October baseball...

and for the second year in a row, the Redbirds are at home watching from the couch. Given the performances of the two reps from the NL Central, I do believe that the Astros and the Cardinals would have represented better. Hell, even the Reds might have avoided a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers (ok, probably not). Speaking of the Dodgers, man do they look good. I am still not convinced they have the ace pitcher that helps an October run immensely, but of course another team that won fewer than 85 games recently marched through October without an ace (ah... 2006). I would have to give the Dodgers the odds on favorite in the match up versus the Phils, so maybe we will see another NL champ take the Series after struggling mightily just to break 500 for most of the year. This is, in some ways, an indictment of the expanded baseball playoffs, because in all honesty should a team that wins 84 games make it to the postseason? But, alas, they do. And when they do, they are just like any other MLB team, which means they can beat anybody else in the league on any given night.

On the Junior circuit side of things, the ALCS will probably pit the Rays against the Red Sox. I sincerely hope the Rays can pull it off, though so help me if they don't sell out a Series game in Tampa, MLB should automatically relocate the franchise... maybe to Montreal. If Beckett is healthy, however, the Red Sox quickly become a team that is hard to bet against. The Rays are very talented, but the lack of experience on the team is really quite astounding, and one has to wonder if that will be overcome.