Agony of the Astros

The past 10 seasons or so have put an end to a lot of World Series misery for suffering franchises. The Red Sox, White Sox, Angels and Giants all won historic titles for their teams. The Cardinals and Phillies gave a new generation a title of their own. And of course those poor suffering Yankee fans got their first title in 9 seasons.But one team that continues to torment their fans will begin

Sully Baseball honors... Pepe Mantilla's call of Albert Pujols Home Run off Brad Lidge, October 18 ,2005

Versatile broadcaster Pepe Mantilla calls Spanish language broadcasts for soccer games and Laker games here in Los Angeles.Fox Sports also has employed him to call Spanish broadcasts for baseball playoff games.He's damn good at his job, and I can say that as someone who doesn't speak a word of Spanish.How do I know that? Because so much of baseball is conveying emotion and the drama simply in HOW

Of COURSE you couldn't make this easy, Giants!

We all thought it, didn't we? When Halladay was taken out for Ross Gload and he lined into a double play, everyone watching the game thought "This is the turning point... 1 run game... Halladay is out... the middle relief can be exposed... this is going to be the night!"And when Lidge came in... admit it you thought "Oh man... he can blow it can't he?"So now they have to go to Philadelphia and

The Phillies could be a runaway train

On July 21, the Phillies lost to the Cardinals and were in the midst of a 4 game losing streak... and were just 2 games over .500.They looked dead and I wondered if there was an Invasion of the Body Snatchers scenario happening in Philly.They've played 40 games since then...and have gone 28-12... a .692 percentage.Today they played and fell behind 7-3 late today... all the while the Braves had

Brad Lidge found a new way to blow a save

I've seen many blown saves in my day.And many of them have been by Brad Lidge... but tonight's was a doozy, even by his breath taking standards.The Phillies can beat the Padres and gain a game on the Giants and pick up a game on Atlanta. Oswalt was on fire... so naturally the ball was handed to Lidge.And the inning went as expected... lead off single, runners moved up...Then came the back to back