The Gods of Omaha Went Calling on LSU

BATON ROUGE, LA -- They were three outs from ending what seemed to be a storybook finish to a season at their own burial ground and time honored stadium.

The LSU Tigers, who finished the season and SEC Tournament with 23 consecutive wins, trailed UC-Irvine 7-4 in the ninth inning. If the Tigers lost, their season was over and the Anteaters were headed to Omaha for the second straight season, a place in college baseball who usually holds an open invitation to the Tigers each year.

Also on the table was the last game at Alex Box Stadium, one of the largest ballparks in the nation, and one of the most intimidating for opposing teams and fans. For the teams who had to walk out of the visitors locker room tunnel, and the first thing they see is the right field wall with all the Tigers national championships, this rite of passage was reserved for LSU tonight. In the Super Regionals, teams swap dugouts between the first and second game, so the Tigers had a constant reminder in front of them what they had accomplished in the past.

Like something out of a mythical movie, the Tigers went right to work. They had trailed 7-2, but a solo home run Jared Mitchell cut the deficit to 7-3. Another run scored and they were still in a tough position.

Walks, timely hits and a little help from the gods of Omaha and the Tigers pulled within one on a double to left field.

It was hero time, and who better to call on than Blake Dean. The sweet-swing of the left-handed hitting sophomore drilled a ball through the right side to give the Tigers the lead 8-7. Some young men were born heroes, as long as Dean is in Baton Rouge, he'll be one of them. Just two weeks earlier, Dean hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning of the opening SEC Tournament game against South Carolina to culminate a five-run comeback.


The Tigers held on to win and force a third game. This time there would be no mistake. The Anteaters had their chance, but an experienced team in their home environment with Omaha on the table, was too much for them.

LSU pounced on UC-Irvine for six runs in the first inning. Before you knew it, the score was 16-2 late in the game. The final tally looked more like a football score as LSU won 21-7 and punched their ticket in the best way possible to close down Alex Box Stadium. Dean was 5-for-5 with a home run, three runs and three RBI to lead the 24-hit attack by the Tigers.



The only casualty in the game came when Leon Landry was in pursuit of a fly ball to centerfield. He jumped up to catch the ball off the wall, and boy did he ever catch it! It ricocheted off the hard outfield wall at Alex Box Stadium and caught him right in the face as he turned to look. He left with a shiner that made you wonder if he just got through a 12-round heavyweight fight. I'm sure he'll be ready for Omaha next week.

It's been awhile since LSU was in Omaha. They even missed the NCAA Tournament all together last year.

The fact is, the Tigers deserved to be there. They won 23 games in a row to finish the season. They have an upstart explosive offense and some solid pitching. Let's not forget, the Tigers were so common in Omaha that in 2001 a restaurant already had their logo painted on the window, but had to make some last minute adjustments when Tulane shot out of the New Orleans Super Regional. LSU is expected, just like Miami, Stanford and Florida State.

This field could make up one of the best ever in Omaha. I'd watch just to see those four teams. Granted, Frenso State, Rice, Georgia and the NCAA runner-up of the last two years North Carolina, will be there too, but there's something in the air in what could be the last season at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. The site of the holy land of college baseball.

I wouldn't want it any other way!

June 14th, we're BACK HOME IN OMAHA!

Bartman: Act II

TALLAHASSEE, FL -- Since there's a "cult following" of college baseball even though it's on for 12 hours straight during the Super Regionals, and 10 straight days of the College World Series, I found it odd that I was the only person of all my friends in sports who saw the "Bartman: Act II" play at Dick Howser Stadium when Wichita State played Florida State Sunday afternoon.

After Florida State's unbelievable offense (which happens to go away only on Friday) scored six runs in the first inning, the Shockers were in deep trouble. Which is to say, the Shockers rely mostly on their pitching and Anthony Capra looked like he needed an L-screen in front of him while pitching the first.

In the second inning with a runner aboard and two outs, Adam Dirks hit a high pop fly headed toward the left field picnic area. The ball was about to be caught by Florida State's Stuart Tapley, when a Cliff Claven-like fan in a Florida State football jersey, did his best Jim Edmonds by reaching over the wall and making the catch.



