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It was a blast bouncing back and forth between the Red Sox and the Vikings pulling out squeakers last night. Bereft of Tivo, there is a stubbornly (stupidly?) old-school desire of mine to let caprice take its course, knowing that Sportscenter would have the really spectacular sports moments that I missed in the flipping. (BTW, PBS's excellent three-hour doc on Jimmy Carter also put in a strong claim on my viewing habits, but fortunately their stuff is widely available on video and reruns.)

Of course the Wolves likewise would have put a firm marker down on my media loyalty, had I been able to find a place where the game was being broadcast on either TV or radio--no such luck, not even with my handy nba.com listening pass for radio games. Just by checking the box score, it looks like a pretty meaningless game, in that the Bucks' Andrew Bogut didn't play, Richard Jefferson went a grand 8 minutes, and Michael Redd obviously continues to mail in his defense. But I'll get to (more of) all of that in a minute. Let's look at happenings on the diamond and the gridiron first.

I had fully intended to lodge my picks for the first-round of the MLB playoffs, but then other assignments piled up, I had a surprising Twins hangover (I'm a fair-weather fan, but the weather was pretty damn fair this year) and I saved myself the opportunity of looking clueless on at least two of the four series. Another reason I didn't weigh in was because my picks were conventional wisdom--I had the Cubs, Phils, Rays, and Angels, figuring the NL matchups would be three or four game blowouts, that the White Sox would be tougher than expected and that the Angels would need the full five to take the BoSox.

I underestimated the Cubs' capacity to celebrate their 100th year without a championship with an epic choke--when even Derek Lee is making errors and Zambrano is regarded as one of the cooler heads, you know the North Siders are toast. Driving back from the Wolves' scrimmage Saturday night, I managed to pick up WGN and hear the blatant, absolutely pathetic homerism of Pat Hughes and Ron Santo. Within two innings I had switched my allegiance and was rooting for the Dodgers. How bad is Santo? Well, the guy was cheering so hard for his home nine that he forgot to offer up any analysis, other than to say repeatedly that the Cubbies were thankfully not helping the Dodgers' starter, Kuroda, by swinging at bad pitches. Whenever there was even a slight ray of hope, he began excitedly saying that this was the breakthrough the team had been waiting for and now things were getting back into allignment. Alas, the squad left two men on base with two outs in three of the first five innings. Apparently not even God wanted to have mercy on Ron Santo.

Anyway, my "big" pick remains in play. About a month ago, I had one of those moments where my head and my gut were convinced of the same thing: This was the year the Phillies would win it all. I almost devoted an entire post to it, then thought about how awful my preseason picks had been (my division winners? Red Sox [no], Indians [no], Mariners [no!], D-Backs [no], Mets [no], and Cubs [yay]) and chickened out. Now I'm going to jinx them by going public with it.

They are the best balanced team in baseball. They've got superb table-setters in Rollins and Victorino (who both have more pop than your usual 1-2 guys), a hitting machine in Utley (yeah, I know he had a mediocre second half), two RBI studs in Howard and Burrell (both old fashioned homer-or-K hitters) and a guy in shadows coming into his own as a hitter in Jason Werth. With that kind of wood (and speed) among your top six, who cares if Feliz and Ruiz and whoever can't hit?

At the beginning of the season I thought the Phillies didn't have the pitching to contend, but retiring GM Pat Gillick (one of the game's most underrated talent evaluators, and perhaps the last of the great non-sabermetric GMs) went out and got Brad Lidge as his closer and then Joe Blanton during Oakland's fire sale. Cole Hamels emerged as a legit ace, and, in perhaps the key turnaround for the Phils, Brett Myers came back from the minors with his head on straight and harnessed his great stuff to become a tough #2 starter. This puts less pressure on the admittedly mediocre Blanton and junk-throwing octogenarian Jamie Moyer (he's at least 83, right?) at the back of the rotation. And the middle relief has been superb, including a pair of ex-Twins, Chad "Real Deal" Durbin, and JC Romero. Correction: Thanks to a reader comment, I now know that JD Durbin, who hasn't pitched for the Phils since '07, is the "Real Deal," and that Chad, the effective middle reliever of '08, is a former Royal, Tiger, etc.

