E.K. NATION

We are now embarking on our second 15 minutes.

The Chicago Sun-Times column "Quick Takes" has made reference again to our blog, this time with author Zay N. Smith taking note of our wondering about the last play of this year's World Series...

The E.K. Nation sports weblog ("We are too pretty to go to jail") at eksports .blogspot.com regarding the final play of the World Series:

"Outstanding play by Uribe! We could have sworn, from our living room in Portland, that the ground ball Orlando Palmeiro hit nicked his leg as he bolted out of the batter's box. But no matter..."

Gives us something to talk about for the next five cold baseball-seasonless months...

We must make it known that after the game ended, we went back and checked it again, and decided that, no, there must have just been a bit of a weird spin on the first hop. But if this world were free of controversy and all we had to talk about was the weather, this blog would be extremely non-existent. So, after further review, we say, aw hell, why not, the evidence is inconclusive!

In other conspiracy news...there's a grassy knoll out in center field at Houston's Orange Juice Company Park. Discuss.

Add "Quick Takes": Yesterday we make the column. Today, our old high school makes the column.

We Have Seen the Present, and It Does Not Work:

A high school newspaper in Beaverton, Ore., refused an ad for a local restaurant featuring a cartoon of the Korean owner smiling and waving an "OK" sign because the cartoon depicted the Korean owner as Korean and depictions of Koreans in cartoons can lend themselves to the stereotyping of Koreans.

We have seen the ad in question. It really is as described, a cartoon depicting the Korean owner.

The high school in question is Sunset High School, the school newspaper is called The Scroll, and we think that everyone who decided to say no to the ad is a bleedin' numbskull. Korean people are offensive? People who see a cartoon depicting the Korean owner are going to be offended because...well, what? Why is it offensive? You gotta be kidding. We are ashamed of our past affiliation with the school paper. What a cowardly lot the Scrollers seem to be now.

We haven't done a running commentary in a while.

7:12 p.m.: Well, we were asleep for a while. It's the 5th inning.

7:16 p.m.: Interesting slide by Brad Ausmus as he tried to break-up a double play. The hit-and-run was on and he still couldn't get to second on that ground ball to Joe Crede. Yeah, when you slide to a base, Ausmus, make sure your legs aren't bent and hanging in the air over the base. The object is to actually touch the base.

7:18 p.m.: And were we treated to a Freddy Garcia/The Rock Separated-At-Birth feature earlier? What was that all about? We were sleepy but we swear we saw this.

7:23 p.m.: Brandon Backe is on fire. After going the first three innings without a strikeout, he now has six in the last three innings.

7:30 p.m.: Morgan Ensberg is up with two on and one out, with a chance to leave two more runners on base by popping up weakly.

7:31 p.m.: Boy, McCarver and Buck are really merciless tonight in constantly mentioning how confused Ensberg is at the plate. Earlier, Buck went so far as to say something like, "Man, it must suck to suck on national television during an event such as the World Series!"

7:34 p.m.: As Ensberg strikes out, our thoughts turn to this article by S.I.'s Tom Verducci, which tells us how merciless Phil Garner was last night in assessing his Astros' performance last night.

7:36 p.m.: With two outs and two on in a scoreless game, the Astros need a hit. And instead of going after Mike Lamb, who is 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, they walk him to get to Jason Lane, who had the Astros' only two hits after the third inning last night.

7:42 p.m.: As Lane strikes out with the bags full to end the sixth inning, leaving the game scoreless, our thoughts turn to the World Series Final Game Inning-By-Inning-Score Grid we bought into at The Stockpot Restaurant & Lounge. One square cost us $20, and we're hoping that we got the zeroes box. If the White Sox end the World Series tonight, whoever beat the 1% odds and got that zeroes box has already amassed $1,200 in prize money.

8:06 p.m.: Well, Garner took Backe out, for some reason. He's only pitching a shutout in a game Houston absolutely must have, and he gets taken out. Dusty Garner. The struggling and hurt Jeff Bagwell grounds meekly to second, and that's what they get in that trade.

8:17 p.m.: And with Backe out and the rattled Brad Lidge now in, the Sox put together a tiny rally and Jermaine Dye drives in the lead run with a two-out hit right up the middle. Houston, we have a...well, you know.

8:58 p.m. Wow. Great play by Juan Uribe, diving into the crowd. Where's Steve Bartman now? The Astros needed him in that first row there. One out to go, and the Sox will be World Series champions for the first time since 1917.

9:01 p.m. Wow! Outstanding play by Uribe! We could have sworn, from our living room in Portland, that the ground ball Orlando Palmeiro hit nicked his leg as he bolted out of the batter's box. But no matter...for the first time since 1917, and amazingly, for the first time in one-hundred-and-seventy-six baseball seasons, Chicago can finally once again lay claim to the World Series title.

And now begins six months of a baseball-free world. Oh well. As always, it was fun while it lasted.

...something completely different could happen.

Say hello to your prom king and queen, the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros.

