Hey Universe, Must You Always Prove Me Wrong?

Things looked so promising in the League Championship Series this year, when it was 1-1 between Boston and Tampa Bay, and the Dodgers had just crushed the Phillies to draw within 2-1 in their series. Since then, though, it's been one team only dominating each of the series, making for a 4-1 result (Phillies over the Dodgers) in the National League and a 3-1 Tampa Bay advantage along with a 7-0 lead in Game 5 tonight over in the American League. Assuming the Sox don't come back - a pretty safe bet, considering how ineffective they've been in the last two games - that'll set up a Rays - Phillies World Series... which has to be pure poison for TV ratings and general interest level across North America!

It will also mean that the first 2 rounds of the MLB postseason will have taken only 25 games (of a possible 34, if every series had gone the distance). That's not very good from a baseball-watching perspective, but it's still better than last year, where we only got 24 games! Worse, though, this time around: most of the games lately have blowouts, with the team leading in the series doing the blowing out! In the series that will almost certainly wrap up tonight, Tampa Bay has scored 9, 9, 13 and (so far) 7 runs, making for some boring games (in fairness, that first 9 was a 9-8 extra inning game.. the last time this series got exciting!)

You'd think with two powerhouse teams headed toward a meeting in the World Series that we'd get a good one for a change, but the last few years have put the boot to that theory, too. I was all ready for a great month of baseball playoffs this time around, but I guess you get what you get.

[Update: Wouldn't you know, shortly after I wrote the Red Sox off, down 7-0 in the 6th, they scored 4 in the 7th, 3 in the 8th and one all-important additional run in the bottom of the 9th to win the game, 8-7! Baseball on Saturday night! I love it!]