The New Evil Empire vs. The Salary Cap Rebellion

As disappointed as I am for the city of Cleveland, their future is bright with a very good Indians team continuing to get better, LeBron James becoming a global icon and Brady Quinn's handsome burliness eventually helping the Browns, so we'll weep not for the Mistake by the Lake. It's probably better that Chief Wahoo has the winter to rest, as it's hard to root against either team when it comes to Rockies vs. Indians, a problem certainly not relevant when Rocktoberfest takes on Red Sox Nation.

Like the Yankees whose division and payroll infiniteness they share, the Red Sox have grown into a perfect antagonist. Their fans are of the bandwagoning, annoying variety and their roster is filled to the brim with million-dollar mistakes that would cripple most franchises, yet simply cause Boston to spend more money the next offseason to make up for it. While the Yankees payroll is still considerably higher than Boston, they make up for it by embracing their role as the Evil Empire while Red Sox fans still fancy themselves as some sort of champion for the underdog.

Well, the true champion for the underdog resides in Colorado, and they've lost one game out of their last twenty-two. I'm not confident the Rockies can deal with Beckett/Schilling twice, but I'm hoping they can. Considering the recent failures of teams I root for, you can pretty much guarantee a Boston victory. Still, if the theater is anything like the last time a billion-dollar AL West franchise took on an underdog from the NL West, you'll want to stay tuned.


(I was interested last night in how baseball would do versus America's new national past time, the NFL, and they dominated, with the Steelers/Broncos game coming in third behind Eva and the rest of the Housewives.)

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I'm home for the week for Fall Break, meaning I get to lounge around the Ranchero, finish up season three of The Wire and crack into the half dozen books that have slowly accumulated throughout the semester as I focused on important college stuff like midterms and weeknight drinking. Expect updates - shocking, I know - starting with me trying to figure out what's going on on Heroes as Kristen Bell debuts this evening. I only have the vaguest sense of the mythology and plot structure of the show, but instead of doing research, I'm just going to hop in and hope Bell gets to destroy Hayden Panettiere.