it's almost octOber

shadows have low tilt. breeze has chill. hamptonites are back in town, crowding nyc taverns. on 4 train, a mets fan looked emotionally exhausted last night. he and wayward O we got off at same stop. wayward O and despondent Mets fan had following exchange:

t.w.O.: "did it go final?"
d.M.f.: "yeah."
t.w.O.: "man."
d.M.f.: "let's not talk about it."
t.w.O.: "ok."

and he disappeared into the friday night going out crowd. he wasn't going out. wayward O was going out. wayward O has no dog in this fight anymore, except Go Cubs and Go Whoever is Playing Yankees and Red Sox. maybe a little Go Mets, too.

and now, a mere 21 hours later, the phillies are desperate for a run and the so are the padres and the brewers all looking to take down somebody with 'em. somewhere d.M.f. is probably doing some voodoo dance as Nats try to hold off phillies in bottom of 9th.

Ruiz pops out of Belliard and Nats are handing out so much pain!

meanwhile, thanks to some hideous defense from bobby abreu, orioles can at least say they made a difference going down stretch. thanks to a couple of bad routes by bobby abreu and some cool-headed defense and clutch hitting from the young savior, and perhaps the most fittingly ironic melvin mora bunt of the year, Os solidified yankees' position as division runners up.

of course, in true oriole fashion, Os handed yankees opponent of their dreams. but at least this year October seems to have started a couple days early.