So I hope to be back to post about the election in the coming days and weeks (it’s way more fun to talk about it this time around!), but I wanted to pop in the remark on the fall classic.

None of my teams (A’s, Cards, Giants) are in any of the division series, but the the participants immediately made me hopeful for either a Windy City World Series or an all L.A. one.  Sure the ratings would be terrible, but it’s neat when it happens.  Of course, thus far the two Chicago outfits and the Angels are doing quite terribly, 0-2 each as I write this.  Which is lame because I don’t actually like the Dodgers.* (I recognize that as the Cubs are playing the Dodgers only one of them could survive to keep my silly dream alive, but since the Angels aren’t getting it done, I’m not really in the mood for theDodgers to advance - besides it’s the Cubs year!)

But the best thing about the playoffs?  Cal Ripken, Jr.  He has developed this rather goofy tic of ending random sentences with the above phrase, “or whatever else.”  Mr. Sassy theorizes that old Cal trained himself to not say “um” when providing his brilliant commentary, but he had to replace it with something, and that something is “or whatever else.”  Sometimes he says it super-fast, like he knows it’s nothing but a placeholder, but every time he says it, it is hilarious.

And now “or whatever else” the most popular catchphrase in the house.  It managed to supplant ever “all of them,” which is of course awesome, and still gets a lot of play.  I kind of love the universe right now.

*I like the other teams for stupid reasons, but whatever. The White Sox because during my formative years I saw Field of Dreams and Eight Men Out and wistfully romantic about them.  The Cubs I always liked because I’m into underdogs and Mark Grace and Ryne Sandburg made quite an impression on me as a kid.  And the Angels, well, it’s mostly because they’ve had their amusing naming history - California Angeles to Anaheim Angels to The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which stupidly translates to The The Angels Angels of Anaheim.

Aston Villa 1 - Arsenal 2

Daruma 2 - Ireland’s 32 2

Cal . . . I can’t even write it.

I was very disappointed to hear the done-dealness of the A’s to Fremont plan this morning. While I agree that economically, Oakland is probably in pretty much the same place without the A’s, it’s hard to let go of my childhood memories. Also there’s the part about greedy owners blah blah blah. This just didn’t need to happen and it didn’t need to happen now.

I’m not going to call this short-sighted or stupid, but let’s just remark that calling them the “Fremont A’s” would be quite the mistake, and if you look at the map, I have no idea how anyone’s getting from BART to the new stadium in an efficient, timely, non-hair-ripping-out fashion.

Well, the Cardinals are now the world champs. Even though they weren’t my team, I was all tense and excited through the 9th. I don’t know, it was all heartwarming somehow, clinching at home. Tony La Russa, the first manager I ever followed (when he coached my precious Althletics). The Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were so in love with Albert Pujols (who isn’t?). They were the 83-regular season wins underdogs, overcoming the predictions of a quick World Series for Detroit (I guess that resurgence, which winning championships totally spark, right? yeah, will have to wait), winning at home.

Poor Tigers, couldn’t generate offense, the insane and poorly timed errors. Fear of success?

The cutest part though was little (c’mon, he’s adorable at 5′7″!) David Eckstein (giddily) accepting the MVP trophy and his first brand new car of his own - a pretty cool Corvette. He appeared to appreciate it a little more than Miguel Tejada.

Things I won’t miss:

• Jeannie Zalasko saying the weirdest, stupidest things - I don’t remember being so perplexed by her before.
• The John Mellencamp “Our Country” commercials, even after they stopped showing the creepy, offensive version.
• The fact that everything had a sponsor - even the instant replay!
• That the A’s weren’t there.

The Cardinals finally took the Mets in a nailbiter Game 7 to advance to the World Series, which is great. Not as great as if the A’s had won the ALCS (or, heck, not been swept!), but I’m happy . . . for Matt. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how the Cardinals on a day’s rest match up against the Tigers who’ve been waiting for six whole days. Good luck, Cards.

We are so not going to talk about this.

So now the St. Louis Cardinals have advanced to the NLCS so we’re one step closer to my dream World Series. Now I’m off to send bad vibes to the Mets and the Tigers.

Nice. Very nice.

But the big question is who do we want to play next?

The Tigers, who were hot for much of the season but have since cooled, or the Yankees, who have magical powers - except for that A-Rod fella.

Athletics 3 - Twins 2, yay; Cardinals 5 - Padres 1, again good; Yankees 8 - Tigers 4, ugh.

I didn’t get a chance to celebrate, but despite their collective best efforts, the Athletics and the Cardinals both managed to make it to the playoffs - the red birds on the last freakin’ day (only because Houston lost, the Cards lost too). Nice. Unfortunately the Twins are apparently streaking so that doesn’t really give me the greatest feeling about their series with my Athletics. It doesn’t help that the Cardinals are taking a meh 83-77 record into their series against NL West champs the Padres. But, of course, I have faith and all that. Good luck!