World Series Game 3

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Inaugural Game Photos

I went to the first-ever FWBL game last night, and took some fuzzy photos at the event.


Here the Diamantes and Naturals lined up to be introduced.


Here's a really fuzzy shot of the first pitch in FWBL history.


And here's the celebration for Joash Brodin after he hit the first homer in Diamantes history.


There was a reasonable crowd there.


The crowd started to thin by the 7th inning.

Since we had a 30-mile drive and it was already half past 10 we left after the 7th, which was too bad, as the Diamantes tied the game in the ninth and won it in the 10th.

Baseball in Miami, Now and in the Future

Samson gave a media tour of the stadium site, showing off the growing columns of the new Musberger overpass. Sarah Talalay gives us a great overview of what's happening down there. Samson also crows about the 65 percent of construction workers being local, but is reminded the Marlins still need a place to play in 2011.

Speaking of local, tonight wll be the first night of the Miami Diamantes' domination of South Florida sports. As Juan C. reported, many of the players have a history in South Florida. Tickets are still being sold.

World Series Game 2

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World Series Game 1

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Randy Can't Stop Tinkering?

Craig's concern about St. Claire's obsession with fixing pitchers' mechanics gets verification through this Brian Sanches comment: "I would classify him more as a mechanics guy. He wants to make sure everything is in line with the plate. He's always in the video room."

Also that article also says the Marlins won't make any announcements about new signings until after the Series. So sit back and have some popcorn.

Mathematician Says Hanley Should Be NL MVP

"(Bruce) Bukiet’s method uses 2009 regular season stats for each player on each team’s roster. He then applies a mathematical model known as the Markov Process to predict the number of runs.

"To determine MVP and Cy Young winners, he considers how many extra wins each player would have contributed to a team of otherwise all average players in his league based on his performance during the regular season.

"For hitters, this involves quantifying each player’s offensive performance in the Markov model in comparison to others who play the same position....

"In the National League, Bukiet, an associate dean of math at New Jersey Institute of Technology, says Florida Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez deserves the MVP award, contributing 5.6 extra wins, while the Cardinals' Albert Pujols is close behind at 5.4 extra wins."

He also predics the Yankees have a 70 percent chance to win the series. This will be checkable in a few days. (stltoday)

Randy St. Claire Declares He's New Fish Pitching Coach

The former 9-year MLB pitcher, Expo minor-league guy, and Nationals pitching coach tells the press he's hired. The Marlins haven't o-fish-ally said anything yet, and are continuing their search for more coaches while other teams hire our old coaches.

AL Championship Game 6

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AL Championship Game 6

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Time For the Diamantes

The Florida Winter Baseball League will make its debut next week here in SoFla as the Miami Diamantes start a three-game series against the Seminole County Naturals at FIU University Park stadium next Friday. Along with the Naturals, the other two teams in the league (the Lake County Black Bears and the Space Coast Surge) are located in the central part of Florida, necessitating lots of long bus trips between Miami and the orange groves. The league's self-stated objective is to provide "a high visibility showcase for the unseasoned professional baseball player market, catering to not only rookie and Single A level ball players, but also to baseball managers, coaches, scouts, and umpires." They'll be marketing themselves as "the 'preferred US alternative' to Latin and Caribbean winter league baseball." Ken Griffey Sr. is the league commissioner. Who knows? This may actually be interesting.

Wednesday's Worries

There's a bunch of brou-Ha-Ha over the inevitable news that the new parking garage at the new Marlins stadium will cost more than projected. This, though, is a non-issue, as traffic down those tiny streets will be so gridlocked during each game that no one will be able to get to the parking garage anyway.

Tonight the Yanks will try to get Joe to the big show by eliminating the Angels...

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NL Championship Game 5

The Dodgers may be sent home tonight, along with Vin Scully, who plans to return next year, but as he says, "if you want to make God smile, tell him your plans." So I'll be warming up the XM and turning down the TV.

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Alejandro, We Hardly Knew Thee

The wait for the yearly injury is over - De Aza was placed on waivers by the Marlins and picked up by the White Sox. (chicagotribune)(FishPond)(PBPost)(SunSentinel)

Tewsday Nues

Mark Wiley speaks of his surprise at his dismissal and of his future with the team, or elsewhere.

Juan C. takes the Maniac to task for not thinking Coghlan was ROY material.

Here's Fangraph's take on Coghlan and Carroll.

Jack chuckles that Sabathia's going on short rest tonight.

Speaking of tonight....

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Today's Story

Nick Johnson ponders his time with the Fish, and his future with or without them. (MLB)

Now here's tonight's playoff action...

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One Sunday Glob

Andrew makes his first AFL appearance. (PBPost)

Now here's tonight's NL Championship game...

