Friday's first pitch

Leading Off
The National League's four playoff participants are in. That's right, the Rockies have clinched a playoff berth.
What's more amazing is that the Rockies and Dodgers play three games this weekend, so the Rockies can win the division.
But that's not the most fantastic fact about this whole deal. Consider this: Jason Marquis has now made it to the post-season for 10 straight years.
In case you were wondering, Mr. Marquis has going 0-2 with a 4.76 in post-season play.

Regional Roundup

• The Orioles pulled it off, breaking their 13-game skid. Peter Schmuck continues to adroitly defend Dave Trembley.


• After rereading Tom Boswell's recent column, one has to take notice of the idea that revenue sharing reform is out there. By the way, the Nats did win Thursday.


• The Pirates and Cubs were rained out. That about describes their seasons.


• Uncle Cholly's dropping hints about the playoff rotation.

• Chris Carpenter was the best hitter in Major League Baseball Thursday.


• Did Tim Wakefield just walk/hobble off into the sunset?


• Will CC get to 20?


• How have the post-season staffs looked recently? The Cards look studly.


• The leadership in San Francisco is going to stay at the helm.

• Here's a story that's just all warm and fuzzy: Ted William's head is being mistreated. Yep, apparently the workers at the cryoclinic Williams is stored at are Yankees fans. Here's the AP story.

  NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Daily News is reporting that Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams' severed head was mistreated at an Arizona cryonics facility, according to details from a new book. In "Frozen," Larry Johnson, a former executive at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., writes that Williams' head, which had been severed and frozen for storage, was abused at the facility. Johnson claims a technician took baseball-like swings at Williams' frozen head with a monkey wrench. Williams, the last player to hit over .400 in a season, died in 2002 at age 83 and had his remains sent to Alcor for cryogenic storage in the hope that future generations would develop the technology to revive him.

  And no, that did not come from The Onion.

Today in history 1920 -- The only tripleheader in this century was played, with the Cincinnati Reds defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first two games. The Pirates won the nightcap, which was called after six innings because of darkness.

1938 -- Bob Feller struck out 18 Detroit Tigers to set a single-game record that stood until Steve Carlton broke it in 1969. 1968 -- Bob Gibson set a World Series record by striking out 17 Detroit Tigers in Game 1. 1978 -- In a one-game playoff for the AL East title, Bucky Dent hit a three-run homer off Mike Torrez to lead the New York Yankees to a 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

The Closer

Things got heated. Things got ugly. But in the end, the Twins are still alive. They're like the bad guy in a horror film, climbing off the floor when your think they've been killed. They're like the piece of Dominos Pizza that keeps coming back up. Except you're rooting for these guys.