Even Major League Baseball is outsourcing to India these days. It seems an American entrepreneur created a reality-television type contest to find the Indian cricket players who were most likely to become outstanding baseball players. In a country of over a billion people, it makes sense that at least one of them should be able to pitch a 93 MPH strike. Now, two of them have been signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Of course, having taken a clueless Indian to a few games and teaching him about “the hitting box” and other such things, I was most amused by Singh and Patel’s reaction to their first game. What did the shortstop do wrong, Patel asked Bernstein, to not be given a base in the infield? It’s a deep question really, and the answer is… he had a better arm than the second baseman and quicker fielding skills than the third baseman. And thus, he was punished. At least he wasn’t banished to the outfield.

It has been the 6th inning of game 5 of the World Series for over 36 hours now. I agree with Selig’s call to suspend the game instead of calling it after 4 1/2 innings (when the Phillies were winning — it’s tied now), because after all, how anti-climactic would that have been? However, this bizarre mid-game limbo evokes images of some strange sci-fi baseball saga in which time has stopped and Cole Hamels is on deck forever — that is, if the Phillies don’t pitch hit for their starting pitcher. If the weather keeps up in Philadelphia (which according to the forecast, it probably won’t), this could be the first World Series to coincide with a presidential election.
And lest we forget, the presidential election is already interfering with this Series as Barack Obama’s half hour spot tonight will delay the resuming of game five by yet another half hour.
Between game 3 starting late on Saturday and now this, it’s been a World Series that has been tough to follow, even for the most die-hard of baseball fans.

I tried to turn on the ALCS just now, only to find that TBS is having “technical difficulties” and is instead airing the Steve Harvey Show.
What?!?!
In the meantime, Yahoo! Sports tells me that despite the lack of TV coverage, the game is continuing as scheduled.
Edit: Technical difficulties resolved, I went to a party where I actually watched the game in a crowd for the first time this post-season. I had forgotten how much more fun it is that way.

So, I’m not going to lie… being not as into the post-season for some reason this year, and being tired last night, I actually turned off the game after the Rays went up 7-0 in the 7th, thinking that a Rays-Phillies World Series was inevitable and that I just wanted to sleep.
Whoops.

It turns out that my in depth knowledge of first basemen who played for both the Twins and the Red Sox comes in handy once in awhile. Last night I went to the Pour House where Sheila Longo had won a “VIP Party” when they drew her business card out of a bucket. As luck would have it, the date of her party was also her birthday.
At some point in the middle of the free food for the three VIP parties happening, one of the bartenders announced that there would be a trivia contest consisting of three “Red Sox October baseball” questions. To answer, you had to race to the front and be the first to touch a sign, which I was conveniently already standing near.
A couple of guys in Red Sox hats pushed their way towards the front and I figured that my only chance would be if they asked who the Red Sox lost to in the 1946 World Series or something else older than those of us at the bar. But, as I actually expected, all three of the questions were about either the 2007 or the 2004 playoffs. However, the first question was right in my wheel house.
“Who caught the last out…” and before she even finished the question, I slapped the sign and said, “Doug Mientkiewicz.” Luckily, she finished with “… of the 2004 World Series?” or I was going to look mighty silly.
I knew the other two questions too, but you were only eligible to attempt one answer (to “prevent Red Sox trivia ringers from standing at the front and taking all the prizes” — I guess that was me). “Who won the 2007 World Series MVP?” and “Who won the 2004 ALCS MVP?” were much more familiar to the crowd and actually resulted in fights to get to the sign first. But I had my $10 gift card already… and I gave it to Sheila for her birthday.

Sitting in my living room as the Red Sox score the winning run in the ninth, I announce to my roommate Deb, “Hey, the Sox won.”
Upon clarifying that this means that they move on to the ALCS and no, there is no game tomorrow, she says “Oh, well, I guess that’s good for everyone who’s excited about it.”
Wiser words were never spoken.
(Also, a shout out to Torii Hunter almost being a hero with two RBIs to tie it up. If the Twins can’t be in the playoffs, it’s nice to see ex-Twins do well.)

Well, sort of.
My mother’s youngest sister, also known as my aunt Barb, was interviewed by the local Fox news affiliate for watching the Twins game last night even though she was at the Minnesota Wild game. She’s the brunette in the brown coat and also the final voice saying “Minnesota Twins, what can we say?”

