Sports Redux: Waiting and Hoping

The Twins beat the Tigers, so the field of eight is set in the baseball playoffs. All we can do now is wait. And wait and wait and wait. The Red Sox won't play until tomorrow night, when all the other first-round playoff series start today.

(An aside, because nothing happened around here last night and we have to get this off our chests. Have you seen the first-round schedule? Games one and two of the Colorado/Philly series are at 2:37 Eastern, today and tomorrow, which means everyone in Philadelphia has to start watching during work hours, and everyone in Denver has to start watching during lunch. So there's playoff baseball in the afternoon during the week, but Saturday there are only two games, both at night. We seriously think Bud Selig is trying to destroy baseball. There's no other explanation.)

And they'll play the Angels, again, as we've known since August, which gives Dan Shaughnessy a chance to rack up the expense account by going out to Anaheim and asking baseball players if they like watching baseball. If you want to read something that's actually interesting, Jackie MacMullan profiles Youuuuk.

Meanwhile, in LA and Anaheim and everywhere else that embraces the Angels, they're daring to dream of a Freeway Series. And a Boston blogger has sent an Angels blog tips on how to beat the Sox. Also from the West Coast perspective, there's a profile of Mike Scioscia that we liked a lot (especially the chores he demands of his players), and they do their own Boston/Anaheim comparion that's a lot more evenhanded than anything we'd do.