Your baseball wish has come true

That is, the one about me writing about baseball playoffs. And I have dawdled over this task long enough to ensure that I can predict the winner of the World Series with at least 50 percent precision.

Or not. I'm not 100 percent sure if guessing the wrong team out of 2 would entitle one to 50 percent.

By now many people who live east of Dayton, Ohio are aware that Philadelphia and New York are in the World Series. New York of the Yankee kind, that is. As for the rest of us, we are aware that the Rams are really, historically bad. But I digress.

First the bad news: the Royals and the Cardinals have no chance of winning the World Series this year, though, St. Louis did get to play beyond the regular season. For about 23 minutes. The good news: the Cubs still have no idea what just happened.

Seriously, now. Murderer's Row has been reconstituted in New York and the Yankees led all the Major Leagues in home runs. They have the best closer in baseball history, Mariano Rivera, the defense is tight and the starting pitching has been serviceable.

The Phillies, last year's champs, are back to defend their crown and, though underdogs, have a decent shot at doing so, in my opinion. I like their pitching a wee bit better, they have a great offense, led by Missouri St. alum Ryan Howard, and the middle relief has been solid. Their closer, though, has been unreliable, and that weakness may be enough to give some games away late.

I'll say this will be a real battle of two fairly even teams with similar, slugging styles. Look for a lot of offense, I think. In the end, it will come down to the end and I think the Yankees closer will be the difference.

New York in seven.