Don&#39;t Make Me Release The Flying Monkeys

Oh wow, I was born in Cleveland, and that was the only team I'd ever heard of all through my childhood. Now I don't know who to root for. (I don't even know if I'm spelling "root" correctly, for this context).

From:

The Red Sox are good.

Baseball is split into two leagues: the American League and the National League. Four teams from each League make the playoffs at the end of the regular season.

The Red Sox made the playoffs*.

They then went on to win their first round** of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Angels.

There's a whole other first round American League playoff game (remember, four teams, so two matches). That was between the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees. The Cleveland Indians won that series because the Yankees suck.

Now the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox must play each other in the second round of the playoffs***. The winner will be champion of the American League.

No one cares about the National League (although seriously, the exact same thing is going on there).

The winner of the American League and National League will face each other in the World Series.

Because series are so long, and games are played sometimes every other day, you will get the impression that the second round is going on forever.

I hope this helps.

* Each league as three divisions. The winner of each division makes the playoff, plus the team with the best record who did not win a division. The Red Sox won the Eastern division of the American League.
** The first round is a best of five series, and is called the divisional series.
*** The second round is a best of seven series, and is called the championship series.

From:

No one cares about the National League

Maybe none of you DH-lovin' pussies around *here*. 8)

From:

What ruse is this? You asked for the over-simplified version and you're giving me grief over the DH? I think you know more than you do :) !!!

From:

That should say "more than you pretend to" :)

From:

That was

pheromone, not me. I don't even know what DH is!

From:

ron_newman

Designated Hitter. Used only in the American League. Someone who bats in place of the pitcher, because pitchers usually can't bat worth sh*t. The Designated Hitter does not field, unlike all other players.

From:

DH = Designated Hitter

The two leagues, American and National, have slightly different rules.

The American League, our league, essentially allows 10 people on a team (at a time) for 9 batting positions and 9 fielding positions. The 9 of 10 need not be the same for batting and fielding.

This means that when batting, the 10th guy (David Ortiz, in our case), only has to bat and doesn't go out into the field to play defense. Meanwhile, a defensive player, almost always the pitcher, doesn't have to bat, because pitchers tend to be pretty lowsy batsmen. So in the American League, there's one guy who typically just hits, called the designated hitter, and the pitcher only pitches.

Int he National League, there's 9 people for 9 positions, so everybody on the team bats and everybody plays defense.

From:

ron_newman

And to make things just a bit more fun, which rules are used depends on who's playing at home. So in the World Series, both teams use a Designated Hitter when playing in the American League ballpark, and neither one can use a DH when playing in the National League park.

From:

This leads to much amusement, as we get to watch Dice-K, Schill, and all those guys bat.

Do you remember when Julian Tavarez was batting in inter-league play during the regular season. I think at one point, he swung the bat backwards.

From:

ron_newman

And other hilarity can result when someone who's usually a Designated Hitter is forced to take the field. I love David Ortiz, but he's really not someone you want to have in the outfield.

From:

spwebdesign.livejournal.com

In other words, the DH is the American League's way of perverting the game. I could play in the AL! Basically, the qualifications for DH are (1) you are fat, (2) you're no longer a spring chicken, (3) you can't field worth shit, (4) you strike out a lot, and (5) when you do make contact the ball goes far. All the fat geriatric former talents who can't face retirement with dignity play in the AL, while the real athletes play in the NL.

The other difference between the two leagues is that there are a lot of really bad (we're talking Pee Wee league-caliber!) teams in the AL, so that the good AL teams get to pad their records against them and might seem to the casual observer to be better than the good NL teams; whereas in the NL the good teams actually have to beat decent teams (Pittsburgh Pirates being the exception), and so their records aren't as gaudy.

No one cares about the National League

I beg your pardon! Fans of baseball care about the NL. Fans of homerun hitting contests and ridiculously football-like box scores like the AL. You'll be caring about the NL well enough when the Colorado Rockies(/surrogate San Diego Padres) are sweeping your precious Red Sox! :-p

(This is all meant in good fun, of course.)

From:

At the one Red Sox game I attended, I saw fat Mo Vaughn slam a tremendous hit that sailed way past the fielders. I don't know if he was a designated hitter, but he does seem to fit the qualifications you list!

From:

spwebdesign.livejournal.com

Mo Vaughn was a first baseman, but he may have ended up a DH. I don't remember. First base is a position often played by DH types because it requires the least amount of defense: just stand at the base and catch it when someone throws it right at you!

