Summer Lull

Contrary to popular belief, boredom is not the only reason to discuss and analyze major league baseball. I believe cowardess and cocaine usage (separate of course) also apply. That being said, it's two in the afternoon and I feel interested, courageous, and without any kind of drip running down my throat.

I told James nearly 2 months ago that the Yankees would win the World Series, and frankly it's agonizing being right so often. Still, with the Orioles a mere 9 (that's right 9!) games behind second place Boston in the AL East, my preseason futures bet and love for everything birdy and orange is still alive. Kevin Millar may very well surpass 20 home runs for the season, which isn't too bad for someone I declared the worst person in baseball not 3 years ago. Of course at that time, he was playing for Team Satanic Petaphiles.

*For anyone who doesn't know too much about baseball or is halfway intelligent and thus doesn't care, there are 2 leagues-American and National, each with 3 divisions. Every year a total of 8 teams go to the playoffs, which encompasses the 6 division winners and 2 wild cards (the teams with the next best records). Easy enough, right? The problem is that a team with a better record could miss out on the playoffs if they are stuck in a great division, whereas a division winner with a worse record could go on to the postseason. I think it's great, and it should cause all those pundits who complain about rules and whatnot in baseball to go into some real introspective analysis of themselves, and realize maybe there's like, I dunno, more important stuff going on around them.

I will now give you my 2 lists.

1. Major League Baseball is both great and terrible because at the start of each year, even though 162 games are played (the most of any professional sport by far), nearly 75% of the teams can be rules out as having absolutely no chance to even sniff the playoffs. So here are the only teams I believe have an actual shot to play in the World Series, aka the final round of the playoffs or where the "top 2" teams play it out for the title.

Los Angeles Angels
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Minnesota Twins
New York Mets
Florida Marlins
Chicago Cubs
Milwaukee Brewers
Arizona Diamondbacks

Like I said, you can rule out most teams, and even listing 10 teams is a bit of a stretch. I am not stating only 8 of these 10 teams will make the playoffs, but that no other teams have any shot of making the series. Most of these choices should be self explanatory, and if not you can glance here. As for the "odder choices", the Marlins are one of only 4 teams I've seen win 2 titles in my lifetime and they play with grit and pizazz, which is like an impossible combo to achieve. The Twins have close to the wors ballpark, owner, attendance stats, and payrolls in the entire sport, and yet seem to be in contention nearly every season the last few years. Arizona also owns a championship and a few division titles in the last decade, as does St Louis. Milwaukee is just pure talent, a completely loaded team. So there you go. The Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and Los Angeles Dodgers get no respect from me, and they don't deserve it.