Top News:
Associated Press:
La Russa's Moves Pay Off, Cards Win Series Opener — ST. LOUIS (AP) — Nobody plays a hunch like Tony La Russa. Not this October, anyway. — The St. Louis manager once again looked like a genius, especially when Allen Craig pinch-hit for ace Chris Carpenter and delivered a go-ahead single …
Discussion:
baseballmusings.com and Baltimore Sun
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Rangers Have Power Outage in World Series Opener — ST. LOUIS (AP) — Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz and the homer-happy Texas Rangers experienced another power outage in the opening game of the World Series. — This time, they hope the juice gets flowing again before it's too late.
Discussion:
Associated Press and TSN.ca
Ben Walker / Globe and Mail:
Cardinals draw first blood — Pinch-hitter Allen Craig singled in the go-ahead run off reliever Alexi Ogando in the sixth inning with a sinking line drive that dropped just in front of right fielder Nelson Cruz, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 3-2 on Wednesday night in a chilly World Series opener.
Discussion:
Yahoo! Sports
Bats:
Which World Series Team Has Winning Traits? — Carlton Chin, a fund manager, and Jay Granat, psychotherapist, are authors of “Who Will Win the Big Game? A Psychological & Mathematical Method.” They have previously written about the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament, the Stanley Cup Finals, and last year's World Series.
Mike Fitzpatrick / Associated Press:
Napoli homers, Rangers tie it 2-all in 5th — With a runner on third and two outs in the sixth, Albert Pujols made a sliding stop on Michael Young's grounder down the first base line and tossed to Chris Carpenter covering the bag. — The play saved a run and kept the score tied 2-all.
Discussion:
baseballmusings.com
Bruce Olson / Reuters:
Occupy St. Louis to show commercial-free World Series
Discussion:
Halos Heaven and HardballTalk
RELATED:
TSN.ca:
Rangers visit Cardinals in opening game of World Series
Discussion:
The Crawfish Boxes and Amazin' Avenue
Derrick Goold / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
McGwire getting well-deserved credit as hitting coach
Discussion:
HardballTalk
Craig Calcaterra / HardballTalk:
Yu Darvish to formally ask to be posted — It's been long suspected that Japan's best pitcher — Yu Darvish — would be posted by his NPB team this winter, thereby allowing Major League teams to bid on him. Kyodo News in Japan has now confirmed through several sources that, yes …
Discussion:
Lone Star Ball, Patrick Flood and New York Post
RELATED:
host.madison.com:
RSS Local Selig to retire to Madison to write memoirs on UW campus — IMAGE (8) — As the World Series begins, the most powerful man in baseball readies a nest in Madison for retirement. It contains bubble gum, pretzels, a basket of baseballs and a cable connection to Major League Baseball's TV channel.
Discussion:
HardballTalk
Sports Illustrated:
Six pressing Rangers-Cardinals questions … ST. LOUIS — It's not the Yankees, it's not the Phillies and it certainly isn't the Red Sox here in the World Series. FOX will fret. And MLB has to worry. But of course, the Rangers and Cardinals know they deserve to be here, and they figure they're going to put on a pretty good show.
Discussion:
Bronx Baseball Daily
RELATED:
Baseball America:
2011 Draft Report Card Chat With Jim Callis and John Manuel — Moderator: Jim Callis and John Manuel will answer your draft questions as well as other baseball questions beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET. — Jim Callis: Hi, everyone. I wrote the NL Draft Report Cards (minus Houston) and also did Boston in the AL.
Henry Schulman / San Francisco Giants:
It's time for the World Series designated-hitter and ratings-talk drinking game — Please understand, I am not advocating alcohol abuse. In my drinking game, you take shots of cranberry juice, which is very tasty and extremely good for you. As for you kids, stay in school!
Discussion:
Gaslamp Ball
Peter Abraham / Boston Globe:
A few thoughts on the clubhouse — The Red Sox played just shy of 1,500 innings this season spread out over 181 days. In an ideal world, all 25 players would pay rapt attention to all 1,500 of those innings and be at their best all 181 days. But that's not the case for any team.
Discussion:
HardballTalk, SawxBlog, LA Times Sports Blog and NESN.com
RELATED:
ESPN:
Molina's late HR powers Cards into World Series — NEW YORK — The first long drive to left field wound up in the webbing of Endy Chavez's glove as he crashed against the wall. — The second one sailed clear over his head. — And that's what sent Yadier Molina and the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series.
ESPN:
Gooden missed Mets' 1986 parade to do drugs — While his 1986 New York Mets teammates basked in the glory of millions during a ticker tape parade to celebrate their World Series title, Dwight Gooden sat in a drug dealer's apartment, too high and paranoid to join them.
Discussion:
Yahoo! Sports and New Jersey Online
David Laurila / FanGraphs Baseball:
Q&A: Kelly Johnson, Sabermetrically Savvy FA — Kelly Johnson may or may not be a Toronto Blue Jay next season, but wherever he ends up, he promises to have a better year with the bat — regardless of how many times he strikes out. The free-agent-to-be second baseman hit a respectable .270/.364/.417 …
Discussion:
baseballmusings.com and THE BOOK
