I know if's been covered ad nauseum, but I do have a couple points that I haven't heard discussed about the Rockies/Padres play at the plate.

• Some has been made of why did Umpire Tim McClelland take so long to make the call. Have you ever seen him call just ball and strikes. Nothing is split-second in Timmy's world. I think when President Dubya waited so long to make a decision after finding about the planes hitting the Twin Towers, he was using the McClelland decision-making model. On the home plate call, McClelland had enough time before signalling that he could have read the participants a few pages of My Pet Goat.

• I know Matt Holliday hit the ground hard, but I think the reason he didn't try to go back to home and slap the plate was he feared that Michael Barrett would slug him in the the mouth for doing a Pierzynski.

• I'm an American League guy, who lives in the Eastern Time Zone, so I rarely get a chance to see NL West games. My experience watching Trevor Hoffman has been mainly in all-star and playoff games. From these experiences, I have never understood how he has achieved his hall of fame level of success. Maybe Keith Foulke should make a comeback to the National League.

Just when I didn't think the National League could drop any lower, we get the 2007 Playoff class. Sure the Cardinals won the Series last year, but can anyone make an argument that the Top 4 teams in baseball aren't the 4 battling it out in the American League? Usually I make my predictions here, but I'm going to pass on 2007, as I have no idea who will win any of the playoff series. At the start of the season, I thought the 2 best teams in baseball were the Red Sox and the Angels. I still believe the champion will come out of this series. I suspect they will play the Yankees, as the Borowski bullpen of Cleveland is no way to close games. I guess I would lean towards the Phillies winning the NL, but it has more to do with me being big fans of guys like Utley, Rowand, and Rollins. I also like their bullpen better than their NL competition. I lean towards them beating the Cubs, as the North Siders falling just short of another World Series is a adolescent pleasure that I can't rid myself of.

Ok, I guess I do have a pick. Angels over Phillies in 6.