Game on.

I am now obsessed with my new game.

An article specifically about the ultracompetitive AL and not a single mention of you-know-who:
"If you're an AL club like, say, the Red Sox, Minnesota Twins or New York Yankees, (or Toronto Blue Jays) the hardest part of winning the World Series might be simply making the playoffs."

"And the Yankees? They trail the Red Sox by three games in the AL East but are six games behind the White Sox for the wild card, which, barring a collapse from one of the Central powers, means that the team that finishes second (or third) in the East could be one of the top four (or five) teams in baseball and still be watching the playoffs from home."

"There are many theories to explain the AL's dominance this season, but Guillen believes the AL got better simply because of its clubs' need to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox (and Blue Jays).

'If you want to win,' Guillen said, 'you have to beat Boston or New York (or Toronto). The playoffs go through one of those two (or three) teams.' "

The Twins are given a lot of ink in this article, but the Blue Jays are not.

The Twins are 8 games over .500 and 11 games out of first place. The Blue Jays are 10 games over .500 and 5 games out of first place.


If you put a gun to my head, I probably wouldn't pick the Blue Jays to win the AL East or make the playoffs. It wouldn't shock me if they merely maintained and won about 84 games this season.

But it also wouldn't shock me if they put together a nice 10-1 streak and found themselves in first place. It wouldn't shock me if they came into Yankee Stadium next week with second place on the line and swept the Yankees.