Pardon a smallish digression from the world of games to something truly important ... baseball. With painful memories of the '04 and '05 postseason meltdowns acid-etched into my mind, I've not been able to summon the intestinal fortitude to watch either of the first two Red Sox/Angels games. (And postseason Angels games really take a toll on one's stomach.)

Now, with the Halos up 2-0, I'm wondering if it's safe to peek between my fingers as the series repairs to Fenway Park. My gut-twisting gut-level feeling is that this series goes the full five games, which is my recipe for pure torture. But ... Angels pitchers seemed to have conquered their fear of BoSox hitters and shut them down.

Besides, I've been wrong before about this team -- 1,000% wrong about Bobby Abreu, who's been a tremendous influence for the better. His superb plate discipline has been worlds away from the bizarre flailing of Vladimir Guerrero (which you can only get away with if you're Vlad and can lift a far-outside pitch over the fence in straightaway center). Patient at-bats were the key to the Angels' '02 World Series run, which made up for less-than-dominant starting pitching. If there's an Angels/Yankees ALCS, it'll be a contest to see who can take more pitches: a real tortoise-and-hare match.

At least the Angels and BoSox share a common adversary: the umpires. "Country" Joe West and C.B. Bucknor are showing yet again why they are two of the worst in MLB ... although seemingly every American League playoff game this year (including the Metrodome miniseries that finished the Detroit Tigers) has been plagued by truly craptacular umpiring and amazingly poor calls. If this were the NFL, these clowns would be relegated to working late-season Rams/Raiders games or some purgatorial equivalent.

Speaking of the Yanks, I can't hold out much hope for my old home team, the Minnesota Twins. All the Homer Hankies in the world aren't going to do it for a pitching staff that can't hold a lead against the Bronx Bombers, and it pains me to type that.

Thanks for your indulgence. We now return to our irregularly scheduled blogging. As soon as I find my Rally Monkeys, that is.

P.S.: It's a damnable shame that our server won't load previously unused images into the blogs. 'Cuz I've got a great Philly Phanatic photo that would be perfect should they make it to the Fall Classic.

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"What are they going to do when this fails, ban poker books and burn our players at the stake? We see headlines like this coming from communist [sic] China but never expect that it could happen here in Minnesota." -- Matt Werden, Minnesota director of the Poker Players Alliance, reacting to an order from the administration of Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) to 11 Internet service providers, "demanding that these ISPs block access by Minnesotans to approximately 200 sites connected to online gambling."

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Even when we were both students at Macalester College (Class of '83) in St. Paul, Minn., the future courses of both Matt Entenza and myself were set: I was the consummate underachiever and he the consummate politician -- a term that is often meant pejoratively but not so here. Matt knew when to hold them and fold them, with the consequence that he got a great deal accomplished within the system.

However, when the Significant Other and I attended a 25th reunion party at chez Entenza on a sticky late-spring Twin Cities evening last year, I hadn't so much as an inkling of the surprise that Matt had up his sleeve ... although anybody who'd known him should have seen it coming decades in advance. Today he announced his candidacy for the Minnesota gubernatorial nomination on the Democratic-Farmer-Labor ticket. (And, yes, I've already been hit up for a campaign contribution.) Even without knowing who his opposition will be, I think it's safe to say that Matt's extensive DFL connections and not-inconsiderable skills give him the inside track.

S&G doesn't endorse individual candidates, not even ones with whom we attended school. So let's just say that after the erratic Jesse Ventura and underwhelming Tim Pawlenty administrations, a Matt Entenza governorship would be by definition an improvement. (So might a Donald the Duck administration, but I digress.) The same might be said for previous DFL gubernatorial nominees, who have tended to put the "L" (as in "loser") in "DFL."

It's certainly nice to think that the party's standard bearer might be someone I admire, instead of yet another election cycle of, "Oh no, not that clown!" The Peter Principle is a founding tenet of DFL politics but perhaps now 2010 will be the exception to that rule. Also, until further notice, I am holding myself available for the position of Minnesota's Special Emissary to Las Vegas ... especially if it requires "fact-finding missions" to various and sundry casino buffets.

Survey says ... that 90%+ of Americans think the economy is an important issue. Pardon my bluntness, but who the Sam Hill are the -10% of Americans that think the economy isn't important right now and what are they smoking? Wait, I've got it: They must be the ones filling up Internet messages boards parsing, prasing and profaning the profound pensées of Carrie Prejean, Miss California ... although I'd swear she hails from the great state of Mattel™.

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