I have no home town interests, this is an impartial analysis (as if I know what I’m talking about.) Giants over the Yanks. The Yanks have filled out their roster nicely since the all-star break, but I believe the NL has home field this year. Giants in 6.
BTW-- Giambi is the AL MVP, Piazza is the NL MVP and Dusty Baker is manager of the year.
i’d have to say that a Bay Bridge Series is much more likely than a Subway Series. my most certain prediction is that whatever teams are in the Series, the national league will win. i’ll do this like punha did a while back (and while i’m talking about you punha, uhh… toronto’s already been eliminated, partner 
) and go all the way. this is as of 9/29’s games.
AL:
NL:
Division Championship Series:
AL:
Cleveland at Chicago: Cleveland blitzes the White Sox, beating them the first two games in Chicago and returning to Cleveland for the third game where Colon pitches a masterpiece, stumping the Chicago offense. The Big Hurt goes 1-for-11 in the series, with a walk, a single, 0 RBI and 5 LOB. Luckily the New York/Oakland series takes longer, allowing Charlie Manuel to pitch the same three starters against their LCS foes. Cleveland in 3.
New York Yankees at Oakland: Can you feel the magic? Nope. The A’s played above their level all year, and there’s nothing like the playoffs to end a Yankees slump. Pettitte, Clemens, Neagle, and Hernandez: good pitching and solid defense wins postseason ballgames – the Yanks have it, the A’s don’t. another possible title for this series is “you get what you pay for.” As much as it pains me personally to tell you this, Canseco hits 2 homers and has 9 RBI in the series against his original team. New York in 5.
NL:
First, a little explanation. normally the wildcard team would play the top division winners, but since the Mets and Braves are from the same division, the Mets play the next-best team instead, which is the Giants.
St Louis at Atlanta: This is a no-brainer. St. Louis played in one of the worst divisions in the majors, and their big players have little playoff experience. I’m sorry, but McGwire just doesn’t cut it as a pinch hitter. Atlanta rarely loses in the postseason, and you don’t get a better top 3 starters than theirs. Maddux pitches 6 2/3 shutout innings in the opener. Atlanta in 4.
New York Mets at San Francisco: the Giants have the best home record in the majors, New York’s not good on the road, and the first two games in this series are played at Pac Bell Park. You do the math. Burks, Bond, Kent and Snow hit a combined 16-for-46 with a whopping 19 RBI between them in the sweep. San Francisco in 3.
League Championship Series:
Cleveland at New York Yankees: Sound familiar? This one’s a tough one to call, considering how badly New York’s been lit up recently by the Indians offense. But a series against the weak Oakland pitching rejuvenated the Yanks’ hitters. Pettitte regains his stuff in the first game of the series after a shaky outing against the A’s, and his performance sets the tone for the series. it’s a squeaker: Yanks get by in 7.
San Francisco at Atlanta: Upset time! Atlanta has the best rotation in the majors, but the Giants hitters are a threat 1-8. they even have some of the best-hitting pitchers in the national league, as well as the most versatile and productive bench that’s out there. their young pitchers step up big, and ‘Good Sean’ proves his true dominance over ‘Bad Sean’ with 2 wins in the series for Estes. San Fran wins game 6 at home, sending the Braves home losers. SF in 6.
World Series: Yankees at Giants
The Bay/Subway series? A’s fans come out to the games at Pac Bell to cheer on the Giants and boo Canseco et. al, while Mets fans feel ambivalent about the games being played in the Bronx, so they go to the courthouse for Doc Gooden’s DUI hearing and laugh, and then they go home and watch film of the '86 Series. Mike Piazza, Mets catcher, team MVP, and cover model for New York magazine, grasping at straws, gets on the subway and is overheard talking trash about immigrants and welfare mothers.
Oh, and some baseball is played: Giants in 6. Yep, Yankees go down hard… there’s a new dynasty in town. Burks signs a contract extension, and Dusty Baker soon follows. No way the best manager in baseball takes his team all the way and then defects to the Dodgers.
