In less than four hours, the penultimate contest in all of baseball gets underway as the Detroit Tigers host the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.
It has all come down to this. From thirty teams in the regular season to eight in the playoffs to two fighting it out for the title. For the American League, the Detroit Tigers surprised everybody coming out strong and posting the best record in baseball until deciding to let it almost slip away in September, settling for the wild card. For the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals came damn close to losing everything in the final weeks, avoiding what would have gone down as one of the greatest regular-season chokes of all time (pay no attention to the 1995 Angels) to prove, once again, that anything can happen in the playoffs even if nobody believes but you (please see the 2002 Angels.)
And still, for St. Louis, very few believe. Sports Illustrated has picked the Tigers in six. ESPN has picked them in five. Everywhere you go, it's not tough to find "experts" who don't give the Cards a chance.
Except Dan O'Neill at MSNBC.com. He picks the Cardinals to win. Does he have inside information the rest don't? Did he travel to the future in a Delorean to buy a Sports Almanac from the year 2026? Does he have a truly magic Magic 8-Ball? No, he's guessing.
Just like everybody else.
And me.
With that, I pick the Tigers in 6. Momentum has little to do with it this time, as a week of mowing lawns and screwing wives doesn't keep momentum up very well. This time, it's plain pitching and lineup. The Tigers are just better.
Not that that means anything in a seven game series, though.
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