The most intense rivalry in sports.

	How can you win when you're up against Scorsese?

Well, as a Red Sox fan I suppose I could have asked for a little more; perhaps a win for the Red Sox and the end to the reign of the evil empire, the Yankees. It was a tremendous series that saw both teams battle late in the innings and refuse to lose without swinging hard. The fate of the series really came down to the managers. It's often debated the importance coaching has on the end result of a game. To draw an analogy I look at the players as actors and the coaches as directors and both share a symbiotic relationship. Without a good cast a movie fails to deliver the impact of a good script and without good direction a movie lacks focus. Sports is the same way and in this epic series the Boston Red Sox boasted a cast of Ed Norton's, Robert DeNiro's, Vince Vaughn's and yet still lost because the Yankees were directed by Martin Scorcese and the Red Sox were directed by the guy who made the Police Academy series. Joe Torre outmanaged Grady Little and that's why the World Series has the Florida Marlins pitted against the Yankees.

So where exactly did Grady Little go wrong? The obvious one was letting Pedro Martinez pitch into the 8th inning; an inning where the Yankees got to Pedro and tied the game at 5-5. Little went out to the mound and asked Pedro how he was feeling and if he wanted to stay in the game. What's Pedro gonna say? "No, take me out coach. This is the biggest game of my career and I want to see how the fate of this game unravels from the bench." Sports are all about ego. Players believe strongly in their own ability and everyone aspires to be a hero. You can't be a hero from the bench. So why would anyone expect Pedro to tell Little anything different when he visited the mound. Those decisions come from the manager and entrusting the lead to a Red Sox bullpen that performed well above expectations throughout the playoffs would have been a smart move. I also thought Little overmanaged the game at times. Now I know its not fair to solely put Little in the spotlight for this because a lot of MLB managers are guilty of this. But for instance taking Todd Walker out of the game for Damian Jackson at 2B after he goes 3-3 with a HR for defensive purposes seems like a bad risk-reward tradeoff. I mean it's not like you're substituting David Ortiz from 2B. Walker's a decent infielder.

The difference between the caliber and intensity of play between regular season and the playoffs is astronomical in a Chinese space program type way. No other sport makes such a dramatic transition from the end of regular season to post-season. With regular season baseball, 162 games are played and the importance of each game is so miniscule that the games don't really take on a great deal of interest from day-to-day. That all changes come the playoffs; games are drenched with intensity, drama and nail-biting finishes. The only thing to compare this change in interest to is Hotdogs. When you're at home and someone offers you a hotdog it's a ho-hum food choice, one that you only accept if the fridge is bare. Offer someone a hotdog at a sports event and the reaction is completely different; people are clamoring in line to get one. Something about having a hotdog at a sports event makes it taste that much better. MLB regular season is like having a hotdog at home and playoff action is like having a hotdog at a sports event.

	Pedro laying the smack down.

Even though I wasn't pleased by the end result of the series I came away feeling once again compelled by baseball in way that I hadn't felt since the McGwire-Sosa homerun race. Each and every game of the series was an intense battle that kept viewers glued to their sets wondering what would happen next. Game 3 produced the most notable highlights of the series and they were largely stemmed out of the heated rivalry and distain these teams have for each other. I'm not going into the full detail of the Game 3 altercation simply because they were on every sports show's highlights for the next week after. I'll simply say the image of Pedro Martinez throwing the charging 72-yr old Don Zimmer to the ground like a matador avoids a bull was one I'll never forget. I mean upon seeing that highlight I was like "You're kidding me right? I didn't just see an old man get thrown to the ground by a 3-time Cy Young winner, did I?"

I wasn't expecting MLB to win me back over so dramatically in the month of October but they succeeded. In fact it caught me off guard the same way "sirens" used in songs catch me off guard while driving. Does this happen to anyone else: you're driving listening to a CD and suddenly your head's a swivel trying to spot the police? Someone should ban sirens used in songs. I mean who needs that worry. While the playoff ride was fun, I don't plan on tuning in intently to the World Series. I guess you can call it disappointment but my heart just wouldn't be into it. My only wish for the World Series is that the Marlins win and they manage to get Clemens to bat in a National League park…..I'll leave it to your imagination what I hope happens in that at-bat.