ONE MORE TIME

Before we start on the 9 most pressure-packed days in baseball, here's a few comments on the recently completed series.

***PHILLIES BEAT DOWN THE DODGERS***
For a team who led the NL in wins, the Dodgers looked particularly inept against the Phillies. Was it because the Phillies were on an upswing while the Dodgers happened to be slumping or are the Phillies really a better team? The Phillies were confident and experienced and a sound team (except for a suspect bullpen) and I believe they were that much better. Speaking of confidence, they have been announcing to the world for a week that they are dying to play the Yankees in the Series. Well, here's your chance.

***YANKEES OVER THE ANGELS***
Critics are giving Scioscia the blame for the Angels defeat, citing the number of times he went "against the book" when making his decisions. Well, Girardi went "with the book," and he didn't do much better. These are professional, Major League players, and all a manager can do it put them on the field and hope they do what they're capable of. The Angels were blown out once and the 6th game wasn't really as close as the score indicated, but the other 4 games could really have gone either way. If they had gone the Angels way, you could substitute Girardi's name for Sciocia's for all those criticisms.

***SERIES PREVIEW***
Philly fans are pointing to the fact that Ryan Howard had as good a Championship series as A-Rod, so they figure that they cancel each other out. Scouts, however, say that while Howard is downright scary against righthanders, he's very ordinary against lefties. Of course the Yanks will start lefties in 5 of the possible 7 games, and have two lefties plus Rivera in the bullpen. Unless the Yankee pitchers make a bunch of mistakes, I don't see Howard being a factor. Actually, I don't think the Phillies will pitch to A-Rod, so maybe they do cancel each other out.
Picasner's Prediction:
Yankees 4 games
Phillies 2 games
Weather 2 games

***McGWIRE TO BE ST LOUIS' HITTING COACH***
This ought to be fun: "I can't tell you what I've learned, since I don't talk about the past." I believe Picasner will be tossing a lot of jabs his way next year.