Battle lines drawn

No miracles in St. Louis this year, I'm afraid. The Astros shook off Pujols' blast in Game Five to win the National League Championship Series in six games and face the White Sox in the World Series.

I grew up in New York watching both the Mets and Yankees -- and thanks to the advent of sports talk radio in the 1980s, listen to their fans explain why each other's teams suck.

Here in Chicago, from what I can tell anyway, the dislike between Cubs fans and White Sox fans is there, albeit in a silent sort of way.

My problem with Yankees fans is with 26 championships to their names -- and a mad owner willing to spend more than Zimbabwe's GNP on his players -- they all believe the World Series belongs to them as a matter of divine right.

In that case, baseball fans, the season will now end the first week of April. Did you all get the memo?

Mets fans -- not all of them, but a huge bunch of them -- whine about how they get no respect. They feel they get the short end in everything (ever been to Shea Stadium on say a cold Thursday night in September when the Mets are long out if it and facing a team like Pittsburgh or Milwaukee or Colorado? Think morgue.)

The Mets' ownership will say they spend responsibly -- which is a nice way of saying, "We have 'x' dollars in our budget and are not going to go past that regardless.' -- well. combine that and traffic on the Grand Central and it's a miracle anyone will play for them.

If both sides would just dial it back a little, baseball in New York might be fun again. It's a game. It's not life or death.

What do you think? I'd like to know.