Captain Torre, I trust you know what to do with a broom

Way back when on an old blog of mine (it definitely wasn’t last year) the LA Dodgers swept a very important series and I referred to the naval tradition of submarines lashing a broom to their mast to signify that they have returned to port having defeated every enemy vessel they encountered. (I have to agree with a blogger who feels that a sub’s completion of their first sea trials isn’t the same thing defeating enemy vessels.) I wasn’t able to find a link to the old post of mine, but I did save the image I posted with that article so I could include it in this post. (Click to see the image full size, which will open in a new tab/window.)

While nobody died in the National League Division Series (NLCS) battles between the Dodgers and the Cardinals, the Dodgers the what probably nobody, including this writer, thought was possible, especially since the Cardinals so easily won the season series against the boys from the Ravine, regardless what stadium they played in. After taking both NLDS Game 1 and Game 2 at home, which wasn’t all that surprising, Dodgers skipper Joe Torre gave the ball to Vincente Padilla to start the game. Before the Red Birds could even come to bat Manny Ramirez plated Matt Kemp with an RBI double, and Mr. Walk-off, Andre Ethier, pretty much put the game away with a two-run jack to right field in the third. Only an RBI single by Albert Pujols in the 8th avoided the shutout, and a perfect game was avoided in the bottom of the first on a single by Ryan Ludwick. When all was said and done, the Dodgers won 5-1.

Why didn’t I post after the first two wins?

I didn’t blog the last two wins for two main reason. The first is that this blog is primarily a tech blog, and Dodgers baseball doesn’t really fit that classification, although I do post from time to time about what the Boys from Chavez Ravine do. But there’s also a very good reason I didn’t get to post about the wins, namely that I flat out didn’t have the time to write the posts. As I mentioned in passing twice before, I got an iriver E100 digital media player (DMP) as a belated birthday present from my mom and thanks to the wonderful open source app iriverter I am able to convert any video I can download to enjoy on my DMP. While I can enjoy some of the games on TBS, I end up missing some pretty sweet play so I either head over to the MLB.com Media Center page and use the Highlight links from the particular game or I go to the MLB.com Video Highlights page and catch the videos from there. The beauty of the Video Highlights page is that I am able to see not only highlights from a specific game, but also video content such as their FastCast of a day’s games, the Top 5 Plays from a specific day, as well as some content from the new MLB Network. On most occasions if I can see the video in my browser I can also snag the file in MP4 format and convert it to view on my E100, which makes a subway ride more enjoyable.

I had to say “on most occasions” because Friday I discovered a clip that I can see in my browser but for some unknown reason I’m unable to get it to download. If you saw the end of Game 2 of the NLDS, or at least heard about it, the Dodgers made an incredible comeback  with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. I was able to snag a video clip that includes Vin Scully on the Dodgers radio broadcast, as well as Mike Shannon on KTRS’s St. Louis radio broadcast and Dick Stockton on TBS, all calling the bottom of the ninth from Matt Holiday lost James Loney’s line drive in the lights all the way to Mark Loretta’s walk-off single. What I can’t seem to snag, even today, is the clip of just Scully calling the last five batters. I’d kill to be able to save that particular bit of multimedia to my hard drive, but for some reason the MP4 file isn’t coming up properly for saving off the MLB.com servers, so if anyone has a link that will help me snag this much desired MP4 please post it in the comments.

As it is, I was able to get 40 or so clips from the game, which took a good bit of time to download and then convert with iriverter. Game 1 of the NLDS only had a dozen clips I wanted to put on my E100, but last night’s game has another 40 clips (including postgame coverage) for me to see what I want to put on my DMP. Luckily I can snag the 38-second clip of Scully calling the final out and the Dodgers’ sweep of the 2009 NLDS.

What about the other teams still playing?

Yesterday’s NLDS Game 3 between the Rockies and Phillies was snowed out yesterday in Denver so it will have to be played tonight with the first pitch scheduled for 10:07 pm Eastern Time. That series is tied at a game a piece, but it won’t matter that much to the Dodgers who already know that there next game, Game 1 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS), will be on Thursday, with a start time to be announced. As with the NLDS, TBS will be carrying every game of the NLCS while the ALCS will head over to FOX. FOX will also be carrying the World Series when it starts on Wednesday, 28 October. You can see the entire postseason schedule on MLB.com.

Who would I like to see the Dodgers face in the NLCS? The Dodgers lost only four games out of 18 to the Rox, and against the Phillies they went 4-out-of-7, taking one series in May in Philly and splitting their series at home in June. Of course the Dodgers also met the Phillies in last year’s NLCS, with the Phillies beating the boys in Dodger Blue four games to one enroute to beating Tampa’s Rays four games to one to win the ’08 World Series, and this past season doesn’t mean much of anything, let alone last year’s results, so I’m going to have to go with my gut on this one. I’m hoping for a Dodgers-Phillies NLCS, followed by a Freeway Series to start three days before All Hallow’s Eve. The rest of the country may not like an All-California Series, but I’d love to see the Dodgers beat the team that is so bad at geography that they doesn’t even know what city, let alone which county they play in (another item on my old blog that I’m not able to find archived to share).