This post will serve as the preview to the NLCS; I’ll live blog the thing after the jump.

So when Kaz matsui hit that Grand Slam in game 2 of the NLDS, I could only think of this:

When Donald Trump appeared on a sponsored segment of ESPN’s ”SportsCenter” on June 30, Matsui was hitting .254, appearing anemic at the plate, committing errors at a rapid rate. He was the easiest target imaginable.

The host, Dan Patrick, asked Trump to name the athlete or manager he would most like to fire. Trump stalled for a moment, tried to give a diplomatic answer, then could not help but fire away. ”I would certainly say Kaz Matsui of the Mets has been a bust,” he said. ”There’s no doubt about that.”

I bet Matsui has a clipping of this article in his locker. I would. It goes to show that Trump is just a dick, and he doesn’t know baseball any better than he knows how to run a company with profits with out declaring for bankruptcy (sue me Donald!).

But really, It makes for great baseball blogging to see Matsui come through for one the biggest surprises this off season.

Incidentally, the Dimondbacks capitalized on the amazing pool of talent they have, and they surprised many by reaching the NLCS. In fact, back before the season started, my fellow umpbumpers and I engaged in a little game called “Hot Off-season Action,” where we all scrutinized each team’s off-season moves with an eye on 2007.

One of the teams I wrote about was the D-backs. But before I go dig the Umpbump archives (with our newly-redesigned search function - give it a try!) to find out what I really wrote, I will go out on a limb and say I envisioned the young Rattlesnakers making it this far.

<opens a new tab, goes to the site, searches for “hot offseason action: dimobbacks,” returns>

OK. I was cautious. I praised the team for allowing their young and talented ball-players to develop while trading away costly veterans:

Gone is cult-hero Luis Gonzalez to make room for two promising outfielders, Chris Young and Carlos Quentin. With Quentin’s flashy leather, he’ll take over center field, while local spaz Eric Byrnes shifts to left field.

Out is Craig Counsell at short in favor of Stephen Drew.

But I shied away from making a bold prediction:

Yes, they’re young; yes, they have the O-Dog at second and a promising shortstop, not to mention, promising outfielders, but these D’backs are one or two full seasons away from truly measuring up and contending for the NL West crown as previous generations of Snakes did.

All in all, I have to say I feel good about my pre-season write-up. The Dimondbacks are a good team and they deserve to be in the NLCS.

On to the live blog!

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1. The national media (and, let’s be fair, UmpBump) obsessed over the will-they-or-won’t-they American League East title, as the Yankees posted a late surge and the Red Sox briefly flagged. But really, as both teams seemed extremely likely to make the postseason one way or another, this debate was only interesting to the rabid fans of each team. The real excitement was taking place in the National League. The AL is stronger than the NL, but has big divisions between rich and poor. The NL is more egalitarian, money-wise, and consequently the teams are more evenly matched. So it was that the season closed with a number of hard-fought, down-to-the-wire contests between NL teams, none more surprising than the Mets’ collapse and none more exciting than the one-game playoff between the Rockies and the Padres. Nevertheless, despite the close competition and unexpected upsets, count me shocked that it’s the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks playing in the NLCS. That will be appointment TV in the Green household. But if you’d told me in April that either one of those teams would be in the World Series come October, I would have laughed in your face. I love baseball.

2. The full beard is making a comeback, if the AL playoffs are any measure. On the Sox, both Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek are growing full beards, and David Ortiz’s chin strap has been widening to approach actual-beard status. On the Indians, Casey Blake, Jake Westbrook, and Travis Hafner all sport healthy beards. Alas, poor Mike Napoli of the Angels has too much neck for his beard; a key rule of beardedness being never to set the bottom edge of the beard above your jawbone. Amateur. Nevertheless, with Casey looking cute and the Captain finally (yes! thank you Jesus!) moving on from that mid-90s Tower Records-clerk goatee, it may be time for a slight modification to our long-neglected UFH category. Except, of course, for Napoli. And I’m not sure that Pedroia’s full-beard-but-no-moustache look is quite kosher.

3. TBS is awful. I mean, Fox was awful too but at least they had appropriate baseball postseason theme music. These Dane Cook ads are killing me. (The phrase “There’s only one October!” is quickly inculcating within me a Pavlov’s dog response of uncontrollable rage-induced spasms.) The boring announcers who can’t keep track of which team is batting are killing me. The fact that TBS couldn’t get an HD deal done with Comcast in time for the playoffs is killing me. In fact, I am slowly dying a TBS-induced death punctuated by rage-spasms.

4. Kenny Lofton looks younger than Joba Chamberlain. Yet I’ve been watching him steal bases since I was ten years old. I’d like to know what moisturizer he uses.

5. Grady Sizemore not only has a great last name (Size! More! ME LIKE SIZE! ME LIKE MORE!) he really is very dreamy. Though either he has the best razor known to mankind, or he hasn’t gone through puberty yet. I don’t think we’ll be seeing a beard on that tender chin anytime soon.