The ball most likely would have been caught for the final out of the inning. Instead, on the next pitch, Dirks pulverized a two-run home run to right-centerfield cutting the deficit to 6-2. When Wichita State scored two more runs in the third to make it 6-4, you couldn't help but think that play might have made a difference.

Fortunately for Bartman Jr., who was ejected soon after for fan interference, let alone a public execution by Seminole fans; Buster Posey (the first NCAA triple crown leader heading into Omaha since Indiana's Mike Smith in 1992) aka Sir Crush-a-Lot launched a home run and the Seminoles went on to win 11-4.

It's strange, because despite the 92 degrees and hot, humid tropical weather, Dick Howser Stadium was packed to capacity and the Animals of Section B were in full effect, and the guy ended up surviving.

I just have to wonder what would have happened if the Seminoles would have lost?

How My Road to Omaha Fared: Miami still in, UCLA bows out late.

ROAD TO OMAHA -- A lot of people pick the NCAA Basketball tournament every year. It's a mainstay and it's probably the most participated activity done in March next to drinking on St. Patrick's Day. Well, I like filling out the brackets, but I'll pretty much do it in every sport, including the double elimination round of the Road to Omaha.

This year, I picked the 64-team field and had 11 of my 16 picks advancing. Now anyone can pick the favorites and with the eight national seeds it's rather easy, however, who's got the balls to pick a 2, 3 or 4 seed?

Of the 16 No. 1 seeds, 13 advanced to the Super Regionals. Three lower seeds prevailed with one of them being No. 4 seed Fresno State out of the Long Beach Regional.

I correctly picked No. 2 seeds Wichita State and UC-Irvine to advance. You can credit Doc for helping me pick the Shockers out of the Stillwater Regional (Oklahoma State), because I got to see Wichita State play the Missouri Valley Conference championship on Fox Sports Midwest while I was in Crystal Lake for his wedding. I had a pretty good feeling about the Shockers taking out Oklahoma State and I was right.


Call it a hunch, but Nebraska hasn't been as dominating as they were in the past. They had ace Johnny Dorn, and the well ran dry after that. All the rest of their sluggers had graduated or drafted recently and were currently residing in Palm Beach with the Cardinals. The Anteaters were still pretty loaded from their trip to Omaha last year and with Scott Gorgen on the mound, I liked their chances. They didn't disappoint.

Where I went wrong...

I originally had Coastal Carolina winning their regional, but at the last second I picked Alabama. Bold move, went with history and got blasted for it. However, you gotta give credit to the Chanticleers, they played up to their top seed and made the NCAA committee look good.

I had Texas winning the Houston Regional over Rice. Why? Mostly because I feel the world of college baseball hates me and karma magically picks the teams I dislike to advance... like Texas. Nothing worse than seeing the "Hook'em Horns" for three more weeks. Well, thanks to Wayne Graham and his Rice Owls, that's not going to happen. A loss I'll take any day.

I picked Long Beach State to come out of their own regional. Even though I knew that was the most loaded regional in the country with San Diego, California and Fresno State, I thought the Dirtbags would pull it off. They didn't even make it to the championship. Fresno State whacked them early and San Diego squeeked in to the championship game, only to choke again, making me wonder how they'll take being banished to the realm of the unknown again with ace Brian Matusz leaving for the draft this year. On a side note, Fresno State was the one No. 4 I would have picked. But who's going to believe that?

My next loss was a sentimental pick with Kentucky coming out of the Ann Arbor Regional. They finished second to Arizona, but I figured the upstart Kentucky boys were explosive enough to get by Michigan in teh first round (they didn't) and would just let the offense ride against the less deep pitching staff of Arizona (not used to playing in the cold weather of Michigan in late May). It really didn't matter who won this regional because they were the No. 16 seed heading into Miami where they would ultimately get destroyed by the Hurricanes. I highly doubt Andy Lopez will do better than he did the last time he was in Miami for the post-season. All of a 5-foot-8 sophomore walk-on southpaw named Roger Lincoln from Stetson sent Lopez and his Florida Gators packing (literally and figuratively) in the elimination round of the regional.

My last error really hurt me bad because they were my pick to make Omaha all season: UCLA. I saw the Bruins last year on my way back from Stockton, Calif. I was visiting my aunt in Glendale and stopped at Jackie Robinson Stadium to see UCLA play Pepperdine in a midweek game.

