By Request: Baseball

I wrote a post a few weeks ago thanking everyone for visiting the blog, and asking for suggestions for future topics.  I got exactly one comment; from Padre Steve Leake, suggesting Salesianity, God and baseball.  Well, I have tried to ramp up the Salesianity a bit and getting people closer to God is the point of this whole exercise, so that leaves baseball.  As the playoffs are just around the corner, I'll give my take on the current situation.

I follow the Yankees, which comes as no shock to anyone who knows me, and I try to keep up with the rest of the league.  But this season the it's been tough to do that, what with assignment changes and relics and the like.  Imagine my shock when I saw the Cincinnati Reds won the NL Central for the first time since I was in practical training.  Having lived three years in the Queen City by the River, I can attest that it is a great baseball town when the Reds win (unlike Tampa who can't ever fill their park, even for what are the most important games of their season).  As frugal Mid-Westerners they're not going to pay to see a dog, but give them quality and they'll come out.

As for my Yankees, I think they have as good a chance as anyone of making it out of the AL.  That said, I think any of the teams in the mix has a chance.  The Twins are in the worst shape, in terms of injury, so I guess you'd have to put them lower than the rest.

But once they make it out, what ever team gets to the Series from the AL is going to have to face the Phillies.  And this is not 2009.  Last year they tried to make it with one solid starter and three maybes.  This year they're loaded for bear, and even though Hamels' and Oswalt's win-loss records are so so, their era's are more than solid.  The Yankees made it on three starters and a solid bullpen last year.  Now their rotation is much more vulnerable, and Mo hasn't been Mo (something he usually reserves for meaningless games in April).  If the Phillies had just one more reliable starter against the Yankees the '09 Series would have gone 7, and then who knows.  Game seven is always a gamble.

So as of now, the little boy fan in me says Yankees all the way.  But the grown up prognosticator says; don't bet against the Phillies to make it 2 titles in 3 years.