6. I’ve never seen so many bugs as there were in the Yanks-Indians game on Friday night. That was gross.

7. The euphoria (and noise) levels in Fenway Park on Friday (oh yes, I was there) after Manny Ramirez’s walkoff homer easily matched any I’ve ever seen. The scene from the Fens to the Pru at 1 am was all honking and hugging and high-fiving (there are no strangers in Red Sox Nation). And as Manny’s power returns at just the right time, Manny’s pimp jobs have regained their ridiculously offensive nature. I’m so glad he’s playing for my team, because I would have to hate him if he played somewhere else. Plus next year, I think his dreadlocks will be long enough to obscure the name on his travel jersey.

8. With the Sox up 9-0 in the bottom of the 8th right now, I think it’s safe to say that three of four division series have now ended in 3-0 sweeps. And with that, it’s time to tune in to the only ongoing series, over in the Bronx. Spotlight’s on Joe Torre, but if 22-million (prorated) man Roger Clemens can’t come up big tonight, you have to think Brian Cashman is going to be looking at the classifieds, too.

From Deadspin, via the Atlanta Journal Constitution, comes this tidbit about Turner’s strategy for broadcasting three playoff baseball games in one day:

Note: If a game lasts longer than its scheduled 3 1/2-hour window, the next game will begin on TNT, then shift to TBS.

I don’t have a lot to add to this except to say that I lived in Atlanta for three years. I was a Comcast customer with basic cable and, as part of that deal, I got TBS, but not TNT.

And if I was living without TNT today, and was forced to miss part of my favorite team’s playoff game, I would be irate.

Fortunately, I now live in Tucson and have PREMIUM cable, including TBS, TNT, MTV, ESPN and Comedy Central. No HBO, but one step at a time, you know what I mean?

And if you’re one of those poor schmoes who is living with TBS but without TNT, just pray that none of the games run long.

The Braves have played their final game on the Turner Broadcasting Network. This is how Skip Caray said goodbye to the fans.

From the AJC:

“The people all over the country who send you Christmas cards every year; the people who when dad passed, 5,000 of them sent notes or condolence cards; when I lost my brother the people all over the country who sent condolence cards as well — how do you thank those people and how do you say goodbye to those people? I don’t know, but I’m trying to do it.

“You all must know how we feel and how I feel about you. You brought me back five years ago when they tried to bury me on television. The executives didn’t [bring me back]; you did.

The Braves were featured on TBS for three decades. People all over the country who lived in areas that didn’t have a team became Braves fans, watching Glavine, Smoltz and Maddux lead the team to the playoffs season after season.

Caray was left off of TBS’s playoff roster. And he was none too happy about it.

“They can do whatever they want to do,” Caray said, “but I’ve done a lot of good work for these people, and it’s hurtful that they apparently don’t think I can do good work anymore.”

…

“I feel like I can do a better job than a tennis announcer or a football-basketball announcer,” Skip Caray said. “I’m not knocking Ted Robinson and Dick Stockton, but point of fact is they don’t do baseball anymore and I’m there every day.”

You tell ‘em, Skip.

According to the AJC, Caray plans to be back in the booth next season, working some games on Turner’s Peachtree TV in Atlanta as well as radio.

The times, they really are a changin’ in Atlanta. First the team failed to win the NL East for the first time in 14 seasons. Now TBS has canned long-time play-by-play voice Don Sutton. From the AJC:

The company instead has offered Sutton a role as an analyst on Division Series playoff games that will air on TBS beginning next year. Sutton is “mulling that opportunity,” Pomeroy said.But such a role probably would involve calling no more than five playoff games — a far cry from the 100-plus Braves games Sutton has called annually for the past 18 seasons.

Sutton’s departure is just part of the shake-up at Turner Broadcasting. Earlier this year Turner sold regional cable channel Turner South to Fox Cable Networks. Since then Turner Sports’ five-man Braves broadcast rotation — Skip Caray, Chip Caray, Pete Van Wieren, Sutton and Joe Simpson — has been overstocked. The sale leaves 70 TBS Braves telecasts and 162 radio games to be covered by the Turner Sports announcing crew next season, triggering a decision to pare the group from five to four.Since as long as I can remember, most Braves games have been broadcast on TBS, a national network. That was a huge advantage for the Braves, because it often meant that, in markets where there was no other team, Americans would adopt the Braves as their own.

Turner Sports’ Braves telecasts will be further reduced in 2008, when TBS cuts back from 70 games nationally to 45 locally. At that time, an additional 25 local Braves telecasts will shift to Fox, and TBS will air non-Braves games nationally with a new Sunday afternoon MLB package.

Turner is targeting Iron Man Cal Ripken to broadcast their Sunday Game of the Week. Ripken is apparently still weighing his options, but looks to be interested in the job.