The Bruins weren't totally explosive, but they were fundamental, scrappy, used their strengths and had almost everyone returning. I liked guys like Jermaine Curtis, Alden Carrithers, Casey Haerther, Cody Decker, Brandon Crawford, Ryan Babineau, Jason Novak and two-way star Tim Murphy. They looked like they had the formula to make it to Omaha. Cal-State Fullerton ruined that. In fact, Fullerton blew through Virginia and UCLA twice.

UCLA had them too in the first game when they reeled off 17 hits and left 11 men on base, but lost 11-8.

As it is, I shall be pulling for the Miami Hurricanes from here on out and probably Coastal Carolina and if I had to pick a third team it would be Wichita State or LSU. I know LSU has just dominated the stretch run, but how awesome would it be to see Miami and LSU battle it out just like they did 12 years ago when LSU was on the same kind of streak?

That was one of the best College World Series I've ever watched. Hopefully this field of 16 remaining will do the same.

MLB PLayoffs: Yankees Go From "Everybody WANG Chung Tonight" to "Everybody Bang WANG Tonight."

PHOENIX, AZ -- At 1:39 a.m. EST, I was more than excited to turn of my television set after the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Chicago Cubs 8-4 in Game 2 of the National League Division Series.

JoJo had to sit there and watch me fall asleep and wake up more times than ever during the game because I was dead tired from my run that afternoon and watching baseball all afternoon really takes it out of you.

The Cubs took a 2-0 lead on Geovany Soto's two-run home run, but that's the last time things would be happy in Cub-ville.

The next inning, rookie lead-off hitter Chris Young pulverized a three-run home run to left field that the second he swung, I yelled out, "GONE!" It was instantly confirmed when Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly threw a temper tantrum by taking off his glove and slamming it into the ground. It was poetry in motion for a Cardinals fan.

I wish someone in the Associated Press would have taken the sequence shot of Lilly slamming the glove down because it's what everyone rooting for the Diamondbacks or against the Cubs wanted to see.

As it was, the ball sailed about 20-25 rows into the left field stands and silenced the Cubs fans in attendance. The one thing you can be certain of, you couldn't see a shot of the crowd without seeing a Cubs fan somewhere.

When Jose Valverde recorded the last out in Arizona, the series would shift to Chicago for one, maybe two games if necessary. Here's my problem with that. The Cubs play at home at 6:00 p.m. If there was ever a team who should play day games during the playoffs, it should be the Cubs. There wouldn't be a problem getting fans to come out for the game, as they sell out regular season day games all year. However, in 2003, the Cubs played six home games during the playoffs, all at night. The Marlins played five home games that year in ass-roasting hot Florida and two were during the day and one mid-to-late afternoon.



PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Watching this game was a perfect start as both teams went to the longball early. Troy Tulowitzki homered in the first to give the Rockies a 2-0 lead. Jimmy Rollins came back with a solo home run to lead off for the Phillies in the bottom of the first.

Eventually, the Phillies took a 3-2 lead, but that was quickly silenced when Kaz Matsui golfed a grand slam into the right field bleachers off Kyle Lohse.

Listening to the Phillies fans boo their team at their mistakes and an inning later be going wild makes me wonder if the Phillies don't have a traveling team psychologist just to ease the minds of being a Phillies player.

The Rockies started to turn Citizen's Bank Park into their own personal driving range, banging shots all over the yard and taking a 10-4 lead. I went out for a run in the bottom of the seventh. About 32 minutes later, I came back and saw the games was in the bottom of the eighth and the Phillies had the bases loaded down 10-5.

Rockies reliever Brian Fuentes walked Tad Iguchi to load the bases and Clint Hurdle went to closer Manny Corpas. Corpas went right to work putting away Carlos Ruiz, who really had issues with Corpas' curveball.

Eventually the Rockies won 10-5, taking the series back to Denver for two games. The worst enemy to the Rockies is an off-day. So far, the Mile High boys have won 16 of their last 17 games, which blows your mind!

The Phillies are struggling, but maybe they need to get out of town in order to focus on playing baseball again. It has been 14 years since they last made the playoffs. The Rockies were in the playoffs two years sooner than that.



