Here's another lengthy one...lots to say about the playoffs this year.

I'll get into game 7 of the NLCS, but first, we have another great LCS in the American League. This was the first time you could actually say that the Red Sox really, really want this. With Pettitte on the mound, the Sox took a 4-1 lead, and then after the meltdown in which the Yankees took a 6-4 lead, the Sox came back and went for the throat with some great at-bats. It's going to be a great game 7. This is just what I wanted, any baseball fan would want, is both LCS to go 7. Ratings, buoyed by the Red Sox and Cubs I'm sure, are up 50%.

Game 7 of the NLCS was just...weird. Kerry Wood must have gotten ahead of every one of those batters in the 1st inning, and then, inexplicably, threw straight fastballs to guys in a 1-2 count! It was 3-0 and I still didn't think they were out of it, and when Wood himself jacked a 2-run HR to tie it, and Alou hit the go-ahead HR, and it looked like Wood was back to form.

But these Marlins, these damn Marlins, are the team that you wish you had to root for. They have scrappers and the just perfectly placed guy who can hit a homer for you. At 3-1, they knew they weren't out of it. They never once looked like, well, it's been a great season. They came back in every game they won except game 5. Who emerged as the pitching stud in this series? Not SI cover boys Wood and Prior. It was Josh Beckett; he did it when it mattered. Ivan Rodriguez found the perfect home in a place devoid of leadership.

Which brings me to skipper Jack McKeon. I'm still not sold on him being the great manager everyone wants to make him out to be, and I read the Neyer column, and what is expertly swept under the rug in that column and by those who praise him is his record AFTER a good season. I didn't remember the specifics of the McKeon era in Cincy except for the 1-game playoff loss to the Mets, but the season after they were 4th. Previous teams met with the same fate.

But he did a good job with the lineup, allowing Cabrera and Lowell to be in at the same time, and taking the inconsistent Encarnacion out for bench help. It was also a great move to put Pavano in game 6 so as to allow the all-the-stops pitching of game 7 (although now Beckett can't pitch game 1 of the World Series). The other thing that got some mention, and as a Braves fan I can attest, is the aggressive play with the lead. Sending runners with wild abandon, making the defense make plays, frustrated the Cubs and led to key moments (Sosa throwing home when he should be throwing to his cutoff man in game 6 when the Marlins took the lead). The Cubs outfield play was atrocious in this series, and if Alou had it to do all over again he wouldn't have made such a big deal about the fan touching the ball (which, in my opinion, led to the deflation of game 6). Sosa must have tripped and stumbled and fumbled 3 or 4 times in key moments, and Kenny Lofton has never had a great arm.

So what do we say about the Cubs, in the same manner as all of the other playoff sendoffs? I hate to say it, but it looks like Prior and Wood have a syndrome that Maddux and Glavine have. They will stun you with greatness early, then when it really is on the line, they forget how to pitch. It may be youth for these guys, and the bright side would be that Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling didn't win the playoffs right away when they were first together. Also, I believe that was Wood's first postseason game at Wrigley this year, where the pressure was at its greatest. The Cubs, I might also mention, need some better hitters. Grudzielanek is the quietest of goats. 9 hits in 50 at-bats and 4 runs scored is what I expect of maybe Paul Bako, but not the number 2 hitter, and as the guy directly ahead of Sosa should be seeing some great pitches, and allowing Sosa to see as many pitches before he comes to bat as possible. And Sosa got the Bonds treatment after game 2 and was completely silent. Why is that possible? The guys ahead didn't do their job.

All of that said, the Marlins are a tough team to beat, and I picked against them in both of their series. I thought surely the Giants would destroy them. But there is something to be said for their pitching, which has not allowed the best hitters to beat them, and they just abuse the guys like Grudzielanek (and Durham, Snow, and Aurilia). Their hitting is very disciplined, and I would have a hard time picking against them whether they play the Yankees or the Red Sox. You can't get these guys down. I think the World Series might be magical this year, another hard-fought, dramatic, draining...what baseball should be. Unfortunately, we have non-tradition-rich Marlins, whose fans only showed up last week, and not the Cubs. But the Marlins are a worthy representative.