Look, I think it's fine for you to salivate over the new season of the National Field Goal League

Sure, I mean why would you tune in to the culmination of the Watch Guys Stand Around For Awhile League? All you're going to miss is them scratching themselves since most players will be involved in what 1 play out of 20? You didn't need to watch most of the regular season anyway since there's so many games no single game really means anything.

Fortunately, they plaster the stadium with ads so people have something to look at when they're there. Shame their plan to put ads on the bases fell through.

I do find it odd that you bring up the following attack on football to start your defense of baseball:

This contrived corporate bread-and-circuses amusement fits perfectly into our contemporary national life. How else could Americans receive the vital information they require to choose between Coors, Budweiser and Miller Lite?

Because I've noticed that Major League Baseball doesn't have an official beer (it's certainly not Budweiser), I've never watched an MLB playoff game where they broke away from the actual game to interview a "star" from a Budweiser commercial, and I've never noticed how I when I don't have cash at an MLB box office, I can't pay with anything besides Visa.

Phew, thank god these contrived corporate gimmicks haven't infiltrated our national pastime. Certainly, it's a reason to embrace MLB and avoid the NFL.

Look, I think it's fine for you to salivate over the new season of the National Field Goal League. This contrived corporate bread-and-circuses amusement fits perfectly into our contemporary national life. How else could Americans receive the vital information they require to choose between Coors, Budweiser and Miller Lite?

I disagree with the "traditionalist" theory about the Wild Card in baseball. When you expand to thirty teams, you need to broaden the participation in the playoff season. You don't need to NFL-ize the game itself with the DH, an abomination.

Oh, and by the way, thanks for completely ignoring the fascinating race in the NL Wild Card, involving the NL West and the Phillies. We'll be happy to stay under the radar a while longer.

When I made that comment last week about you being so bitter about the wild card that you can't enjoy a good race, I was only responding to your comment in the letters thread that suggested there's nothing exciting going on in baseball right now. I wasn't complaining that you haven't been writing about baseball in the column. In fact, you can count me with those who think that you should write about whatever interests you, and when people complain that you should be writing about some other sport, ignore them.

I just wanted to point out that although the wildcard may be a net loss for the excitement of September playoff races, it still provides for some good fun. Right now, for instance: Athough the wildcard has taken all the steam out of AL East race, what's been going on in the NL the past couple of weeks has been pretty exciting, and in fact the wildcard has made it even more exciting because without it there wouldn't be much to watch for in this last week of the season unless one of the division leaders takes a nosedive. But with it, that race between the Phillies, Padres and Rockies for the wildcard is going to a thriller. You may not be excited by this, and that's cool, but that's not baseball's problem.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing to write about. You could write about the uncompellingness, or you could write about MVP candidates, or you could write about Milton Bradley, or just about anything.

Best record in the N.L. since June 2nd. And they're hitting homers now.

And Pro football would be a lot more interesting if broadcasters weren't fellating quarterbacks for their ability to call audibles in a league where they have radios in their helmets and live video of the other team's sidelines.

Pro football is being run by EA Sports.

That we are stretching the minds of the American sportsfan and media to the breaking point here.

That thought process is as follows--A team with a good record and a big name or tradition must be a VERY good team. Anything else is questionable or stinks.

One iota beyond that is the breaking point.

I think the 2006 Cardinals are the poster boys for that Bobby Cox quote "The playoffs are a crapshoot". Beyond that, I don't think the Cardinals late slide meant much of anything, other than that they slumped late but got hot at the right time. Teams go through ups and downs all the time. I also don't think it meant much about the other teams in the division.

I don't consider it terribly compelling to dissect the antics of mediocre teams as they stumble their way to a decision

But I will predict the outcome of every single NFL matchup all year long. September to January, every game. All teams. Be they piss poor, bad, mediocre, decent, or even good.

So, I guess my demand for an NHL preview column is pretty much a waste of time, huh?

Just out of curiosity, do you have a position on what should be done about PED use among athletes? In general I am in favor of legalizing most drugs, but in the case of athletes, I don't think that would be the best route. Too many athletes would be essentially forced to damage their health in order to stay in the league if PEDs were legal. So why I think the effort is mostly a waste of time, I think the only alternative I can think of would be worse in this specific case.

Well, last year the Cardinals were 83-78. But under .500 against the Central, including losing 10 of 14 versus the Central in the last 3 weeks, having an 8 game lead go to 1. Then they won it all. What did that mean about the Central?