Because Deadspin says Phillies in five because of their "dramatically better" hitting, and I'm calling no respect. I thought not making ignorant statements like these with no basis in fact was what made Deadspin better than ESPN, right? So much for that.

• Walking to the park, we passed a cab driver.  He was driving a purple cab and told me, in heavily accented English, that the Rockies would win because of his purple taxi.
• The chants of MVP!  were the single loudest thing I've ever heard at Coors.  It was spine-tingling.
• A few aborted attempts at The Wave were met with scorn.  
• Heath Bell is fat.   But good.
• The playoff bunting was a beautiful sight to see.  They had it up over the weekend, but it didn't seem official until last night.
• The person who runs the stuff that goes over the PA -- bits of organ music, chant starters, etc. -- did a really great job.  He or she kept the crowd going all night, even when we were exhausted.  And it was never intrusive.  Just right.
• The guy who participated in that "you have 25 seconds to replace 2nd base and get to the dugout" contest was really, really slow.  he didn't make it in time and the crowd booed him lustily.  We were in no mood for failure of any kind.
• I was in the Pavillion, about 15 rows behind Holliday.  When the fireworks went off, they were directly above us.  I felt like I was in that final scene in The natural.
• Walking out, I saw hundreds of people with hands raised looking for high fives.  My palm hurt by the time we exited.
• Outside, on Blake, cars were honking their horns -  DA DA DA -- to which the walking throngs responded by chanting M V P, M V P
• My 11 year old son converted his cap to create his first ever rally cap.  he didn't take it off from the 9th inning until the end of the game.    As i write this, he still hasn't taken off his Helton jersey he wore to the game.
• I'm ready right now to go back to Coors.  Saturday can't come soon enough.

Go Broncos!!!!!!

I could be wrong (or outdated) on this, but one rumored reason for trading Taveras was that he had retained Boras.

It's an interesting dynamic:  do mid-market teams like the Astros & Rox shoot themselves in the foot by not dealing with Boras, thereby withdrawing from some key free agent bidding?  Do some players actually hurt their signing prospects by retaining Boras & thereby being off-limits to Boras-hating teams?

For what it's worth, I think the proper approach to deal with Boras is clients is negotiate regarding players on your roster you need to retain, but stay away from Boras free agents off other teams.

The Andruw Jones situation will be interesting to watch.  What Beltran did for Boras' reputation (he gets top dollar for his clients), Jones may un-do.  What Jones ultimately gets may be so far under the ridiculous $20 mil asking price that the "Boras factor" may be perceived as a negative rather than a positive.

The Braves & Schuerholz are about as good as anyone at talent/value analysis.  That they're passing on a longtime player should set off warning signs to other teams:  Jones isn't worth anything close to $20 mil.  He wasn't worth $13.5 mil this year.  His low average and high strikeout totals suggest he should really get a salary cut.  If there's any rationality to the free agent market at all (there may not be), that will happen.