Manic Monday

Interestingly enough, after the drama of Major League Baseball over the weekend and with tomorrow being one of the best days in the whole baseball season (playoff games at 1pm, 4pm, and 8pm), today seems like just a very boring day. Given I don't have a job to keep me busy from 9am-5pm, but even 9 holes of golf with my dad left me with more time than I know what to do with. Yes, me being the television buff that I am will have at least 3-4 hours of quality time with my TiVo saved up by later in the night, but I'm sure that the REAL thought going through many of our heads right now, is . . . is it time for the Yankee game yet? That's right, the beginning of the Yankee playoff run that many people thought would never happen is less than 24 hours away. Interestingly enough, 12 of 15 analysts on ESPN.com are picking the Los Angeles Angels to knock the Yankees out in the best-of-five first round series (and only 1 of the 15 picked them to win the World Series). That's even more overwhelming than the number of media folk that predicted that the Yankees wouldn't even make the playoffs, let alone come back to snatch the division from the Boston Red Sox during the last weekend of the regular season. But you know what? The "professionals" (and I use that term loosely since the bookies have the Yankees posted as a 1.5-1 favorite) have been counting out the Yankees all year, so it would be even sweeter to prove them wrong, yet again. And believe it or not, the Yankees are the type of team that have the ability to feed off of the fact that they are considered underdogs. With that being said, I feel that there is no better time than the present to reach back to my journalism days and make the first official "opinionated commentary" of my Halfway Home blog . . .

The New York Yankees-Los Angeles Angels ALDS

The Yankees will win if:
1) They come home at worst 1-1 in the series with Randy Johnson on the mound for Game 3
2) Joe Torre remembers that "little ball" is what got him his 8th consecutive AL East divison title and continues to bunt, steal, manufacture runs, and try to play with a lead
3) Their starting pitching can JUST keep them close through 6 innings
4) Bartolo Colon proves once again that he is over-rated - 21 wins for the season is nothing to balk at [no pun intended], but does he honestly strike the same fear in your hearts as the likes of Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, and Johan Santana?

Prediction: Yanks in 4

Odds are I will spend the majority of my "blogging" over the next (hopefully) month writing about baseball and the Yankee run, but I'm sure there will be plenty of other fodder (is that a word?) to comment on. So, don't boycott me. Until our next meeting . . .

SONG OF THE DAY: Don't Stop Believing - Journey