Baseball Championship Series

The AL side is Red Sox v. Astros, both teams involved in cheating in recent years. But, they aren't permanently tainted or something. Okay. The Red Sox was a surprise, pushed through some troubles, managed to get thru the Wild Card, and perform impressively on both sides of the ball against Tampa. So, you know, they earned some respect. Astros had a good year (and the division isn't that weak) and plowed thru the White Sox. Fine.

Dodgers struggled thru injuries and then pushed passed the falling off a cliff Padres. The suprising Giants hung on, winning one more game. Dodgers tied it up by needing to win a wild card game (plowing past the late "can't lose" Cards) and then winning the division series 3-2. A series where the Giants won 4-0 and then won once more, a 1-0 nailbiter and only one other game (blown in the 9th) where they actually played well. You know, not impressed.

Braves was subpar, had a mid-summer run, let also rans hang on, but did enough. They also had just enough offense to beat the offense weak Brewers. They are the only team I basically am supporting (Dodgers are like the Yanks of the NL, before the Yanks started to have a harder time of it) though I don't really actively dislike the AL teams. The Braves played the Giants well. I have low expectations about this match-up.