After my last two blogs have been pretty concerned with weighty matters, I figure it’s time for a change. I had a chance earlier this week to go on the Mornings TV/Radio Simulcast show and be interviewed about the World Series that starts today. The good news is that, since I have a face made for radio, I was interviewed by phone, and they didn’t have any mug shots of me on the boob tube.

I’ve done an interview with Lorri Allen & Larry Estepa before, and they are veterans at making anxiety-stricken pj-clad (it’s an East coast show, so the phone call comes pretty early!) writers feel at home during the interview. You can listen to my ramblings & my prediction of who will be participating in the victory dogpile at the end of the game:

http://www.hughpoland.com/About.html

Here are some interesting facts about the 2008 World Series, the 104th in modern times:

The Records--Loveable Losers—Tampa Bay has finished dead last in their division 9 of the 10 years of their existence. No pro sports team in America has gone from being the worst in their sport to being world champion. And Tampa Bay wants to be the first.

But the Phillies have their own records of futility. In their 120+ year history, the Phillies have lost more games than any other pro sports team in America—over 10,000. And they’ve won the World Series exactly once.

The Cities—You can call them the Rays, or you can call them the Devil Rays, but Tampa has never turned out for this baseball team. Opposing teams dread playing in "Echo Park," aka Tropicana Field, because most played in front of more fans at Triple-A. The front office even took to giving away free parking to fans who came to the game in a vehicle with at least 4 people.

But calling Philadelphia the "City of Brotherly Love" is a wish more than an accurate description. The fans are extremely passionate about their teams, no doubt, but have the reputation for being quick to point out the, um, deficiencies of a player with a well-placed snowball to the head (during football season) or a spilled beverage on a player too close to the stands. Phillie fans have suffered through some terrible times, only to have their hearts broken in 1950 as the Whiz Kids ran into the Yankee machine, or in 1964 when the team collapsed down the stretch quicker than a certain Republican nominee for President. "Wild Thing" Williams didn’t help them in ’93 either, when he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as he served up the walk-off home run to Joe Carter & the Blue Jays.

A Question of Experience—No, I promised I wouldn’t talk about the election here. But Tampa Bay has precious little of it. They were just in Little League a few years ago, after all. There was fear among some that they wouldn’t be able to partake in the champagne drenching if they won, since most of them don’t appear to be of legal-drinking age anyway. What the Rays do have is talent, and loads of it.

The Phillies are young, too, but a bit more seasoned. And they also have the AARP crowd covered, with starter #3. "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner," Jamie Moyer, is 45, and in his first World Series. You think he wouldn’t saw off his arm to get a ring? Moyer is the last guy in MLB who is older than I am (by 3 months), so does that mean there’s still hope I could be scouted by the Astros? Hey, now THERE’S a team who needs pitching help . . .

Bottom Line: Rays in six. You heard it here first.