Today I am going to talk about the American League Championship Series (ALCS) which is set to begin Sunday night. (Ravens in London at 9:30 am tomorrow morning, football the rest of the day and night AND a MLB playoff game to boot? A sports junkies’ day if there ever was one!)
Note that the National League series between the Diamondbacks and the Phillies begins Monday night. Should the Phillies and Astros both win and have a rematch of last year’s World Series, it will only be the 10th time it has happened. Here is an easy bar room bet for you – what team has appeared the most in those 9 World Series’ rematches? Tough bar room bet for you – how many times out of the 9 did they do so? For answers (click here.))
The ALCS should be called The Lone Star State Series as both Texas teams will compete to see who goes to the World Series. (Some smart ass, and it wasn’t me mind you, called it The Cow Patty Series.)
This marks the first time that two Texas teams will play each other in the post season. Most post season games between teams from the same state have involved California teams (click here for related story.) States with multiple teams who have never played each other in post season are as follows:
I could also make a case that Maryland/D.C. should be on this list as the Nationals/Orioles have yet to compete in the post season. Someday maybe.
The ALCS should be a great series for those of us fans who really don’t care who wins. There is that old sports saying that you should always root for the team that beat your team because it makes your team’s loss somehow look or seem better. Well, I never got that vibe. When it comes to rooting for teams other than mine, I want every team to lose.
But in the case of the Rangers vs. the Astros, I am looking forward to watching and enjoying the games with no vested interest other than what my bookie will take from me as a side bet. I would like to see the Astros’ Manager Dusty Baker have some continued success and make it too another World Series. Many people don’t care for the Astros because of the whole cheating scandal a few years back but that was pre-Dusty and I don’t care about any of that.
However, the Rangers, with all their hitting and momentum, are fun to watch (at least when they are not pounding the pulp out of your team as they did the Orioles.) Their bullpen is supposed to be suspect but it looked ok to me when they swept the Orioles. So we’ll see. Bottom line is that I can sit back, relax, watch and enjoy what should be a great series.
As for a prediction, there is that whole “good pitching beats good hitting” business. The Astros look pretty strong having 4 quality starters along with a very good bull pen. Hence, the Rangers are the underdogs.
However, the Rangers have been a very hot team of late and their Manager Bruce Bochy is right up there with Dusty for most playoff wins (click here.) I’m saying it goes 7 games and the Astros’ Justin Verlander will win it over the Rangers’ Max Scherzer. You never know, but those two facing each other could happen if the baseball gods have any sense of karma. You will hear alot about them having both started the season on the Mets before they were traded to their current teams. Hindsight being what it is, I sure wish the Orioles had made more of an effort to land one of them when they could have done so. But hey, it’s only a game right?
Leave it to De Niro to show what being a fan is all about perhaps too much so:
Music-wise they picked the perfect song to play when he kidnapped Bobby’s kid: