http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1127451145286840.xml&coll=1

It’s kind of a glorified tough man contest, with a little pro wrestling showmanship built in. I forget the Japanese guy’s name who bought the rights to k-1 a couple of years ago, but he tried to fire things up by introducing the wrestling rant to the sport and the colorful intros, etc….

I’m not into it. I like my sports unfiltered and raw. Let the fight itself carry my interest or it’s not worth it to me. The NBA turns me off for all the flash and extra-curricular crap that they have to throw in to get people to watch their watered-down league.

The little K-1 I’ve seen is okay, but it’s really just huge monsters pummeling each other. I’d rather watch legit Muy Thai.

2. Unfortunately I don’t think we’re in that great a shape to get into the post season. cleveland continues to feast on KC as suspected and is pretty much as hot as we are. Beating the Sox will still be tough and now the WC is not opening up for us. I’m not saying we’re going to lose but we pull off a very difficult 4 game sweep to add to our streak and we still have no breathing room. We’re not going to win every game going forward, we’re not one of those A’s teams that pulled things like that off. If we make the post-season one way or the other it will be a tremendous accomplishment. Hope we can pull it off.

Off topic: Are you into MMA competition? Pride, K-1, etc? If so, have you attended any events?

Before the Cleveland game is over….we are currently the 3rd best team in the majors. 4th if the Tribe finishes off the Royals.

Comment #2:

It’s firmly Autumn in northern Japan today. The leaves haven’t started changing, but the weather is New Englandish. Cool and crisp. Watching the Yanks down the stretch matches the weather!

Comment #3:

Our pitching seems sorted out right now. We might see an occasional blip from a 3-5 starter, but I think Mussina and Johnson are locked in. The pen will be alright. You have to think that we’ll get solid long relief from Small and Gordon/Rivera will be tough. The question is about who Joe’s match up lefty will be in the end and who we’ll trust with the 7th if needed. Sturtze is shaky.

I go with Johnson, Mussina, Wang, Wright, Chacon as starters. Small as long man. Sturtze, Gordon, and Rivera as 7-8-9. My match up lefty might have to be Embree for now, and maybe in a big game later you have to go to the Big Unit.

Central winner vs. West winner
East winner vs. Wild Card

For the Yanks to play the White Sox in the ALDS, the Sox would have to lose the division to the Tribe, but hold on to the Wild Card, then it would be (we hope):

Yanks v. Chisox
Angels v. Indians

So actually, root for the Indians and White Sox to win, and the Indians to win head-to-head and the Yanks to pull out the division and you’ll get your wish.

If nothing else, this is how the ‘other half’ has been living for most of the past decade — in a pennant race. A good bud of mine always busts my ass about wanting a nice, neat 10 game lead every year. He says “As a baseball fan, how could you not enjoy a good pennant race?”

Since he grew up a Tigers fan in Detroit, I remind him that my pennant fever usually begins in the Divisional Series — absolutely freaked by even the slightest prospect that a Texas Rangers team could have knocked off the ’98 Yanks in a short, opening round series.

This has been one helluva year so far, I’m exhausted just getting to this point. The next ten days are going to be gut-wrenching. Then, if we’re lucky, the real pressure will begin. I’m postponing my decision to quit smoking until all of this sorted out. Good luck on that tip, Alex

Now let’s run the table!

Unfortunately, given current trend lines, it seems more likely we’ll get the Tribe in the first round (if we can survive the final ten games).

Also, it’s got to really wear on the offense that even when they pile up runs, they simply can’t take a break and have to sweat out 3 or 4 tense innings at the end (when a starter can’t go past 5 or 6).

But yeah, as long as we can actually pull these out, it’s nothing but crazy stress and crankiness in the end.

Also, Sheff already uses the Theme to Shaft for his (I think third) at-bat music.

Finally, minor league stats translate to major league performance, directly. The only thing you have to watch out for are park and league factors. The key stat for mL pitchers is K/BB ratio. Bean’s is excellent, as was Lilly’s, as was Halsey’s, as was Wang’s. The only catch on Bean is that he’s no longer young (now 28), but that’s the fault of the Yankee front office, he should have been installed in the pen last summer.

Give a chance to Anderson, DeSalvo, Bean if he is around, Cox if he is progressing well, DePaula, Steve White, Henn, anyone that can throw strikes. Sturtze and Gordon, thanks for your Yankee tenure, you had been valuable at times. The rest, well, good luck finding jobs elsewhere.