WHERE I STAND

Here's where I stand through one round of the playoffs:

First of all, I think this is going to be a fantastic ALCS. I think it will have everything you want in a playoff series - it will be intense, it will be dramatic, it will be good baseball. The Red Sox and Rays are very familiar with one another - this will be just like Yankees-Red Sox of 2003 or 2004. There will probably be a brawl, and I think it might go 7 games. But I'll make my picks tomorrow.

The NLCS does nothing for me. I made a list of matchups that intrigued me before the playoffs started - that will never appear because many of the matchups included the Mets. But the Rays-Red Sox was one of the matchups. Dodgers-Phillies was not.

As for the playoffs as a whole, I'm not too thrilled. I have no one who I feel very attached to, and no one I want to tie my cart to. I liked the Twins, I thought I might be interested in rooting for the Cubs...but now I'm left with teams that I can't really see myself pulling too strongly for.

Here are the strikes against them - it's pretty obvious, I think, in the National League - I hold grudges in sports, and the Dodgers represent 1988...a disappointing year for the Mets. I also don't much care for Manny Ramirez...which you may have picked up over the years. The Phillies are the Phillies. If they go to the World Series (very likely), I'll be pretty angry about it.

In the AL, I've written before that though I like certain players on the Rays, overall I think they're a bunch of punks. And I bet that shows through during this ALCS. But I have to root for them for this simple reason - in 1915, the Red Sox played Philadelphia in the World Series. In 1916, they played the Dodgers. And Tampa Bay has never played either team in the World Series. So I think it's pretty clear what I need to happen.

I'll have my picks tomorrow.