Opinion

When the 2010 MLB Playoffs began, almost everyone who watches or cares for baseball penciled the New York Yankees in as a probable World Series participant. A great deal of folks also had the Yankees winning it all,...again. Ah,...the Texas Rangers say "Not so Fast," and are exposing the Yankees for what they are, OLD.

Now that perceived top candidate Eric Wedge will be donning a Seattle Mariners uniform on opening day 2011, that leaves the Pirates in a position to take a look at what's left.  The front office has interviewed many candidates ranging from Carlos Tosca to Bo Porter to Dale Sveum.

Myself and others have been campaigning for names such as Phil Garner, Tony Pena and Ken Macha to become the new Pirates skipper.  None of these guys will have a chance at the job though.

This writer ascribes to the life philosophy that states, "When things get hard—Quit!"

Things are much harder in the 2010 playoffs for the Philadelphia Phillies than they have been in the previous two years.

It's fitting that in what became "The Year of the Pitcher," we would see fantastic post-season pitching up to this point of the playoffs.  Were you really that surprised that Roy Halladay fired a no-hitter in his first post-season appearance?  If not, you couldn't have been that surprised that Tim Lincecum threw a two-hit shutout, striking out 14 in his first post-season start.

Did you ever think, in the middle of October, we'd still be talking about the Texas Rangers?

Normally this time of year is reserved for the Dallas Cowboys and football. Instead, the Cowboys have not only taken a back seat but they've been so bad that the Rangers have gotten top billing on just about every radio station in town.

Let me take you back to Opening Day here in Arlington, Texas.

Surprisingly, a lot of Yankees fans last night had hope. There seemed to be some hope that despite his struggles all season long, A.J. Burnett was going to give his team a winning effort and help his team even up the series with the Texas Rangers.

That hope seemed to be a reality, until manager Joe Girardi messed with it.

I have seen—and laughed at—many Boston Red Sox fans who believe that the Red Sox need to clean house this offseason to have any success next year. The Red Sox had the 10th-best record in all of baseball.

That might not seem impressive, but it truly is considering the injury struggles Boston endured. People can argue that Papelbon was, at times, a major reason for the Red Sox struggles, and they would not be wrong.

This time it's official. Mike Quade is the manager, not interim manager, of the Chicago Cubs.

After three games into the 2010 NLCS, we have already seen as many confusing turn of events as one could've imagined.

But for the Philadelphia Phillies, being down two to one in the series is a by-product of their own design in many ways.

This is not to say the Phillies are playing bad necessarily, rather, just making some key errors that favor the competition.

Let's take a look at how the Phillies have graded through three crucial games in the NLCS, since at this point, it becomes ever so important to really tighten any loose bolts.

With the announcement of Mike Quade as the new manager of the Chicago Cubs, the organization has finally done the impossible. They have taken away all hope from fans of the team and the promise of "Wait Until Next Year."

Most of us already assumed it would never happen in our lifetimes, but they just hammered the final nail in the coffin for fans of the North Side ballclub.