HumpLinks: Cubs slam door open for Game 7

The Cubs blew open Game 6 in a hurry last night, kinda ruining the opportunity for some fine drama. They did that Cubs thing: ace pitching and monster offense. And just in time to meet the return of the Chicago juggernaut was the lovable knuckleheads of Cleveland that we have enjoyed for so many years now.

So the Cubs had to win 3 in a row to come back against the Indians and take the WS. They have won the first 2 of those but in so doing they have rolled through their best pitching options. What they have now are not as strong, not as fresh.

What is Joe Maddon to do? Kyle Hendricks for 3? Plus John Lackey for 3? Plus Jon Lester as long relief on 2 days rest? Then Aroldis Chapman for his 5th appearance in 7 games over 8 days?

By the way. I'm the kind of guy who thinks that if a ballplayer wants to go off and make some kind of bold statment with their fashion sense, they gotta have some bold bonafides to back that up. Mike Clevinger, you ain't got enough bonafides to match your Tim Lincecum locks. Bugs me. Just had to get that off my chest.

One last and final For All The Marbles Official World Series set of Links for 2016:

Baseball ain't dying, people. These are the best ratings in 12 years............And even outdrawing the NBA Finals Cavaliers...IN CLEVELAND..............

Dennis Martinez threw out the first pitch last night. A Cleveland "hero". Yeah. Right. 24 years in the Major Leagues and only 3 of those with Cleveland. 32 regular season games, plus 5 post-season games....Meanwhile, Charlie Sheen knows bad mojo when he sees it............

Keep this one bookmarked and handy, as FanGraphs the missed balls and strikes of the World Series. I am tracking all of them in a set of graphics to show off after the Series, and some of them are quite remarkable. You will see that they tend to be out of whack rather evenly for/against both sides, but my graphics say absolutely zero about context and leverage. FanGraphs does that dirty work for us............

This is how to do it. Use the power of the social media fun machine to extract your revenge. Don't just whine about Joe Buck, go all in and create something viral...........

This time, let's all wait until the final out to start writing our copy, ok? Just sit back and enjoy the ride all the way to the very, very end..........

You know that twitter war between the Oakland A's and Smash Mouth I linked to yesterday? The Cubs social media intern jumped into the fray last night. (Yeah, Addison Russell once belonged to Billy Beane.)...........

So many people love the whole Kyle Schwarber story. And you know why? It's because Schwarber gets to participate in American League stadiums, where baseball gets to be a better gamem BECAUSE IT HAS THE DH!..............

Everywhere (Else) in Baseball

Neither Mike Trout nor Bryce Harper are planning to play in the WBC in March. I, for one, am totally fine with this. If America wants Mike Trout to represent, America needs to grow up, shitcan all the dinosaur thinking, and start honoring the man with his MVP trophies.............

This shit has got to stop. Mets closer, National League All-Star, Jeurys Familia has been arrested for domestic violence..........

The saddest things are sad forever. My youthful hi-times as an Angels fan were the early through mid 70's, when I was in high school just a couple of miles from the stadium. Lots of easy trips to the games. Lots of dates. Lots fo funs times with brothers and school chums. And the team sucked. As in, really really sucked. There is a stretch there where the Angels averaged - averaged! - ending the season 22 games out of first place. How is that possible? Well, it's possible by having a weak-assed farm system. That's why we worry now. In this deep dive into Scouting Directors, note the passage about Roland Hemond. He was the California Angels Scouting Director from 1965 to 1970. And he sucked. Like worst ever level of suck. And the team sucked downstream as a consequence. (By the way, I wish those charts were interactive so I could find LAA Scouting Directors by all measures. I hate is when they are lost as little brown dots.)...........

Did you ever wonder why baseball umpires dress the way they do? Why don't they have some cool MLB uniform? Machinest coveralls? Velour track suit? Yoga pants? Well, here is a non-partisan history as a distraction...........

I dunno. Maybe it's just me. But over my whole history of being a baseball fan, the idea of a Yeonis Cespedes and San Francisco Giants just fits..............

The worst plague upon us would be the way that people at the wheels of power squeeze the English language in an effort to con the voting public into granting them power and privilege. I have seen it, you have seen it, we all will continue to see it. It's how we get a situation where a community tax that is set to expire, and would return tax rates to an earlier level. But if it can be extended and NOT return to those earlier levels, this is not considered an increase over what could be, merely holding rates level with what currently is. This is the mess in Arlington right now, concerning the proposed new stadium. I imagine a scenario where a heavy rain causes a flood, and the river rises to overrun the mayor's property. Now the mayor is expecting the water to eventually recede. But if the public were to vote on a new dam which would result in teh water levels remaining at their highest pojnt, rendering his property useless, would the mayor argue even then that this was not some new definition of a high water mark?..........

Dammit Justin Verlander. Every time you turn around you give me yet another reason to hate on you. Could you have been a Jesuit priest or something?

The All-Hollywood Movie Character baseball All-Star team............

Fernando Rodney is going to be bouncing around MLB yet again, with rumors that he is going on the trading block...........Kind of an interesting bookend across time, yes?............

But what color will they be painting the lane markers?............

Ouch. ESPN lost 621,000 subscribers last month alone. That explains why they are rushing to join Hulu's live streaming service, rushing to catch up with their missing eyeballs.............

LMFAO. Somebody wants to whine about Tim Tebow not making the AFL All-Star team? He barely hit past 50% of his own body weight, was a train wreck on defense, and cannot even run the bases safely. But he deserves to displace somebody on the All-Star team because he once played really well on a college football team? This is just dismal............

BAMTech is taking over the world...............

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