How's my rooting going? Nice of you to ask. The Division Series in the AL were fantastic. Seeing Boston get swept was cause for celebration, and watching the Yankees go down in painful, five-game fashion was almost better. As I said, though, since I actually like Alex Rodriguez, the scorn and bile heaped on him at the end of the series by New Yorkers didn't seem quite fair. He's being compensated well to take this kind of abuse, though, so I guess he'll just have to deal with it.

The NL didn't go so well. It was unfortunate that my #1 (Padres) and #2 (Cardinals) teams were matched up in the first round, especially since my #1 team was so thoroughly overmatched. Jake Peavy's broken rib certainly didn't hurt matters. The Astros-Braves series also came out opposite the way I'd have preferred, but at least it was a good, competitive series.

And now, of course, following the NL trend more than the AL one, the Cardinals are somehow losing to the Astros while the White Sox are beating up on the Angels. The Angels got jobbed on "The Drop," sure, but when you play close games, certain tiny things often tip the scales. Usually, those tiny things actually take place out on the field, like your shortstop's dive coming up three inches too short, or your closer's fastball being an inch too far outside.

I guess what it's really coming down to is the pitching of the White Sox and Astros living up to their billing, which was entirely predictable, and also entirely unsatisfactory.