...given that they've been broadcasting Braves games since the seventies. It's not as if TBS has never broadcast a baseball game before. They're probably just trying to jam in more commercials than they do during a normal Braves broadcast, which means they really don't care whether we see the first batter or not.

...a network shouldn't be broadcasting the playoffs without having broadcast regular-season games.

Hasn't TBS broadcast Braves games for decades? You'd think they'd have it figured out by now...

If the Cubs had kept their starting pitcher in, then their batters would have hit better.

Who was that clown who was flashing a light just behind the batter at the Cubs-Diamondbacks game? And how is it that he didn't get kicked out? And why are there even seats back there?

Dumb fans. The games would be a lot better without them.

These series are best 3 of 5. There may not be a 'game 4'.

I agree that it's an absolute blunder for Piniella to yank Zambrano for the simple reason that in a best of 5 series there might not be a game 4. I see this type of thinking play out many times and -- to borrow a line from a different Woody Allen movie -- it will never cease to mystify me.

I know this boat sailed a while ago, but let me just say that it wouldn't hurt if 'America's game' appeared every once in a while on America's airwaves. I don't have cable. I don't have satellite radio. I know that's stone age to most people, and the day that I can get my wife on board for the $40/mo to get ESPN, TBS, and such like, this won't be a problem. But for now, zilch-o on the cable-o.

Which means zilch-o on the playoff baseball-o. I got nothing, least of all the cubs. Where's the outrage? I mean, at this rate the only way I can see or even hear a baseball game is to leave my sobbing wife and children and go to a bar, where evil men will make me drink my paycheck away and eat bad fries. This is America. There has to be a better way.

Memo to MLB: how about free internet radio for playoffs? To help you have, like, fans?

Pulling Zambrano may have been the wrong move at the time, but I think it might actually have been for the best. As Wes points out, the Cubs never score again, and assuming Marmol enters the game an inning later, he doesn't have his stuff then, either. So a bad decision, but not likely one that hurts them.

As far as TBS goes, it's true they know how to broadcast one game at a time. But four games means four crews, and that's probably something different for them.

I think with out the run support Zambrano needed and didn't get, by that stage of the game, I think Lou made a calculated bet on his bull pen and was justified. Who knows if Carlos would not have also allowed the same runs off the same batters that the relief squad did? And its clear that while pitching makes champion ball teams, you have to score to win, and one run on for hits is not going to cut it these days.

If the Cubs are for real, and I kind of doubt it, then they have plenty of chances here to start putting up runs enough to win the series. If I were Lou, I would not have started Zambrano on game 1 anyway. He's not been that effective on short rest and starting him opposite Webb is kind of a waste.

But as if on cue, all of Cubs nation rises up to open their collective mouths and say something really dumb, to second guess and blame the guy who reshaped the clubhouse and took them to the NLCD championship. The curse of the Cubs is their fans. Good luck with that.

During the day game yesterday, I went on MLB TV and was able to watch the TBS broadcast of the game...well kind of. They had a 4 way split and the game was on two of them (from two different angles) one was two morons talking about the game but not broadcasting it and one was something I didn't recognize.

As I only paid for the regular season, I wonder if this is what you can see on mlb.tv during the divisional playoffs since the games are being broadcast nationally. Again, not great as it's less than a quarter of the screen, but it's still better than watching the "animated" version on Yahoo or Sportsline.

I got an offer from MLB to pay for all the postseason games for only $14.95...seems like that's less than two buckets of beers at your local sports bar. I'm not going for it as most of the Sox games are on at night and on TBS so I'll be able to watch.

I know you said "watch" but if you're only 2 hours south of Chicago, can't you get the AM broadcast from their flagship radio station? Also, I know ESPN radio is broadcasting the games, you should be able to get that.

http://sports.espn.go.com/stations/espnradio1000/

Seems kind of old school but it might just work.

A Mets fan did that to the Marlins? sometime this year or late last year. He was arrested and eventually sentenced to something like 90 days in jail for endangering another person, i.e. if a line drive was hit to short at the time of the distracting light.

You are going for the win today in a 1-1 game by replacing a 3.95 ERA with a 1.43. By replacing one homer every 9 innings with one every 23. By replacing a .233 Batting average against with a .169.

The homer thing is critical. Once it's 1-1 in the latter stages of the game you should be thinking that this game might well finish 2-1 with a home run deciding it either way. It was the right thing to do regardless of the issue of rest for the next start. Zambrano had already given up a homer in the game.

So the guy that rarely gives up a long ball serves one up. That's life.

Just like life is gong-show fans who can turn any defeat into victory after the fact. If just THEY had been the manager.

Of course if you pick a fan at random and make him the manager, the playoffs would be out of the question. More likely would be a player revolt by mid May, caused by all the cowdung rules, regulations, game strategies, and pre and post game lectures that the nerd had been dreaming up his entire pathetic life.