I assume everyone who starts doing this wonders if anyone will read it, then starts to just presume that material is being sent out into cyberspace where no one will ever see it, leading to the Berkeleyan kind of worries about its use if it isn't perceived by another (and God doesn't count). This is probably dangerous, in that one may start writing things on the assumption that it is sheer solipsism, and one day start waxing about one's obssessive erotic fixations on llamas; that, of course, will be the post somebody reads.

I like llamas, as far as that goes; I'm probably somewhere between Jack Hanna and the asthmatic kid on Jimmy Neutron.

The Cardinals continue, as I mentioned, to roll. I don't think the loss of Rolen will hurt that much; he obviously has been off his game virtually the entire season. When healthy, he is a potent addition to the lineup, but I think he recognized that a healthy Rolen in 2006 is the best solution. The Cards seem to run into this with some frequency; Coleman and the tarp, Clark and the ribcage; it seems hard for them to have their best team on the field in October. Just imagine the whole team healthy, with Darryl Kile. Then again, they have been relatively healthy, so no doubt Braves fans would say I haven't seen anything.

It is a bit too early to make predictions, but right now I like our chances to get to the Series. But, as we saw last year, the Series is a crap shoot. On the other hand, I hope and expect the players who got swept last year to use that as some kind of motivation to go back and get the job done right.

I'm pulling for a Cardinals victory, in 7, over the White Sox. Typically, the other day on their "50 States in 50 Days" tour, ESPN talked all about the Cubs--18.5 games out of first as of this writing. Of course, ESPN was broadcasting a Cubs game that night, so this was really just a big advertisement, but the Sox seem ignored--in Chicago, in the media, in the baseball world. If you go back and watch or read videos from baseball "experts"--except maybe Harold Reynolds, who I think is very cool, and did when he was playing for Seattle--they were virtually unanimous in May, in June, and some even in July that the Sox couldn't hold on, they were a flash in the pan, etc.. Oops. They have too much good pitching not to worry about, although it should be interesting to see how Hermanson deals with the additional pressure in the ALDS and ALCS.

So: to all my non-readers, I hope you have a nice weekend.