CLEVELAND, OH -- This game had a familiar ring to it if you were from Ohio. A first play explosion followed by a complete and total butt kicking after. Reminds me of the 2007 National Championship game between Ohio State and Florida.

Johnny Damon led off the game for the Yankees with a towering solo home run to right field. The initial call was that it went foul, but after the umpires convened, the ruling came back from crew chief Bruce Froemming, home run. Damon, for the most part, was in shock and kept running around the bases regardless of the umpire's opinion.

The Indians came back with three runs off Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang. Wang won 19 games during the regular season, but the Tribe had no problem getting RBIs from Ryan Garko and Kenny Lofton to highlight the inning.

Andrusal Cabrera homered and the Tribe took a 4-1 lead.

The Bronx Bombers came back with a rocket of a solo home run by Robinson Cano to right field cutting the lead to 4-2.

Next inning, the Yankees started things as Shelley Duncan rapped a pinch-hit single. Damon followed Duncan's lead and two runners were aboard with Derek Jeter up. Joe Torre let Jeter swing away and the Yankees captain went down without moving the runners. Bobby Abreu bailed out Jeter perfectly slapping a double down the left field line.

C.C. Sabathia intentionally walked Alex Rodriguez to load the bases for Jorge Posada, one of the American League's top hitters from the 2007 season. Sabathia was laboring and I figured this was it for him, especially when he fell behind 3-0 in the count.

I felt Torre was going to give Posada the green light, because this could be a huge inning for the Yankees if Posada came through. As it was, Sabathia still had a lot left on his fastball and blew a 96 MPH heater by Posada when the Yankees backstop swung away.

Posada would foul off another pitch, but that's as close as he would get as Sabathia struck him out on some high heat (96 MPH) for out number two. That brought up Hideki Matsui, who popped out for out number three. That's all the Tribe needed. Sabathia got out of the mess on his own and saved the Tribe and his confidence tonight.

Cleveland struck for five runs in the bottom of the fifth. The telling stat by TBS during that inning was New York was 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position, while Cleveland was 4-for-4. That does make a huge difference.

The Indians were crushing balls all over the yard including Travis Hafner, who hit a solo home run. Before you knew it, Torre was going to the bullpen to remove Wang for rookie Ross Ohlendorf.

The night for Yankees fans went from "Everybody Wang Chung tonight!" to "Everybody Bang Wang tonight!" Ohlendorf didn't fare much better as the Indians never bit on his hellacious breaking ball and waited for him to bring his fastball up before unloading it everywhere in the park.

Quite possibly, the biggest outing came from Rafael Perez, who put down the Yankees in order in the sixth. Perez threw two perfect innings fanning four Yankees and kept New York from any chance of coming back. Jensen Lewis and Rafael Betancourt threw the eighth and ninth to mop up the victory.

The Indians bullpen looks as good or better than any in the playoffs and they never even got to AL saves leader Joe Borowski.

However, the best set up man in the playoffs probably resides in the pinstripes as Yankees' rookie Nebraskan right-hander Joba Chamberlain moved from A-ball (Tampa) to the big leagues in less than three months, posting an 0.38 ERA in 24 IP. With him setting up Mariano Rivera, the top pitcher in post-season history, the Tribe better keep scoring runs to keep them out of the ballgame.

Are Yankees fans worried? No. Do the 12 runs matter? Not really. If anything, a blown save by Rivera would have been worse. With 13 straight post-season appearances, the Yankees have seen and experienced pretty much everything you can throw at them. Nothing surprises them anymore. Even if they go home 0-2 to Yankee Stadium, that's still Yankee Stadium and those are still the New York Yankees.

Today should be interesting with the Yankees and Red Sox playing back-to-back.

So Long Uncle Walt! Cardinals and GM Jocketty Part Ways

ST. LOUIS, MO -- Although the formal announcement took place at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, the news reverberated through Major League Baseball and along the banks of the Mississippi River at about 7:30 when it was announced that the St. Louis Cardinals and longtime general manager Walt Jocketty would be parting ways.

"Parting ways" was a nice way of telling the man, affectionately known throughout Cardinal Nation as Uncle Walt, the locks would be changed on the doors the next time he wanted to come into his Busch Stadium office.

