Baseball: NLCS

9:00 AM
I: This NLCS is turning out to be pretty good...even if the winner is fodder for the juggernaut known as the Detroit Tigers (who can believe I'm even saying that?). Zumaya's sore wrist even gets a week of recooperation time. Still, with the Tigers having so much mojo, maybe the week off can get them rusty giving the National League champions a shot.

I'd like to see how much chance you give either NL team to win the World Series. Rank the following in order of probability, and once I see how you like the NL team's chances, we'll circle back to talking NLCS:

The National League team beats the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
The Chicago Bears win at least 15 games in the regular season.
The New England Patriots get the top seed in the AFC.
Roger Federer and Tiger Woods combine to win six majors next year.



Sorry for the delay in posting. Some of us have "jobs" and"responsibilities" and "lives." To rank the above four scenarios from likeliest to unlikeliest:

Roger Federer and Tiger Woods combine to win six majors next year.

Easily the most likely; these guys are unfathomably good. The only way this does not happen is if they combine to win MORE than six majors. Or if Tiger picks up tennis and Roger picks up golf. Then they'll tie each other for first place in all eight so that's sixteen titles between the two of them. There must be some kind of bonus is their respective Nike contracts for this.

The National League team beats the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.

I don't see why the Mets or Cardinals can't beat the Detroit Tigers. Sure there's all that baseball talk about pitching and hitting and defense, and blah blah blah, but in the end it's only a best of seven series. A small sample size. It could happen. Let's say the Mets win the NLCS. Glavine would probably be ready to start Game 1 and he's exactly the type of pitcher (a good one) that can be effective against the Tigers lineup of free swingers. The 85-year-old El Duque said he'd be okay to pitch if the Mets make the Series and NOBODY throws a 56 mph curveball like El Duque. And what about Darren "Willie Randolph Jr." Oliver throwing those six shut out innings on Saturday night? Freaky things happen in baseball games. And the same can be said for the Cardinals if they win the NLCS but I won't get into it because I don't want to. Forget all this talk about rust and rest and my man-crush on Carlos Beltran. The Mets are going to win the World Series.

The New England Patriots get the top seed in the AFC

I'm not sure how likely this really is, but looking at the schedule for the rest of the season for the Patriots, Colts, Broncos and Chargers it could happen. The Patriots play only three tough opponents for the rest of the season: Indy, Chicago, and Jacksonville, and they have the Colts and Bears at home. A 12-4 record is not only probable, it's the baseline here. The Colts play Washington, Denver, New England, Dallas, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Cincinnati. The Broncos play Indy, Pittsburgh, San Diego (x2), Seattle, Kansas City, and Cincinnati. And the Chargers play Kansas City (x2), St. Louis, Cincinnati, Denver (x2), and Seattle. Tough games all around, and the Broncos and Chargers already have a loss each. So this crazy Pats getting the top seed scenario is slightly more likely than...

The Chicago Bears win at least 15 games in the regular season.

Too much variation in football. If it weren't for three touchdowns scored by the defense and special teams and a missed 41 yard field goal by a guy who was so automatic last year you could schedule your bowel movements by him the Bears would have their first loss at this very moment. Not only did Rex Grossman break the record for most Grossman-related turnovers in a game (set in 1963 by the great Adelai "One arm" Grossman) he broke the record against the CARDINALS DEFENSE. What in Sally Struthers is that all about? At least Adelai Grossman had the excuse of having only one arm. I guess all those sportswriters who keep saying that Rex Grossman has finally grown up are right. He has finally grown up. Into Kurt Warner.