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OK, so Game 1 of the National League Championship Series went 13 innings with the St. Louis Cardinals prevailing 3-2 over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Busch Stadium. It was the longest NLCS Game 1 in history. The game ended at 12:26 a.m. Saturday (Central time). Of course, the contest no doubt could have ended innings earlier, if Dodgers manager Don Mattingly had called on former Cubs right-hander Carlos Marmol to make a relief appearance. With the same outcome, of course.
Things we learn watching baseball: Katherine Webb has a new TV commercial.
* With Joe Girardi re-signing with the Yankees as their manager, if the Cubs want a manager with ties to the pinstripes, there’s Mattingly, who played first base for them. Given Mattingly’s maneuvers in Game 1 (pinch-running for cleanup hitter Adrian Gonzalez with his replacement Michael Young hitting into two double plays; bunting in the 12th to let St. Louis walk No. 3 hitter Hanley Ramirez to set up the second of Young’s double plays), a few more moves like that and he could find himself looking for work.
* Cardinals right fielder Carlos Beltran, whose throw to home cut down a runner for a double play to end the top of the 10th, had the game-winning hit. He is Hall of Fame worthy on his postseason performances alone. Unless a .345 batting average with 16 home runs, 12 doubles, 34 runs batted in, 42 runs scored, 11 stolen bases and .750 slugging percentage in 40 postseason games don’t impress you. Of course, to really have impactful postseason credibility, he needs to do it in a World Series. If he continues to play the way he has in preliminary series, this could be the season he finally plays in the Fall Classic.
* Speaking of Beltran, the switch-hitting outfielder will be a free agent after the season. He would be a wonderful acquisition for the Cubs or Chicago White Sox — if either team was close enough to sniff the postseason. And a reminder (as if one is necessary) that neither team is.
* For those baseball fans enamored with the designated hitter, let the record show that St. Louis starting pitcher Joe Kelly’s single started off the team’s two-run rally in the third inning to tie the game on a Beltran double (did we mention he merits being in the Hall of Fame for his postseason performance alone?). Another reason for some people (the non-Cardinals fans in the audience) to dislike pitchers being able to bat.
From our underappreciated department of shameless self-promotion (not to be confused with our department of regular self-promotion or our department of shameful self-promotion), may we offer this: “Sports & Torts” is urging you and everyone else to vote at podcast.com for the Peoples Choice, Best Produced, Best Video Podcast and Best Sports Podcast. Go to podcastawards.com and type in our show name and URL. Here is the URL: http://www.talkzone.com/shows/155/1660.html. And, yes, we will continue to run this mention until the nomination process closes on Oct. 15.
Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the extended efforts of the editorial and video departments at elliottharris.com and the fact that they don’t know the meaning of taking a day off — as well as quite possibly “gratuitous”). And, if some of us hadn’t been watching the NLCS on television, we would have been unaware of a burger commercial featuring Miss Alabama Katherine Webb:
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