Last night the Astros went from being one strike away from the franchise's first World Series to being dead in the water, even though they are still up 3 games to 2 in the NLCS.

We have mentioned this idea before, and we will mention it again: Teams do not recover from losses like this.

The Cardinals will win the final two games in St. Louis and make the short trip to Chicago for the World Series starting Saturday.

While it's definitely short of a curse, there's something in the Houston air. Holding a 5-2 lead in the 8th inning of Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS with Nolan Ryan pitching, the 'Stros couldn't advance to the World Series. Six years later, holding another three-run lead, this time in the 9th inning and needing to hold on to have that year's Cy Young Award winner Mike Scott go in Game 7, and they couldn't hold it. Several more first-round defeats in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and then last year's model dropping the final two games in St. Louis to lose the NLCS. It has not been easy for Houston. And the pain and misery will continue Wednesday and, ultimately, Thursday night.

Teams do not recover from losses like that.

Brad Lidge entered last night's game amidst a roaring crowd, excited to finally see its Astros' team win the National League pennant. Viewers of the FOX broadcast heard Thom Brennaman tell us that it had been 45 years to the day since the city of Houston was awarded a major-league franchise--in the city of Chicago, no less, the city to which these Astros were surely headed, once three more outs were recorded, for its first-ever Fall Classic. And when Lidge got the first two batters of the inning to strike out weakly, it became a certainty: Houston was going to bring the World Series to Texas.

But wait just an orange-pickin' minute: Here comes David Eckstein. Everyone will remember Pujols, but if Ecks doesn't get that two-strike hit with two outs, Houston celebrates. Now they have the tying run at the plate. And at this point, Lidge loses focus and walks Jim Edmonds. What Lidge should have done was go after him. Tell him, "Here it is; hit it if you can." You simply can not walk a guy to bring up Albert Pujols to the plate as the potential go-ahead run. Two pitches later the ball is headed to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the rowdy Astros crowd gasps like it's been hit with a mallet, and then silence. The fans, the stadium, the whole city of Houston is deflated. Series over.

The Pujols home run will, in due time, become one of the legendary home runs of our day. Much like Dave Henderson's blast in 1986, it was a shock, to be sure, but the overall effect of the homer will not be fully realized until the Cardinals record the final out of, say, a 7-1 victory in Game 7. Now, nobody here is suggesting that Brad Lidge commit suicide, as did Donnie Moore, who allowed Hendu's historic round-tripper. But Lidge will surely at least want to hit the Budweiser hard on Friday night.

Okay, check that: Not Budweiser. A beer that is decidedly not St.Louis-based.

Do they still make Colt. 45?

...The catcher did not catch the third strike. Therefore, the ruling on E.K. Nation, that the White Sox got a gift, is overturned. Pierzynski got to first base rightfully.

The replay we saw last night was on maybe a 15-inch, or 18-inch at most, screen, from ten feet away. The replay we just now saw on a similar size screen but a foot away shows the pitch bouncing up into Josh Paul's glove. He did not make the catch, and the ruling was correct; Pierzynski got to first base rightfully, and the White Sox have nothing to apologize for, and neither does umpire Doug Eddings or any of the other crew members for that matter.

The call was correct. Now let's play Game 3.

...well, there's really not much you can go on. Looks like he missed the call, and the White Sox got a gift baserunner, and wound up winning Game 2 to even the ALCS at a game apiece.

We're really not sure what this signal indicates...

...but apparently A.J. knows.

The key here is Josh Paul's reaction. He simply ran off the field, suspecting nothing was wrong. If he thought in any way that the ball had hit the ground before settling into his glove, he'd have tagged Pierzynski out as so often happens if there's any question. Paul had no question. But to be fair, he should have done it anyway.

And did umpire Doug Eddings really signal an out? Looks to us like he signaled "strike three"...which it was. Now, we didn't actually see this game, so we don't know what kind of "mechanics", as he called it, he used to call strikes. But an umpire would indeed call a strike on that play to indicate that...well, that it was strike three. But we think a viewing of Baseball Tonight will help settle that matter.

So even we really don't know where we stand. All we did was hear the screeching of the tires while we were in the kitchen cleaning a dish, so we came out to see afterwards. And in the end, it just makes things even more interesting, dontcha think?

• Oh, and Reggie Sanders has 12 RBI's in the first four playoff games this season. He is the first player to have multi-RBI games in four straight postseason games. And the Cardinals cruised to a 5-2 win over Houston to take a 1-0 lead in the NLCS, keeping alive a now-eight-game winning streak by the home team in the NLCS between these two teams.

Both the Angels-White Sox Game 2 and the Cardinals-Astros Game 1 are going at 5:20 pm? They're on at the same time? Who the hell is in charge of that bullshit? Hey baseball: Scheduling both games at the same time isn't going to help you get any ratings. Which especially won't help now that college football is kicking your ass. And it isn't going to please any fan who would like to see both games, which by the process of the progression of time just so happen to be the most important games of the season up to this point, really. Morons.

