Series of Firsts and Waits

Game 1 of the World Series starts tonight. The Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants will face off for the title. Yes that's right, no Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Phillies, Cardinals, or Braves, it's the Rangers vs. the Giants. Immediately you think this, well the majority will: 'Wow, what a terrible World Series.' In reality, it's not. This match up brings originality to the Series. The Rangers have never been to, much less, won a World series in their 49 years of existence. The Giants have not won a World Series since they were the New York (baseball) Giants, and the New York version won their last title in 1954. So technically the San Fran Giants have never won the Series, meaning that both teams will be vying for their first title. The match up is relatively even as well. 

The Texas Rangers were very impressive baseball team this year, and then they went out and got arguably the best active pitcher in the game, Cliff Lee. The rest of the starters, who were doing fine before Lee came along, upped their game a lot too. The offense rivals that of the New York Yankees, just without household names. Their closer, Neftali Feliz, had 40 saves in his rookie year, and the bullpen in front of him has been great as well. In the playoffs the bullpen became their weak spot though. After a rough start, the bullpen seemingly has gone back to the way it was during the regular season. The Rangers have an all around tough team for anyone to beat, including the San Fran Giants.

Speaking of the San Fran Giants, they also have an impressive starting pitching rotation lead by one of the best young pitchers in the game, Tim Lincecum. Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez behind him aren't too shabby either. Their bullpen is utterly amazing led by closer Brian Wilson and his ferocious beard. The weak spot on this Giants team is definitely their offense. Cody Ross exploded onto the scene against the Phillies, but there is no guarantee his offense will remain consistent. The only consistent offense play they have this postseason is their rookie catcher, Buster Posey. This team as a whole has a lot of heart and determination and will win games they aren't supposed to, like 4 out of 5 against the Phillies in the NLCS. Their offense does not need to be great anyways when their starting pitching is dominating, which has happened throughout the playoffs this October. Taking down the G-Men of baseball is not exactly an easy task, just ask the Braves and Phillies.

To sum it up, the Rangers are the winners on paper because you can't see the heart of the Giants in any stat sheet. But if you look closer the two teams are a lot more even that you think. This World Series will be exciting for every fan that decides to watch. I explore everyone to not knock this series just because the teams aren't ordinary title teams. In 2008, the Rays and Phillies were not ordinary title teams either. What happened? The Phillies won and became a title and proceeded to get to the World Series the following season. They lost to the Yankees, but they became instead favorite to reach the World Series again, especially after trading for Roy Halladay. I could see that happening if the Rangers win this World Series. Unfortunately nothing will happen as a result of the Giants reaching or even winning the World Series. The Rays missed the playoffs the season after they reached the World Series. 2002 was the last time the Giants reached the World Series and they won their division the next season, but their division has become much tougher the past 7 years and the barely won their division. But in the end you should watch this Series because it's a series of firsts and waits.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Rangers_(baseball)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Giants

Conflict of Interest

The NBA season officially started a few hours ago. A little over a week ago the NHL season started. The NFL season is through 7 weeks and is in full swing. The MLB season has been over for awhile, but the World Series is set to start tomorrow. Where I am going with all this? This is the only time of the year where all 4 major professional sport leagues in North America are playing at the same time. While some are considering MLS to be a major professional sports league, I do not think it has gotten to that point yet. Although Commissioner Don Garber has done a fantastic job of making the league relevant enough for some to consider it a major North American sport. By now you are thinking this: why is any of this important? Well to put it simply, if you had an organization that makes millions of dollars would you like three other million dollar organizations running at the same time as you? I'm pretty sure none of the league commissioners or individual team owners like this time of the year, but some leagues have it better than others.

The NFL and MLB are the two primary sports out of the top 4. The MLB has been around for over 100 years has simply been planted into the minds of Americans. It used to be known as America's favorite pastime, and it has the longest season, excluding playoffs, of the 4 leagues. The length of the of the league's existence and its season has created very deep fan bases and rivalries. The deep fan bases and rivalries are why the MLB is still immensely popular today. The NFL's rise to fame was very much the opposite. The NFL has been around for 50 some odd years and became popular because of the physical prowess involved in the sport. People have always enjoyed violence, see Ancient Rome, and football brings a violence that is just enough to not be sick and disturbing. As a result of this violence, deep fan bases are also part of the NFL due to the intensity any given Sunday. NFL has proven that you do not need a terrible long season to be successful as well. Shorter season obviously means less games and thus each game means more. Neither the MLB nor NFL worry too much about the conflicting schedules of the 4 sports because they know they are the upper echelon so to speak.

