Driving home from work today, the Fan saw a few maple trees have already started turning their colors. The Jets and Redskins started the NFL season tonight on ABC and I didn't wear shorts for the first time since early July. These sure signs that summer has waned and Fall is knocking on the door means the climax of the Major League Baseball season is building. And the signs there are strong for an amazing climax.

In the American League, the climax will settle which of the Yankees, Red Sox, A's, Mariners, White Sox, Royals or Twins will be among the final four teams standing.

The National League climax will discern which of the Cubs, Cardinals, Astros, Dodgers, Braves, Giants, Diamondbacks, Marlins or Phillies will make the final four. Two will be the Braves and Giants which leaves seven teams fighting for the other two spots.

But it doesn't end there. The Cy Young races are wide open as are the Rookie of the Year races. The AL batting race has no clear cut favorite. Thome and Bonds will go down to the wire for the homerun race.

And the National League batting race has gotten interesting. Pujols and Helton are only .009 points separated with Pujols still maintaining the lead. Surprisingly, the top AL hitter is batting .322. That is low and seems to be part of a trend. In the 2000 season, both Todd Helton and Nomar Garciaparra batted .372 to lead their respective leagues. That year there were five players who batted over .350.

A year later, in the 2001 season, there were only two batters at .350: Larry Walker and Ichiro Suzuki. Last year, only Barry Bonds batted over .350 for the season. Manny Ramirez won the AL batting title at .349.


In the middle of a pennant race, a star player should never get thrown out of the game except for totally unacceptable behavior. The umpiring in the Cubs/Cardinals series has been abominable and neither Moises Alou nor Sammy Sosa argued strenuously to deserve getting thrown out of the game. The umpires are out of control and have become the story in these tight series. Umpiring should NEVER be the story. They are far too combative and provoke as many arguments as they avoid.