Figured this hasn't received a thread, so why not? What better thing to get debates going than the good ol' HOF.

It's that deadest time of the baseball year, after the World Series, before the Winter Meetings ... The notable trade this week wasn't Tigers/Rockies but rather Pistons/Nuggets ... Who's the MLB equivalent of Allen Iverson, anyway? ... In G.M. news, your World Champion Phillies (that still looks strange) tabbed, to nobody's surprise, Ruben Amaro Jr., while the Red Sox re-upped Theo Epstein ... Is new pitching coach Mike Maddux the Rangers' most significant pitching acquisition since Fergie Jenkins 35 years ago? ... The Brewers placed a "courtesy" bid on CC Sabathia -- where's he going to end up, anyway? ...

What else is going on?

Sources say the Milwaukee Brewers will hire former Oakland skipper and former Jay Ken Macha as their new manager.  In other news, rumoured Jays trade target Mike Jacobs has been dealt from Florida to Kansas City and  Detroit is not picking up the option on Edgar Renteria.

Mother Nature decided Phillies fans will have wait for a chance to celebrate their first World Series title since 1980 as rain led to the suspension of Game 5. 

Update:  Game 5, Part 2 has been pushed back to Wednesday.  It will pick up in the bottom of the sixth inning, tied at 2-2.

The Philadelphia Phillies, the losingest franchise in all of pro sports, are just one win away from the World Series title after a 10-2 beatdown of the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 4 last night.

And it goes like this.  The 45 year-old lefty was able to work out the kinks in his "power finesse" repertoire and almost made history by becoming the oldest pitcher to win a World Series game.  Still, the Phillies southpaw and his teammates got to celebrate a wild and wacky 5-4 walkoff win over the Tampa Bay Rays to grab a 2-1 World Series lead.  Mad props to both teams who managed to stay awake after a 91 minute rain delay and give us a good ball game to watch, for those of us who managed to keep our eyes open!

The World Series is now a best-of-five affair after the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 at the Trop last night.

Knowing they had to win at least once in Florida in order to win the whole thing, the Philadelphia Phillies are up one game to nothing after a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays last night at Tropicana Field. 

The American League champion Tampa Bay Rays will face the National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies in Game One of the World Series tonight.  First pitch is expected to fly just after 8:00 p.m. at Tropicana Field.

1/2 the World Series is set up with the Phillies returning for the first time since Joe touched them all. The Rays came oh so close to joining them last night but blew it like the Jays of the early 80's.

The happiest I've been all post-season was about an hour ago when Matt Stairs took a Jonathan Broxton fastball deep to give the Phillies a 7-5 lead and a 3-1 lead in the NLCS.

Anybody here remember Jeff Lahti? A fine RHRP for the Cardinals in the mid-1980s, he saved 19 games for the '85 Redbirds in a bullpen that also included one-time closers like Bill Campbell, Neil Allen, Todd Worrell and Doug Bair. Lahti turns 52 today -- he is the only major league alumnus born on Oct. 8, 1956.

So, um, you think, who cares? Well, it's as good an excuse as any to call to mind that today is also the 52nd anniversary of one of the most famous games ever pitched.

The playoffs started just two days ago and the Brewers and Cubs look like they may already be done.

The AL just has one game each in their series.  The Rays got off to a nice start and the Red Sox continued their mastery of the Angels.

The Jays bring back all the coaches for 2 more years and the White Sox force a one game playoff with the Twins to be played at 7:30 tonight in Chicago.

There are supposed to be eight teams still standing. There's nine for the moment. The White Sox have a makeup game later today with the mighty ("they could score 1000 runs!") Detroit Tigers, favoured by many pundits to win The Whole Darn Thing. If the Sox win that, the Twins come to Chicago on Tuesday to play a tiebreaker to settle the AL Central title. But the Tigers will be motivated today - after all, if they win they will catch up to the Kansas City Royals and finish tied for fourth.

Anyway - can I actually cheer for any of these outfits?