Chamionship Walk-Offs

The pinnacle of baseball is winning the World Series. To win it suddenly and dramatically, in front of the home town fans is really something special.

But not so much for the other team. Relatively recently, both the Phillies and Yankees have both been on the losing end of a World Series clinching walk-off. They're feeling pretty good right now, so let's remind them of their epic failures, and the other rare walk-off wins.

2001- Arizona vs. New York - Game 7

The Yankees were trying to heal New York and save America from the terrorists by winning their fourth championship in a row. Except Mariano Rivera, who isn't American. The Yankees were leading 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth, until Rivera gives up three hits, hits a batter and airmails one into centerfield. Luis Gonzalez wins it for Randy Johnson and the Diamondbacks. The Yankees haven't won the World Series since.


1997 - Florida vs. Cleveland - Game 7

The Indians were three outs away from their first title since 1948 when they brought in closer Jose Mesa. He promptly gave up a single to Moises Alou, who later came around on Craig Counsell sac fly, tying the game and sending it to extra innings. In the 11th, Edgar Renteria hit a two-out single up the middle to score Counsell, and the Marlins won. Later, Cleveland shortstop Omar Vizquel called Mesa a choker, and when he looked into his eyes in the ninth inning, Vizquel saw, "nothing." Mesa would go on to drill Vizquel every time he faced him for the rest of his career.


1993 - Philadelphia vs. Toronto - Game 6

The Blue Jays had the Phillies on the ropes, leading the series 3-2 and the game 5-1, in the 6th inning. The Phillies came back with five runs in the seventh, and sent their closer, Mitch Williams to the hill to preserve the one run lead and force a game 7. Joe Carter then smacked a one-out, three-run homer to win it. This event was widely recognized as the point where players, and in turn, all of main-stream America, ceased to sport the mullet.




1991 - Minnesota vs. Atlanta - Game 7

The bat that broke put Dan Gladden on second base with no outs in the bottom of the 10th. Knoblauch sacrifice, intentional walks to Puckett and Hrbek. Cue pinch hitter Gene Larkin. We all know this one. Good job, Jack Morris. Best World Series ever.

1960 - Pittsburgh vs New York - Game 7

After a long back and fourth battle, light-hitting shortstop Bill Mazeroski ends it with a solo shot in the bottom of the 9th. Since it was against the Yankees and not for them, baseball widely forgets it.

1953 - New York vs. Brooklyn - Game 6

The Dodgers escaped elimination by tying the game in the top on the 9th at 3-3. After a lead-off walk in the bottom of the inning, Mickey Mantle hits an infield single (this was 1953) and Billy Martin ends it with a base hit. Sorry Dodgers, but there's always the year after next.

1935 - Detroit vs. Chicago - Game 6

The Cubs lost! What a shock! After Mickey Cochrane scored the winning run, the Tigers probably politely shook hands and went their separate ways.

1929 - Philedelphia A's vs. Chicago - Game 5

The Cubs lose again. This walk-off wasn't particularly exciting, since the Cubs would have lost eventually anyway. Connie Mack wins.

1924 - Minnesota Twins (then called the Washington Senators) vs. New York Giants - Game 7

Tied in the 12th inning with the bases loaded, a sharp ground ball takes a bad hop and Washington D.C. wins it's only title. When the franchise moved to Bloomington in 1961, the good people of Minnesota politely declined the old trophy.

Let's get excited about the World Series!!!!!

The Major League Baseball playoffs started a month and a half ago, and will conclude in just two weeks. And there's nothing like the World Series that brings out the best in the people of New York. And poor photoshop skills.

There's nothing wrong with the New York Post stirring the pot, but the article is just terrible. If you got a group of twelve year old Yankee fans together and asked them to write about the Phillies and their fans, they would write something similar.

Frillies are coming to town!
Their fans are second-rate & so is their city
By Rich Calder, Erin Calabrese and Jeremy Olshan

First, notice that it took three writers to put this together.

Yankees fans have a message for the Phillies and their hometown: This ain't Rocky, and the underdog won't win!

Boom. Got the Rocky reference in the first sentence. Also in this sentence is the word "ain't" and an exclamation point. Good start.

"The Yankees are going to make Philly cream cheese out of them," a confident Tommy Bayiokos, 44, predicted yesterday in Midtown.

Philadelphia cream cheese reference: check

"Philly fans are a bunch of whiners and should learn how to dress. They should try reading GQ."

Tommy is more sophisticated than the people of Philadelphia. He reads GQ magazine.

Living up to their second-class billing going into the start of the Fall Classic tomorrow, the Phils arrived in New York yesterday -- by train.
The less-than-grand entrance triggered a flood of invective from the Yankee faithful.

I'm guessing if the Phils arrived on a gold-plated hovercraft they would still receive a flood of invective from the Yankee faithful. And no one in New York ever rides on trains.

