LaRussa = Jackass

Was Tony LaRussa asleep in the dugout when he sent Aaron Rowand to the plate with the bases loaded? I like Rowand and he is a pretty good center fielder who happens to be awesome at running into stuff, but he's no Pujols. It pains me to say it, but Albert's destruction of Lidge's career in the 2005 NLCS has to rank in the top ten coolest baseball moments that I've watched on TV. At the time, Lights Out Lidge was best closer in the game with the nastiest slider, but since that bomb got dropped on his head, he's Kyle Farnesworth without the ass kicking factor.
This leads me to be even more pissed off about the "Now it counts" rule. The tie game in Milwaukee was consequence of bad luck, but it was the right decision. There were a lot of other ways to avoid it, like adding 2 or 3 pitchers and telling manager to not use pitchers for 1 batter. Now the World Series champion could be determined by Devil Ray Carl Crawford's home run in an exhibition game. Since when do the Devil Rays matter, except to guarantee Yankee and Red Sox 15 wins a year.
I just thought of a better way to determine the 7th game of the World Series. If the series is tied 3-3, I say we take inspiration from the soccer World Cup and solve it with a skills challenge. Take each teams 5 best players and fly them to Las Vegas and see who can hit more dongs off of a pitching machine chucking those dimpled orange balls. At least then it won't be determined by a manager making a point with a player or a Devil Ray, and ESPN would love it because Berman gets to do a few more "Back, Back Back's".