The NBA and NHL are then two secondary sports. It is almost unfair to call them secondary because they are both successful and make millions of dollars, but it is the truth. There once a time when basketball and hockey were immensely popular, when players like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky played, but both have fell are relatively hard times. The NHL recently had a lockout (2005) and so they are on the rebound. The NHL has never really been to dominating a league with their salary cap somewhere around 60 million per team for this season. The NHL has trouble because most of the talent in the NHL comes from outside the United States (see my article No USe for more on that), making it harder to get behind players. It is also hard to follow on TV because you can barely see the puck zip around the ice. The NBA had a lockout as well, but it was over a decade ago and I would say they recovered from. The NBA has a lot of stars, both from the US and around the world, and so they are fine in that regard. The NBA's problem is that the elite teams have remained the same in recent years. It has lost one of the most important factors to why people watch sports: unpredictability. I learned this from many of my college professors, and it is common sense if you think about it. Who wants to watch an event when you can predict what will happen and you will have a good chance of being right? For the last decade, it would a safe and easy to say that the Lakers would be in the Finals with a good chance of winning them and it is the same this season, it is much different in the other three sports. The New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl for the first time in February. Although the New York Yankees won the World Series last year, this year a team that has never won (Texas Rangers) and a team that hasn't won in nearly 50 years (San Fran Giants) will battle out for the title. The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup for the first time in nearly 50 years in hockey. What happened in basketball? The Lakers won for the about the 4th time in the last decade. Parity lacks in basketball, and it's one of the key reasons in lags behind the NFL and MLB. With that being said, the NBA does a lot internationally and is the most advanced of the 4 leagues in that sense. I'm sure the NBA and NHL do not like starting their seasons in the midst of the MLB Playoffs and the start of the NFL season, but they have no choice really.

To conclude, what the leagues don't like the fans do like. All 4 leagues playing at the same time means sports on virtually all the time, which is a sports fans dream. Not to mention MLS season is going on for its fans and college football is almost to it's halfway for its many fans. The only hard part for fans is which one to watch. With the technology these days, it is quite easy to watch multiple, but I still this time year can turn into quite the conflict of interest.

The Star of South Beach

Before this summer, the answer to the question, 'Who's the star of the Miami Heat?' was always the same, Dwayne Wade. He's been in Miami for 6 years. His only season averaging under 24 points per game was his rookie season. In 2006, Shaq teamed up with him and he won a championship. He also won a scoring title 2 years ago by averaging 30.1 ppg. Fast forward to this past summer when LeBron James and Chris Bosh join the team and now all of a sudden there is a dilemma. The dilemma is: is the Heat Wade's team or LeBron's team? Bosh apparently can't be the star of the team. Why? I don't know. I didn't create this dilemma.

LeBron James spent the last 6 years carrying the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise on his back. He has won consecutive MVP's and reached the Finals once while there. But he didn't win. This summer he became a free agent. He weighed all his options; well, he supposedly did, and then decided to announce his decision on national television. This special that he and his people organized would be on ESPN with its proceeds going to charity. It would be called 'The Decision.' Within the first few minutes of this special he said these words: 'I am taking my talents to South Beach.' After that sentence chaos ensued. Mass t-shirt burnings were happening in Cleveland while riots of celebration went on in Miami. 15 million people watched that hour special as the Miami Heat became either beloved or hated. His reasoning for leaving Cleveland for Miami? He wanted to win championships because that's what his career would be defined by. While chaos ran amok in the streets, it also ran wild in the media. Every NBA analyst had to answer that question in the previous paragraph.

Now to me that question is obvious. It's Wade's team. He's been around longer, and he's already proved himself. He's also accomplished what James is hoping to do, win a championship. How can it possibly be James' team? He has done nothing for Miami besides agree to play there for the next 6 years. Some will say it's LeBron's team because he is the bigger star and better player. I would say the first part of that statement is true, but the second is rather debatable. If you judge players the way LeBron does, Wade is the better player because he has reached the Promised Land and won. Statistically James is better player, but then again James didn't have much help in Cleveland. He only got Mo Williams during the final few years of his time in Cleveland, and he didn't even play a full year with Antawn Jamison. I realize that Wade never exactly had any key help either besides Shaq, but his numbers are still slightly worse than James. So maybe James is a slightly better player.

