot of talent... but avoiding the Rays in a 1/8 matchup would be pretty darn nice.

Poor Nuggets They put up a good fight in this series, at least. I hope they come back better next year. We're halfway to the Lakers/Celtics finals that I'm dreading. The Heat still have two chances to knock off the Celtics though (c'mon guys, get it done in game 6 please).

Yeah I really enjoyed the final episode of Appare-Ranman! Great finish. It was a fun show all the way through.

Your Mets are eliminated. They lost both games of a double-header today to the Nats. I'm so happy that the Jays went into this final weekend series vs. Baltimore not *needing* to win to make the postseason. (Of course I'm also happy that they have won both games against the O's so far :D)

Crunchyroll says the final season of Attack on Titan will start airing Dec. 7th

I don't know a single person who is still watching hockey

Pearson came back last night for the Jays. 1.2 IP and he was lighting up the radar gun. I hope this kid's arm doesn't explode. The NLC and NL WC are still a race. Could be an exciting finish over the weekend. I'm happy to see the Reds clinch a spot.

Hard to imagine the Angels catching the Astros for 2nd in the AL West, but I guess stranger things have happened. Seattle is already eliminated: https://www.mlb.com/standings/postseason

I am excited too! But also... the Jays struggle mightily at Tropicana Field, so if they play the Rays in a #1 vs. #8 match up then I'm a bit worried They're gonna have to play really well to beat anybody as a Wild Card team, but the Rays are just always a problem for Toronto.

Ryu last night: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 SO

CLINCHED

I haven't paid as much attention to the rest of the league this summer as I normally would. Most of my sports watching time has gone to basketball. But I still catch parts of Jays games and listen to Jays podcasts. I look forward to the postseason though, hopefully I will find the time to see more of the other (good) teams play. Toronto is up 4-0 now in the 6th, so they can clinch their spot as long the bullpen doesn't blow it.

I enjoyed Tower of God quite a bit, but part of the reason why I liked it so much was honestly aesthetics. Even when it was dumb or confusing, it was always enjoyable to look at. God of High School did not impress me in the same way.

The bit of God of High School that I watched reminded me a bit of these Korean dramas that my wife like to watch. Too many characters, unnecessarily confusing story... I dunno, maybe it's just 'cause I saw the anime had a Korean director. I think the original author is Korean too. I am told that Korean shows have a reputation for being long and hard to follow

I think the Jays only need one more win to clinch their spot (or maybe for the teams behind them to lose a game). The decisive win over the Yankees last night was good to see. There's only been one close, low scoring games between the Jays and Yanks this summer: W 12-7 W 2-1 L 2-7 L 6-20 L 2-13 L 7-10 W 11-5 L 1-12 W 14-1 Overall the Yanks have outscored the Jays 76-57 in these games. One game left tonight. If the Jays can win it then they'll split the season series 5 games each, but they'll need to score a tonne of runs to even out the run differential

I'm OK with sign stealing in the traditional sense, it's just another way of trying to win the game. And I agree about going back to basics, but I guess I don't think "back to basics" includes cameras and other technology. If a baserunner can figure out the catcher's signs, or if players/coaches in the dugout can see a pitcher's tells, then I'm all for them trying to relay that info to the batter with their own signs. But I don't like people in the dugout/clubhouse using video, cameras, etc. to accomplish that.

Interesting article re: the Yankees on The Athletic: As Yankees fight release of MLB letter, Randy Levine to argue for team in court As the Yankees continue to fight a court-ordered release of “the Yankees Letter,” they’re taking an uncommon step: The team’s president, Randy Levine, plans to argue the case himself. “I’ve argued cases in the court of appeals before,” Levine said Monday. “I enjoy the experience, and I’m really looking forward to presenting our case. It should be a really interesting argument.” In June, Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York said the Yankees and Major League Baseball must make public a 2017 letter sent by Commissioner Rob Manfred to the Yankees that detailed the findings of a league investigation into the team. During discovery, the letter grabbed the attention of plaintiffs who had brought a lawsuit against MLB, the Astros and the Red Sox following the sign-stealing scandals. The plaintiffs alleged that, although the Yankees are not a party to the case, the letter contained proof that the Yankees had engaged in a more serious sign-stealing scheme than what the league announced in 2017, thereby proving Manfred’s duplicity. ... If the team's president is involved, there must be some damning evidence in this letter that suggests the Yanks were also stealing signs like the Astros and Red Sox. In 2017 they beat the Twins in the Wild Card game, and then the Clevelands in the ALDS before losing to the Astros in the ALCS. If the WC and ALDS wins were aided by sign stealing schemes then those other teams are going to be a little bit pissed off (assuming that the Twins and Clevelands were not also stealing signs... for all we know every team in the league was doing it in one way or another!)