I'll never forget the way all the players, players' wives, family members and stadium staff were out giving Jocketty a hug after the Cardinals won the 2004 National League Championship Series. I never saw an organization so appreciative and close to its general manager. It was something you were proud to be a part of.

The news hit me and the rest of the staff like the perpetual bullet that has continued to rip through Cardinal Nation with bad news all of 2007.

Teams change general managers all the time these days which makes it even more special to realize Jocketty had been in St. Louis for 13 seasons. Just last season, Jocketty engineered the 83-78 Cardinals into the World Champions, the first World Series the club had won in 24 years. It was well worth it. I never saw a set of fans so happy.

Then again, this is St. Louis, the envy of all fan bases in Major League Baseball. When people want to criticize fan bases, most teams are open targets, but you have to carefully choose your words when you go after the Cardinals.

The city of St. Louis is not exciting to say the least. Spending a month there during the 2004 playoffs, I learned very quickly it was a sports town. If there wasn't a sporting event going on, you could fire a shotgun down Chestnut Street and not hit anyone at high noon on a weekday. However, when the Cardinals, Rams or Blues are in town, the place is rocking. The Cardinals, in recent history, have been the lead horse of the bunch winning 105 games in 2004 and 100 more in 2005.

Mark McGwire was the biggest acquisition by Jocketty in 1997 that continuously sold out games at Busch Stadium. In 1998 when McGwire went for the home run title, you couldn't find a seat at Busch (or anywhere else the Cardinals played that season). It snowballed from there. The Cardinals were a mainstay in the playoffs with big names coming in, and despite having a solid but not overwhelming payroll the Cardinals were as good as anyone to be picked as World Champions.

Jocketty was the cornerstone of those years. The thing about Jocketty is that you could always get a smile out of him. People felt comfortable with him steering the ship and he was great for public relations.

In a time where general managers feel an entitlement of appreciation, exclusivity and respect, Jocketty was just real. He had charisma and a look of success, but you never saw him try to avoid fans or click open his cell phone to ignore someone. Granted, in Cardinal Nation, your fans tend to be a cut above everyone else in the area of class.

Whoever gets Jocketty now will get a prize beyond their wildest dreams. Other teams, such as Pittsburgh and Houston are kicking themselves that they jumped the gun on other general managers, rather than waiting for the off-season to see where all the cards (no pun intended) fell.

Jocketty's successor and interim GM, John Mozeliak, is about as good of a replacement you're going to get in the meantime. Mo is described as a liaison between the civil war that seemed to be brewing between Jocketty and the player development office. Hopefully he will be able to bridge the two areas and keep the Cardinals as a contender. It's hard to see Mo without Walt. They always seemed to be together. Yet, I have no doubt Mo can pull off the job as general manager.

There are outside candidates proposed, but the only other person I could see coming into St. Louis and keep things going while working with player development is the Los Angeles Dodgers' Logan White. White has always impressed me from a distance and in person as a down to earth guy who is very well-versed in the game, its players and knows how to bring out the best of his scouting and player development personnel. Anyone other than Mo or Logan and I will have a hard time seeing it through.

I have never experienced the parting of a general manager while working in an organization until this year, and it hits you like a lightning bolt... and just one year after a World Series Championship.

So long Uncle Walt! Good luck where you land. I know there will be a well-deserved welcome party when you arrive.

USA Women Scorched by Brazil, Coach Ryan "Scurry's" Away From Solo

CHINA -- Everyone who heard about it couldn't believe it. Coach Greg Ryan of the US Women's World Cup team, winners of 51 straight matches, pulled 26-year old (not to mention extremely hot!) goalkeeper Hope Solo in favor of veteran Briana Scurry because Scurry had a much better track record against the Brazilian team.

While most people should start referring to Ryan as Viktor Tikhonov (if you're failing to make the connection, see 1980 USSR hockey coach), who also yanked his goalie, Vladislav Tretiak, after the first period of the Miracle on Ice game (but at least Tretiak got to play), I would rather see him not on the sidelines for the US Women.

It's simple, you don't change goalies in the middle of a win streak, and one you're dominating. Like Kevin Costner said in Bull Durham, "You don't f--- with a winning streak." Not saying that I wouldn't take my shot at Hope if she was offering during the winning streak, but there is no good reason she should have been taken out.

