The dog days of summer are behind us, and now come the chilly nights in New York,
            
 Seattle, St. Louis, and the other side of New York.
            
 	The playoffs are among us and already are living up to the excitment of October
            
 baseball.  After starting off with eight teams, scattered through out the country, we have
            
 	The teams that reach the playoffs all have fresh starts.  This has been the case this
            
 October.  The Chicago White Sox had the best record in the American League, and
            
 opened up against the American League wild card team the Seatlle Mariners.  The
            
 Mariners are not a bad team they led the American League west for the majority of the
            
 season.  Only to be outlasted by the Oakland Athletics(A's).  The team with the best
            
 record, against the team with the best second place team in baseball.  What do you think
            
 would happen in this series.  If you would play the stats the White Sox would have won
            
 this series hands down.  Seatlle may have been a second place team, but they were a fisrt
            
 place team when they played with their hearts and swept the White Sox in three games.
            
 	Over in the National League the San Fransisco Giants had the best record in
            
 baseball.  They had to face the New York Mets.  The Mets were also a wild card team.
            
 The Mets have been underdogs many times in their history.  They suprised the world by
            
 beating the (scott put the year they beat the red sox in the 80's) Red Sox, earning the
            
 nickname the miracle Mets.  The Mets also proved to us that they are just as good as any
            
 other team in baseball.  The Mets didn't sweep the Giants, but they did win
            
 impressivly(scott correct that) by winning the series three games to one.
            
 	The St. Louis Cardinals weren't expected to really lose the series against the
            
 Atlanta Braves, the only team to be in the playoffs the whole decade of the 90's.  The
            
 Braves weren't expected to lose the series either.  This was supposed to be an even math-
            
...