Boston Red SoxAndrew McFadden

Major League Baseballs’ race for the World Series is heating up again, and with only four teams left, fans are starting to call their shot for a World Series Champion.

The popular pick right now is the Tampa Bay Rays. A young and exciting team that everyone thought would be successful this year, the Rays have exceeded those expectations and have now made it to the ALCS in the franchise’s first post season appearance where they face their American League East rival, the Boston Red Sox.

For Boston this is nothing new. Since winning the World Series in 2004, Boston has been able to maintain a high performing team with experienced players and a pitching staff the rest of Major League Baseball has drooled over. The big question here is, “Will the momentum of the Rays be enough to carry them past the experienced and certainly capable Red Sox.”

On the other side, we see the red hot Los Angeles Dodgers facing the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS. Out of many similarities these teams share, perhaps the most notable is their pitching.

Statistically they are virtually the same, which means this may come down to the bigger bats and the better offensive unit.

While the Phillies have Ryan Howard and a host of offensive weapons, the Dodgers have been the hot team of late and they boast the hottest bat in the League, Manny Ramirez.

When it comes right down to it, I’ll take Big Papi and the Red Sox to send the Rays packing from their freshman postseason run, and the Dodgers to swing their way past the Phillies and into the World Series.

Now think about it, how can you not be rooting for this matchup? Man-Ram gets a chance to face his former team on the sport’s biggest stage, a team that he (while not admittedly) tried to destroy from within in the first half of the season. Ramirez will be seeking to prove he is the superior party, while Boston will be looking for vindication for this season’s stunts and years of clubhouse antics.

Additionally, LA skipper Joe Torre will once again find himself trying to defeat the Red Sox, something he was unable to do in his final seasons with the Yankees, which will undoubtedly be in the forefront of his mind. After all, Red Sox – Yankees in the best rivalry in professional sports, having a shade of that in the World Series couldn’t hurt anything.

In the end I’ll take the Red Sox over the Dodgers in a dramatic six game series.

Boston Red SoxGregory Westcott

The Dodgers?no?.I mean the Boston Red SoxLet me preface this pick by saying: I hate the Dodgers.

Even when I see that shade of blue, a spittle of bile kicks up from my stomach into my mouth.

The thing is that I hate the Yankees even more.

My hate for the Yanks has me pulling for the boys in blue.

You might ask “why not Boston?”

That’s a great question. To answer that, you have to put yourself in the minds of the Steinbrenner clan. If Boston wins they will say “At least it wasn’t Torre.”

However, if Joe Torre claims another championship then the Hank and Hal will have to sit at the kiddy table during Thanksgiving. The pinstripes failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 13 years.

Torre doesn’t have that distinction. He’s on his 13th consecutive run. Plus, A-Rod is dating Skeletor (aka Madonna) whose title is “The Evil Lord of Destruction” and that has got to burn the Steinbrenner’s pride since they yearn for that position.

Another thing is that The Dodgers are really good. They did clinch the NL West, which happened to be the worst division in the league, but they aren’t playing like they’re just happy to be there (aka the Cubs).

They want to win. Plus, you know that Manny Ramirez is going to hit a walk-off homer all the way to the clubhouse for a champagne celebration. He has averaged .396 53 RBIs and 17 jacks in 53 games after his trade from Boston.

The Phillies are loaded with pitching talent but they only hit a .250 average against the Brewers in the first round. Chase Utley and Ryan Howard went 4-26 in that series. The bright lights of the Playoffs are too distracting for an inexperienced team. The last time Philly played in the NLCS was 1993 and it’s been 28 years since they won a World Series Championship.

I just can’t do it. Boston is my pick.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have owned the series advantage over Boston this year by two wins. But this isn’t the regular season and teams that have been there before know what it takes. Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett, Tim Wakefield know how to win and will do just that. The Rays had a great run but The Sox will overcome their embarrassing 8-19 losing record when playing in roofed stadiums, which Tampa has, and disrupt the home-field advantage.

Boston has the experience and after they show that to Tampa, karma is going to put ManRam in his place and all the Chowder heads can annoy us with their wicked Bostonian accents for the next year.

Tampa Bay Devil RaysAmy Lewis

The 2008 World Series is right around the corner. Only four teams remain: the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Tampa Bay Rays (I still think they should have left the name alone), and the L.A. Dodgers. Wait a minute – I didn’t see the Yankees listed! That’s impossible. It’s almost un-American for the Yankees not to buy their way into the end of the play-offs.

In honor of it being such a strange year for the Major League Baseball, I’m going to pick the Tampa Bay Rays to win the World Series.

The Rays are the underdogs in the playoffs. Well, they actually were the underdogs for the entire season. This year marks the first year they were ever ranked at the top of the American League at any time during the season. Even their players thought it was a fluke.

In my opinion, once a team gets on a roll, you can’t stop the momentum. Just look at the New York Football Giants from last season. They were the underdogs all throughout the playoffs and they ended up taking out the New England Patriots who hadn’t lost a game all season. That’s pretty impressive, and that’s what can happen once the “little” team gets big ideas into their heads.

The Rays had gotten used to losing. They placed last in their division nine times in the last 10 years. Suddenly, this year started to turn around for them and they got a taste of what winning felt like – and, believe me, they liked it. They were ranked first in the league 40 games into the season and from that point on, their attitudes seemed to change. In sports, attitude has a big impact on the outcome of a game.

As for the other teams, the Red Sox won last year so I think they might get too overconfident and that will be their downfall to the Rays. I think the Phillies will beat out the Dodgers and go to the series but the Rays will have momentum, and a little bit of destiny on their side, and will beat them in less than seven games.

Andrew McFadden, Gregory Westcott and Amy Lewis can be reached at [email protected]