7:41 pm, top of the 1st — The Twins got their first base runner on with a walk and I am sitting in my living room watching them play for the first time since moving to Boston. Er, strike that base runner… double play… following by Mauer striking out. Not a good start, boys.
7:52 pm, bottom of the 1st — The White Sox have their own double play in the first, and I am simultaneously watching Tina Fey impersonate Sarah Palin… and by imitate, I apparently mean “quote word for word.”
7:55 pm, top of the 2nd — If Justin Morneau gets an RBI tonight, he will tie Josh Hamilton for the league lead. Striking out is not the way to get that RBI. Speaking of Twins players who struck out, Joe Mauer can do as badly as 0 for 7 and still win the batting title. Barring a multiple extra innings, I think that one’s safe.
8:25 pm, end of the 3rd — Still no score… this whole end of the season reminds me of the South Park episode where the boys are on a Little League team that wins and winds up going to the playoffs… much to their chagrin. They proceed to attempt to lose so that they can just go home and play video games, only to discover that the other teams are trying to lose too. I kind of get the feeling that both the Twins and the White Sox would rather just get the time off this October.
8:31 pm, top of the 4th — Mauer watch: strike out… five more at bats before he loses the crown
Morneau watch: Pop up… not an RBI
Score watch: Still non-existent
8:46 pm, top of the 5th — Ozzie Guillen is interviewed in the dugout and the players are throwing sunflower seeds at him. Meanwhile, the Twins have a runner on third with 1 out. Awesome.
8:49 pm, top of the 5th — Who the heck sent Cuddyer home on a pop fly to *short* center field where the center fielder is Ken Griffey Jr?!?! Way to blow an opportunity.
9:05 pm, middle of the 6th — “This is the first time a one game playoff has been scoreless after five and a half innings,” say our commentators. Fabulous. And then they proceed to give Griffey credit for that throw home… ignoring the fact that he was standing right behind 2nd base when he made the throw. They really should be “crediting” the Twins 3rd base coach for the horrible call. Also, this may have been the first time I have ever seen a break between innings not go to commercial.
9:13 pm, top of the 7th — Mauer attempts a bunt?!?! That’s four remaining at bats he has to lose the title. Meanwhile, Morneau grounds out for another non-RBI at bat.
9:19 pm, bottom of the 7th — Crap.
(That’s code for “Jim Thome just hit a homerun to put the White Sox up 1-0.”)
9:27 pm, bottom of the 7th — Pitching change… no commercial. Is there a lack of advertisers for this game or what?
9:31 pm, end of the 7th — Well, that was less painful than it could have been as the White Sox strand runners on 2nd and 3rd. Now it’s time for the Twins to score some runs and make up for that homer.
9:40 pm, middle of the 8th — With a double play to end any hopes the Twins might have had of making it a big 8th inning, now is as good a time as any to mention the “blackout” and how ridiculous I think it is. They are the White Sox — the color is in their name. And yet, the fans choose to dress in all black, reminding me of the Black Sox Scandal, which mars the franchise’s past.
9:57, end of the game — Darn.
At least Mauer didn’t get up to bat 7 times. I guess I’ll be a Cubs fan now. (Um, about those Red Sox… that’ll be saved for another entry.)

I’ve never been a bigger Detroit baseball fan than I am today. Here’s hoping the White Sox choke at the hands of the Motor City, thus giving the Twins the final playoff berth. Yahoo’s got an interesting story about how the Tigers starting pitcher, Freddy Garcia, is related via marriage to Ozzie Guillen and was traded from the White Sox to the Tigers for the White Sox starting pitcher. Here’s hoping Garcia’s out for revenge and doesn’t want to do his uncle-in-law any favors.
If the Tigers can’t pull it off, the season still isn’t over with a one game playoff tomorrow… but I don’t know if I like the Twinkies chances at US Cellular. I’d have been much more comfortable if they had been able to capitalize on all those stranded base runners on Saturday, thus making these extra games superfluous.
Oh, and as long as Mauer doesn’t go 0-7 in the possible game remaining, he’s the AL batting champ for the second time in three seasons. Go Joe!

Last night the Twins, down by half a game in the AL Central, squared off against that team they were down against in the third and final game of a series in which the Twins had taken the first two. Going into the series, we knew the Twins were going to half to sweep in order to take a crack at the division title. And here they were, posed to do it… and I was stuck in Boston with no television or radio coverage. At least in Ann Arbor I would have been able to pick up the Chicago radio station.
Have you ever watched an exciting game via Yahoo!’s Game Channel? It sucks. So much so that I wasn’t really watching as much as occasionally checking the window in between other pointless internet surfing. Once the White Sox had their big 4th inning to go up 6-1, I pretty much stopped checking the score. Right before deciding to go to sleep for the night, I finally checked again to see what the damage was, and much to my delight and surprise, it was tied 6-6 at the end of the 8th.
Only I was tired and getting over a cold and as much as I tried to stay awake, it was between innings and nothing was getting updated… and I fell asleep.
That might have been for the best, however. This morning, as I walked from the T stop to my office, I called my dad and he gave me the play by play of the final innings, which was far superior to watching a screen refresh some numbers. I think most people would have just given me the final score, but not my dad. He walked me through every at bat, from the 1-2-3 9th to the blooping 10th in which the Twins scored the winning run in classic short ball fashion.
And now the Twins are up by a half game and we’re into the last series of the regular season. I’m a Cleveland fan now. Here’s hoping they beat the White Sox while the Twins clobber Kansas City.