AL West title still up for grabs

Get out your surfboards and suntan lotion, baseball fans, it's time to head to California. Baring a six-game win streak by the Boston Red Sox, the American League Division series will match two West Coast teams who played beyond expectation this year against one team lucky to be in a weak division and another team so feared that it's almost pointless to try and beat it.

MLB is wondering right now whether the Minnesota Twins and Anaheim Angels' magic carpet rides will end when they are faced with pressure and playoff competition.

The Oakland Athletics clinched a playoff berth on Friday night with a 4-2 win over the Texas Rangers. The A's, who lead Anaheim by three games, have won five straight as of Monday afternoon. In a seven-game series with two off days, Oakland's pitching trio of Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson may well be all the A's need to dominate their opponents.

Though Oakland is assured a spot in the playoffs, the last six games will determine how easy the first round will be. The Athletics have one more win than the Yankees and three more than the Angels, putting them in an excellent position for the Division Series because two teams in the same division cannot meet in the first round. If Anaheim wins the wild-card, Oakland _ no matter what the Yankees record _ would face the Minnesota Twins. This is essentially a free pass to the American League Championship Series for any team, unfortunately it includes a brief lay over in the Twin Cities.

But if Oakland goes on a bender this week and Anaheim wins the division, the first round of the playoffs would be against the Yankees and significantly more difficult. Oakland has faced New York in the Division Series the last two years, and a rematch would certainly be emotionally charged. The Athletics lost to the Yankees in five games both years, and a series this year would pit Oakland against the team that stole their biggest star _ Jason Giambi. No matter how easy clinching the division is for the Yanks, they always seem to step it up in the playoffs, but Oakland seems more determined than ever to win this year.

The most exciting element of the AL right now is that unlike last year, there are mysteries. In 2001, the playoff teams and matchups were determined by early September, the World Series teams were predictable, and the world seemed less interested in the baseball postseason than it did in watching grass grow on a hot summer day.

Though it is easy to look at the statistics and say that Oakland and the Yankees are the best teams in the AL, the Angels proved throughout the season that they can play well, despite the fact that even their own manager can only name two players on his team. The fact that Oakland could play the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs leaves open the possibility for a surprise team to find its way to the ALCS.

The Angels, meanwhile, have every incentive to take Oakland down to the wire for the AL West title, as Anaheim, if it wins the Wild Card, would face a difficult match-up against the Yankees in the first round. Anaheim is not a bad team, but the Yankees continually roll over opponents in October, and they are again a strong team this year.

For Red Sox fans, the end of the regular season is just further proof that Major League Baseball is just not fair.

The Minnesota Twins and Red Sox stood with identical 89-66 records yesterday, or a .574 winning percentage. On paper, Boston is a stronger team than Minnesota, and the Sox would be more competitive in the playoffs against the other postseason bound teams _ Minnesota is 0-6 against the New York Yankees this year and 3-6 against the Oakland Athletics, while the Sox are 8-10 against the pair. But while the Twins are busy planning a trip out to California for the playoffs this October, the Sox players are probably busy planning trips to northern New England to see the foliage.

Blame it on the Curse of the Bambino. Blame it on Manny's broken finger. Blame it on Dan Duquette's destruction of the farm system. Blame it on the lack of rain in Boston this summer. But really, blame it on the Sox themselves. How a team with eight all-stars, including two 20-game winning pitchers, could fail to win their division defies all common logic.

Technically, the Sox are not "mathematically eliminated" _ the Anaheim Angels failed to clinch the wild-card berth over the weekend when they lost two out of a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners. But the chances of the Sox winning their final six games and the Angels choking during games against the lowly Texas Rangers are about as good the odds that the Big Dig will be finished in this millennium.

While Boston fans prepare to spend another October sitting in front of their televisions with six-packs of Sam Adams Oktoberfest watching the despised Yankees in the playoffs, the rest of baseball is preparing for what is shaping up to be an exciting postseason