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Saturday's Globs of News

Jeffrey flies Fredi, Samson, Beinfest, Hill, and Jennings for a less-than-two-day trip to Paris, to do what everyone always does in Paris - talk baseball, of course. Says Fredi (and probably his poor wife), "(W)e weren't there to sightsee." (FishBytes)

Apparently Jeffrey wanted to fire Fredi in May, but now everyone's all sunshine-and-roses (until the first loss of next season, that is). (PBPost)

Get ready to scratch one off the list - it looks like Professor Rick is heading for the Brewers' pitching coach job. (MLB)

Samson is striving to make sure that all the latest technology of the modern surveillance state will be in place and operational at the new ballpark, Says he, "We'll know who is in the ballpark, where they're sitting and what they've bought. We're not trying to be George Orwell." (True, since Orwell was the writer who tried to warn us about such tactics.) (MLB)

It's the AL game tonight...

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Today's Pile o' Things

Braman's appeal is rejected - will he find another hobby? (MiamiHerald)

Stanton is the Marlins' Minor League Player of the Year, Cristhian is the Marlins' Minor League Pitcher of the Year. (FishBytes)

The Maniac interviews Juan C. and discusses Jorge Cantu.

Frisaro gives more pitching coach speculation. (FishPond)

Here's today's games...

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NL Championship Now

It's 5-1 Phillies in the 5th at 9:55 PM ET...

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Stuff That's Out There

Proctor has no hard feelings, trusts his agent. (tcpalm)

Matt Trueblood discusses how Uggla would fit in with 8 teams that may want him. (bleacherreport)

Get rid of the umpires! (wsj.com)

Time Off

I'm going on a weekend trip. So here are yesterday's scores...

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Here are today's games....

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And here are tomorrow's games...

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MORE: And here is Monday's game...

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Coaches Abandon Ship

Bo Porter and Steve Foster join Mark Wiley and Andy Fox as former Marlins coaches. Tosca, Presley and Arsenault sign up for another go-around. Bryan Price may sign with the Marlins, but not Leo Mazzone. Meanwhile, Scott Proctor will be shooting clays as a non-Marlin, David Davidson was released, and Andy and Dallas are in AAA. (TCPalm)

IN-OTHER-NEWS: Paul Lo Duca accused of not paying his stud fees. (thoroughbredtimes.com)

Today's Stuff-a-rooney

Speculation on the Marlins new pitching coach starts (here)

With the $3 billion-plus retractable-roofed ballpark well underway, the NFL now decides that it wants a roof at LambShank Stadium. (SportingNews)

Here's today's playoff scores...

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180 Days till Opening Day

Here's some stuff on this playoff-starting day...

Former-Fish Miguel Cabrera hit a 3-run homer, but it wasn't enough as the Tigers lost the AL Central title to the Twins. (Yahoo)

The Marlins start to add salary by replacing Wiley and Fox while offering them new positions. (FishStripes)

Fredi says'"I feel comfortable we can go forward" and wants to find replacements for Wiley and Fox "as quickly as possible. I hate dragging this kind of stuff out a lot." (sun-sentinel)

Hanley will be getting a Silver Bat from Louisville Slugger. (bizjournals.com)

Darren Daulton will be auctioning off his 1997 World Series Championship Ring next month. (philly.com)

Sean can't even drive the girls' choir home from the rectory without attracting attention. (philly.com)

As of this typing, the Yankees and Phillies already won, and the Cards-Dodgers game is in progress...

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Congratulations! You're Fired!

This should have been a time to revel in the many accomplishments of the 2009 Marlins team, but instead it's time to once again watch another manager that is highly-praised and regarded in many circles, and who lead a team that few thought would get to where it eventually got to, have the threat of the boot hanging over him because he did not satiate a certain person's over-inflated concepts.

Or he might clash with the new ballpark's wallpaper, or whatever.

Firing the Cuban-American manager of a ball club building its new home in Little Havana is an innovative P.R. move.

HOLD-THOSE-RESUMES: Looks like Fredi is staying. (MLB)

This Be It

Closing Day. Quick post. Sorry.

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Two More Games

The Marlins continue the battle for second-place money today as they play the Phillies on national TV.

Anibal and Cole start today. It'll be up to Cody whether he feels good enough to play.

Since 1993 the Fish have played only 4 regular-season games on October 3rd, and they have lost each time, including against the Phillies in 2004. Philadelphia is 2-2 in their last four October 3rd games.

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History in the Future

Along with Nolasco making history on Wednesday, Chris Coghlan tied the MLB rookie record for hits in September. The Sporting News' Stan McNeal declares Chris the Rookie of the Year, but not MVP for Hanley.

Hanley has tonight off, and Nick returns to the line-up. Handicappers give Philly the advantage, though the Marlins are on a 4-game win streak at the CBP. It's the Hurk verses Joe Blanton - Rick's last four starts have been Marlins' wins, but Joe has won his last three starts.

In their history the Marlins have only played 5 regular-season games on October 2nd, but they won the last 4 of them, including against the Phillies in 2004 (The Phils are 2-3 in their last five 10/2 games).

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HOORAY!: Fish win.

Marlins Put Braves on the Edge

Congratulations to Ricky Nolasco for a amazing historic performance. Kudos to Leo Nunez for making the end of the game almost too interesting. And a slap on the back to Brendan Donnelly, whose only pitch, a wild, dust-crusted thing, was just close enough to allow Paulino to throw out the tying run at third to end the Braves' hopes for playoffery.

It's the final day off before a lot of days off. Tonight's games below...

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