Who's better or not shouldn't matter though. Wade has the time, the championship, and the trust of Miami. Getting back Dwayne Wade was the key focus this offseason for the Miami Heat, not acquiring LeBron James or Chris Bosh. They renamed the county Miami-Wade County, not Miami-James County. Dwayne Wade is the main factor of the Miami Heat. Wade is Batman and LeBron is Robin and Bosh can be like Catwoman or something. The point is that the Miami Heat are Wade's team. LeBron is just a really good player that followed him there. The star of South Beach is known as D-Wade, not King James, and you can count (your stars, get it?) on that.

References

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/stats?playerId=1987
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/stats?playerId=1966

Finding the Divide

Mere hours before the Yankees and Rangers open the Championship Series round of the MLB Playoffs, I've decided to give you the why. Why the Yankees, Rangers, Phillies, and Giants? Well I'll tell you, and no it's not going to be, 'well because they won the most games.' This is article is the second of three MLB Playoff articles. First one was called "Observing October," and was an overview of the eight teams in playoffs this year. The third will be a follow up to this article and will talk about the two teams in the World Series. But going back to the present article, I'll analyze, this probably is too strong a word, the AL teams first because they will appear first in the Championship Series.

As everyone should know. The Yankees played the Twins and the Rangers played the Rays in the ALDS. My predictions went Yankees over Twins and Rays over Rangers. I was half right. In a repeat of last year, the Yankees swept the Twins. The Twins quite honestly just looked like they had no heart in that series. In Game 1, they were hitting and scoring off CC early, but couldn't hold the lead. I think the Twins gave up after that game. I think they just started to think, 'Wow if we can put up 4 runs against their ace and still not win, then maybe it's just not our time.' Games 2 and 3 the Twins just looked stale. Now of course the pitching match ups were in favor of the Yankees those two games, but the Twins did win their division with their starting rotation. What it came down too was that the Yankees were just too much. They had the starters, the bullpen, the starting 9, and the bench. The Yankees were a complete team for the first time in a month or so during that series. With everything coming together and the Twins trying to fight off the notion of being 2-7 against the Yankees in the playoffs, there was no way the Yankees could lose. The Rays might not have beat the Rangers like I said they would, but the two teams did fulfill something else I said. I said the Rays/Rangers would be the most exciting series of the ALDS or NLDS, and it was the only series that went all five games. It was also the first series in which the away team won all games. The Rangers won this series because their main starters got the job done. If either Cliff Lee or CJ Wilson had a bad game, then I'd be talking about how the Rangers pitching blew it. These two really set the tone for the rest of the series. Of course the Rangers offense did not have too many problems either. When it's all said and done, the deciding factor in this series was Cliff Lee. Without Lee, the Rangers would have never advanced on, great pick up for the Rangers.

If you like dominant pitching combined with costly errors, then I'm sure you loved this years NLDS. It was the Reds facing the Phils and the Giants facing the Braves. The Phillies swept the Reds. Why? Pitching and costly Red errors. Halladay throws a no-no in his first ever playoff game against a Reds offense that isn't exactly a pushover. Hamels follows suit with a shutout of his own in Game 3. Only Oswalt of the H20 combination had trouble, but the Reds defense also had trouble that game. Phillies won Game 2 based on those costly errors. So when I say the Reds lost due to pitching and errors, I literally mean that's why they lost. Phillies also made some errors throughout the series, but they had the where-with-all to always recover from them. The Reds also just did not have any playoff experience other than Scott Rolen, and he had a terrible series anyways. The Phillies team is basically the same team that won the 08 World Series and lost last year's World Series, and so the playoffs have become sort of a second nature to them.
Speaking of the playoffs being second nature, the Braves of the 90s and early 00s were literally always in the playoffs. Then they went on a five year drought. Then this year Bobby Cox announced he was retiring, and so they decide to get into the playoffs. What did they do in the playoffs? Well they ran into the Giants extremely dominant starting pitching. The ones who posted a 0.38 combined ERA after Games 1-3. I said the Giants pitching was amazing, and I said the Braves starting nine were not too powerful, but I did not expect the result would be a 0.38 ERA. This year's Braves were mediocre at best, and I think they would have matched up better against the Reds. The Giants pitching staff has handled mediocre offenses all year, so in a way their dominance should have been expected. Their makeshift offense was able to get past the veteran pitching of Derek Lowe and Tim Hudson as well. Braves second baseman Brooks Conrad made some vital errors that also didn't exactly help the Braves. I think this series would have been better if the Giants pitching wasn't so good, but the pitching really just gave away this series.

