Phils-Yanks bout brings excitement back to World Series

NEW YORK -- It was nice of the Los Angeles Angels to finally step aside and head back to the kids' table. Time for the grown-ups to play, fellas.

'It is really not a surprise that we are here,' CC Sabathia says. (US Presswire)

The Angels did provide a little bit of resistance to the Yankees if you consider spitting on a battleship resistance.

The amateur nature of the Angels was never more apparent than the vital Game 6 when Vladimir Guerrero jogged toward first thinking he'd been walked when he hadn't, Howie Kendrick dropped a routine play and Scott Kazmir made an inexplicable error in which his throw to first base was so lollipopped it looked like little rocket engines were attached to the baseball.

How this series even got to 3-2 is an amazing thing seeing as the Yankees were playing the Baltimore Angels.

The Angels had eight errors in the ALCS, one for every ratings point drop that would've occurred had they made the World Series.

"At times we played good baseball," said Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia. "At times we shot ourselves in the foot."

No way that happened. They would've missed.

Baseball fans across the planet owe the Yanks a bit of gratitude. Ding, dong the Califrauds are gone.

If they fell apart in the ALCS by a 5-2 score in a game that really wasn't that close, imagine what would've happened in the World Series?

Now comes the true and beautiful prize: Yankees against the Phillies.

About time it got here.

"It is really not a surprise that we are here," said the Yankees' CC Sabathia. "I hate to sound like that, but this is a really good team. Like I said, we get along, we have fun. This is what you get."

Sabathia may look like he just polished off two crates of Rice Krispies Treats but he's as fierce a competitor as there is in all of baseball.

Does Sabathia sound cocky? Sure. Can the Yankees back it up? Sure, again.

Just another factor that makes this series imminently watchable.

Unlike last year's World Series, featuring the cowbellified Tampa Bay Rays in one of the more boring and uninteresting championships in the recent history of the sport, Yankees-Phillies will be one of the best and most-watched.

It has a chance to save baseball from the infinite boredom that's been its own recent championship games.

The Phillies and Yanks can rescue the World Series from continually being a distant fourth in relevance behind the NFL, NBA and UFC championships.

Hell, NASCAR, too.

There have been no Game 6s in the World Series since 2003 and no Game 7s since 2002. The World Series has become an anti-climactic mess where the big spenders and salary cap cowboys have dominated.

The ratings in recent years reflect a public that's become bored with baseball's championship.

The Yankees are back so payroll is again a factor (and the Phillies aren't exactly broke) but there are so many great athletes and storylines for this edition the World Series finally doesn't have the feel that it was pre-arranged by Ernst & Young or is automatically sleep inducing.

Finally, there's a World Series to look forward to.

It's the best team in baseball in the Phillies against the great dynasty and the two clubs are actually close in ability. It'd be a complete shock if this series didn't go six or seven games.

And have six or seven fistfights per inning between the fan bases.

The Turnpike Tussle, Wal-Mart versus Wall Street, the Assault on the Acela.

The World Series Saviors.

A third will watch because they hate the Yankees, a third will watch because they love the Yankees and the rest will be a mix of Phillies fans and curiosity seekers.

But they will watch.

For once, many will be watching. And for once, many will care.