I haven’t written since the last week of the regular season, and a lot has happened since then. The Mets preceed to choke again in amazing fashion, leading the Brewers to make there first postseason appearance since the days of Harvey’s Wallbangers in 1982. Amazingly enough, it was the final game at Shea Stadium and the ceremony would be held AFTER the game. After the loss, I was expecting them to get booed out of the stadium, which they essentially were. The Division Series is over also. Speaking of choking, those lovable Cubs from the Windy City did it again. Going out without even a whimper against Joe Torre’s revived Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cubbies got wrecked at Wrigley, and played close in Game 3 in LA, but to no avail. Talk about a smack in the face to the Yankee organization, Torre winning in LA after being insulted with a preposterous offer by the Yankee front office last offseason, and now he’s four wins away from another trip to the fall classic, with a team filled with members of the 2003 Red Sox. Speaking of Windy City failures, the Chicago White Sox are out after falling to the Tampa Bay Rays (I still can’t stop calling them Devil Rays) in four games. I remember in mid-September when people were talking about a Cubs-White Sox World Series. Well, that was a nice idea, but both teams played poorly and won a combined 1 game. Some people were talking about a Freeway Series, another nice idea gone down the crapper. The Angels, who haven’t played a serious game all year, we ousted by the increasingly annoying Red Sox. It’s not even like the Halos played bad, they were just outplayed…again. For the 3rd time in 5 seasons the Angels were sent packing by the BoSox. A controversial call at 3rd base, took all the momentum from them, and eventually the series, in Game 4. Personally, I think Willits was safe.  If that played had been a collision at home plate and Varitek dropped the ball like he did diving to tag Willits, he would have been called safe. The rules should not change for different bases. I guess it would have been better if they let Aybar (who had the game winning hit the night before) swing away. Finally, the Phillies are back in the LCS for the first time since 1993, beating the Brew Crew, 3 games to 1. The Fightin Phils’ were clearly a better team. Sabathia was completely worn out from pitching essentially every other day down the stretch to get Milwaukee to October. Pat Burrell went on a monster streak, and the Phillies put down the Brew Crew easily without major production from MVP candidates and All-Stars Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. If those guys get going, woah, look out. And lastly, broadcaster Tim McCarver today said that Manny Ramirez acts in his final weeks in Boston were despicable. Look, I’m not gonna go out there and say I condone Man-Ram’s acts, they were childish and stupid, but I’m not going to say he hurt that ball club. In his final month in Beantown, which were essentially his final 3 weeks  there, Manny hit .347, with a .473 on-base percentage, .587 slugging percentage, hit 4 homers and drove in 16. Numbers wise that was the 3rd best month of the season for Manny, and his best in a Red Sox uniform. Yes, he pretty much intentionally took three straight strikes right down the middle against Mariano Rivera, but he was the best offensive player on that Boston team, whether he was trying or not.