It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I know, I know...too many baseball posts of late. But it's hard not to get excited, especially since we live in a city that will play host to some of the games later in the month (hopefully way later in the month). Granted, if I were a betting man (which I'm not), I probably wouldn't put many chips on our chances (same old story: pitching wins the World Series, and we don't have much), but you never know in baseball's "second season" - anything can happen.

Maybe it's because October is my favorite month or it's just the weather changing, but I love this time of year - with or without the playoffs (and even the World Series). The colors are beginning to appear, another bountiful harvest is taking place on our family farm, and people everywhere tend to enjoy the transition from summer to autumn. It's just a great time.

The beauty of it all, of course, is it's just better with baseball. One October several years ago, Megan and I watched nearly every playoff and World Series game Fox broadcasted. She always had some project she was working on; I was recovering from a long day at the Glen. We ate lots of popcorn, drank lots of Coke, and cheered both for and against the Yankees (let's be honest: you can't really love baseball and hate the Yanks - just something about those pin stripes...).

As it was last year, this October is going to be tricky for us to watch for a couple of reasons: one, we're too cheap for cable, so we don't get ESPN at all, and only get a fuzzy Fox in our basement apartment; and two, it's not like we don't have other responsibilities (studying, teaching, parenting) we need to attend to during the afternoons and evenings the games are on.

Still, the joy of baseball in October is that, if and when we have a spare moment (and can actually get the channel to come in), odds are there's going to be a baseball game on, one that a whole lot of people here in St. Louis (as well as throughout the country) are watching closely. Call us nostalgic, but this takes us back to when such shared experiences through one real-time medium made us feel more in touch with others than we sometimes do now.

So here's the question: Who are you picking to win the pennants and the World Series? Get your predictions in now. And go Cardinals.