Tell you what, Fox. Why not have two things going Thursday night? Half of the country will get the Astros-Cardinals game, and half will get an epsiode of "Prison Break." Go ahead. It's not much dumber.

But anyway, you gotta hand it to the Angels, who were in New York on Sunday night, Los Angeles of Anaheim on Monday night, and Chicago's South Side on Tuesday night, and here they are, leading the ALCS 1-0. But maybe that's just because they are playing a Chicago team in the playoffs now.

It's A Dumb Rule And It Needs To Be Rethought: The Robinson Cano incident in Game 5, where he was called out for interference by daring to be directly in line with first base when a throw was made to first by the Angels catcher.

The rule that a batter-runner must stay within the running box along the foul side of the first base line until he gets to the base is ridiculous, and it needs to be thrown out and reworked. Memo to the rulemakers: First base--and we don't know if you have been to a game recently and seen the layout of the field--is in fair territory. We really have nothing more to say about this that is either relevant or true.

This trend of diving wildly into the end zone. When did this shit start? Too often, players are fumbling out of the end zone, which of course results in a touchback and possession for the other team. Guys, you are too close to the end zone to just give up the ball like that. Memo to Cal players, please.

Nice performance by the old man El Duque in escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the 6th inning to keep a 4-3 lead for the White Sox. The Pale Hose just wrapped up a sweep of the Red Sox and they are on their way to their first ALCS since 1993 by virtue of their first playoff series win since 1917. Two Sox jinxes broken in two years?

It is E.K. Nation tradition to accurately predict three of four Divisional Series results. Question is, which of the Braves or the Angels will be the one we get wrong? (We won't get wrong the Cardinals.) Angels go in a few minutes and will face Randy Johnson. By gum, we believe the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim close to Mission Viejo And Near Dana Point But Nowhere Near Tuscaloosa will get to Randy Johnson tonight and take a 2-1 series lead over the New York Yankees of New York, while tomorrow afternoon Houston will take care of the Braves behind Roy Oswalt.

Common Opponents: Heard the fact on ESPN2's telecast today...The last three times the White Sox have made the postseason, John Olerud has been on the other team. The current Red Sox first baseman was with Seattle in 2000 when the Mariners swept the league-best Sox in the Divisional Series, and Olerud was also with Toronto when Chicago last won the A.L. West in 1993 and faced the Blue Jays in the ALCS.

A Strange Turn-On: Anyone else find it really sexy when TV cameras spot a really cute girl visibly upset when her baseball team gets eliminated from the postseason?

* palindromic headline

And we admit, it's been so long, really, that we don't even know what the hell we are talking about. But it wouldn't be in keeping with the E.K. Nation spirit to not offer up any predictions, informed or ignorant. So here we go, and do not use this "information" in Vegas. WESTERN CONFERENCE:

THE DIVISION CHAMPIONS:

THE PLAYOFF TEAMS:

WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS:

over

EASTERN CONFERENCE:

THE DIVISION CHAMPIONS:

THE PLAYOFF TEAMS:

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS:

over

2005 STANLEY CUP FINALS:

over

AMERICAN LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES:

A very surprising sweep. Surprising, that is, if you aren't reading this and have no idea what to expect. ANGELS in 3 games.

Pitching is the key here, and the Sox have more consistent pitching. White Sox, that is. Chicago will be the team that gets to continue with "Soxtober." WHITE SOX in 5 games.

NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES:

The question here is whether the young stars on the Braves have enough naivete to get them to see past the pressure and get right down to winning ballgames when it matters most. Our guess? Yes, indeed. The Astros' offense has let Roger Clemens down too often; they can be lackluster. Meanwhile, Andruw Jones can be counted on to produce. BRAVES in 4 games.

Easiest prediction since guessing the sun would come up again today. CARDINALS in 1 1/2 games, maybe 2 at the most.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES:

Los Angeles Angels vs. Chicago White Sox: ANGELS in 6 games. Series MVP: Vladimir Guerrero.

NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES:

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Atlanta Braves: BRAVES in 6 games. Series MVP: Chipper Jones.

WORLD SERIES:

Los Angeles Angels vs. Atlanta Braves: Our pre-season pick, Yankees and Marlins, can't happen. We're not used to that here at E.K. Nation. First time that not both of our W.S. picks made it to the playoffs. So, abandon ship! Anyway, the Braves, with 14 straight division titles and just one World Series ring to show for them all, are usually lightly regarded come October these days. Just watch. Series MVP: Andruw Jones. BRAVES in 5 games.

E.K. Nation 2005 MLB Awards: Albert Pujols, St. Louis, N.L. Most Valuable Player...David Ortiz, Boston, A.L. Most Valuable Player...Roger Clemens, Houston, N.L. Cy Young...Mariano Rivera, N.Y. Yankees, A.L. Cy Young...Ryan Howard, Philadelphia, N.L. Rookie of the Year...Robinson Cano, N.Y. Yankees, A.L. Rookie of the Year