The Final Four

You know those NCAA brackets that everyone fills out come March? Sure you do. You put down the teams you think will win each round, and whoever gets the most winners right, wins. I knew somebody who thought they had a trick up their sleeve. They would have one of the favorites lose early. But, they would have them as a winner in a later round. I guess the rules never say that your winner has to be one of the teams you think will be playing. So, if Duke were the favorite, he’d have them be upset in the second round. But, he’d have them also playing in the national championship game. I guess he figured he might get an extra point or two by picking an upset, but wouldn’t lose many points if they ended up winning it all. I still don’t understand it.

What’s my point? Do I need a point? I guess it’s this. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could do that in real life? Sure, the Red Sox didn’t make the elite eight. But what if we could insert them into the championship game anyway? That would be a lot of fun. Especially since sometimes, the match-ups work better against a team that may have advanced farther than you did. Just one of the annoyances of the playoffs. Would the Twins match up better against the Rangers than they did against the Yankees? Would the Red Sox match up better than either of them?

So, now that we have the match-ups for the championship series, I feel like I can brag a little bit. Did you notice that I predicted both of the NL Divisional Series down to the number of games? Pretty impressive! Of course, I’m going to ignore the fact that I had the wrong winner in both of the AL series. But, apparently, I know my stuff when it comes to the senior circuit. Which should make Jim happy, since I am again going to pick his Phillies to win.

I don’t see how the Giants keep up with the Phillies on either side of the ball. The Giants certainly have a nice one-two punch. But, I think the Phillies are better. They also have the offense that can take care of any opposing team’s staff. I’m going with Phillies in six.

For the American League, I just don’t like the Rangers chances. But, this will be a good test of something I’ve always wondered about. When the other team has an ace, is it better not to pitch your ace against him. It doesn’t look like CC and Cliff Lee will be matching up this series…unless there’s some messing around to be done. So, instead of having them cancel each other out, they can each get a win. Imagine if the Rays had skipped David Price, and had him go in game 2? They still would have lost game 1. But, would they have won game two with Price on the mound? We’ll have to see how it plays out. I haven’t seen a rotation yet. But, if Lee goes in games four and seven, would those not be against CC? So, if the Rangers win those two games, they take the series? I’ll go with that, then. The home field tips the scales to the Rangers, and they win in seven games. Yeah, I know. I just can’t pick those other guys though.

Besides, they’ll both lose to the Phillies in the World Series anyway.