Postseason brings emotions only an emoji can explain

Sometimes words just aren’t enough. Especially when your baseball team is in the playoffs and you’re living and dying with every pitch. Just in time for all the postseason tension, Major League baseball introduced the MLB.com Clubhouse app, which is being called the “official GIF and Sticker Keyboard” of the league. Fans can browse hundreds of animated GIFs of great plays, bloopers and fan weirdness.

You can also download digital stickers (or emojis for the non-Luddites) featuring players, legends, mascots and ... wait for it ... food. I’m partial to the hot dog. You can add your favorites to your digital keyboard on an iPad or iPhone. Like always, it seems, it’s only available for Apple products, because, you know, we Android people aren’t worthy.

Hello, my name is Rougie

The Canadian media learned quickly about Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor, who was in the middle of several key plays in Game 1. You could tell many knew little about the second-year player who spent a month in the minors earlier this season. Several TV commentators had to tread lightly pronouncing his name. The response to Odor is understandable. At 21, he’s the second-youngest Rangers player at the time of his postseason debut. Jurickson Profar was 19 when he was used as a pinch-hitter in the wild-card game in 2012.

King likes Texas

Author Stephen King posted on Twitter on Friday morning predicting an all-Texas ALCS with both the Rangers and Astros winning their ALDS openers Thursday. King responded to a follower who asked was he “burying the Jays after one game?” King replied: “Not burying the Jays, rooting for them. But that was a baaaa-ad [his spelling, for emphasis] game to lose.” He also predicted the Dodgers to beat the Astros in the World Series. Now that would certainly be a scary story for Rangers fans.

First-pitch honors

Former Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston, the San Antonio native who managed Toronto to its two World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, threw out the first pitch before Game 1. Former Jays pitcher Pat Hentgen, who played on those title teams, threw out the first pitch before Game 2.

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Postseason brings emotions only an emoji can explain."