"NOW THE REAL SEASON STARTS"

## So says Derek Jeter, and he's right. While we know the participants, finally, and we know where they're being played, we don't know when. Maybe Janice Hough is right. They have to figure out how to schedule the games so that the Yankees get the most exposure. Like it or not, Yankee haters, the Bronx Bombers are the ones that pay the bills.

## Texas is on the downswing and Baltimore has found a way to win all year when they shouldn't have, so I'm going with the Orioles to win the Special, Play-in, Win-or-go-home, One-shot-extra playoff game...or whatever Bud Selig is calling it.
In the NL, Atlanta seems to be the team of destiny there.

## So with all the schedule finagling, a potential 7th game of the World Series will be played on Nov. 1st. In the meantime, with only ONE play-in game to be played, New York still doesn't start playing until Sunday, 4 days after the end of the season. Why?

## No word on any managerial terminations yet, even though they made it sound last night like GM Ben Cherrington was going to take Valentine's uniform off of him right there in the dugout after the last out. Bobby's not going down without a fight, however. In an interview yesterday, he said his coaching staff was not cooperative and was undermining him all year. I won't say Bobby is paranoid, but he also said somebody named "Chad" was bad-mouthing him all season.  Oops, guilty.
Down in Miami, Ozzie Guillen is leaving on vacation and says he's going to Spain, I think because he believes they have no extradition agreement with Bud Selig.

## Congratulations to Miguel Cabrera for winning Baseball's Triple Crown. Some sabermetrics say the crown is worthless, because it's based on statistics that they feel don't evaluate a players true worth. If that's true, how come only 9 other people have accomplished it in 92 years? It involves hitting (getting on base), RBIs (driving in runs) and home runs (producing runs). Isn't getting the most runs the way we determine who wins the games? Where's Lucy Van Pelt when they need her ("Tell your statistics to shut up.")?
There are  twice as many perfect games (21, actually) than Triple Crown winners (10), so it should rate some kind of respect.
And Cabrera is deserving of the MVP, too.

THEY SAID IT
"A new study out of Ottawa says 90 per cent of Canadians are happy. The rest are Maple Leafs fans."  -- RJ Currie
"Last thought for the night:   As the Red Sox stagger into the offseason, have to wonder, what if beer and fried chicken were actually PEDs?"  -- Janice Hough
"During the NHL lockout, several players plan to play in Europe.Which will be enlightening for Europeans who have never seen anyone with worse teeth than theirs."  -- Brad Dickson
"U.S. golfers' recent international struggles: "Thank goodness the Ryder Cup isn't war, because we'd all be speaking Scottish."  -- David Whitely
"Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton is back in the lineup after suffering the effects of drinking too much caffeine. Teammates knew there was a problem when he hit a grand slam home run and was the first one to touch home plate."  -- Jim Barach

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