Looking forward to the future, the Yankees, Rangers, Phillies, and Giants are all competing for a spot in the World Series. The Yankees/Rangers series will be a good series. Both teams are rather complete in that they have powerhouses offenses and great pitching. Yankees have the early advantage because they don't have to face Cliff Lee until Game 3, and when they do they will have the Andy Pettite on the mound, who has the most wins in playoff history. CJ Wilson did excellent against the Rays the last time he pitched, but he has also allowed 11 runs in 3 starts he made against the Yankees this season. On the other hand, the Yankees have done terrible at Texas this year. The positives and negatives are pretty much even in this series. Which is something you cannot really say about the other series, the Phillies/Giants series. Yes, they both have excellent starting pitching and great bullpens, but the Phillies have way more offense to throw at the Giants pitching. They also have the experience factor I talked about earlier. Their starters are more mature than the Giants as well. Halladay and Oswalt are both a few years over 30 and Hamels is almost 30 while Lincecum, Cain, and Sanchez of the Giants are all either 26 or 27. Now of course the Giants proved they win under pressure by matching up against two veterans while playing the Braves. But Halladay and Oswalt are much better pitchers that Lowe and Hudson. It'll be interesting to see if this series will result in one pitching duel after another or if the offenses will beat the pitching odds.

Conclusion time is prediction time. My predictions are not educated. I will pick the Yankees over the Rangers and Phillies over the Giants. Nobody will like it, except Yankees and Phillies fans, but I honestly think it will be a Yankees/Phillies rematch. Stay tuned to see if that actually happens by watching both the AL and NLCS on TBS. Also stay tuned for my final MLB Playoff installment coming up in the next few weeks after the two series have ended.

A Moss-ed Cause

Randy Moss has left yet another team due to his off the field antics and attitude problems. That's three straight teams, and his newest team is the first team he left tumultuously. I think Randy Moss has officially become the Manny Ramirez of the NFL. In fact, Moss and Ramirez fit the same profile to from their attitude problems all the way down to their physical appearance. Moss is listed 6-4, 210 pounds. Ramirez is listed as 6-0, 200 pounds. Moss has short braids and a beard. Ramirez has shortish dreads and a goatee. Moss was drafted 1st round, pick 21. Ramirez was drafted 1st round, pick 13. Moss has been one of the most electrifying receivers NFL history since the start of his career, and is a future Hall of Famer. Ramirez blossomed into one of the greatest hitters of all time, and might be a Hall of Famer (one of things that Moss and Ramirez don't have in common is that Moss never was caught using performance enhancing drugs). Moss has made just as much of a career getting his team to get rid as he has scoring touchdowns. Ramirez has done the same thing except instead of scoring touchdowns he produced high average and lots of homers and RBIs. During his most recent fiasco, Moss got into a heated argument with a coach before he was traded. During Ramirez's most recent fiasco, he got himself tossed by arguing a third strike call making that his final act as a Los Angeles Dodger. Hell, Moss and Ramirez even have the same two letters in their initials. But enough about how they are basically the same person playing a different sport, this article is about Randy Moss. Manny Ramirez got his article already (check it out, it's called 'In Manny Ways' and it's right here on Spotlights on Sports).

