djgaffer

Ironically, Corey is currently #2 on Hunter Pence's Similarity Score at baseball-reference.com, for what it's worth. He's sandwiched in between Matt Kemp and Kal Daniels.

I'm surrounded here by Cardinal fans. They are my best friends in the world, and very good fans. But it's been more than a little annoying to hear them complain about LaRussa and that they can't win in the playoffs, or heaven forbid, they get beat out in the last week. It has been so long as a Brewer fan that I've had a real vested interest in late September baseball. I'd almost forgotten how much fun scoreboard watching is, living and dying a bit every day. Giving the Brewers up for dead and watching them step up in the last week. With Extra Innings the last month has been a lot of fun for me. It's a good feeling to remember. Beyond that, I'm breaking in a new Brewer fan. My wife is a lost cause, the closest I can get is her watching the Packers. But I got to spend a lot of time with my just turned 3 year old daughter. She really doesn't think much of baseball yet, but when her favorite baseball player, JJ Party, hits a homerun and Bernie goes down the slide, it's a close second to the Disney Princesses. The playoffs were full of "Dad, where's JJ Party"s, which always brings a smile to me. I'm hoping for a lot of future playoff appearances, but I will never forget JJ Party and 2008.

Looking at strike 3 is one of the most emotional responses in sports. My wife simply can't stand it. The cliches have been around forever. I was listening to a game that Bob Melvin was doing. Someone took a called strike three and the play by play guy and fans were all over him for "not getting the bat off the shoulder", etc... Melvin said something like: "That's a close pitch, you can't leave it up to the umpire in that situation, 1/2 the time he'll call it a strike and 1/2 the time he'll call it a ball." dramatic pause. Melvin again... "Well, I guess if that's the case, he really shouldn't swing at it. He wouldn't hit .500 swinging at that ball." Big "Ah hah" moment. I'm guessing Dusty wasn't watching.