No earthquakes, but a major psychic rift is created later in the year when the Oakland Raiders make the playoffs and the 49ers win only four games. Fans riot in the Big Apple when neither the Giants nor the Jets, who both started the season 3-0 for the first time in history, make the NFL playoffs. the intracontinental ectoplasmic balance is upset by the westward drift of dominance in the major sports. i’ll leave the prediction of the results of this ominous occurrence to those more prescient than i.
cool simulpost, Stranger. you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. If i may ask, are you a Stranger from a strange land, in Algeria, or in a battle with Magneto?
Stranger who stole his name from an Albert Camus book. Good analysis, far more entertaining than any sports reporter I have read recently (no shock there). Hope the Bay Area clubs can stay together for more than two seasons.
It is a sad day indeed, for spooje must pick the Hated Giants to take the NLCS. They will beat the Cards in 6.
The American League is up for grabs. I’m rooting for the A’s and pissed that my Angels couldn’t help 'em yesterday. But I think the White Sox will prevail.
So my pick is: Giants over White Sox in a dramatic 7 games!
The Hawaii Volcano over the Mexico City Eagles in 7 games for the 2029 World Series.
What?
You didn’t specify the year… 
Rigardu, kaj vi ekvidos.
“Hated Giants”?? spooje, you wound me. The Stranger, thanks. i try – and my secret dream is to be a sports reporter, analyst, or play-by play guy. sometimes i watch TV and do the play-by-play with the sound off. some days when i’m feeling really confident, i turn down the sound on the RADIO and try it then. but that’s harder.
where is L’Etranger set? all i could remember was Northern Africa, but i’m not even sure that’s where Algeria is. but i was tired when i wrote that last night. precognition exhausts me. 
White Lightning-- set in 1940 Algeria, concerning the murder of an Arab, so I assume it concerns NE Africa. Not that it matters anyway (it is an existential work after all.) First line of the book: “Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure.” The book shocked the hell out of me at 16 and still does.
Screw all that though, this is a sports thread – Mutha-F*kin Giants RULE!!! 2000 belongs to Dusty Baker and Barry Bonds!! New studium and new champs for the new millenium!! OK, now I’m making myself sick
The Stranger, i knew it!! Algeria, i was right the first time. i feel exactly the way you do about the book, i read it in 10th grade and it made me think more than any other book i had ever read, and i found it in my school’s library last semester and read it again and it made me think even more. i was a lot smarter in 14th grade than in 10th, so…
ahem. Giants rule!!! have you been to Pac Bell?? it’s aaaaaaaawesome. it’s huge. the ramp up to the top tier is like miles long. but it’s worth the walk. it’s amazing. and fantastic. and the giants are also quite a good baseball team.
and as far as my predictions… okay, well, i was a little bit wrong about a couple of things. but if seattle HAD lost today, cleveland would definitely have won the one game playoff. my friend is a big A’s fan and he says i’m wrong, the A’s are gonna beat the yankees. it’s definitely possible. there’s no team hotter than the a’s (22-17 in september), and no team colder than the yanks (they finished the season having lost 7 in a row and 15 of their last 18). so if momentum can outweigh experience, maturity, and superior pitching, the A’s are in. i’m fairly confident they could beat either the white sox or the mariners in the ALCS. it would be absolutely fabulous to see a bay bridge Series. especially since i’ll be arriving back in the Bay just in time
but this one came first
Wow, what a day. As an a’s fan (long-suffering goes without saying) I had a lot of fun vegetating in front of the tee-vee today.
I think if my a’s can get past the yankees, they’ll go all the way. that said, i’d give the yanks a 60% chance of beating the a’s. but if they get by them, they’ll have hudsen starting the alcs, and will definitely go to the series.
I think seattle will get past the white sox regardless.
in the nl, the giants will beat the mets, and the cards will beat the braves. giants/cards will be close, but i’ll bet on the giants.
if the giants face the yanks, giants win. if they face the a’s, a’s win.
After two difficult intra-league series, the Atlanta Braves will become the National League’s representative to the World Series.
