AUTUMN! Ah, what a great time of year.
Beautifully colored leaves, warm days, chilly nights, high school football and ah, yes, October baseball.
Like most things in nature, fall is predictable. We may rest assured that the heat and humidity of August will transform itself into the frosty mornings of November and that the green leaves of summer will turn wondrous colors and then fall to the ground.
Major League Baseball is just as predictable. No matter what the National League standings look like in July, you can be sure that the Chicago Cubs, like the heat and humidity at Wrigley Field, will have faded by October.
You can bet the farm that the Atlanta Braves will capture the Eastern Division pennant but will not win the World Series.
It is also almost a certainty that somewhere, somehow, the Curse of the Bambino will sneak up on the Boston Red Sox and bite them in the seat of the pants.
And no matter what the baseball "experts" say in April, you can rest assured that the New York Yankees will be in the thick of the fray when October rolls around.
As usual, these things have come to pass again this year. The Cubs, who held a comfortable National League wild-card lead as late as mid-August, experienced their usual collapse in September.
This year, the Cubbies, who couldn't hit their way out of a wet paper bag down the stretch, couldn't blame their demise on some poor guy in the left-field stands who tried to snag a foul ball. So they blamed it on announcers Chip Caray and Steve Stone, who only called it like it was.
Both Stone and Caray, who have been in the WGN and Fox broadcasting booths longer than the furniture there, will be gone next year. Rumor has it that Caray will replace Don Sutton in Atlanta (Sutton may go to the Dodgers), while Stone's future is unknown.
It was not broadcasting criticism, but atrocious hitting by the top of the lineup--most notably Sammy Sosa--that sent the Cubs home before the leaves turned.
And the pitching staff that experts said was unbeatable? Well, it was beatable.
In April, the experts said the Braves had no chance to win a 13th straight division title. Atlanta won by 10 games, but, as usual, the Braves fell quickly in the playoffs.
Still, if Bobby Cox doesn't get National League Manager of the Year the baseball writers of America are crazy. And if there is a pitching-coach heaven, a penthouse suite has surely already been reserved for Leo Mazzone.
Which brings us to the Red Sox and the Yankees.
As surely as the Earth revolves around the sun, you can rely on New York beating Boston both for the regular-season title in the American League East and in the playoffs. You know it is going to happen, you just don't know the Yanks are going to do it.
Same story this year. Despite a terrific stretch run, the Red Sox finished second to the Yankees in the regular season and New York is devouring the Bostonians in the League Championship Series.
Oh, the drama has been there, as usual. The Yanks got a big lead in Game 1 and the Red Sox came back. But as in the regular season, they couldn't quite catch the Yankees. Same story in Game 2.
In keeping with the Curse of the Bambino, Curt Schilling has come down with tendon problems and Pedro Martinez has been ineffective. And Pedro doesn't even have Don Zimmer to beat on this year.
It is a given that the Yankees will beat Boston, but will they be able to handle the Cardinals, arguably the best team in baseball this year?
I certainly hope not, but never underestimate those pinstripes, no matter who is wearing those magical New York uniforms.
Fox out of focusGIVE ME A BAT and let me take a few whacks at Fox Sports for the way it is handling the baseball playoffs.
First, let me take a home-run cut at that idiotic cartoon baseball "Scooter" that Fox has invented to try to educate fans.
If I hear that thing explain what a change-up is one more time I'll scream.
Then there is Diamond Cam, a tiny TV camera implanted in the dirt near home plate.
Come on, guys! Fans don't want to see the game from the viewpoint of a gopher!
Next year Fox will probably have a camera implanted in a bat. Give us a break. Just show us the game.
And don't show two games at one time with one on a channel that the guy who doesn't have cable can't get.
That's what happened on the first night of the League Championship Series. The Yankees-Red Sox game was on free TV while the Cardinals and Astros were on the Comcast Sports Network, which is available only to satellite-TV and some cable viewers.
Why not have one game in the afternoon and one at night as in the past? And both on regular TV! A lot of rural America still doesn't have cable, and not everyone can afford satellite TV. Think of the little guy for once, folks.
But thanks, Fox, for not pre-empting the playoff games for the presidential debates.
As much as I hate the Yankees, I'd rather watch them than George Bush!
So much for predictionsA QUICK LOOK at April baseball predictions. The experts said:
The Yankees didn't have enough pitching to either win the division or get to the World Series.
The Braves didn't have a chance to win their division.
The Cubs, with a pitching rotation consisting of Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Matt Clement, Carlos Zambrano and Greg Maddux, couldn't be beaten--even if Maddux was washed up.
American League pitchers finally had Ichiro Suzuki's number and the Seattle Mariners right fielder would fade like the Japanese sun in late evening.
Well, Ichiro broke an 84-year-old major-league record for hits (262), the Yankees and Braves won, and the Cubs lost--despite the fact that Maddux was their most consistent and effective pitcher.
Those "experts" must have been standing in Fox Sports' gopher hole when they made their predictions.
To reach DONNIE JOHNSTON: DJohn40330@aol.com