SPORTS: Phillies Over Angels in Fall Classic?

Okay, this should have gone up last night. I erred in the posting date for the blog. So read this with a grain of salt.

I'm still in mourning for Justin Morneau and the rest of my new team, the Minnesota Twins. Just one measley RBI was all I asked of my fellow Canuck. That and a good pitching performance from Nick Blackburn.

I got the latter, but not the former, and it will be Ozzie Guillen's Chicago White Sox that will be moving on to play Tampa starting Thursday night. And ultimately, it was a well-deserved win by the White Sox. John Danks was masterful. Old man Jim Thome had one more big hit in him. And equally old man, Ken Griffey, had one more defensive act of heroism in him. It's a little hard to get too p.o.'d over good guys like Griffey, Thome and Paul Konerko getting one last hurrah. Besides, I never thought the Twins had a chance when I picked them weeks ago to supplant the Toronto Blue Jays in my affections.

So, it comes time to predict the World Series outcome, in order to have some sort of rooting interest in baseball. I WANT Pat Gillick to go out a winner. So the easy answer is Philadelphia to win it all. And that's doable. The favourites, the Chicago Cubs, do have another favourite one-time Toronto employee, Reed Johnson, but he's more backup than big factor these days. Chicago gets extra points for having a Canuck, Ryan Dempster. But that still doesn't add up to Gillick's numbers. And remember, I need him to take over the presidency of the Blue Jays so he can fire the unmentionable one as GM and let me come home to my home team to cheer on. Milwaukee does have TWO Canucks in the front office, including the lamented ex-GM of the Jays, Gord Ash. But that's still too little to balance off Gillick. And the Dodgers employ Manny Ramirez, which more than off-sets Canuck Russell Martin. A pox on the manchild, and sorry for getting Joe Torre caught in the cross-fire.

As for the A.L., I can't cheer on Chicago. They did in my Twins fer gawdsakes! Jason Bay and the Bosox aren't a horrible choice, but I'm sick of Boston winning so much lately. It'd be different if the Curse of the Bambino was alive and kicking and there was a good chance at a Chicago-Boston World Series. I like Tampa Bay, despite a lean Canuck connection. Gabe Gross, ex of the Jays, is a good guy, but I'm not a fan of another ex-Jay, Eric Hinske. A wash. So that leaves the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Hate the name, but loved the park, the last non-Toronto big league stadium I've been too. And how can you NOT cheer for Vladimir Guerrero?

Well, I can when he must succumb to Pat's Phillies in the World Series. But I'll hate myself doing it!