Rocky Mountain Dry?

I'm excited for the NLCS this year. No its not because the teams have a few of my favorite fantasy players from this year, including the lovable Eric "SoCal" Byrnes, and Brad "Hopper" Hawpe. So what is it that makes me excited about watching two teams that collectively were 400K people from drawing fewer fans than the Yankees this year? Its because finally the Colorado Rockies will have a chance to suck, and it wont be in front of their miserable home crowd at SABMiller Coors field with a losing record. It will be against a fellow recent expansionite, with slightly less faith.

The Colorado Rockies and their owners Coors in publicly admitting to target players with "character" (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060619/zirin ) have crossed the line in reactionary behavior. Rockies CEO and chairman Charlie Monfort's comment's should not be taken lightly, "I don't want to offend anyone, but I think character-wise we're stronger than anyone in baseball. Christians, and what they've endured, are some of the strongest people in baseball. I believe God sends signs, and we're seeing those." Given baseball's origins as a faith based Protestant social endeavor, its no surprise that the Rockies have grasped this approach. That being said, by crossing the line from private worship and closet stereotyping to using a Major League Baseball club as an evangelical soapbox, the Rockies have breached one of the foundations of competitiveness found within baseball and should be punished for it.

With the recent tear that the Rockies have gone on it would be hard to pick against them, its almost as if G-d has been on their side. With 17 wins in their last 18 they are on possible the hottest streak of all time heading into a CS. Only one of 10 ESPN "Experts" quoted on the series website (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2007/series?series=colari ) have chosen the DBacks to win, and only two of those who picked the Rockies think the series will go to a critical game seven. Have they completely ignored Brandon Webb's dominance, or are they just clinically insane. Perhaps these ESPN analysts have the faith too, or maybe as is typical of our species, they have put too much faith into momentum. Webb will win at least 2 games if not more and Livan Hernandez has been strong against the Rockies intimidating lineup. Let us all who do not have as much character as the Rockies put our collective prayers together to hope that this experiment in baseball reactionism is put to a screaming halt.

Sure, she's hot, but...WHAT?!

Alyssa Milano was the post-game interview after game 4 of Yankees/Indians game? Really? Who are the people that decide these things and what was their process? Do they have Dog the Bounty Hunter sharing his thoughts after the heart-wrenching season finale of Grey's Anatomy? There's probably a reason for that.

Do they think, "Hey, let's get a non-relevant b-lister who - granted - was smoking in "Melrose Place" to make irrelevant comments about an epic baseball series that no one from either fan base wants to hear"? Does TBS think their announcers are so bad that no one would notice the drop off in actual baseball analysis? OK, fair enough.

St. Jeter

I think it is time for the bandwagon fans from New York to begin removing Mr. Jeter's wang from their collective mouths. The same people that will lambaste the guy who got them to the playoffs, will idolize (and seriously, idolize) a guy who goes 3/17 in the same postseason that he's playing in ONLY because Mr. MVP allowed him the opportunity to sniff it.

But alas, the bandwagons will most likely determine that the 3 double plays he hit into in 4 games were "clutch," and that the errant throw he made in the first inning of game 3 to start the game was "on-line," and Giambi screwed up by coming off the bag unnecessarily, and he "earned all of his gold gloves." Give it up guys. If I wanted a shortstop that is a below-average fielder that has a BA of .318 and a SLG of .338, I'd shove Juan Pierre in there.