Cliff Lee

I had a thought just now. Cliff Lee is controlling the Texas Rangers. Last night, in Game 1, Rangers manager Ron Washington was quick on the hook with starter C.J. Wilson. After Brett Gardner beat out that ground ball to first with a headfirst slide and Derek Jeter drove him in with a double down the left-field line, Washington yanked Wilson and went to his bullpen.

You know the rest.

The look on Nolan Ryan's face toward the end of the top half of the eight inning said it all. What was happening was shocking, unfathomable and frustrating. Couldn't any pitcher get a gosh darn out?

The occurrences of that inning were a reminder to the Texas Rangers, their fans and their gregarious owner and erstwhile pitcher of just what they were up against.

Well ladies and gentlemen, the 2010 Major League season has reached its very own Final Four in the form of the two League Championship Series.

The American League will pit the defending champion New York Yankees against the first-time winners Texas Rangers, while the National League will feature the back-to-back National League champion Philadelphia Phillies against the upstart San Francisco Giants.

After watching Cliff Lee dominate my Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS, and dominate, well, everybody, throughout the playoffs last season, people are starting to rank him as one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all time.  The only way to compare them is to put Lee up against the greatest postseason pitcher of all time, Sandy Koufax.

Let's take a quick look at the pitching lines.

The New York Yankees need a fourth starter for the ALCS. But the one they named was wrong. It should not have been A.J. Burnett, but rather Ivan Nova.

Nova, whom the Yankees refused to trade, was a major reason that they didn't get Cliff Lee from the Mariners midseason. He has since justified their retaining him. Except for one very bad start that skewed his respectable 4.50 ERA upward, he has been quite a serviceable pitcher both as a starter and a reliever. And he's only 23, in his first season.

After winning their first playoff series in franchise history, the Rangers have their eyes on a bigger prize, advancing to their first ever World Series.

Standing in their way are the New York Yankees, a team chasing its 28th World Series title. While the Rangers have home field advantage, many have the Yankees favored to advance to the Series.

However, don't count Cliff Lee and the Rangers out yet. Here are Five keys to the Texas Rangers advancing to the World Series. 

Acclaimed actor Sidney Poitier starred with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in the hit movie Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Guess which team will show up hungrier in this year’s American League Championship Series?

The actors in this year’s Major League Baseball saga may not win any Oscars or Golden Globes, but they have a chance to have their names etched in eternity as stars and winners nonetheless.

CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes.

What would you say if I told you that was the starting rotation of a Major League Baseball team? You would probably say that they would inevitably be in the World Series and it would be nearly impossible to beat them. 

Oh, you can also add in that it would be for a team that has had the best offense for two straight years. 

When you go to the casino to play the slots, do you expect to win? Do you go to a casino expecting to win when you put all your money on double zero?

The odds aren’t terrible, but they aren’t in your favour either.

In professional sports, general managers constantly flirt with the odds when they decide to pick up rental players.

We're down to baseball's final four as the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants are set to duke it out—beginning on Friday—to advance to the 2010 World Series.

There are multiple story lines to follow in both the ALCS and NLCS—for example, the filthy pitching matchups between the Giants and Phillies or the possibility of the Rangers making their first ever World Series—and we'll get to each of those.