The Phils overcame the Brewers three out of four without getting anything from their lefty mashers Utley and Howard. I think that will change against the Dodgers--and it had better, because LA has been playing better ball than Milwaukee or most anyone else the past six weeks. The arrival of Manny has been the biggest factor, of course, but having veteran Casey Blake around and now Raffy Furcal back solidifying the infield and leading off again is important--he's a damn site better than Angel Berroa--as is the ongoing maturation of Andre Ethier, who ironically helped chase Werth out of LA and into the arms of the Phillies. Against the Cubs, Manny came to the plate 14 times and was retired on only five of them. The farm system has been productive, providing James Loney and Russell Martin as well as Ethier (Blake DeWitt not so much).

The Dodgers' pitching is the equal of Philadelphia's. Derek Lowe is the veteran workhorse who gets the ground balls in tough situations, but Chad Billingsley has better stuff and is probably the ace in waiting. Either way, they are a formidable, if not overwhelming, 1-2 combo, and Kuroda's six shutout innings versus the Cubs indicates that the big stage of the postseason isn't going to make him flinch. Plus there is always future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux as an emergency starter or for long relief. The bullpen has customarily relied on the troika of righty Jonathon Broxton and lefty Joe Beimel setting up closer Takashi Saito, but Saito hasn't been as dominant this year as in the previous two, and is losing primacy to Broxton. In any event, this will be a whale of a series, with the winner going on to take the World Series. I still think that will be the Phillies.

Over in the AL, you got two more very likeable teams. It could be easy to hate on the Red Sox as the latter day Yankees, simply buying their way to championships, except that they have essentially remade themselves on the fly, and feature a bunch of exciting young hitters. This isn't the veteran squad of Schilling and Manny. In their series win over the Angels, it wasn't even really the team of Big Papi and Beckett and Mike Lowell. Instead, the stars were Jon Lester (who may or may not have been offered to the Twins for Santana) and Jed Lowrie (who was offered) and Jason Bay, who came over in the Manny three-way. They've also got MVP favorite Dustin Pedroia and MVP darkhorse (and deserving winner) Kevin Youkilis and the swift Jacoby Ellsbury (last season's playoff hero) and the sore-backed by dangerous JD Drew. On the mound, they've got Lester and Beckett and the back-rocking Dice-K, with Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson for the 6th and 7th, Okajima for the 8th and Papelbon for the 9th.

That should be enough to beat the Rays, who nevertheless should have a bundle of confidence from holding off the BoSox twice during key head-to-head series down the stretch. Furthermore, the Rays have beaten Boston eight of nine at home, and enjoy home field advantage in this series. Finally, it is all gravy by now, for this franchise, isn't it? They should be playing like they have nothing to lose.

Still, I don't think the Rays' pitching staff can withstand Boston's lineup. Scott Kazmire has the stuff of a legitimate ace, but can be prone to control problems, and the Red Sox have a lineup of judicious eyes, led by Youkilis and Drew. They also have a nice mix of vets who have been here and done that, and kids who are pumped to make their own mark this time around. The Rays have impressive young talent-- Longoria, Upton, Navarro-- and benefit from the return of Crawford and Baldelli. Carlos Pena and Cliff Floyd have provided great veteran leadership, along with Jason Bartlett (who is now officially overrated, right?). But I think Boston wins this thing in five or six games.

The Minnesota Vikings, on the other hand, are not likeable. Their coach is unimaginative, their big free agent acquisitions are underachieving, and if it wasn't for a 37-year old backup quarterback and a mighty-mite defensive back, they'd be 0-5 this season.

