end of season pangs

Four days ago, I predicted that the Chicago Cubs would sweep the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Philadelphia Phillies would slide out on top of a close series (3-2) with the Colorado Rockies in Major League division play. Right, so of course both D'backs and Rockies come out last night with awesome sweeps. More than a show of my natural actuarial talents, it's another demonstration of the cagey beauty of the game. Now the New York Yankees are facing similar elimination tonight, in a crucial game with the Cleveland Indians in the Bronx, when the Boston Red Sox are setting up to advance in the same kind of sweeping glory over the Los Angeles Angels. But hold the champagne, Cleveland. (And you too, Boston.) Singing fat lady aside (as in Gelb's opera house), the Yankee dominion is holding on to that cosmic truism "it ain't over till it's over", this while my Phillie compatriots (among them, my brother-in-law and my nephews, 5 and 7 years young) are lulling their hurt in another more poignant phrase, "there's always next year". Or more accurately, next century.