Who Will Champion Us?

Well, we're waiting. As are our fellow loyal subjects in Miami and Washington and Denver and Cincinnati and everywhere National League baseball is taken seriously.

We need to be led, to have someone to fall in line behind, to take our cue from a force a greater than ourselves.

We are waiting to be championed. Five games played for the championship of our league and we have yet to be.

Championed, that is.

Our counterparts in the fiefdom of the American League are championed. Yankee fans and Red Sox fans and Angel fans have queued in an orderly procession with Blue Jay fans and Royal fans and Tiger fans and Mariner fans and all the rest. They know who is championing them. They sit securely under the fierce and protective banner of the Chicago White Sox.

We are left to wonder: Who will champion us?

Will we be championed by the Houston Astros? It sure looked like it, didn't it? I was ready to accept their leadership and guidance, but then Brad Lidge threw it away. I don't know that we can afford to be led and guided by him or Phil Garner. I don't get the sense he knows what he's doing.

Will we be championed by the St. Louis Cardinals? It sure didn't look like it, did it? They didn't do such a hot job of leading us last year. But Albert Pujols' wisdom is a treasure to be valued. Still, I don't know that we can afford to be led and guided by Tony LaRussa. I get the sense that he doesn't know that he doesn't know what he's doing.

It is just as well that the issue of who will champion Met fans and Dodger fans and Pirate fans and the rest of us National League subjects is still up for grabs. This is too important a matter to be settled in five games.

May the best team champion us well.

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