Down to the last one

Over the weekend the Phillies swept the Reds; as expected, the Yankees put the Twins away; the Giants won the pennant, the Giants won the pennant (repeat 13 times).

So now it's the Phillies and Giants in the NLCS. Giant fans have waited a long time. That famous "the Giants win the pennant" call was back in 1951 and they did not wind up winning the World Series. The Yankess did. It was the third of the Yankees record five in a row. The streak was finally broken in 1954 when the Giants did win. Since then they've been waiting on both coasts for another championship.

The Phillies hardly have a tradition of winning, but this could be their third straight World Series appearance. In the last 50 years only two teams (other than the Yankees) have appeared three straight times: The Orioles (69-71) and the A's (72-74 - all wins) and (88-90).

Then there's the ALCS. The deciding game is tonight between the Rays and Rangers. I'll go with either one - whoever has the best chance to beat New York. This year Texas went 4 and 4 with them, but did win 4 of the last 6 meetings. Tampa Bay won 10 of 18. Of the last 13 The Rays took 7. It's a toss-up.

Teams in the same division see each other so much that there aren't many mysteries. I think that means I'm going with Texas.