Ah Fall...

The season of agricultural death and sporting rebirth. Does it get any better than this? The Red Sox are locked in an epic battle with the Evil Empire Yankees for the American League Championship, the Patriots are undefeated, BC is playing well enough to keep me sane...

(Harsh beeping!)

Okay, the alarm says it's time to wake up from my daily sports fantasy about "The Good Ol' Days."

The bubble has offically burst my friends.

The Sox were swept out of the ALDS by a White Sox team that, were it not for a Don Denkingeresque performance by the home plate umpire on Wednesday night, should be trailing 2-0 to the Angels in the CS and haven't been able to sort out the "ass from elbow" mystery since Reta-wreck peacefully ended the Red Sox season last week.

The Patriots have the most utterly unfair schedule in the history of the NFL (call me biased but I will not relent, it's insane!) and are playing on one perverbial good leg. Fresh off their annihilation by the Chargers, a game in which Monty Beisel did his best speed bump impression (twice!) the Pats just eeked past a Falcons team valiantly led by... no not Michael Vick but Matt Schaub who threw for an incomprehensible 3 touchdowns in his Falcons debut. If this team needs Brady / Vinatierri last second heroics to beat a team playing without its top weapon, what will happen when they face a Colts team coming off of a bye week.

* Sidenote: So far this season the Colts have faced: Baltimore on the road (1-3, 25th ranked offense, 2nd ranked defense), Jacksonville at home (3-2, 22nd ranked offense, 6th ranked defense), Cleveland at home (2-2, 16th ranked offense, 28th ranked defense), Tennessee on the road (2-3, 23rd ranked offense, 16th ranked defense), and San Francisco on the road (1-4, 31st ranked offense, 32nd ranked defense). Add it up and their opponents are 9-14 with an average offensive ranking of 23.4 and a defensive ranking of 16.8 .

Meanwhile the Patriots have faced: Oakland at home (1-3, 13th ranked offense, 29th ranked defense), Carolina on the road (3-2, 26th ranked offense, 24th ranked defense), Pittsburgh on the road (3-1, 10th ranked offense, 14th ranked defense), San Diego at home (2-3, 14th ranked offense, 21st ranked defense), and Atlanta on the road (3-2, 12th ranked offense, 22nd ranked defense). Add it up and their opponents are 12-11 with an average offensive ranking of 15 and an average defensive ranking of 22.

Look a little deeper and you will see that of the top 5 scoring (ppg) teams the Patriots have played 3, the Colts will play their first on Monday night (Rams). Of the top 5 scoring defenses (points allowed) the Patriots have played one, the Colts are scheduled to play 1 (Bengals) this entire season. Make of this what you will, but what I make of it is that the NFL would love to see their marquee boy in the Super Bowl rather than those ho hum boring Patriots.

I know that sidenote was totally biased homerism but looking at the schedule and the likelihood that homefield advantage will come out of these first 7 weeks or so it seems blatently unfair that the Pats would play 3 playoff teams from a year ago while the Colts play Bridgewater State every week until they magically get a bye the week before playing the Pats in New England. Come on, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills but this is stacked in Indianapolis' favor!

Okay enough whining.

The point of this blog was to point out that the whimsical ride of fanciful delights New England sports fans have enjoyed over the past few years is offically over. There will be a new champion in baseball (at least it won't be the Yankees) and the Patriots look vulnerable. Hey, we survived twenty-odd years of it before this golden age, we'll survive it again.

So, what will happen?

Well, the four remaining teams in the baseball playoffs all have weaknesses. The Cardinals are my favorite. Will Carpenter at the front of their rotation and Isringhausen at the back they probably have 2 games right there. The problem is their bullpen, Tavarez can't get it together and he's the stud of their middle relief. Luckily for them their offense is strong enough, if aging a bit, to get them past almost anyone... except mabye the Astros with their starting rotation. These Astros are the trendy pick of the week. Everyone says pitching wins championships and they certainly have plenty. Clemens, Pettite, Oswalt, and Backe all seem to be in stride and if they are all hot at the same time there is no reason they can't sneak out of the NLCS into the World Series.

In the American League the Angels, by all rights should have a 2-0 lead. Even tied they still have to be considered the favorites, they came out of Chicago with a split which is always the goal of the team without homefield advantage. However, I think this series could be decided by game 3 tonight. The White Sox have not played half as well as they did in the ALDS against the Red Sox and they need to carry the momentum of dramatically stealing game 2 into game 3. If not they could be finished. Likewise the Angels need to rebound from feeling like they had one stolen from them and if they were to fold in game 3 they could start to feel like it's just not meant to be. In this cruical game I like the Angels based on the experience of both their manager and their roster. The White Sox roster is loaded with players with no post-season experience including game 3 starter John Garland who was just slightly better than average in the second half, and manger Ozzie Guillen who has seemed almost magical in his decision making thusfar, it can't last. (I will not talk about what could have happened if the White Sox played like this in the ALDS, I won't, I can't, it won't let me sleep at night!)

In the World Series I like the Angels if the Astros make it, although Biggio's and Berkman's desire for a ring in what is likely their last stand could carry Houston to make it a competitive series. If the Cardinals make it back to the Series for a second straight year I can't imagine that they will be denied, their lineup is experienced and they still have the best player in baseball Albert Pujols and most likely the NL Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter. I can't see them laying an egg like they did last season.

As for my recently unemployed status and my plans to address it, the unrest there is about as prevalent as the unrest in the Red Sox clubhouse (and front office... a plea: stop low balling Theo and pay him, a lot, you're not going to do any better). I really don't want to spend another winter in New England, I love it here but I'm seasonally miserable. I've already seen the Red Sox win the World Series, the Patriots win 2 Super Bowls and BC win a national championship (hockey). Sporting-wise there isn't much left. I've lived my entire life within the same 50 mile radius (excluding 3 months on Staten Island, a.k.a. Hell on Earth) and I feel as though if I don't make a move now I might wake up 50 years old, pale, fat, with a rotten liver, and a job I could care less about. The weather of southern California calls me and considering what I've heard from friends that live / lived there I think I would love it. It's just that the timing is awkward. If this were September it would be a lot easier, moving for November 1st is incredbily annoying. It's hard to build a life somewhere if you're constantly traveling home to avoid parental and self inflicted guilt about missing holidays. Essentially what I want is an easy way to move out west and spend the forseeable future not worrying about snow and rain and asshole drivers. That probably won't present itself so maybe I'll be here until January 1st but that will be the latest. No more endless February's and snowy March's for me. I just can't stomach it. I know I'd be leaving a lot behind here but this is a great crossroads of my life and to not make the decision that would clearly make me happiest would be a huge mistake, and one that I may regret for the rest of my life.

Aren't you honored, you just witnessed me talking myself into moving west. How often can you say that you were able to follow someone's train of thought that you know (or hardly know, this is the internet afterall) as they make a huge life decision? Now you can. If you think I'm an idiot, let me know, but I'm pretty sure I've got this one right.

This is probably the worst blog ever. Sorry I'm out of shape.