I recently realized how hot the Detroit Tigers’ starting rotation is. I know I might be late to the party, but until you see them in person, you just don’t realize how beautiful they are. I’m specifically talking about Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello and Max Scherzer. More so Verlander and Porcello, but Max isn’t too hard on the eyes (that is, if you can get past his weirdly colored ones).
I feel we should honor their hotness with a three-for-one Hump Day Hottie celebration. :)
It appears that fans aren’t the only people missing baseball season. This parody, created by MLB, stars Miguel Cabrera and Adam Jones and features a whole slew of supporting MLB figures, including Jim Palmer, Buck Martinez and Luis Gonzalez.
The only thing that would make this better is if we find out that Miguel Cabrera was the one actually singing. Amazeballs.
A belated congratulations to the San Francisco Giants on winning their second World Series championship in three years with a 4-3 win over the Tigers last night, cementing the sweep and making me feel like that drubbing of my Yankees was all for naught. But to paraphrase Games Mistress, is it just us or was this series zzzzzz….? Mind you, Game 4 was probably the game I should have watched last night. But after our boy Verlander’s disappointing performance in Game 1, my heart wasn’t quite in it. The two shutouts didn’t help either. Yes, I know, Sandoval had a terrific series and Scutaro was a hero, but it would have been nice if Detroit showed up (in the first three games, at any rate).
So baseball is over and we’re all sad now. Let us know what you loved about the season, what you didn’t, and whether we are totally off base on our assessment of this 2012 World Series. Also, stay safe and dry my NYC area Ladies… and to our readers in Sandy’s path.
We all agree on how awesome Verlander is.
The defending champs have been eliminated (sorry, GM. I was sad for you last night. For reals.) and the stage is set for the World Series Wednesday night (8pm ET on FOX and Sportsnet). You may remember the San Franscisco Giants from…two years ago! When they won it all and we cemented our crush on Buster Posey. The Tigers return for the first time since 2006, when they lost to the Cards in five.
We don’t have any love for either team (we do, however, have a holy hate-on for Brian Wilson. But that was a sidebar in our email conversation today and deserves its own post.) but we do love to make picks! Here’s who the Ladies… are root-root-rooting for in the Fall Classic.
Although it wasn’t quite up to the standards of last year, with the meaningful games being all about playoff seeding instead of mere survival, at least we had the Oakland A’s and their surprising AL West Title win to entertain us. Is this truly the year of Moneyball? Or is it just going to be the Yankees, Cardinals, or Rangers taking the pennant again? We discuss!
As I may have mentioned once or twice before, I don’t have cable, and though my boyfriend has been happy (or at least pretends he’s happy) to let me watch the Cardinals games on his TV, for many of the other games I’ve been listening to the radio feeds through MLB.com. It’s been quite some time since I’ve listened to baseball on the radio on a regular basis, and even longer since I listened to any baseball on the radio that involved non-Cardinals announcers. It’s quite instructive. Some things I’ve learned:
Let’s just put aside the fact that I had an actual rooting interest last night — everything that happened in baseball over the last 24 hours makes my brain scream this song:
As someone who has spent the last two weeks watching the Cardinals wait until the last inning to win or lose what seemed like 95% of their games, one of the most surreal things about last night was that St. Louis was the only team that got their game settled right out of the gate, batting around in the first inning and scoring five runs before recording a single out. Which left me free to enjoy the one day MLB.tv subscription I paid 3.99 for Tuesday night as a mostly impartial fan (possibly the best 4 bucks I’ve ever spent, even if I couldn’t get the Rays-Yankees because of blackout restrictions, and had to switch to the Phillies-Braves radio feeds for the latter innings because of too much traffic on the video feed (and my crappy bandwidth). At one point, I had three GTalk conversations going and was on the phone to my parents; 99.5 % of the discussion revolved around baseball (I did manage to discuss Christmas arrangements with my folks. I’m not totally obsessed.)
Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
I am rooting for Clayton Kershaw these days. And no, it’s not just because he’s on my fantasy team. He happens to have just slid past Johnny Cueto for the NL ERA title — although it’s a slim enough margin that a bad inning could knock him right back into second. I still bear Cueto a grudge for kicking Jason LaRue in the face and ending his career last season, so I would prefer he not win anything for quite some time. Of course, at the moment Cueto’s on the disabled list and hasn’t yet pitched enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, so it may become Kershaw’s anyway. Karma’s a bitch, Johnny.
Baseball’s regular season is winding down, but there’s plenty of other things to root for:
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The rotation that will haunt our dreams. (AP Photo)
High socks. Eye black. Dusty mounds. Cliff Lee. Baseball is back for reals, and we at Ladies… couldn’t be happier. Many of us have spent the last few days figuring out how to weasel out of whatever we’re going to be up to at the time our respective favorite teams are playing. Me? TWO HOUR MEETING when Mike Mussina throws the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium. How am I supposed to sneak my phone in to listen to the game? ARGH! (although Games Mistress told me there was lots of rain expected in New York Thursday, so I may get my wish after all.)
It’s Opening Day for these Ladies… faves. Let’s see what they’re up to today:
So, we got that exciting September baseball after all, huh? It’s been a while since I followed a baseball game that didn’t involve the Cardinals during my work day, but I was definitely keeping tabs on the first half of that doubleheader. In between actual work, of course.
In fact, with the Dodgers’ stubborn refusal to clinch their division title and the Braves’ surprising surge against the Rockies, all of a sudden we’re entering the final weekend of the regular season with a few playoff spots not quite settled. Still, let’s take a minute to congratulate those teams who have already clinched their division — because if there’s anything we here at Ladies… like better than pictures of athletes, it’s pictures of athletes celebrating.
For the last few weeks, over at my favorite Cardinals blog, Viva El Birdos, Will Leitch has been tracking the team’s magic number by highlighting a past or current Cardinal player with the corresponding jersey number. Today’s number, for example, is Ozzie Smith.
Earlier in the week, I was hoping I’d get to write a congratulatory post, but then we had to go and lose to the Astros yesterday; the earliest the Cards can clinch the division now is if the Cubs lose to the Giants tonight, but I live on the East Coast and this post is already late as it is. So since I looked at the NL races last week, I thought I’d steal borrow Will’s idea and apply the player number countdown to the AL races.
This week's theme is NOT: bunnies, pancakes, or unusual habadashery
Congratulations to Stacey, last week’s winner! (You can still submit a theme if you want, Stacey!) So we Ladies have gone a little football crazy over the last week or so, but there’s still a lot of baseball action going on right now — which is the inspiration for this week’s Theme Thursday. I’m running late putting this together, so let’s get right to the good stuff, shall we?
Well, it’s all over, including the shouting. Voting in the Final Vote contest has ended and the results have been tabulated. This year’s All Stars, after days of furious campaigning (more on that later) are Philadelphia center fielder Shane Victorino (and his million kilowatt smile) and Detroit Third Baseman Brandon Inge. (This lady is convinced that Inge is actually thirteen years old and potentially ineligible to work, much less in the Majors, but that is neither here nor there.)
Victorino finished with the greatest amount of votes for any single player in the history of the Final Vote campaign with 15.6 million. (The previous record holder was Evan Longoria with nine million. Once again, the Phillies roll to victory over the Rays. Suck it, Tampa.)
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I got the idea for this post when I was talking to my friend about the last time the Yankees won the World Series. It’s almost going to be nine years, but nine years isn’t that long. If I ever complained about a nine-year World Series drought to a Cubs fan, I would more than likely get a smack in the face…and it would be completely warranted.
However, when I think back to where I was the 2000, it seems like ages ago. The last time the Yankees won it all I was a freshman in High School. It feels like I graduated from H.S. ages ago; forget about actually being a freshman. The bottom line is we all follow our team with one goal: to see them win it all at the end. Don’t get me wrong, you can still enjoy the season, but you are never fully satisfied unless your team is the last one standing. Unless you root for the Phillies, Red Sox or Cardinals, the last time your team won it all can seem like a lifetime ago.
So let’s take a little trip down memory lane and see what life was like the last time your team were World Champions. Sorry to all Washington, Milwaukee, Houston, San Diego, Colorado, Tampa Bay, Texas, and Seattle fans. You need to have won at least one to qualify.