From:

ron_newman

Which means we may get to see David Ortiz at first in some World Series games.

From:

My bad. Ignore the comments below. I thought <lj user="plumtreeblossom" was responding, hence my confusion when she asked for an explanation only to give me grief over the DH. As for the DH, though...

From:

thorbol.livejournal.com

Great comment! I'm a Red Sox and American League fan all the way, but I never did like that DH business and probably never will.

From:

ron_newman

Good, you explained it so well that I don't have to. ;-)

From:

Thank you, Matt! That clears up a lot. :-) I've only been to two professional baseball games, and one was in the Indian's stadium, and the other was at Fenway. I know the game mostly because I was forced to play softball as a kid and it's basically the same. But mostly I just focused on eating. :-)

From:

ron_newman

the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium or the newish Jacobs Field?

My first pro baseball game was at the former.

From:

I don't really know, actually. Whatever stadium there was in the 70s, when I was a little kidlet.

From:

ron_newman

That would definitely be Cleveland Municipal, now demolished (I think).

From:

warlord-mit.livejournal.com

That would be the old Cleveland Stadium, shared between the Indians and the Browns. Now they have the Jake. I've only been to the Jake once.

From:

Given that you already know how much fun it is, you should come over here to watch a game again.

From:

I will!

From:

beowabbit

Given that you already know how much fun it is, you should come over here to watch a game again.

*Tries unobtrusively to be noticed.*

From:

*smooch* I notice you! :-)

From:

Silly, you are always invited, too. Not sure when I'll have people over for the ALCS. Game 1 is Friday and I have plans, but maybe Game 4? Will have to see. Watch my LJ... :)

From:

beowabbit

Silly, you are always invited, too.

Squee!

Only,

plumtreeblossom and I are going to be out of town for Friday through Monday, so it sounds like we won’t be around for the ALCS (American League ChampionShip?) unless it’s more than four games or there are gaps between the games. But maybe we can all watch a World Series game together!

From:

Well, Game 4 is Tuesday, so if you like, we can make a tentative plan for that.

(You can find the post-season schedule here.)

ALCS/NLCS:American/National League Championship Series

ALDS/NLDS: American/National League Division Series

From:

beowabbit

Well, Game 4 is Tuesday, so if you like, we can make a tentative plan for that.

That would be awesome! Needs to be slightly tentative, but I would love to do that.

(If I tell my family I went over to somebody’s house to watch a baseball game, they’re likely to look for the scars from when the implants were inserted. That just makes it all the more appealing!)

From:

If you explained to them that there will be alcohol and hot, excited women, would that help?

From:

beowabbit

It certainly helps me.

(OK, now I really hope the Red Sox win.)

From:

ron_newman

Something you may want to be aware of: the postseason schedule. The fifth and sixth games of the World Series (if necessary) are on the same nights as two of the Post-Meridian Radio Players shows. Times are not yet set.

From:

hahathor.livejournal.com

Oooh, that's bad. Not just for the PMRPers who are baseball fans (among which I do not count myself, which is good, because I'm from NYC & if I were fanatical about baseball either my hometown or my adopted hometown would revile me), but for PMRPers who would prefer not to split our potential audience with the sports bars.

For

plumtreeblossom, the World Series is best of seven, which means that unless one team sweeps the first four games, there will be a game on our opening night. And if the Sox are in the series (which they will be if they beat the Indians in the championship series), then a lot of folks will be very excited to watch the games.

Despite this, as New Englanders, we are morally obligate to hope the Sox win, no matter how much it will decimate our audience.

From:

During Murder, we were able to rush over catch most of the game after our perfs, since they seem to take place late. We had

pheromone's house practically next door, which is now

derspatchel's house. But that doesn't solve are problem with audience baseball fans, I guess...

From:

ron_newman

It's annoying that the time of the World Series games is not set, since it's already known that one of two Eastern Time Zone teams will be playing one of two Mountain Zone teams. In previous years, I think they've been on at 8:30 Eastern Time.

From:

slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com

The Red Sox are in the playoffs. But not the World Series yet. But they might get there. They have a good pitcher that they brought over from Japan and now half of the Red Sox shirts have their logos in Japanese.

I do not know anything else except what I have said above. So I shouldn't be replying at all. But I thought there was a regrettable lack of large print in all the other responses. So here you are.

From: