Talkin' Baseball

It’s baseball playoff time again and I’ll give you my predictions as I wrote over at
Dave's forum. Note: I wrote this before today’s results. Please feel free to pile on when I bungle a prediction, which I always manage to do.

AL: Yankees vs Tigers and Twins vs A's
NL: Padres vs Cardinals and Dodgers vs Mets

The Yankees will whip up on the Motor City Kitties. The Tigers have to be reeling from gagging the division that they had lead all year to the Twins. The Yanks dodged a bullet there as the Twins are the team no one wants to play in the playoffs. I hope the Twins pound the A's. So my prediction is the Twins and Yankees will meet in the ALCS and I'm going with the Twins here to represent the AL in the World Series.

In the NL, I hope the Padres whip up on the Cards. I'm sick of reading and hearing about how much of a genius Tony LaRussa is. To be fair, as much as I love Earl Weaver managing the Orioles, his record compares with LaRussa’s. Weaver always got the Orioles into the playoffs and his teams came up short a lot. Weaver and LaRussa are both 1-3 in World Series. Each led their teams to three consecutive World Series appearances and both came away with one title (Weaver ’69, ’70 & ’71 Orioles & LaRussa ’88, ’89 & ’90 A’s).

I never really root for the Dodgers but in this case they are playing the Mets, who I despise. My prediction is the Padres and Dodgers meet in the NLCS and I'm going with the Padres to represent the NL.

Drum roll please..... Bill-DC’s World Series prediction: Twins over the Padres in six games.

Some more baseball thoughts:
The Yankees have an expensive and talented roster as always but I can’t see them getting into the World Series this year. Maybe it's the Mussina factor that still has me steamed about the Yanks. He left the Orioles in 2000 and signed with the Yankees. I really should get over it. Sometimes I hold a grudge too long.

I did like watching those Yankees teams from 1996-2000. They just went out, played ball and got the job done. True professionals and Joe Torre did a fantastic job as manager. He truly is a first ballot Hall of Famer. The Orioles have been out of it for so long but I have the memories of the two World Series (’79, ’83) I have attended and you can't take those away. Some people I know have never seen their teams take home the hardware and I feel fortunate to have seen the O's do it once.

I do love this round of divisional playoffs. I can actually follow a lot of the action as there are games in the afternoon that I can listen to both at work and driving home.

Once the LCS and World Series start, I’m good until 10:00 PM when Casa Benjamin shuts down. That's usually the beginning of the 4th inning. Sometimes I can push it to 11:00 PM. Maybe I should invest in a TIVO machine and just fast forward through the action.

Have fun watching these games all! This piece by Dave is an excellent read.