"Bleacher Bums get a bad rap," said Tanner McLoud, 42, of Long Island. "But if you've ever been to the old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, you'd realize just how much worse Phillies fans are. "You can't go to a game without getting booze thrown at you!"

So begins the Philly-has-bad-fans narrative. Did you know they once booed Santa Claus at an Eagles game?!?!?!

Gotham has been regularly beating the pants off Philly since overtaking the one-horse town as the nation's economic capital in the early 19th century.

This would be good for Yankee fans to chant, “We’ve been regularly beating the pants off you since we overtook your one-horse town in the early 19th century and we became the nation’s economic capital!” Everybody now, “We’ve been regularly beating the pants off you since we overtook your one-horse town in the early 19th century and we became the nation’s economic capital!!!!!!!” It’s a perfect retort to “Yankees suck.”

Even Benjamin Franklin, Philly's patron saint, has been described as "the father of all the Yankees."

On the other hand, Daddy Yankee, is from Puerto Rico

[ Snip...just a bunch of other stuff about New York being bigger and having more stuff]

And don't get us started on the cuisine.

Now this is turning into a lesbian stand-up Comedian act.

Consider Philadelphia's most famous export -- other than Will Smith -- overcooked minced-meat sandwiches doused in Cheez Whiz.

"The big meal there is a steak with cheese and onions on a hero, but they don't even call it a hero. It's a hoagie. What the hell is a hoagie?" said Ron Montclane, 26.

Philly Cheesesteak reference: check.

There's a little bit more, but I've spent enough time on this. And Philly fans are obnoxious too. Wait, sorry. Philly Phans. In conclusion this World Series is going to be terrible. Here's rooting for Park Chan Ho.

Prediction: Phucking Phighting Phillies in Phive games. (actually seven)

New Twins Uniforms - The Cream and the Clear

UPDATE: Pictures from the Uniform unveiling, November 16th

Although the Minnesota Twins won't reveal their new uniforms until November 16th, Alright Hamilton has the unofficial designs TODAY. An anonymous source with knowledge of the design process has described the new duds for us. Here are our interpretations of the descriptions.

The cream colored alternate

The regular home colored uniform will not undergo extreme changes, except for an updated Twins script. However, they will introduce this cream colored alternate. Cream is so hot right now. The Giants and Padres perfected it, and the Mets are also reportedly adopting the style. The script, of course, was used from 1961 to 1971. It's not clear if this design will be worn one specific day per week, or if it will be a choice for each games starting pitcher.

The Road Gray - Pinstripe free

Using an obscure script from the 60's, the Twins have really spruced up their away uniform. We're still not sure if they'll be keeping their 'M' caps.

The Twins will also need to find room for a number of patches:

So there you have it. Hank Thoreau once explained, "things do not change; we change." And that's especially untrue in this context.

UPDATE:

From talking with a few people, some think this makes more sense as a possibility.

Note: The away cap will feature the TC logo and a red bill.

Weekend Notes

-- Can you name the World Series Champion lineups back to 1987 in 13 minutes? Of course you can't. But it's fun to try. I've tried like four times and haven't topped 160. Who the hell was on the 1988 Dodgers?!?! Seriously, screw those guys. And Scott Brosius, if you're reading this, screw you too.

-- A belated congratulations to Sultan Kosen who has been crowned the world's tallest man. The title is not without controversy, however. Leonid Stadnyk is supposedly four inches taller, but he refuses to be measured because he thinks he's too cool for the title saying, "If this title had given me more health or a few extra years, I would have taken it, but the opposite happened, I only wasted my nerve cells." Well thanks for that, Debby Downer.

Sultan, however, is pumped about the title. As he should be. He looks at this new found fame as the best way to get a GF. He says, "Hopefully now that I'm famous I'll be able to meet lots of girls." You go, Sultan. If there's one thing I know about girls it's that they love flipping through the Guinness Book of World Records looking for single men. Seriously, I heard Shridhar Chillal is married to a Laker Girl.

-- According to anthropologist and feelings-hurter Peter McAllister, the modern man is a whimp. Take it back, meany!!!!

-- We here at Alright Hamilton! feel it is our duty to warn the readers about creatures that are gunna git ya. Well, unfortunately I have some troubling gunna-git-ya news. The Montauk Monster has a Panamanian relative. And it is hideous.



So stay the hell away from Panama, and have a good weekend.

Addendum by Daymonster:
Sorry about adding on to Soups post but there were a couple of things that needed to be addressed before the start of the weekend. First, I was going to write something about my favorite website, Sporcle.com. But it seems that Soup beat me too it first.

I have been playing the quizzes on this website for a several months and they fairly recently added the ability to create your own. You can only make a few a month so here are the ones I have created so far. You should try them.

The Minnesota Twins All-Metrodome Team
The Minnesota Twins Retired Numbers
Where Minnesota Sports Teams Play

And the most fun one...
The Best Medical Device Companies based on 2008 sales figures.

That's the fun news, now here is the bad news. Turns out "Alright" is not a real word. Gasp! We should have been "All Right Hamilton!" and we should be ARH! not AH! It's one of the 32 most misused words and phrases. This news makes me so mad my head is LITERALLY exploding.

ALRIGHT HAMILTON'S 500TH POST!!!!!!!

Look at us now. Look at us now. And they said we would never last. But here we are. 500 thought provoking posts later and we're still on the internet.

No one knows exactly how this blog began. Legend has it that in 2007, when the world was a simpler place, Haas wandered into a forest. In this forest he found some gold tablets that told him to go forth and blog. Soon thereafter AH! was formed.

Since it's inception we have been providing the world with discussion on relevant topics, the foremost being baseball and our favorite team, the Minnesota Twins. Though we have poured tens of thousands of words into these topics, you have to be impressed with how little we actually had to say about anything.

George Costanza was once asked why people would watch his show. His reply was simple, "Because it's on TV." And if you asked why people (all nine of you) read AH!, the answer would be similar, "Because it's on the internet."

From Haas:

For better or for worse, we don't have an angle. We're not trying to impose our views upon others. - hell, we hardly express views at all. We're not aspiring journalists or reality show contestants. We're just providing a public service, spreading the joy and the warmth of baseball fandom.

And information. Gobs of information. Thousounds Hundreds Tens A few people land here everyday by Googling stuff like, "Does Joe Mauer have a girlfriend?" and, "My baby waves the homer hanky." Alright Hamilton is were the fans get the information they need.

Perhaps the most mind bottling google qurerie, in different forms, is this:

"What does the Minnesota Twins TC stand for"

People land on here looking for the answer to that question more than a few times. Yet there is no post relating to this information in our archives. Until now.

The TC on the Twins cap stand for Too Cool.

You're welcome.


So feel free to use the comment section to gush about how Alright Hamilton! changed your life. We promise we'll stay humble.

I'm better than Joe Mauer

...at eyesight

What's the matter, Four Eyes? Can't find your pocket-protector?

High five.

The Vikings Need A Stadium.....Or Not.

Recently, you may have read things about a certain NFL team that wants a new stadium. Hey, why not? The University of Minnesota football team received public funding to build a new on-campus stadium. The Minnesota Twins were helped by a new Hennepin County sales tax to build their new baseball yard. They have new stadiums, and no one even likes them. This is a Vikings town. The People want a new stadium. They demand a new stadium. That's why the NFL and the purple set up a grassroots organization for them.

The Anatomy of a Grassroots Organization

Wikipedia:

The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it is natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures.

What could possibly be more natural and spontaneous than an NFL team creating a website with fake fans expressing their individual opinions on a new stadium?

We have well-thought opinions with a clear understanding of issues!

Four Reasons the Vikings Need This, According to the Grassroots Coalition

1) The Vikings use agreement (lease) expires after the 2011 season, meaning the team has just 30 games remaining in the Metrodome. By resolving the issue in 2009, the stadium will be ready to open in 2012.

You hear that? It expires! The clock is ticking! Owner Zygi Wilf pledged never to move the team, but he never said his cronies couldn't hang the possibility over your head as a bargaining chip/unfair ultimatum.

Yes, there is a stadium built already that works perfectly fine for football, but the LEASE is EXPIRING. The Metrodome is in high demand, and they've already rented it out to the Shriners circus from 2011 to 2015. We just can't EXTEND the LEASE! That would be totally crazy.

2) The Vikings stadium project will provide thousands of jobs and boost economic activity in a time when both are needed. With the Gophers and Twins stadiums set to open in the next year, 5,300 construction workers will be looking for their next job. This project will employ 8,000 construction workers, provide good paying jobs with benefits and involve many sectors throughout the building trades.

That's your number two reason the Vikings NEED a new stadium? To give construction workers a job? I suppose after the project is finished, we'll just ask the state for another $600 million for another huge building that's only used ten times per year. Screw the infrastructure projects that can be of use to Minnesota taxpayers, they need to build gigantic private things!

3) The Metrodome has become obsolete and no longer provides fans with the experience they deserve or expect. The state needs a reconstructed stadium to give Minnesota its only major climate-controlled, multi-purpose facility capable of hosting events year-round.

Okay, what do you think of your Metrodome experience, deserving fan?

Definitely need a new stadium, definitely. The problem with the dome is, I mean the problem is, they end alcohol sales after the third quarter. They don't have no right to do that. It leaves us high and dry for the fourth quarter, and that's the most important quarter! PUUURRRPPLE!!!!


4) The project is ready to be started this summer. Design work is near completion and the Vikings ownership’s financial commitment is secure.

We need a new stadium because it's ready to be built. Makes perfect sense to me!