Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night!

Not looking for any sympathy from you gents, but the way this NL wild card play-in debacle went down this evening only reinforces what it's like to be a sports fan in Atlanta. You get absolutely jobbed by the umps, then you get smirkin' Curt Schilling delivering the post-mortem on ESPN. Nice job with that stupid video game company the citizens of Rhode Island bankrolled to the tune of $75 million, Curt. Go to hell.

I'm tweeting Ernie Johnson (Jr.), calling him a sell-out, bitching about Smoltz not (unlike, say, Ron Darling) acknowledging how bogus Selig and Torre are.

BTW, while I dig the Orioles team, I'd feel better about their 3-1 lead if they were wearing the old school bird hat tonight.

Well played Baltimore, in spite of the non-fun headwear. Showalter!

I'm all in on Baltimore. I like the As, but they are awfully young (esp. in the pitching department).

Atlanta was robbed.

The infield fly call was a crappy interpretation of the rules, but as such it was a call, not a contradiction of the rules since they don't specify distance into the outfield. Clearly there should be a rule change to remedy that, but as it stands the call could not be overturned by Torre.

As bad as it was, the call did not cost the Braves the game. It looked like one run probably would have scored, but it's not clear the third base coach would even have sent the runner at second much less that he'd have made it, and that would mean one run in, one out, men at 1st & 2nd -- promising for the Braves but not a done deal there.

Three errors cost the Braves more than that. I do not however blame Jermoe (or anyone, usually) for being pissed at Curt Schilling.

But truly robbed? That would be the Nationals and Yankees, who won home field advantage but have to give it up to the wild card teams. Talk about flat-out bullshit . . .

All the same, any one of the playoff teams could go all the way. The O's and A's are least likely since neither has a clearly dominant starter (at the moment) and or a core of veterans who've been there and done that. Still, stranger things have happened. Heck, the frickin' Cards could do it again . . .



Post Edited (10-06-12 14:10)

I agree that the call didn't cost the Braves the game, but it's just the poetic justice of the whole thing. The Braves have lost 7 consecutive must-win postseason games since 2001, 6 of them at home. And the beat goes on.