I don’t know who they’ll face from the American League.
I don’t know who’ll win, but a six or seven game decision wouldn’t surprise me.
If it were strictly a matter of talent on the field, I’d say no team in MLB has a chance against the Braves.
But there’s a major obstacle: Bobby Cox. He’s a terrific manager for the regular season, but he seems to lose his mind and make stupid choices when he gets into the post-season.
Of course I hope the Braves win, though.
Yanks season will be over Friday. Bay Bridge Series, here we come! A’s in Five!
The White Sox will win the AL pennant (he says, biting his nails thinking of the starting pitching woes). The national media has apparently already written the Sox off, so perhaps their opponents are also underestimating them.
My sentimental pick for the NL is the Chicago fan’s dream world series, the White Sox vs the Mets. Cubs fans will be blowing their brains out left and right across America.
If not the Mets, then the Giants, for a replay of the 1917 World Series nearly a century later.
The White Sox, of course, will win the World Series in 6 games. Jose Valentine will be the series MVP.
Playoffs begin today. You can follow the games online at www.majorleaguebaseball.com. Or you can go to the individual teams’ websites. (Every major league team has its own website now.) You can also try http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/.
I do not have much hope for my Yankees this year. That horrible crash-&-burn ending to the year makes me quite skeptical of our chances to three-peat.
It sucks too, because the A’s were a team I was secretly rooting for. Aside from the fact they were NOT the evil Indians or the eviller Red Sox (side taunt: NYEH MYEH!), they are young, gritty, and just a fun team to watch. I love the way they play the game.
Well, I am hoping against hope we CAN turn it on like a switch, and that the A’s will succumb to pressure from being in the “Big Dance.” Same thing goes for relatively playoff-history-free teams the White Sox (and their injured pitching) and the Mariners.
Needless to say, I’m rooting for my Yanks until the ship goes down in flames. But I fear I smell something burning… 
Yer pal,
Satan - Commissioner, The Teeming Minions
*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Five months, three weeks, three days, 15 hours, 20 minutes and 4 seconds.
7105 cigarettes not smoked, saving $888.19.
Extra life with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 3 days, 16 hours, 5 minutes.
*“I’m a big Genesis fan.”-David B. (Amen, brother!) **
Yomiuri Giants over Hiroshima Carp in 5.
My OP:
This is why I don’t bet on sports when I go to Las Vegas. I predict they’ll win the Series and they don’t win even ONE playoff game!! :mad:
And the other team I picked looks like THEY will be swept out, too. :o
:SIGH:
Seattle sure looked strong, didn’t they? Ken Griffey WHO?
Maybe the Series will be St. Louis over Seattle? Can St. Louis beat the Giants? (I think S.F. will beat the Mets. But what do I know?)
SIGH
At least I didn’t have to watch the Texas Rangers lose to the Yankees again…
I give up. No more predicting. I’m just gonna watch.
Subway series, here we come!
Of course this means getting around on the train will be impossible and drunken assholes will be thick on the ground and perfectly normal people will start fistfights at work.
Still, I can’t bring myself to root for St. Louis. Go Mets! The Yankees need someone new to beat for the championship.
Good thing we aren’t bookies. Below is a list of predictions so far. Bold entries are those predictions that are still possible (you’ll notice there is only one, congrats Satan). Italicized are those where both teams have already been eliminated.
Not one person put either the Mariners or the Cardinals in the series, I think we can now say that they are as good as locked in.
White Sox over Braves in 6
White Sox over Mets in 6
Mets over White Sox in 6
Yankees over Braves in 6
Yankees over Braves in 4
Yankees over Braves
Yankees over Mets (Satan)
Braves over Angels in 5
Braves over White Sox in 7
Giants over Oakland in 6
Giants over White Sox in 5
Giants over White Sox in 7
Giants over Yanks in 6, twice
Giants over Yanks or Athletics over Giants
Yankees over Braves or Giants
Athletics over Giants in 5
Athletics over Giants in 7
Braves over Blue Jays