Saturday news and notes: A pennant, Bill Veeck, and D-Day-Lewis

1

The Cardinals got 7 shutout innings from Michael Wacha and 3 hits from postseason legend Carlos Beltran Friday night, thrashing the Dodgers 9-0 and winning the NL pennant. It was the most lopsided LCS elimination game since... last year, when St. Louis was on the losing end of a 9-0 thumping at the hands of San Francisco. Wacha was named NLCS MVP.

The Cardinals now wait to find out who they'll face in the World Series. St. Louis will have ace Adam Wainwright on the mound for Wednesday night's Game 1.

Speaking of Wednesday night's Game 1, for any of you in the Chicago area who are interested, there's a baseball meetup at 6:30 to watch the game at Finley Dunne's, in Lincoln Square. I'll be there, along with plenty of other baseball fans of all stripes. You can find the address and other pertinent info here.

2

Indians minor leaguer Justin Toole played all nine positions in one game for Carolina on August 25, 2012, a 4-2 win for the Mudcats. He's now written a book about the experience. I have no idea if it's any good, but if you're looking for some Tribe-related offseason reading...

3

"I don't believe this lecture will convince you of anything, for intolerance is, in some cases, almost a disease."

Did the Tribe Win Last Night? passes alone a great letter from former owner Bill Veeck, written in May of 1948, in reply to a bigot who was complaining about the team having brought Larry Doby on-board the season before.

Beyond Cleveland, Larry Doby is largely overlooked, his struggles and accomplishments largely overshadowed by those of Jackie Robinson. Another often overlooked player from that era is pitcher Don Newcombe, who joined the Dodgers in 1949 and won the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP Awards during his career (he finished that career in 1960 by pitching 54 innings for the Indians). Sports on Earth's Howard Megdal got to spend a little time with Newcombe (now 87 years old).

4

Speaking of Negro League greats who also pitched for the Indians near the end of their career, Satchel Paige dropped by FanGraphs to weigh in on some of the nonsense that's been going round about the differences between the Cardinals and Dodgers and the way things used to be.

Yasiel Puig and Adrian Gonzalez have been the targets of more scorn than anyone of late, but they've got a good sense of humor about it.

Vin Scully was around for the 'good old days,' and he says he'd hate to see the game played without emotion. "As much as I loved Joe DiMaggio, I would hate to see 18 Joe DiMaggios on the field."

5

Russell Carleton at Baseball Prospectus examines whether or not postseason experience matters for postseason success, and the nature of how human beings respond to stress.

6

My rundown of my from each era is just about caught up to the present. The late 00s, which I'm looking at today, were the time when my primary interest shifted from who was in front of the camera, to who was behind it. Don't get me wrong, there are still actors and actresses I adore, but the director is what matters most to me know.

My favorite movies of 2005-2009

6) Fantastic Mr. Fox - I've said before that Wes Anderson's films always work for me. This one proved they don't even have to be live action. The stop-motion animation in this, by the way, is... well, fantastic.

5) The Dark Knight - I loved Batman Begins too, but the sequel cleared that bar, becoming the new standard for superhero films. Christopher Nolan has been on a role all century.

4) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - If you've got a word-of-the-day calendar, 'elegiac' comes up, and you want to use it in a sentence. Use it to describe this film.

3) Zodiac - Between this and Seven, David Fincher has made maybe the two greatest serial killer movies ever.

2) Children of Men - I went into this one knowing almost nothing about it, then liked it so much I went and saw it again a week later. Director Alfonso Cuaron then went seven years without a release, until Gravity hit theaters two weeks ago.

1) There Will Be Blood - Daniel Day-Lewis gives one of the greatest performances in film history, in an absolute masterpiece from Paul Thomas Anderson.