Randy Moss has always been an off the field problem. Don't believe me? After 7 seasons as a Minnesota Viking that ranged from great to spectacular, the Vikings decided to dangle him on the trade block. So the Oakland Raiders picked him up, giving up linebacker Napoleon Harris and the 1st and 7th round picks of the 2005 NFL Draft. In Oakland, he had a mediocre followed by an awful year for Randy Moss standards and just seemed disinterested, and so the Raiders traded him to the Patriots for a 4th round pick. Yes that's right, Randy Moss was traded for a 4th round pick. His first year in New England he went bonkers and caught 98 passes for almost 1500 yards and a NFL-record 23 TD passes on root to the Patriots near perfect season. His second year was pretty good considering Tom Brady went down in Week 1, and so Matt Cassels became Moss' quarterback. His third year with the Pats, Brady was back under center and Moss' stats were back on track. His fourth year, aka this year, Moss was doing OK with the Pats, but had expressed numerous times during the offseason, preseason, and even regular season that he was unsatisfied that he was at the last year of his deal and the Pats never offered him an extension. He also stated that he understood the NFL was a business and that he was committed to playing for the New England Patriots, but then Week 4 came along and he did not record a catch for the Pats, first time that happened with him as a Patriot. He also reportedly got into a heated discussion with QB coach, Bill O'Brien, during halftime of the game. Three days later he was shipped back to his original team, the Vikings, along with a 7th round pick in exchange for a 3rd round pick. Yep, the single season TD record holder was dealt for a mere 3rd round pick. If the Pats dealing him for only a 3rd round doesn't scream to you what a problem he can be, then I don't know what will.

Now that we've discussed Moss' past, it is time to talk about his future. More specifically, how will he do in his second tour of duty with the Minnesota Vikings? Well, to me, when your quarterback is the best in history, Brett Favre, the sky is the limit. You saw Sidney Rice's monster season last year as a deep threat for Favre, imagine what will happen when the best in the game hooks up with the best in the game. I'll give you a hint. Look at Rice's numbers last year, and then add about 200 more yards and possible double the amount of scores. Defenses were not able to stop the Brady to Moss connection in 07 and Moss and Brady ended up with record breaking seasons. Moss is three years older, but you can bet your bottom he can still get the job done...if he's happy and motivated. And I'm going to take a guess and say returning to his old stomping grounds with the Brett Favre as his QB has made Moss a very happy man. Although Week 4 was basically a BYE week for Moss, the Vikings have already has their true BYE week meaning Moss will be playing in all 14 games remaining for the Vikings. I guarantee Moss will have add another season in which he has caught 15 or more TDs as a Minnesota Viking. Yes, I am aware has already 3 TD's as a Patriot this season and would have to total 15 or more this season to do what I just guaranteed. But with Favre's abilities and Moss' own abilities and hopefully the return of Sidney Rice in December resulting teams to choose between the two deep threats, Moss should be able to put up 15+ TD's as a Viking. If he doesn't, then that means Moss blew out a knee or Brett Favre died on the field. And do you think either of those two will happen? Nope. What's the Patriots loss could be the Vikes mega gain. Let's hope things work out or else I'm going to have to coin the phrase, 'a Moss-ed cause.'

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Moss#Oakland_Raiders
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=1433
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=2974
http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nfl/news/story?id=5658579

Observing October

It's October. All sports fans know what that means. It is time for the postseason of Major League Baseball, and while all the pros are out giving they're previews and predictions, I'm just going to point out a few things everyone should know. First off the playoffs kick off officially today, October 6th, with the Rangers and Rays and end with the Yankees and Twins with Reds and Phillies playing the filling role. For anyone who didn't get that, don't worry it wasn't that good a joke, the filling role means the middle game. The Giants and Braves will kick off their series tomorrow. Now that you know who is playing and when, it's time to focus in the teams. I'm gonna do it NL then AL. Why that way? NL finally won an All Star game, first time since the 1996, and so they deserve to go first.

