Every. Game. Counts. (A Regular Season Wrap Up and Playoff Preview)

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.)

Hump Day Hottie: Scott Baker

Seriously, I’m ashamed that I had no idea that Scott Baker was this hot until this past weekend.  My beloved O’s played the Twins in Minnesota, and Mr. Baker had the pleasure of pitching – and earning a win, of course – against them.  I had the pleasure of watching him pitch. 

Now you, too, can enjoy the pleasure of ogling Scott after the jump.

Hanukkah Hunks: Night 4

This goes against everything I believe in as a Yankees fan. But after researching around my other choices for hot, young, Jewish general managers of baseball teams, he pretty much takes the cake. Night 4 I bring you Theo Epstein.

World Series Poll-o-rama

I have some very happy neighbors, not to mention fellow Ladies, this morning.  (And one not so happy Lady — my condolences, Maggie!)  The Yankees won their 27th World Series last night; Hideki Matsui won the series MVP after tying the record for RBIs in one World Series game (6).  But before we officially adjourn to the baseball off-season, let’s vote on some stuff!

Write your own caption, you want one so damn much.

Winning the NL East three years running? Smoking hot.

Congratulations, Division Champs — Oh, Wait.

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.

In Which We Get Around to Congratulating the Lakers, Finally

Undoubtedly you’ve noticed that us current Ladies are not the biggest NBA fans in the world, given the number of Stanley Cup related posts vs. NBA finals posts over the last week.  Of course in some ways the Stanley Cup was considerably more exciting than “The” Finals (and why can’t they come up with a catchy name? “The Finals” is so …bland).  And the Lakers won again.  Doesn’t it seem like the Lakers always win?  I knew, in the back of my head, that they hadn’t won in some time, but it took me by surprise to realize there were seven years between Kobe’s third and fourth title.