It ain’t pretty . . . but I’ll take it.

It could be worse:

Hey, if it’s all we can get I’ll take a Wild Card spot. Even if it means facing the mighty Cardinals in the first round of the playoffs. Hell, the Red Sox made them look like idiots in the World Series – do you really think the Fightin’ Phils won’t have a chance?

It annoys me continually that I don’t know the Phillies roster the way I know the Sox. Part of it has to do with the horrendous Phillies telecasts. Harry Kalas may be some kind of a Philadelphia tradition. He may be one of the last of the old school, five packs a day, play by play men but he is godawfully boring. And to hear this old cat try to use all the stupid nicknames (Wheels? J Ro? J Mike? Who the hell comes up with this stuff?) while droning on incessantly and barely concealing his distaste for his color man makes me nuts. Not to mention that all the broadcasts look like crap with washed out colors and poor commercial cutting and they skip the National Anthem in every game which means I didn’t get to see my bro’s big moment Thursday night.

Comcast – you’re a bunch of wankers.

But I’m learning. I know who Leiber and Wagner are. I am starting to tell Burrell and Bell apart. Urbina has probably the best name in baseball so he always makes me laugh. I’ll have to see more Pratt at bats to cement his face and the smattering of new guys boggles my mind.

But this, this brings a smile to my face:

A smile that gets even bigger if you look at the AL Wild Card standings and see how far back the fuggin’ Yankees are. I consider it a blessing unsurpassed that I haven’t had to watch that bunch of strutting, grinning fools once this season and likely won’t have to watch them at all in the post-season.

But Oh! My beloved Red Sox. Having made a good showing of themselves this season they keep losing to pathetic teams. The Tigers? The fecking Devil Rays? So, betting is open: I’m going up to see the Tigers at Red Sox on Saturday evening: will it rain or will the Sox lose in some sort of cosmically laughable spectacular blowout?

And I’ll have to drink a beer for Bellhorn. I’ll miss that guy, even if he’s sucked like an amped up Hoover this season. You gotta love a dude who looks like Booger from Revenge of the Nerds but can smack ’em out of the park when the occasion demands it.

Maybe he’s got a career waiting as a movie body double? What a shame.