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Tom Strange
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Anyone see or hear about the Dbacks comeback this afternoon?

Day game at the BOB...er, Chase Field.

Webb pitching.

Down 5-ZIP at the end of 8 1/2 innings.

Three Brewers' pitchers could NOT get ONE out in the NINTH (good number, NINTH!!!)!!!

Mota gives up two infield hits and a walk to load the bases.

Shouse (LHP) comes in to face left handed pinch hitter Chad Tracy (who typically has trouble hitting lefties).

Splits the gap in right center with a bullet to the wall; clears the bases; 5-3; NO outs.

Shouse lifted, now a save situation, for closer Solomon Torres. (Gagne pitched in the 8th and did NOT melt down)

Bloop single by 20-year old Upton. Runners on the corners. Did I mention, NO outs?!

The O-Dog (Orlando Hudson) slaps a double down the left field line. Upton, given the signal to score (the would be tying run), stops at third. 5-4.

Co-Jack (Conor Jackson) facing a drawn in infield with runners on 2nd and 3rd, singles up the middle, Hudson races around to score the winning run with NO OUTS.

The ONLY Dbacks game that matches (actually, it exceeds) this one is Game Seven, 2001 WS.

But this one is as incredible a regular season game as the Dbacks have played in the team's short history.

WOW! (and I do NOT mean what we USED to think WOW meant) :)

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....and thats why you never ever leave a game early.

Im sure some left to beat the rush and listened on the car radio to the greatest game that they ever missed.

That sounds incredible--The RS had a similar game last year against the Orioles on Mothers Day--down 5-0 with one out, bottom of the ninth and nothing going on exploded for 6 runs and the walk off win--It will forever be known as "The Mothers Day Miracle" in these parts.

Something like tha does amazing things for the psyche of a team...

will it give em the oomph toget to October? tough to tell at this point, but a huge shot of adrenaline like that certainly helps

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My favorite picture is from Kirk Gibson's game winning home run in the '88 series-as the ball lands you see the taillights of cars leaving Dodger Stadium in the background. No one in LA has learned from it though.

Biggest surprise with Rocky's game is that Gagne wasn't to blame.

Now could someone in the NL Worst get above .500 ? They talk about the Dodgers like they're in a pennant race because they're just a couple games back of the Dbacks. Sounds good until you look at their record. I suppose it's possible for a division to be won by a team with a losing record, who could get lucky in the playoffs, and go all the way. The Rockies were close to that last year. An aberration in the last month if I ever saw one.(I think that's what aberration means).

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enough of Arod (for now anyway), although I wonder if he will be greeted by a Madonna song during his next atbat at Fenway...

.. Im off to the Fens for an afternoon game against the Twinkies -- its about as hot as the surface of the sun out there..Im gonna stay under the roof for this one I think, for once I wouldnt mind having those pool seats they have in AZ

...Talk around these parts is whether the Sox should sign Bonds --(no thanks!)

...With the Rays and Yanks playing a series Im in the strange waters of actually rooting FOR the Yankees..( for a few days anyway..)...Its a very very strange feeling to find myself yelling C'mon Derek! at the TV , then catching myself and thinking "what am I doing?" :rolleyes::biglaugh:

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So far the Yankees have helped you out , mstar.

It's interesting ( to me at least), that I've rooted for the Red Sox on several occasions over the years, certainly in the '67,'75,'and '86 series. It's only been in head to head meetings with the Yankees that I've of course rooted against them. I don't know what it all means. A Connecticut lad who lived for the Yankees (at a time when they were AWFUL by the way), who also liked the Red Sox. The one team I actively despised were the Mets.

These days I'll root for Jeter any day without shame.

Good luck frying in Fenway. I'm off to see the Dodgers-Braves tonight in record heat myself. Hopefully the evening will cool things down a bit.

My money is on Bonds going to the Mets. And they're welcome to him.

C.C. Sabathia going to the Brewers was a surprise. Nice to see a 'small market' team making the big deal. The Brewers still seem like a team without an identity-or a league. When they switched from the AL to NL they were hardly missed, and I still don't think of them as an NL team. I'm sure the good folks in Milwaukee would say differently.

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:) --Funny--I think the same about the Brewers..to this day I still think of them as an AL team, and then in mid thought adjust... It would be good for them and good for baseball if they make a long run this year... They seem like good fans--I mentioned earlier in the year that there was a slew of them that made the trip for the Brewer/ Sox series which is no small outlay of $$$.

The ones I met all seemed like good folks...

As far as the Yankees rooting..Im sure I must have rooted for them somehwere along the line in the past no doubt--but after the last 5, 6 or 10 years of always battling them it was a seismic shift for me that was hard to explain.

I realized how much I know about these guys and how familiar I am with them(as much as the Red Sox just about). Ive always respected them, just wanted them to fail, Its a little different when you know their strengths and are pulling for them to succeed.

Its like seeing the otherside of someone who youve been at ods with for along time or something...

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--and maybe I could even afford to see a yankee game once in awhile---We'll see--

...well, you can always watch them in spring training!

Hey boys... did I miss all of the "all star talk" while I was gone?

While we still are at the bottom of the pile in pitching stats (as a team), we do have the highest rated offense... which of course only gets us to a little over .500 ball...

