It's true. The weather is perfect -- just a little nippy, perfect for skirts and knee high boots and cute scarfs, not cold enough to need a hat and gloves. It's almost Halloween, so there is fun candy in the stores like mellocreme pumpkins (my second favorite seasonal candy after Cadbury eggs). The leaves are turning, and falling (at least here in New York). And...

It's the best sports month of the entire year! (Yeah, you knew I had to get sports in it somehow, didn't you.) October beats out March and NCAA basketball because of the baseball playoffs, and really good college football games (i.e. OU-TX and this year OU-OSU), but really because of the baseball playoffs. And this year could be VERY special for us Cardinals fans.

So no contest who I'm rooting for overall, and in the National League. In the American League I'm torn; I have come to love the Minnesota Twins, thanks to Batgirl, but if the Yankees and the Cardinals both make the Series, I could actually ride the subway train I take to work everyday to see a World Series game. But then again, I probably shouldn't be spending money on World Series tickets. So I'm rooting for the Twins, but I won't be really sad if the Yankees are American League champs -- as long as the Cardinals are champs of the National League. My Redbirds got off to a good start today -- see Redbird Nation [link disabled] for a great recap of our 8-3 spanking of the Dodgers-- and, as we speak, the Minnesota Twins lead the Yankees 2-0.

But this is only the division series (what's the plural of series? serii? serieses?) and there are two others being played:

Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros: Hard to hate either of these teams, though I have in the past. I'd rather face the Braves and avenge the 1996 NLCS, but it's hard not to pull for the Astros, who not only made a furious finish to grab the wild card from the Cubbies, but have never won any playoff series in their entire history.

Boston Red Sox vs. um, Anaheim Angels: Had to think about who the Red Sox were playing, mostly because the sports media has practically annointed the ALCS as another Red Sox-Yankee battle. This is more a disservice to the Twins, who are a legitimate contender, then the Angels, who didn't win the Al West as much as the Rangers and A's lost it. And, as if to prove my point, the Red Sox won 9-3 in Anaheim today. I've got nothing against the Angels, and I'd love to see them screw up everyone's playoff predictions, but this may be the one true gimmie pick in the bunch.

I will close with an interesting basball history fact: do you know where the Dodgers' name comes from? The original incarnation of the team was the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, because back in the early days of baseball and the nineteenth century, it was trolleys, not subways, that provided mass transportation around Brooklyn. Of course, the trolleys were gone from Brooklyn long before the Dodgers themselves, but part of the nickname persisted. Cool, huh? (Fact credit: Forgotten New York)