Alright so we got the San Fransisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, and Philadelphia Phillies as the National League playoff reps. All four teams had great seasons, and they certainly deserve to be here. The Phillies are the scariest team in this group with the Braves being the least scariest, what's the antonym to scary anyways? Well that doesn't matter, but what does matter is why I made the accusations that I just made. I'll tell you why. The Phillies have been two back to back World Series, and they won one of them. They also tout a 3-man rotation known as H20, Halloday, Oswalt, and Hamels, and a starting 9 that you could argue could play as an All Star team. The Braves haven't been to the playoffs in awhile and just barely squeaked into the playoffs this year. They were dominant the first half of the season, but then greatly faltered in the second only to be saved by Padres who faltered even more and missed out on the playoffs. The Braves pitching is not very dominant nor is their starting 9. This leaves the Giants and Reds left to give some info on. The Reds have not been to the playoffs in a long, long, longggggg time. Ok, so it wasn't that long, only about 20 years. They are a youthful team that have a live lineup, a decent pitching staff, and a knack for winning close games. They also have a guy named Joey Votto, NL MVP candidate if you weren't aware, and another guy named Aroldis Chapman, whose average heater is 102 mph that tops out at 105. The Reds have no expectations in my eyes. If they make it far, then people will say, 'Yea, they're just doing what they've been doing for the last 6 months.' If they make a quit exit, then people will say, 'Yea, look at how young they are. Regular season is one thing, but the postseason is a totally different beast to conquer.' The Giants are a very intriguing to me. They have a lot of great pitchers, but needed the bats to have put up the runs. So throughout the course of the season the Giants picked up some the good discarded bats, like Pat Burrell, Jose Guillen, and Cody Ross. But will these pickups be enough? They were enough to get them this far, but, again, the postseason is a completely different time of the baseball year. Well that's it for the NL. What, it wasn't enough? Hey guys, I'm only an amateur here, go to the pros that are known around the country for the rest. Oh and by the way, please no death threats from die hard Braves fans, thanks.

Ready for the American League? You got the New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Bays, and Texas Rangers as your reps. The Yankees are playoff mainstays, except for that time they didn't make it and the unthinkable happened and the team that never made it before not only made it but got to the show (and then lost). The Twins I'll call semi-regulars to the playoffs. Rays have only been once. Rangers haven't been since before the turn of the century (1999). The Yankees have the Twins number in the playoffs, well actually they just have it period. Is anyone gonna be shocked if the Yankees win this series? Yankees manager Joe Girardi has chosen wisely to leave Jekyll and Hyde starters A.J. Burnett and Javy Vasquez out of the playoff rotation and including Phil Hughes, who some had speculated would be moved to the bullpen as the 8th inning setup man, on it. The Twins rotation of pitchers is also solid, just with not as much household names. The big question for the Yankees offense is will Captain Derek Jeter recover from a mediocre regular and shine in the postseason like usual while the big question for Minnesota's offense is can the Twins continue their winning ways without Justin Morneau in the postseason. The Rays and Rangers will be the most exciting playoff series this whole postseason. Why? Both young, little to no playoff experience, and they are very similar. Who wins? I honestly have no idea. The pros were probably scratching their heads when doing this prediction. The Rays have more speed while the Rangers have more power. Their starters match up excellently, and both teams have shut down closers. Even their stadiums are similar in that they are similar sizes, both being smaller, hitter parks. The Trop is of course a dome though and so weather is not a factor, but I think the treacherous heat is over in Texas now and so the weather there might just be only a few degrees higher than the Trop. I think the advantage goes to the Rays though because they hold 1 more playoff run and World Series appearance than the Rangers do this decade. But this advantage is so small you can barely see it with a microscope. Man I hope this series is good after all the hyping I just did.

As you can see I wrote a more detailed piece about the American League. I apologize to NL fans, for I was raised a Yankees fan, and so my allegiance is to the AL. I said I'd let the pros do the predictions, but the thought of me not putting my nonexistent reputation on the line is just not cool. So on the NL side, I predict the Phillies over the Reds; the Giants over the Braves; and then the Phillies over the Giants. Yes that is right, I am picking the Phils to go to their third consecutive World Series. On the AL side, I predict the Yankees over the Twins; the Rays over the Rangers, and then the Rays over the Yankees. Yes, that's right, I picked against my favorite team. Yes, that's also right, I picked a 2008 World Series rematch. My prediction on who wins this rematch are the Phillies. According to my predictions, which were not educated at all and just based on the few facts I could remember in my head, the Philadelphia Phillies will reign as world champions of baseball again. Now I know you want to know my reasoning behind these picks, but since they are not educated picks, there therefore is no reasoning behind these picks. They are all gut picks. Will going with my gut be the right way to go? I don't know, hopefully not since I want the Yankees to win it all. Tune in to TBS and Fox throughout the month of October to find out. After all, the best way to see if "Observing October" was correct is by observing October. Wait..did I just plug the MLB postseason, Fox, TBS, and my article all at the same time? Wow, I'm good. Wait again..that observing October sentence was my closing sentence; note to self, all jokes go before the closing sentence next time because now you're just going to have to end it with an awkward goodbye even know you're not talking to anyone. See ya next time folks.