On a side note - I won a custom bat today from 22Fresh in their contest - you had to pick the first HR of the NL game, and name the inning, player, and count. My guess was Either in the 1st at 1-2. I tweeted it three hours before the game.

And that's exactly what happened! And I used logic. I figured there's no way he'd get out of that inning without a home run, given the Dodgers' recent pounding. I also knew he'd only let one ball go by and then swing at everything else, and that's also what happened.

At any rate - the cool new maple wood bat will go to a friend's ten-year-old baseball-playing Dodger fan. (I think they do this for every playoff game. 22Fresh has a Facebook page with details, if you want to try your hand at prediction.)

I have to say, too, there was a feeling like the Phillies had been preordained. They were just magical in this series, beyond belief. So they definitely deserved the victory. Yanks better not get too cocky. This will be a tough team to beat. Assuming, as I do at this point, that it will be the Yanks.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

I personally have never faced this. Both my L.A. teams are collapsing with shame, and I have never ever been able to tolerate the tyranny of the East.

Apparently we Californians don't like baseball, you see. Numerous people keep insisting this, so it must be true--and yet I still have trouble believing that.

But San Diego, of course, has had no hope since 1998 (the 2004-2007 run was nice, but those weren't playoff teams). Oakland stunk too. The Giants, well...there's always next year.

Anyway, I ultimately live in a National League family, so...Go Phils! A repeat would be sweet if it means the Yankees go down.

mbr + dv + woyg

Anyway, I think there's a nice bookend symmetry to a Yankees vs. Phillies World series. The very best franchise in history vs. the very worst franchise in history. Obviously, I'll be routing for the Phillies in the proper Philadelphia fashion - by waiting for the implosion and assuming the worst.