Why riot after winning?

When it comes to sports, since sports are an atavistic pursuit, my preferences when I don't have a favorite based on experience (UCLA in my case) are essentially atavistic. I almost always root for the most westerly and/or southerly team, except when I have a personal interest that goes otherwise. I spent 8 years in Babylon-by-the-Potomac and participated in Redskins Madness, so I still have a soft spot for the Redskins. My wife is from Buffalo, so I always have a slight preference for the Bills winning, a preference that sadly hasn't been fulfilled this year. My nephew loves the Yankees, my boss loves the Phillies, so I go along with them unless we're talking about Angels, the truly atavistic choice for me.

All that is prelude to being fairly pleased that the SF Giants (pace Sports Illustrated) trounced the Rangers in the World Series. Even though I grew up in Southern California and absorbed a certain amount of anti-SF propaganda as a youth, once I visited and spent time in San Francisco it became one of my favorite cities. If I could afford it I might even like to live there.

But why oh why did the San Francisco fans decide to riot in the wake of the World Series clincher? It couldn't have been because Barack Obama didn't call, could it? I have never understood the "we've won, let's trash the town" impulse, although I think I understand why mobs sometimes get out of control when a few people start with the violence. But it's regrettable nonetheless.

Except for Bruins, a great sports day

Did I say this was going to be a terrific World Series? I love a game that comes down to the 9th inning and could go either way. I also love it that 45-year-old junk-ball pitcher Jamie Moyer had a good game for the Phillies, and, I guess, even if he didn't get the win, his team did, 5-4, with a run in the bottom of the 9th.

The Penn State-Ohio State game was similarly interesting until very late, but even though an Ohio State win would have benefited USC (I'm West Coast-centric even when it's USC, though I'll have a different attitude in early December) I was kinda glad to see old Joe Pa's team doing so well this year. And the USC-Arizona game, finally won by USC, was hard-fought and could have gone the other way with some different breaks, even though I think USC is better talent-wise.

As of the UCLA-Cal game, what can I say? at the start of the 4th quarter I thought the Bruins had a chance, but they came up a yard short on the 3rd-and-forever and things just fell apart. I don't know if Kevin Craft will start the next game or not.

3-2 Phillies

Fox might not be exactly enchanted by a World Series between two relatively small-market teams who probably don't have much a national following (yet), but I think this is going to be an excellent World Series for those who like fundamentally sound baseball closely contested. I think I'm rooting for the Rays, if only because they moved up from having the worst record last year to earning their way here by winning when they had to -- and because their manager, Joe Maddon, used to be bench coach for the Angels. And maybe because they gave up the Devil?

Tonight was a case of good pitching beating good hitting, on both sides, with Cole Hamels being just a bit better and the Rays pitchers stranding 11 Phillies and Brad Lidge, the Phillies closer being lights-out in the ninth. Both teams earned their way here by winning over teams that mnight have been expected to beat them, both are fairly young, with guys likely to be stars for some time to come, and both have fairly interesting stories. I could be wrong; maybe one team will close it out quickly, but I still expect an interesting series with most of the games competitive. For a fan with no strong allegiance either way, that's close to perfect.

World Series run-up might be worthwhile

Here's a nice column by WaPo's Thomas Boswell suggesting that the league championship series and maybe even the World Series might be worth watching after all -- even if George Steinbrenner upstages the series by announcing his plans regarding Joe Torre.

It's not what most people expected, which might make it more interesting. The Diamondbacks, Rockies and Indians are three of the cheapest teams in baseball, payroll-wise, and they rely a lot on rookies and young players. But it could be interesting to watch Troy Tulowitzki, Ubaldo Jimenez, Fausto Carmona, Chris Young, Asdrubal Cabrera and some of the others to see which ones emerge as post-season stars. They may all be household names in a few years.

The Rockies clobbered the D-Backs 5-1 in the first NLCS game.