AstroSox

1959 was the first year in my life that there was no representative from New York City in the World Series. As a typically provincial New Yorker I was stuck for some reason to attend to the Fall Classic, so I entered a Daily News contest predicting the outcome and daily scores of the World Series match between the White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers. My prediction that year was "Dodgers in six", so I cheered accordingly. Eventually that forecast proved quite accurate, and I might have won some bucks had I not switched the winners of Games 4 and 5.

Flash forward a few generations to tomorrow's opening night contest of the Astros-White Sox series. (Insert irrelevantly that I had foretold this in an earlier blog). On the surface this match has about as much charisma as Jim Lehrer. Aside from a few interleague matches there is no historical rivalry of which to speak. Neither franchise has distinguished history; quite the opposite. Before 1959, the previous White Sox participants in the Series were the Black Sox of 1919; the Astros franchise has never won a pennant, but has contributed the first domed cookie-cutter stadium, and when the sun couldn't penetrate the covering on the dome, also contributed the invention of Astrodome. Thanks, guys.

But every so often baseball's champioship series takes a breather from the usual suspects like the Braves, Cardinals, Yanks and the Red Sox, and invites some unusual guests. The downside of this is the lack of the intangible "World Series atmosphere"--the chemistry of the contest is more like a spring training game. The upside is that there are no expectations, and a new cast of characters (well, sort of), which can inject some novelty into the tapestry of World Series lore. Other similar "no-name" series have been very exciting, including the Indians-Florida 1997 nail-biter, the 1993 Phillies-Toronto series with that 15-14 game and the Joe Carter walk-off, and the 1991 Braves-Twins classic.

It's likely that with the strength of the two starting pitching staffs we could have another closely fought series. For once the teams with the best rotations have climbed into the finals. As a Yankee fan I find it bittersweet that three of the four pitchers starting Games 1 and 2 were on the Yankee staff in 2003. But its vaguely reassuring to watch Clemens and Pettitte try once again to capture the magic, and Jose Contreras, whom the Yanks discarded last year, perform as we was supposed to have in the Bronx. I just don't know who to root for, so my hopes lie in a dramatic seven-game series with clutch hitting and memorable situations that will satisfy my baseball aesthetic.

I suppose I'm now obligated (to myself and my four readers, who will probably read this after-the-fact) to make my prediction. I hope I'm wrong, but I see the Astros winning in five. I think this team is fired up, as Arizona was in 2001, to win one time for their ancient heroes Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, as well as Clemens. They are sky-high after surviving the Pujols disaster in the NLCS and recovering gamely to rip the Cards in St. Louis in Game Six. Chicago, meanwhile, has had a big lay-off, and their relievers, rendered practically vesitigial in the ALCS, have to be pretty rusty. The Astro's line-up is less formidable than the Angels, but I doubt the White Sox starters will be able to go the distance as they did in the ALCS, especially when they play in Houston and will have to hit. Chicago has a strong hitting team but I don't think they've faced anything like the threesome of Clemens, Pettitte and especially Roy Oswalt. Oswalt is scheduled to go in Game 3 in Houston, so if the White Sox don't sweep the initial two games at home, they will find themselves in a pretty deep hole. I'd be intimidated by a potential seventh game match-up that would almost certainly include Oswalt, unless he were called into an emergency start in Game 6.

As for potential heroes, I have no Aaron Boone-type insight, though I do expect Craig Biggio to step up, and Scotty Podsednik may be a pesky contributor for the White Sox. (Incidentally, both have had their moments on the Bronx Cheers). The MVP will likely be a pitcher. But most importantly, I will be calm and serene, primed to soak up the October Classic rather than dread its results.