October Madness

Everyone always hails March as a great time to be a sports fan, since the month is dominated by the NCAA tournament. I love the tourney as much as anyone, but if anything March Madness is a misnomer. Not that there's too little madness; there's too little March. The NCAAs actually only take up ten days out of the calendar, so there's a lot more time spent anticipating the games than watching them.

For my money, October is the best month of the sports year, with conference games starting in college football, the NFL season taking shape and of course, postseason baseball which begins tomorrow. As I've written previously, playoff baseball captures me in a way that regular season ball simply can't. This is the time of year when I become a student of the game, continually fascinated by the way that baserunning strategies, bullpen substitutions and pitch selections unfold over nine innings. Here are my thoughts on each of the four division series:

St. Louis-Los Angeles

Watching LA tear the Giants' hearts out on Saturday was a brutal experience. You could feel the wheels start to come off early in that ninth inning, but Finley's walk-off grand slam was like a kick in the teeth. I can't believe that Los Angeles, whose fans didn't even fill the stadium during a playoff-clinching series against their arch-rival, gets to watch their team in the postseason while us San Francisco fans have to wait a 47th year without a title.

On the other hand, St. Louis fans definitely deserve their team's success. St. Louis fans are known around baseball as being the most knowledgeable, enthusiastic, fervent fans in the country. The Cards have a lineup (led-off by the human mascot, Tony Womack) that should instill fear in any opposing pitcher, and their four-man rotation features a crew of under-appreciated workhorses who've combined for 60 wins. I will be more than happy to watch this very likeable Cardinals team sweep Dem Bums in three games. Pick: StL, 3-0

Atlanta-Houston

Why why why why why do we have to watch the Braves in the playoffs again? This has to be the most uninteresting dynasty in the history of sports. There's no personality no heart, no real identity even. Let's see, there's J.D. Chipper, Andruw... is Mark Lemke still around?

Houston is on one of those playing-over-their-heads type runs, and they smell an awful lot like the Padres of '98 and Marlins of '03. Clemens and Oswalt are good enough to shut down the unintimidating Braves lineup, while Houston's big bats will do the necessary damage to continue the home win streak in Games 3 and 4. Pick: Hou, 3-1

Anaheim-Boston

The conventional wisdom says that the Red Sox are a very strong World Series threat based on their power lineup and power pitching. But if we've learned anything over the past few autumns, its that small ball wins championships. Nobody does that better than the Angels, who steal, take extra bases and move their runners along better than any other team. I'm very tempted to take Anaheim, but I think that the Sox have enough intangibles (solid defense, a decent bullpen, the underrated leadoff hitting of Jesus Damon) to match up with the Angels. This will be the best ALDS series, by far. Pick: Bos, 3-2

New York-Minnesota

Well, we've got the matchup that I was talking about last week. I'm not worried about Santana choking under the pressure- after all, everyone forgets that he shutdown New York in Game 1 of the ALDS last year. What I wonder about is how the Twins perform in Games 3 and 4 at home. Last year, the Yankees strutted in and silenced the Metrodome crowd. But there are two things that lead me to predict that the outcome will be different this year: 1) Roger Clemens and David Wells will not be starting Games 3 and 4. I believe they currently play for other teams. 2)The Twins have been here before and won't back down. The Twins have won the past two division titles, have a great manager and have experience in tight postseason games. Torii Hunter has been openly pining for this rematch. I see a Yankee meltdown reminiscent of their Angels series in 2002. Pick: Minn, 3-2

That's all for today, but I'll have plenty more to say as the these series unfold this week. Take it away, Miller and Morgan!