So, totally unrelated question: have they eliminated the singing of take-me-out-to-the-ball-game in favor of God bless America, or is God Bless America just the only thing they show on TV? The last MLB game I went to, I think they did both, but that was several years ago, and everything since has just been on TV where they only do GBA. Just wondering...

At all the baseball games I've been to this year, they sing both "God Bless America" & "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".

I believe they now only show the "God Bless America" part on TV. Which is sad, because it's my least favorite patriotic song. But why not "America, The Beautiful" or "This Land Is Your Land", or really anything else.

I'm all for "This land is your land", but I'm not sure if "real america" (where baseball resides, of course) will stand for a commie pinko song written by that commie pinko bastard Woody somethin' or other.

Not the Rays' night?? How about IT WAS THE PHILLIES NIGHT! In fact, it's obviously the Phillies Series. When in the freaking world is someone out there going to give the Phillies some credit? After slobbering over the "unbelievable" Rays slaughtering the dread sox, now we have to hear when the Phillies totally decimate the team that "it wasn't the Rays' night". brother.

all right -- it was the phillies' night. it may indeed be their series. if howard is actually waking from his month-long slumber and even pitchers are getting in on the fun -- look out.

on the rollins play in the first, i was glad to see buck n mccarver at least acknowledge that the umps have made some pretty terrible calls this postseason. usually announcers toe the party line and refuse to say anything negative, but it's really gotten ridiculous.

the rays may be the tigers of 08 -- much as it pains me to remember my own team's meltdown. granted, the phillies are a much better team than the cards were that year, but let's face it: by any objective measure, top to bottom, the rays should be winning this series. they won the best division in baseball and beat two of the best teams in baseball to get here, while the phils beat... the brewers and dodgers.

the real story for the rays is finding out who stole pena and longoria and replaced them with robots stuck in "strike out" mode. their bullpen and bottom of rotation got badly exposed last night as well.

BUT... their road back into this series is not as arduous as it was for the sox against the rays. all the rays have to do is figure out a way to beat hamels, then they can go back home and not have to face him again. not an easy task, but not impossible.

i realize i just sort of did the same thing king did -- backhanded compliments for the phillies and diagnosing what the rays did wrong. my bad. the phillies are playing great right now and deserve all the credit in the world for doing what nobody else has been able to do: putting the rays on the brink of elimination.

In the middle of Game 2, I had had enough of Joe Buck, so I went out and bought a cheap AM radio and started listening to the local broadcasters on 1210. Yesterday, this had the added benefit of sparing me Patti LaBelle's rendition of the National Anthem. I only heard about it when Larry Anderson referred to a "unique" version of the song.

Ever since Live Aid, when during the rendition of "We are the World" someone passed her the microphone foolishly expecting her to pass it to someone else, the specter of LaBelle has loomed over all Philadelphia public events. She's sort of like the greedy songbird version of lake-effect snow in other cities.

The "mandating" of GBA at baseball games was one of many knee-jerk reactions to 9/11/01 that seemed like a good idea at the time but now often comes off as a bit cringe-inducing. We already start the show with the National Anthem-really, shouldn't that be enough?

Actually some teams are now combining GBA with TMOTTBG at the stretch (like the White Sox and Brewers). Others are saving GBA for special circumstances and keeping TMO for the stretch (like the Cubs.)

let's face it: by any objective measure, top to bottom, the rays should be winning this series. they won the best division in baseball and beat two of the best teams in baseball to get here, while the phils beat... the brewers and dodgers.

You're kidding, right? The Phillies have proved themselves better than Tampa Bay in every respect: starting pitching, relief pitching, fielding, timely hitting, etc. If the Phils hadn't stranded so many runners in Game 2 this series could've been a 4-0 sweep.

Right before Feliz's RBI bingle with RISP last night, I threw my hat at the screen and cursed the luck. It looked like we were going to keep adding to that 2 for 33 stranded runners statistic. I then quickly retrieved my hat and sat back down, chagrined.

Look, the Phillies are clearly the better team. Even with all the missed opportunities and blown calls, the Phils have contained the Rays. You can talk all day long about Longoria and Pena, but I give you back all the stranded Phillies runners, as well as Rollins going 0-10 in the first two games and Burrell and Howard being largely ineffective (until last night, obviously). Plus, you say the umps blew ONE call against the Rays...how about all the blown calls against the Phillies? Can we have a column about that? When Moyer made that incredibly athletic play in Game three to shovel that squibbler to Howard (who bare-handed it), the runner was clearly out but the ump blew the call. This led to a two-run inning that cut any hopes of Moyer getting the win. How about when they doubled Werth off first but replays clearly showed that Pena wasn't on the bag? And there were more.

The Phillies just did last night what they do all year: they pile on runs, a lot of them. Top to bottom, this lineup hurts opposing teams. And because it was business as usual for the Phillies doesn't mean that the Rays choked or that the blown call in the first inning that led to one measly run contributed to the Rays bad luck. It meant that the Phillies were merely continuing their season.

By the way, I love how Blanton jokingly remarked how he always closes his eyes when he swings at the ball, and now every report of his home run states that he had his eyes closed. Morons.