But we in the stRanger nation are quite proud and pleased to see the first four bats in our lineup all going to the "exhibition" game...

Now... another reason for hope... I think I heard last night that we have used 45 (tonight it'll be 46) folks on our 25 man roster... 25 of them pitchers!

Half of our starting lineup on any given night started the season in the minors... but they're exciting to watch and seem to like each other... last week in NYC Lupica even told one of our announcers "you get to watch these guys every night? ...must be fun!"

CJ Wilson was on the radio the other day talking about how much fun it is to play here, how much better the clubhouse is "since the departure of a couple of players who were only concerned about a paycheck" (really, he said that)... it wasn't too hard to figure out that he was talking about Tex and Gary Matthews Jr who are both plying their trade elsewhere now as y'all know...

Anyway, it's hotter than he11 at the ballpark these days... more like a convection oven than anything else but hope springs eternal...

Now... I must take back everything I've said about Kinsler's butchering defense... he's actually another Soriano... with the ability to change a game on his own... take a look at his offensive stats, and he's stealing as well as hitting the ball really well... catch his act at the All Star game (since he deserved to start instead of Pedroia!)

Later boys... I'll try not to make this a drive-by...

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Speaking of convection ovens---I'll have to talk later --just got home from the 18-5 shellacking of the Twins ---100plus degrees, air quality the worst of the year---I'm melting and have a2 1/2 hour drive home.

Good game--glad your havin fun in Tejas--but Im also glad that I dont have to go to games there--today was enjoyable but flippin brutal

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Speaking of convection ovens---I'll have to talk later --just got home from the 18-5 shellacking of the Twins ---100plus degrees, air quality the worst of the year---I'm melting and have a2 1/2 hour drive home.

Good game--glad your havin fun in Tejas--but Im also glad that I dont have to go to games there--today was enjoyable but flippin brutal

I can imagine... at least it was a good game, from your team's perspective, eh?

I live in the land of 110+ weather, and I would NOT want to sit through a game like you did today, outside.

I live about two miles from Sun Devil Stadium... where the football Cardinals played for nearly 20 years. I went to one pre-season Cards game there a couple of years ago... at night... and was incredibly uncomfortable.

At least for the Dbacks home games, they have air conditioning!!! (even if they don't have any offense!!!!!!!!)

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it was worth it --but it was a test of endurance--I went through about a fourteen waters at $4.00 a pop. but there was a lot of activity in the game to keep me interested if uncomfortable

23 runs, 34 hits, a few outfield assists, a triple play that after some discusssion wasnt (then the Sox tacked on 7 more runs during the inning) ....everyone seemed to have gotten 2,3,or4 hits.

Im still recovering--it still bewilders me that the RS can be so bad on the road (3-7 last trip) then come and demolish anyone (sweeping the Twins , who have been on an 18-3 run)

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Baseball is funny that way. As I've often quoted Yogi-'in baseball, you don't know nothing'.

I never made it to the Dodger game last night, due to emergency circumstances. Nothing sadder than an unused ticket sitting in the drawer.

Especially when your team wins.

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Thanks-

It was one of those emergency room things, but I don't need to go into the ugly details. Doing much better.

I saw the game I missed on tv at 1 in the morning, when I got home. Seems Dodger and Angel games are re aired same night and the next day.

I remember when they aired 25 Dodger games in a season-and never home games. This is one way the world's improved.

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Bobby Murcer meant a great deal to me way back when. He was one of the few worthy players on the worst ever Yankee teams of the late 60's early 70's that I loved with a passion that would rival mstar and his Sox.

I became a Yankee fan as a lad during their last burst of dynasty, only to see them collapse right when I was becoming a teenager. Hard to explain what that lousy Yankee team meant to a guy who was drowning in high school and life. While I gamely clung to the team of Horace Clarke, Jake Gibbs, Jerry Kenney, Gene Michael et al, there was always Bobby Murcer. Not Bob, not Robert, he was Bobby.

He was supposed to be the next Mickey Mantle-yeah, that's not difficult to live up to-of course it didn't happen.

I do remember him hitting 4 home runs in one game, hitting .331 one year at a time when just hitting .300 was rare.

Mostly I remember just liking the man. Great attitude, worked hard,and holding his head high at the Yankees lowest point.

I'm glad I read his book, 'Always a Yankee' that he thankfully finished before he died, where I learned what a class person he was in his family life as well.

He won't be throwing out the first pitch in new Yankee Stadium now, which hurts me more than it should, for some reason.

Those long gone days of endless summer afternoons listening to Phil Rizzuto cheer(yes, cheer) when Bobby hit a home run will be with me forever.

Thanks Bobby, and rest well.

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Wow sorry Hiway thats a tough one-When you mentioned him earlier in the year I knew how much he meant to you, and Im sure tons of others our age.

Its amazing to me how ballplayers can fill other very important roles that need to be filled for the young that go far beyond the baseball diamond

I remember those Horace Clark, Roy White, Mel Stottlemyre, Stan Bahnsen, Mike Kekich, Lindy McDaniel, Fritz Peterson era Yankees..From early in his rookie year Murcer was always touted as the leader.

Im sorry for your loss and My condolences to the Murcer and Yankee families

Lifetime Stats Page

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