I'm a numbers guy and I appreciate stats as much as the next geek, but sometimes you gotta throw the damn numbers out and play logic over the numbers. Besides, Solo said something like, you have to live in the present and now. That's a very true statement. Let's put it into prespective.

Scurry's record against Brazil was a different team and a different time. The players have changed on both sides. At one point the Romans had a pretty good record against the rest of the world too, but you have to go with what's working.

Plus, it's not like Scurry is a pitcher who is taking on the Brazilians by herself. The 36-year old Scurry may have slowed down, lost skills over the past couple years. It may sound sexist, but the reason you're not seeing an abundance of 30-40 year old players on the US National team is women tend to drop off faster and their skills are obsolete by upcoming college players. For some reason, men can seem to keep from falling to the same fate in men's athletics. Plus, the US was winning with Solo.

Critics are saying the way the Brazilians played, they would have beat anyone, but I don't think that's a relevent argument. I don't believe the Brazilians didn't change their approach with a different keeper. Each player has their strenghts and weaknesses and I'm sure the Brazilians factored this in.

Another comment people are saying is that Solo shouldn't have called out her coach and Scurry following the game. In the whole sports cliches and world of unwritten rules, I can see where that's coming from, but you have an upset 26-year old girl who played her tail off and did nothing wrong to merit a demotion or getting pulled. The coach played the numbers, which are skewed as it is. This is the USA, where freedom of speech is more appreciated in sports than anywhere else. If Solo didn't say it, everyone else would have. Might as well catch it from the horse's mouth.

You can't say Solo is not a good teammate for her remarks. She was honest, truthful and she said what everyone was thinking or hoping she was thinking. How can you not be upset if you were her? This is the World Cup! This may not mean much in the USA where soccer is still riding a distant fifth to football, baseball, basketball and hockey (possibly golf with Tiger Woods popularity), but to the rest of the world, this is it. Women's sport or not, this IS a big deal!

I think Ryan should be pretty thankful he didn't get the axe immediately after the loss or worse. I remember when Andres Escobar of Colombia was shot and killed after scoring an own goal to lose a match to the USA team after the 1994 Men's World Cup.

I think this was a huge loss for the USA Women's team and one that will always be evaluated and brought up in years to come. People will remember this.

However, do you want to know the saddest part about the entire thing? How relevant and important would people be talking about this if Hope Solo wasn't as attractive as she is?

Think about that one for a bit.

MLB Playoffs Go Down to the Wire

BRONX, NY -- Okay, for those of you who have a hard time keeping up with all the teams I pull for, I'm going to make it simple for you concerning the Major League Baseball playoffs. I'm rooting for the New York Yankees... and the Colorado Rockies, if they make it.

And for all you Boston Red Sox fans, you haven't won anything yet. The 20-game winner Josh Beckett you've been boasting about all year lost to Gibbs HS (FL) phenom Boof Bonser last night, as Joe Nathan struck out Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis with the bases loaded in the ninth inning.

Has to be hard watching Mariano Rivera do that about a week ago, then watching Joe Nathan, Mr. Ice Water in His Veins stick it in your grill at Fenway Park? Varitek says he didn't see the scoreboard when the Yankees knocked off the Devil Rays. Unless he's blind, he did. He can use all the cliches he wants, the fact is, the Red Sox scoreboard people keep that score monitored better than the secret service watches the president.

Remember in 2005 when the Yankees won the division on the last day of the season? It can happen again, especially since the Yankees won the tie-breaker by beating the Red Sox more times this season. Since May 29th, the Yankees ar 71-38. Division or not, that's not a team I'm looking forward to playing in the playoffs.

Now onto something more exciting, like the National League...

Recently, I've been able to take in a couple Marlins-Cubs games. The Cubs brought the fans, the Marlins brought the artilery. At 7:13 p.m. on Thursday, the Marlins just swept the Cubs for the season (6-0) and extended their win streak to 10 consecutive wins over the Cubs, the longest current streak in MLB.

This put a wrench in overall happiness on the north side of Chicago, but kept the Cubs from being able to clinch the division (the NL Central has no shot at a wildcard) in Miami. They were definitely scoreboard watching because St. Louis was playing Milwaukee. Cubs fans would rather sell their first born (or name it Albert) than root for the Cardinals. However, the Brewers were closing fast and looked like they were on a roll heading into the playoffs.

