October 4, 2002 [LINK]
[Angels have Yankees cornered]
UPDATE: Being a charitable sort of person, I was kind of hoping the Angels would make a respectable showing against my Yankees, and now they're one game away from upsetting the Bronx Bombers and taking the Divisional Series! Gadzooks! Oakland beat the Twins in the Metrodome, meanwhile, (so much for the Twins' advantage of amplified indoor home-field noise), so we may have a California-only American League Championship Series ... and possibly World Series!
I'll be out of town this weekend and thus won't be able to update this page until Monday morning.
Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling have shown that they're not invincible, and the Cardinals are on the verge of eliminating last year's champions, the Diamondbacks. Ironically, Bank One Ballpark was filled to capacity both nights, but it didn't help Arizona. The other three series are split, one game apiece. The Angels showed a lot of spunk by playing a hard game against the Yankees on Tuesday and actually winning on Wednesday night. Facing down both Andy Petitte AND "El Duque" shows that they're for real. The Twins also showed a lot of character by bouncing back from early errors and beating the A's on Tuesday, though the home team got their revenge the next day. On both days attendance was well below Oakland Coliseum's capacity. Finally, the visiting Giants beat the Braves in an afternoon game in Atlanta, where attendance was also rather low. The Braves came roaring back Thursday night, possibly encouraged by much higher attendance.