Nevertheless, even at 2-3, the Vikes are hardly out of the playoff chase. They caught a huge break with all the gift turnovers provided by the Saints last night (the game was brutally hard-hitting, but that isn't what caused the key miscues from Sean Payton's team) and survived a pair of punt-return TDs from Reggie Bush, who could have had three if he hadn't tripped himself. After Bush had already taken one back to the house and then nearly broke another, announcer Mike Tirico proclaimed, even as the ball was snapped to punter Chris Kluwe, "Don't kick it to Reggie Bush." Not only did Kluwe boot it right to Bush, but it was a line-drive, not allowing the coverage team time to get downfield. These are the kinds of abjectly stupid moves that make you question Childress. But I digress...

The Vikes are only a game behind the Bears, making their home-and-home matchups the biggest games of the season. The season is less than a third completed, but it is hard to imagine the NFC Central bagging a wild card spot when the conference's four best clubs all seem to reside in the East (Giants, Cowboys, Redskins, Eagles). Fortunately, the Vikes have played five relatively strong opponents thus far and now get a break in the schedule just as they are getting Bryant McKinney, and presumably safety Madieu Williams next week, back into action. Yeah, the surprising loss of EJ Henderson hurts, but half of EJ's prominence is the position he plays (the other half is his intelligence and physicality, both superior to backup David Herron).

Can the Vikings now beat the teams they are supposed to beat? That will determine whether they fight to the finish with Chicago and Green Bay for the division crown. Frankly, I've been surprised at the lack of dominance by either the offensive or defensive lines. You got at least three Pro Bowlers on each side of the ball on those lines. Yet they couldn't protect Frerotte (the aged QB) or spring marvelous RB Adrian Peterson last night. On the other side of the ball, the Williams duo and Jared Allen should make the Vikes are fearsome as the other elite NFL defenses. Is it that the Ravens and the Steelers and Titans have better linebackers? Yes, and that's what I mean about Henderson, who is good but not great. But two years ago the linebackers were likewise iffy and the front four was a brick wall nonetheless. Besides, Henderson and Ben Leber and company aren't that ordinary, and with Winfield and Darren Sharper in the secondary, the Vikes have solid, proven talent throughout their defense. True, they haven't exactly been bowled over by anyone this season, and the caliber of opponent has been rugged. But Frerotte isn't going to stay healthy the entire season, Winfield isn't going to score touchdowns every other game, the receiving corps is mediocre at best, and defenses are going to continue to gang up on AP. It is ultimately up to the lines, the true heart and soul (and source of greatest investment) on this team, to tighten up and begin dictating play. Otherwise, Brad Childress will be looking for work in January.

Which brings us to the Wolves. Not having seen nor heard the game, I'm going by what I get out of the box score. And the first thing I get is that the Bucks sent out their JV team, with Bogut out, Jefferson limited to the first 7:57 (during which the Wolves were merely plus +2, at 14-12), and point guards Tyronne Lue and Luke Ridenour sidelined, leaving Ramon Sessions to play 35 minutes and commit five turnovers.

At one point the lead was 45 points, and the final margin was 117-79. Given the absence of competitive resistance, what the stats begin to reveal is what roles the players assumed for themselves. For example, Mike Miller led the team with 7 assists while shooting only 5 times in 26:11. By contrast, Kevin Love attempted a team-high 10 shots in 22:50, and yet didn't get to line once while his teammates were going 31-43 from the charity stripe. Love did tie for the team-high with two offensive boards (same as Al Jefferson). Shaddy McCants obviously went to the hoop, ringing up 12 FTA in 19:24, which, combined with his 5-6 shooting (including 2-3 3ptFG), gave him a team-high 22. Jefferson had 18, most of them early to set the tone. He says low-block scoring is "like riding a bike," a fabulous quote that is probably true for him.

Corey Brewer was 5-8 FG, and Bassy Telfair was 3-6 FG (and got to the line 5 times in 16:08). Both good signs for notorious bricklayers.

It was also nice to see a big lineup take the floor, with Mark Madsen set between Jefferson and Gomes up front and Miller and Foye in the backcourt. Next game is against the Oklahoma City Thunder. (I hate 'em already. Anytime you trade Oklahoma City for Seattle, well, for the love of Downtown Freddie Brown, your league is bound to suffer. A pox on David Stern's house.) In Billings, Montana. Maybe it will be on the radio.