Fall Classic

Not that I am in the tiniest bit cynical or bitter, but the baseball postseason chugs on in the background as much of the rest of the country returns to the workaday concerns they left way back in April: war in the Middle East, war in the Ukraine, war in vast regions of the world that we could not previously identify on a map. And yet, we feel compelled to start lining up our allegiances for our favorite teams in the World Series. The "world" in this case will continue to be the contiguous forty-eight states we call "United," and a corner of Canada that we call "Toronto."
Now there are four teams left. The sensations and star power from Los Angeles have burned out as quickly as a post-game fireworks celebration. The Dodgers and the Angels will not be representing the lower half of California, while the upper half has survived in the form of the San Francisco Giants. If the Oakland A's had managed to find their way into the League Championship series, there was a potential still for an all-California World Series. That happened back in 1989, to somewhat disastrous results, so perhaps we should all breathe a sigh of relief.  Oddly enough, there is still a very decent chance that the world will be focusing their baseball attention to Missouri to decide who will be the global dominators of the diamond.
Part of me likes this permutation. The Royals, having beat the A's are the nominal favorite in our house, simply because it makes a better story to say that the team that beat my team ended up winning it all, so really what chance did we have? This is in keeping with the new concession idea I have in mind for the Oakland Coliseum: sour grapes. I don't think I want the Orioles and the Giants in the same series, since the color palette of black and orange is far too limiting, even though it does offer the most striking geographical split between east and west. East and west Missouri would be the opposite, pitting the Cardinals versus those plucky Royals. Giants versus Royals? It sounds a little like the title of an episode of "Game of Thrones," but it still doesn't seem as titanic as the World Series ought to be. The Orioles taking on the Cardinals? Too many birds.
So it goes. For a couple more weeks. Eventually our minds will clear and we can turn once again to the more pressing issues that dominate the headlines, such as the disparity between the meals served on charter flights to professional football teams versus professional baseball teams. If only ISIL had a squad in the mix.