The 10th man



Matt Holiday drops this Loney fly ball as it hits him in the balls :)

 Where were you one year ago today? The Dodgers remember where they were. I believe it was october 9th. game 2 of the division series against the cardinals at home. Dodgers leading the series 1-0, down by a run with 2 outs in the 9th. Ryan Franklin, the Cardinals closer on in the 9th, Loney hits a room service sinking fly ball to left field. The Dodgers had lost that game, if Holliday had caught that ball, the series is instead tied and everything is different. but you know what happened? yes magic happened, awsome wonderfulness happened.
the Dodger fans distracted Matt Holiday, causing him to drop the ball. Could this be true? well lets consider the possibility. the ball never touched Holiday's glove, hitting off his groin and rolling a few feet in front of him. Loney ended up at second, and the Dodgers had gotten a huge break.
I had attended the game 1 in person. I remember white Dodger rally towels were passed out to all the fans, and everyone was waving them during the game. The small towels were completly white with the exception of the Dodger logo in the center. I remember telling the fans sitting around me to not wave the towels while the Dodgers were in the field, as it would be distracting. the towels reminded me of the homer hankys the twins fans used during the 91 world series.

remember Matt Holiday up until that game had only commited only 1 error in his last 63 regular season games. and he also had hit a home run earlier in that same game.

after the game Holidays teammate and game 2 starter Adam Wainright had commented about the rally towels, he said......
"That ball got lost in 50,000 white towels shaking in front of Matt's face," [Cardinals starter Adam] Wainwright said. "It doesn't really seem fair that an opposing team should be able to allow their fans to shake white towels when there's a white baseball flying through the air. How about Dodger Blue towels?"

Holiday commented saying that it was the lights that had caused him to lose sight of the fly ball.

what happened next? well Casey Blake had an epic at bat. fouling off like 10 pitches, eventually drawing a clutch walk to extend the inning. This seemed to take all the gas out of Franklin's tank. Belliard then lined the first pitch into center field for a hit scoring Pierre (who was pinch running) tie game.
the struggling Russel Martin came up and drew a 4 pitch walk to load the bases. Franklin was rattled by then. next Mark Loretta pinch hitting blooped a base hit to center, in the same area of belliard's hit, scoring the winning run, and the Dodgers would go onto to sweep the heavily favored Cardinals, in three. Go Blue!
but in looking back at it, it is possible that Holliday was distracted by the waving white towels, and the lights, causing him to misplay that fly ball. if that is true, the Dodger fans are truly the 10th man.


lets take a look at the postseason bracket as of today


NL
Cinncinati    0
Philadelphia 3

Atlanta           1
San Francisco 2

AL

Yankees   3
Minnesota 0

Texas         2
Tampa Bay 2


for the first time in 5 years a division series will go 5 games, as the rays beat the Rangers today in arlington. the Rays are trying to become only the 6th team to ever come from down 2-0 to win a best of 5 playoff series.
The lame ass Yankees beat the twins again yesterday, sweeping the series, and going to the ALCS again. the twins have lost like 10 playoff games in a row, and like 1000 in a row to the yankees.

in the National League, after Halladay's incredible no hitter in game 1, the Phils shutout the Reds 2-0 behind former world series MVP Cole Hammels. they swept the Reds, and move on to their third straight NLCS, and this time IM afraid there may be no stopping them.
what a nightmare series for the Reds, they were no hit in game 1, commited 4 errors and blew a four run lead in game 2, and then for good measure were shut out in game 3.

in the other series, in one of the most horrific disgusting scenes, Ive ever seen, the Giants came from behind with 2 outs in the 9th to beat the Braves in atlanta and take a 2-1 series lead. down 1-0, eric hinske hit a two run home run just inside the foul pole to give the braves a 2-1 lead. in the 9th though Brooks Conrad, playing out of position at second base, commited his record third error of the game, and 7th error I think in the last four games. actually I can remember an NLCS game back in 08 for the Dodgers where furcal commited three errors. so it does happen, but Conrad is terrible, and you have to wonder why Bobby Cox left him in that late in the game to make more errors. hopefully the Braves will win to force a game 5, and then send those bastards to the golf coarses. although one downside to Atlanta advancing to the NLCS is having to listen to another playoff series of the annoying tomohawk chant.