I have an issue with rooting against the team behind you. If you're in first place, you control your own destiny. You shouldn't need any help. But that's Cubs fans. They're desperate.

There's something called "thinking" that more managers and teams should do, especially down the stretch of the season when chasing a pennant.

The Brewers were having their way with the Cardinals. The Cardinals didn't seem to mind at all. They had nothing left to do but go through the motions and get Albert Pujols his 100th RBI. Pujols has been playing through pain to finish the season. Whether the record was part of that or not, who knows, but the guy is a warrior and that's one of the reasons St. Louis loves this guy.

With a 2-0 lead on the series, the Brewers' Prince Fielder was hit by a Brad Thompson pitch. There are times to retalliate and there are times to play for the win. The Cardinals weren't showing any threat to the Brewers, on the scoreboard or anywhere else, but Ned Yost and the Brewers took Thompson's pitch personally. I know Brad, he's not the kind of guy who's going to try and whack Fielder in the melon for kicks on a Wednesday night.

Right about now, what's the stupidest thing the Brewers could do? Yep, that's right, go after Pujols. Scott McClung stuck one right in the middle of El Cinco's back causing McClung and Yost to get ejected and suspended. That wasn't the worst part. They woke a sleeping giant. The Cardinals haven't been that impressive down the stretch, but they really haven't been given a reason to play.

I said it before... let sleeping dogs lie. When McClung let that pitch fly they gave the Cardinals a reason to beat them. Think the Cardinals care who wins the NL Central? They're the defending World Champions. Until the Chicago Cubs and all of Wrigleyville can pull of 10 World Series rings in the last 81 years (let alone one), we'll deal with that when it comes.

St. Louis put the hammer down and smacked the Brewers bullpen around for four more runs. No more Mr. Niceguy, we're coming after you Ned! A critical loss for the Brewers who could have cut the lead to one game in the NL Central.

Last night, they lost to San Diego at home 9-5. The Padres are in a battle for the NL West crown, let alone wildcard if they lose. Milwaukee is going to have to go balls to the wall and pray for the best coming out of Cincinnati.

Speaking of the Cardinals, they dialed up a 3-0 shutout of the New York Mets, who have lost 10 of the last 14 games. Joel Piniero and Jason Isringhausen combined on the three-hitter. No one in Flushing has the foggiest of what's going on with the Mets, and to see the 74-84 Cardinals come in for a makeup game and put the screws to them must have been like a huge kick to the nuts.

Once again, Pujols came through big, as did Rick Ankiel. St. Louis is losing draft position, but gave the Mets a parting shot before heading to Pittsburgh for the three fastest games you will ever see in a series between the two teams considering they have nothing to play for. If you're a betting person, take the over in counts that don't run past 1-1.

The Mets are now tied with the Phillies who saw Kyle Kendrick get a longball from Ryan Howard and other help on their way to beating John Smoltz and the Braves. Here's the catch though:

Arizona leads the NL West by a game over the Padres, who lead the wildcard by a game over the Phillies, Mets and Rockies. Are you getting all of this? Yes, that means whoever blows the division between the Mets and Phillies will probably have no shot at the wildcard.

Now onto my reason why I'm pulling for the Rockies. The Rockies have won 11 straight and came out of nowhere to be one game out in the wildcard. I'd personally love to see them win the division, and that's not entirely out of the question, even now!

See, Colorado plays Arizona to finish the season. They sweep Arizona and the Padres lose twice, the Rockies win the NL West. Yes, it can actually happen that way!

The Padres lose twice and the Cubs drop the series to Cincinnati and there's a one game playoff at Wrigley Field between the Cubs and the Brewers. The Cubs would be flying in from Cincinnati, while the Brewers are at home and just need to take a bus south.

To be honest, I can't remember a year when this many teams were separated by a game and seven of the 16 teams in the National League were involved in the pennant race with three games to go. Seven teams, but only four make it. Not one division winner has been decided yet.

Think about it... There's not one team who doesn't use the designated hitter that has popped the cork to a bottle of champagne after 159 games.

I know the Cardinals aren't in the pennant race and will miss the playoffs a year after they gave the city of St. Louis one of the best open houses for new Busch Stadium, but this is a pretty damn good alternative.