October 3, 2000- My new favorite team is now the St. Louis Cardinals. If they lose, then my new favorite team will be the winner of the Giants/Mets series. If the winner of the Giants/Mets loses, then my new favorite team will be whoever wins the AL pennant. Translation: FUCK YOU, Atlanta!!

There's always something cool about waking up the first week in October and realizing, "hey, baseball playoffs are on". It's true that I don't really care who wins this thing (as long as they don't have the words "Atlanta" and "Braves" in their name), but there's a certain apocalyptic feeling to every out that's recorded. The St Louis broadcast crew picked up on this, today. Midway through the fifth, they started saying "well, folks, only 10 more outs to go". In the end of any series, it always seems like the smallest miscue, bloop single or bobbled ball ends up destroying one team's year while making the other team's. Like the Indians booting that grounder up the middle in the World Series, or Sid Bream sneaking past Spanky LaValliere to score the winning run.

It makes a typical Tuesday seem slightly important. Just by turning on that goofy RealAduio feed of the playoff games, the day's going by quicker and Tuesday suddenly has relevance. Too bad 90% of the ding dongs I see throughout the day have NO idea what's going on.

The other items that come up this time of year are the annual awards. The Rookie of the Year seems to be a toilet award, lately. Winning the Rookie of the Year is about as prestigious as winning the MTV "Best Dance Video" trophy. Todd Hollandsworth, Ron Kittle, Todd Worrell, Pat Listach, Bob Hamelin, Kerry Wood... the names themselves make you quiver. MVP and Cy Young are still huge, though.

Maybe it's my geographic bias, but I'd have no problem with Todd Helton walking away with the NL MVP. If that jackass Larry Walker can convince the national media that he had an MVP year while playing in Coors Field in 97, then Helton should be a shoo-in for 2000. The Rockies would have been a complete disaster without Helton's hitting and fielding. The playoff teams (Atlanta, St Louis, New York and San Francisco) lack that one big dominating stud machine on their teams. The media loves Mike Piazza, but his numbers don't exactly overwhelm. Barry Bonds is certainly deserving, but voters seem to dislike him. Plus, the presence of Jeff Kent only helps to steal Bonds' votes. The closest thing St Louis has to an MVP candidate would be Jim Edmonds, who cooled off after some guy named McGwire went on the DL. My pick is Helton, but my prediction is Piazza finally cashes in on the media push he's been given since 1993 and walks away with the 2000 NL MVP.

The AL MVP should be Carlos Delgado of the BlueJays. He kept his team in the hunt until mid-September and put up near Triple Crown numbers. Either Delgado, Frank Thomas or Jason Giambi. Thomas may have the edge because he won the thing in 93 and 94. But, Thomas may also lose votes because he's "only" a DH. Frank does add that intangible "leadership quality" to his team... but who knows what the hell that means. Larry Walker displays "leadership quality" occassionally...he's usually the FIRST one to pull himself out of a game, LEADING the team back to the locker room. Jason Giambi of Oakland may sneak in and steal the award, though. He had an insane month of September, and on a team where the average dude bats about .250, he stands out as their legitimate stud horse. The torid finish combined with the A's surge to the division title may be enough to land the MVP for Giambi. A final AL MVP candidate is Seattle's Alex Rodriguez, for the same reasons as Mike Piazza. Decent player on a playoff team, although much of the credit for Seattle's run should be given to Edgar Martinez. I'd still give the nod to Delgado, simply because he's a consistent postion player. It'd be nice to get some "new blood" into the MVP awards, too.

Cy Youngs? Seems to be strictly a numbers game for this one. Using that creedo, look for David Wells and Tom Glavine to win. Randy Johnson was on his way to repeating, but mysteriously snapped in July. He ended the season by giving up something like 7 runs in a little over 2 innings. Re-igniting speculation that he's fallen into the "brooding lame-duck" attitude that he displayed his final two seasons in Seattle. If Pedro Martinez repeats in the AL, something is messed up!

Seeing Eye Singles
The dreaded "SI Jinx" lives..just ask the Red Sox

... || ... Now, while I'm MALE and had no interest in watching the females oriented Olympic coverage, I gotta admit that USA beating Cuba was HUGE. The USA team was made up of journeymen and marginal prospects (raise your hand if you were anticipating the ML debut of 2B Brent Butler...) and the Cubans have always been stocked. Further proof that communism SUCKS. Tom Morello and Zach De La Rocha: stick that in your burrito and eat it!

... || ... And just think, only four months until all you fat office slobs can attend your Spring Fantasy Camp! Maybe you can get Ed Yost to sign your duffle bag this year!!

... || ... Pittsburgh's erecting a statue of Willie Stargell outside their new park, next year. Pittsburgh's a traditionalist town, so they'd BETTER keep the current one of Roberto Clemente! A better tribute for Stargell would have been to re-instate "Chicken on the Hill, with Will"

... || ... Watching Game 2 of the A's/Yankees, I was thankful that we only get exposed to Tim McCarver once a year. A camera showed Denny Neagle clowning around in the dugout, throwing some mock pro wreslting manuevers. Play by play man Joe Buck, "heh, Neagle's a big wrestling fan and is probably helping his teammates keep up on the latest". To which McCarver responded, "Yeah, and Matt Stairs of Oakland is a hockey fan". Brilliant..they just don't teach transitions that smooth in broadcasting school.

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