Here are my thoughts on the eliminated teams of this year's postseason.

MINNESOTA TWINS: What it comes down to is they simply did not have the firepower to overcome the Yankees. Now, after game 1, I thought the Yankees were back in 2002 mode where they waited around for homers. Obviously, they turned that around, hitting lots of singles and doubles, and an occasional HR. Plus, I don't know that the Twins would win anyway because the Yankees pitching was dominant, even in the game 1 loss. The Twins lost because their offense was not good enough, and their pitching never kept them in it. This is why the AL Central was up for grabs this year because none of the top teams were really that good.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS: In the postseason, your flaws become magnified. This team got to the World Series last year by beating teams that were just as flawed as them, and then they ran into yet another team with numerous flaws that just happened to beat them. In this case, the Giants' flaw is they have no one other than Jason Schmidt that can throw big pitches. Their offense can keep up to a point, but unlike last year where teams responded to Dusty Baker's challenge (the whole "integrity of the game" spiel) and pitched to Barry Bonds, the Marlins refused to do so. Which, here you go Mike, is a great testiment to Jack McKeon's managerial skill.

OAKLAND A's: I keep hearing how this pitching staff mirrors the early 90's Braves, and they're right. This staff is good enough to make it through most of the game, but eventually good hitters will start catching up. Of all the pitchers, they have not one guy who can blow you away. Maybe Hudson, but he makes enough mistakes to get beat. They can talk about Game 3 and how they got robbed, but good teams find a way, and play smart, and in Game 3 they did not. In Game 5 they did not. They got thrown out trying to extend perfectly good singles into doubles, doubles into triples, and so on. What was lost in the Damon collision was that Jermaine Dye got thrown out at second (Garciaparra making the smart play). It's funny, when the A's got the 2-0 lead, I still thought the Red Sox would win.

ATLANTA BRAVES: This year, with the best offense in the NL, but with shaky pitching, they got beat for an entirely different reason: The Cubs have two automatic pitchers in Wood and Prior, and no team IN THE MAJORS would have beaten the Cubs in a five game series. That said, Atlanta couldn't take advantage of the Cubs dismal offense and made crucial errors in Game 1 and Game 3 that cost them a sweep (The Cubs also could have swept this series), both made by Robert Fick (0-10 in the series, to boot). In Game 1, it was the double play he didn't turn that led to a 4-run inning. What was the score of game 1? 4-1. Do the math. In Game 3 against Prior, it was his falling down during a bunt that led to 2 Cubs runs. The game ended 3-1, but I'd more than be happy to give that game to the Cubs if the Braves could have pulled out Game 1. Julio Franco is the best choice at first base, and it's unfortunate Bobby Cox didn't know that until game 4. I saw him hit a homer against Randy Johnson in the NLCS in 2001. He's the best guy against the best pitchers. Too bad Atlanta, in the same criticism I have about the Yankees, rely too much on the homer. Gary Sheffield looked like a fool the entire series, and for that matter, so did Javy Lopez, and Andruw Jones was nonexistent.

The difference between winning a series and losing a series is miniscule, especially in the case of the A's and Braves. Smart play would have turned both series around, but they did not have the personnel on the field.

As you know, the Braves elimination makes me a big Cubs fan, and a big fan of the Red Sox as well. I am hoping, like most baseball fans, for this World Series matchup. This is not going to be easy, folks. Although I find the Yankees incredibly flawed compared to their glory years of 1996-2000, I find the Red Sox also to be incredibly flawed, mostly due to their inconsistent pitching. The Cubs must face the team that also boasts a pitching staff that some might say is the best in baseball, and that's bad news for the Cubs because, as I noted before, their hitting is not very good. I hope for all the series from here on to go 7 games.

As for the other possible matchups in the World Series, I think it's safe to say that I'd be disappointed in a Red Sox-Marlins matchup. With the Yankees/Marlins, you have sort of a trivia game, the only team other than the Yankees to win between '96-'00. In Cubs/Yankees, you have the most storied losers versus the most storied winners.

Movies:

OUT OF TIME: A very well-done thriller, with a highly cliched ending that brings it down a notch. For an hour and a half, this movie is very tense and exciting. Denzel Washington does his usual good work, although it has become routine to see his sincere, black-guy-strikes-back demeanor in almost every movie. Eva Mendes is incredibly hot, and very good, in this.

INTOLERABLE CRUELTY: Do I say the worst of the Coen Brothers' films, or their least greatest? In this sort of rocky-paced effort, we have George Clooney being very funny, Catherine Zeta-Jones being hot (a far cry from the performance she gives in CHICAGO, although that's not to say she's not good), and Billy Bob Thornton basically stealing the movie in the five minutes of screen time he has. There are some Coen-isms that creep through this highly mainstream movie, but not enough, and what we have is a movie that would be considered really good if it weren't the Coens behind it. Is that fair? I think so.

KILL BILL, VOL. I: I have seen this movie twice. In fact, I saw this movie with one set of Regal employees, and then after it was over, saw it with another batch of Regal employees. Here's a catch-22: If Quentin Tarantino made more movies, I might be able to make a case that he's one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, but if he made more movies, he might not take the care he does in making these movies. As it is, this is the 4th Tarantino film in 11 years, and it's only half a movie! And what a half a movie it is! EVERY SINGLE SCENE in this movie is important, well-shot, well-acted, and most of all, entertaining. Uma Thurman is the best chick badass I have ever seen, and it's unfair for me to even say chick because her performance is so good that sexism never creeps into your mind. That said, Lucy Liu is the second-best chick badass I have ever seen. Once again, Tarantino plays with time in order to make his movie have a better resonance (Would we have wanted PULP FICTION to end with Bruce Willis on a motorcycle driving off into the sunset?). The Japanimation sequence in the movie is visceral and even though you may have seen Japanimation before, you've never seen it used this way, so brilliantly. I must not say anymore, but you must see this movie when it opens October 10.