You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don't throw high cheese to Jim

Before I wrap up a couple of loose ends, I want to congratulate the Minnesota Twins on a terrific season.  The Twins are an exciting young team with a fantastic organizational culture that came up one game short.  When you look at what they had to overcome this season, it makes it even more remarkable.  With Detroit and Cleveland sure to come back next year and Kansas City on the rise, the AL Central may be baseball's best division next year.  The Twins were a most worthy adversary.

This is unnecessary.  This is classy.

Now, onward and upward.

Before you do anything, you need to understand what a tremendous accomplishment the AL Central Championship is.  The Sox have had to overcome:

• The season ending loss arguably their most complete player who led the team in homers and RBIs, is a terrific left fielder and an outstanding base runner.
• The season ending loss of one of their veteran pitchers, plunging the starters into a game of pitching roulette.  This team hasn't had five starters since Jose Contreras went down, but his injury has paved the way for Clayton Richard to become their fifth starter next year.
• The season ending loss of their starting third baseman and one of their best clutch hitters.  Joe Crede's silver and black career ends on a sour note, but it did give Juan Uribe a chance to play everyday. 
  
• The six week loss of their set up man and the 15 day loss of their closer.  Scott Linebrink may be finally back in game shape after a long DL stint.
• A struggling captain Paul Konerko who wound up on the disabled list with a rib injury but was one of the team's hottest hitters in September.
• A bullpen that absolutely stunk from mid-July on.  They tried everything to fix it, but in the end, it was Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd and John Danks pushing themselves to their limits that got the ball safely in the hands of Bobby Jenks.

That said, it's been a pretty good year up to this point.

My expectations are that the Sox  have a great shot against Tampa.  As good as they are, the Rays will be overwhelmed under the national spotlight.  I like the Sox-Angels in the second round much better than Sox-Red Sox simply because the White Sox have played well against the Angels this season.

As far as Sox-Cubs in the World Series goes, let's wait and see what happens in the AL playoffs first.  My dream series would be Sox-Brewers because I live in Wisconsin and it would be fun taunting my neighbors, not to mention the Cub fans would be very jealous.

As you've heard ad naseum, the last time two Chicago teams played in the post season was 1906.  Here's hoping for the same result.

Finally, some thoughts on TBS' coverage last night:

• If you watched the pre-game last night, you no doubt noticed that Dennis Eckersley is a 90's renaissance man.  His pointed comments about the Sox lead me to believe that he's still in the A's bullpen when the Sox and A's were Western Division rivals. 
  
• I think the studio guys need a loose cannon.  That's neither Eck or Cal Jr.
• I thought Ron Darling doing a detailed analysis of the pitching matchup prior to the game was laughable since Darling is an NL analyst and works for the Mets.
• Dick Stockton needs to go away.  Dick, we love you, but your day is done.  He made so many subtle mistakes last night it was sad.  At one point he said Thome pitched to Thome.  Seriously.  Roll it back on TIVO if you don't believe me.  I wish they would have brought Don Orselo, who does the Red Sox games in. 
  
• I don't know about you, but if Harold Reynolds talked just a bit louder and spewed profanity, he'd sound just like Chris Rock.  In fact, if I didn't know it was Harold, I'd swear it was Chris Rock.
• I'm fearful this is the crew the Sox will get for the ALDS.  If so, I hope I can sync my TV and radios up.  If not, I'll put it on mute and do the play by play myself.