A few weeks ago, I wrote about how football recently became the center of my sports world, and how "If we can only get through that pesky World Series, it'll be football every single night on SportsCenter."
Well, since then, my Green Bay Packers have dropped three straight games and things aren't looking good, particularly with Brett Favre's health problems. Speaking of injuries, Julius Jones got knocked out in September with a broken shoulder blade. I've never heard of that before, but it sounds awful.
Now, I know Virginia is going to tackle Clemson tomorrow and Florida State next week, but I think I've still got time to attempt, for yet another year, to embrace the Major League Baseball Playoffs.
One must understand first and foremost that I am not a baseball expert. I certainly can't play well, as my intramural softball teammates can attest. In our fist game I committed three errors at second base and in our last I ran up an ERA somewhere in the upper 70s in three innings of work.
I know what's going on in the Major Leagues on a basic level; I'm just not an active reader of Peter Gammons's Diamond Notes or anything. In the following, I'll attempt to provide some simple analysis of the divisional pairings and some clues as to what is going to happen. What the heck, I'll even throw in some uneducated predictions and encourage everyone to bet next semester's book money heavily on my picks.
Let's start in the American League with the Red Sox and Angles series. Don't worry, my esteemed colleague Joe Lemire isn't writing this column, so you won't get an in-depth discussion of this year being "the year."
It seems to me that those who don't particularly care about baseball, when pressed for a favorite team, always go with the Red Sox. With all the characters on the squad -- Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez, Johnny Damon and David Ortiz -- they're a hard team to pull against and must have an interesting clubhouse experience. Speaking of that, The New York Post reported that Martinez brought diminutive Dominican actor Nelson De la Rosa, who is 28 inches tall and weighs only 23 pounds, into the clubhouse a week or so ago and let him go wild. A dwarf in the clubhouse sounds unorthodox, but when your team hasn't won a Championship in 86 years, anything goes.
As far as the actual series is concerned, Vladimir Guerrero, while hobbled, is too good, and the Angels bullpen is really deep. I think it'll go five games, but the Angels take the series.
In the other AL battle, the Yankees face the Minnesota Twins. At the beginning of the season, I took the Twins' rookie catcher Joe Mauer about eight rounds too high in my fantasy draft, because I had read an article about him in ESPN's Magazine. He played in just 35 games this year and has been out since July.
I'm trying not to be a Yankee-hater, but writers seem to refer to them as "business-like" a little too often for me to think that team chemistry is high on the priority list. Plus, everyone is talking about Johan Santana who has an ERA of 2.61 and went 20-6 on the season. I'll use some classic NHL logic here -- since that league won't need it for awhile -- and say never bet against a hot goalie (or starting pitcher whose last loss was July 11). Twins in five games, and then Minnesota loses the ALCS to the Angels in five games behind Vlad's bat.
I'll start with the Braves and Astros series on the National League side. The Braves have won a ton of division titles in my lifetime, which I guess is a good thing. Chipper Jones and J.D. Drew are the headliners in a solid offensive lineup, and they have John Smoltz as their closer.
The Astros are hot going into the playoffs, and great starting pitching is the key ingredient to a successful playoff run. They also have Brad Lidge in the closer role, who only had four blown saves and posted an ERA this year of 1.90. Interestingly, Virginia head coach Brian O'Connor coached Lidge while he was at Notre Dame. I'll take Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt and the Astros in four games.
The last division series is the tilt between the Cardinals and Dodgers. The Dodgers' major problem is having Milton Bradley on the roster. It seems like whenever there's a clip of Bradley on SportsCenter, he's freaking out and throwing anything he can get his hands on. I can't wait to see what the pressure of the playoffs does to him. He's almost guaranteed to crack and be a major distraction for his club -- the only question is how. I'll take the Cardinals, in five games, only because if Gagne's healthy, and Los Angeles gets a lead, it's lights out.
So going by predictions based loosely on trends, but mostly on a "vibe," the Astros face the Angels in the World Series. Sounds like a barnburner. Well, the Angels have won the whole thing before; they have home field advantage and Disney on their side. So, I have to go with the Astros. Don't ask, I just get a feeling that this is "the year."
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