It’s time for the weekly installment of Theme Thursday. This week’s group was suggested by Sarah after she was the first to correctly guess last week’s theme.
Once again, the first person to correctly guess the theme in the comments gets to suggest a future Theme Thursday post.
So what do these fine gentlemen have in common?
There’s a magical thing that happens every year after the All-Star break… the Yankees start winning! In an attempt to summon those W’s into our current state of affairs, I thought we’d explore a little all-star action… Ladies style of course!
Earl Weaver would not be happy with our depth at certain positions, but I can’t help that hotties gravitate towards center field and the pitchers’ mound! There has to be some scientific explanation for this phenomenon.
"Kbai!"
Each week this Hot Stove season, we’ll look at some done deals and juicy rumors involving our favorite MLB hotties, and the occasional not-really-a-hottie, but still worth talking about.
This was Winter Meetings week, and both New York teams made big moves. On Wednesday morning, the Yankees signed C.C. Sabathia to a seven-year deal that will bring him 37.5 million Baconators (or $161 million). Later, they signed free agent starter A.J. Burnett for five years/$82.5 million.
The Mets made a few moves to bolster their bullpen (Merry Christmas, Metsy!), including signing Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez for $37 million over three years, with an option for a 4th year.
LOTS more moves (complete with diagrams!)…after the jump!
Chances are if you’re reading this blog then you are a sports-minded lady. Do you know what to ask for from your family and/or friends? Maybe you have a certain special female in your life that love sports more than you? Do you know where to start in purchasing her the perfect gift this holiday season?
I thought not. So take a gander at the Ladies… gift lists and get inspired. It’s not all tickets. Someone wants this.
Hey Detroit Tigers. Remember me? Well, I decided this year that I wanted to root for a baseball team and picked yours. It was just more convenient for me to. I didn’t want to root for the Atlanta Braves and I was already a big fan of the (somewhat) local college football team, University of Michigan. So, you know, it was just easier to hitch a ride on your train.
But every since August hit I’ve kinda been pulling away from you. Don’t get me wrong, I check out the box scores every morning, see how the team did. I root for you still. But my full attention hasn’t been on you lately. And I think it’s time we parted ways.
One of the few times the Tigers smiled all season. Sigh.
You can blame the pitching. You can blame the hitting. You can blame the injuries. You can even blame the coaching managing (hey, I’m still learning, cut me some slack). None of that is the real reason the Tigers are stinking it up the first week of the season. The real reason is because of yours truly. Continue reading
At the end of last season I decided that I was going to become a baseball fan and jump on some team’s bandwagon for the 2008 season. Well, I’m sorry Tigers fan but I decided to jump on yours. And one of the reasons was Curtis Granderson. Y’all probably know all the superlatives I could give Curtis right now (hot, genuine good guy, hot, good ball player, hot) so there’s no reason to go back over them. However there is some required reading you must do while clicking on this post. Go back and re-read the Tigers Bringing the Heat feature we did last summer and the interview Granderson did with former Lady TSW. And then click on his blog. It’s almost enough to make me start commenting on ESPN.com.
Oh, and he’s picking Duke to go to the Final Four! I don’t know how, but that increased his hotness by 10. Continue reading
It is almost not fair. We have been doing this MLB “Bringing the Heat” series all summer long; team by team, hottie by hottie, forearm by forearm, smile by smile, glute by glute, and I would wager that none – none – of the other teams even come close to stacking up to how hot the Detroit Tigers’ roster is on and off the field.
Our readers have been emailing all summer waiting for this post. They knew that here at Ladies…, not only were we going to find the best looking guys on the team, but we were going make sure to serve it up with something a little special. Well, how about a couple helpings of something special?
In a Ladies… first, an interview with Detroit center fielder and fellow blogger, Curtis Granderson. Followed by a full on smorgasboard of the finest looking Tigers in the land. And for dessert? How about some of cutest yearbook photos of Sean “The Mayor” Casey you will ever see?
I thought you’d be interested.
Batting first, as always, Mr. Granderson.
Ladies... 