So much baseball - so little time... and some playoff potpourri

First of all, let me admit that I find it hard to believe that I am using the word "potpourri" in a sentence, never mind in a post title. Of course, I find it hard to believe that the highest-payrolled, hottest-playing, highest-payrolled team in baseball is eliminated in the division series after having lost 3 out of 4 games exactly twice in the almost 3 month period after the All-Star break... hmmmm.

In nearly every one of my growing-up years, I could count on setting my watch by the annual event that was the "first day of hunting season." Not for myself, mind you, but for my Uncle George. "So much hunting, but so little time" was what he'd sometimes say, although you could depend on at least Day 1 being a day that he took for vacation time to get his first crack of the year at the elusive Vermont deer population. The only leisure activity that comes close to his passion for hunting is his passion for the Bronx Bombers - and he is still the only person I can find that is anywhere close to being as pathologically attached to his team as I am to mine.

But I digress...

Unfortunately I do not presently have a TV that is hooked up to any sort of cable, dish, or directTV receiver so watching our nation's favorite pasttime is not possible - yet still I say, "So much baseball, so little time." I love baseball, especially October baseball. As a Red Sox fan, October has been much friendlier of late and harkens back to the mid-80's when I had a Red Sox T-shirt that read - "The Hunt for Red October."

I know and have met MANY people who only watch the World Series as if it were ONLY the Super Bowl or some other one-game championship. Sheesh... tape the whole season on TiVo and I'm there! Sure I've got the whole 2004 World Series on DVD, but I've also got the special edition that includes that incredible ALCS too.

Playoff baseball is an odd duck though - rarely does it shake out like you expect and rarely is it as competitive as the regular season. We all expect the level of play to be raised but unfortunately that usually only happens for one or two of the 8 teams involved at the outset. A few sweeps later and you've got the two HOTTEST teams in baseball that aren't necessarily the two overall BEST teams - but that's the beauty of baseball: if the World Series contained who everyone THOUGHT was going to be there then we'd have the Mets and, er, the Red Sox... doesn't THAT ring an ironic bell?

So, you've got 162 games to develop team chemistry, groom the best starting rotation, and warm the offensive juices up - whoever boils at OctoberFest wins!!

Rah Rah Midges!! Go Sox!!