Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween, and my house didn't get hit last night for cabbage night - YAHOO!

Let's hope those greedy kids don't hit it tonight because I am not around to hand out candy.

Anyway, in the spirit of this wonderful holiday where you can get free candy, here is the awesomely-bad music video by Ray Parker, Jr.

Enjoy!

Oh, and for you Ghost Hunters fans out there, a 7-hour live broadcast starts tonight at 7 p.m. on SciFi - check it out.

NBA Predictions

Well, it's finally here.

The 2008-09 NBA Season kicked off last night with three games - and the premiere of 2007 No. 1 pick Greg Oden.

Of course, Oden didn't make it through the first half of the game as he injured his foot sometime during the first quarter - I am hoping he is not doomed to be on the injured list his entire career.

Anyway, basketball is my favorite sport, but much like football it can be a crapshoot when selecting the various winners. Almost every year a team comes of out of nowhere to make the playoffs, and sometimes even makes a run. And every year, teams suffer through injuries and/or make terrible trades.

So, take all of this with a grain of sand - but here are my predictions for the season.

Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division: Boston Celtics
Central Division: Cleveland Cavaliers
Southeast Division: Orlando Magic
Other Playoff Teams: Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, New Jersey Nets.
Champion: Orlando Magic
Western Conference
Northwest Conference: Utah Jazz
Pacific Conference: L.A. Lakers
Southwest Conference: New Orleans Hornets
Other Playoff Teams: Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers.
Champion: New Orleans Hornets
NBA Champion: New Orleans Hornets

Individual Awards
MVP: LeBron James
6th Man: Rodney Stuckey
Rookie: Michael Beasley
Coach: Byron Scott
Defensive Player: Ron Artest
All NBA
First Team
Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Amare Stoudemire, Chris Paul
Second Team
Tim Duncan, Deron Williams, Dwight Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Brandon Roy
Third Team
Paul Pierce, Yao Ming, Chris Bosh, Tony Parker, Kevin Martin

There you have my predictions - they are in stone. They will not come to fruition.

Enjoy the season - or if you're a baseball fan, wait two weeks because Spring Training is about to start.

GH: WT/DVR Issues

Well, Guitar Hero: World Tour appears to be everything I thought it would be.

My wife spent part of the day yesterday learning how to play the drums, and she is way better at them than I am. When I got home from work, I came in to see my son jamming on them (he is probably better than I am too).

We played a six-song set with me on guitar and her on drums - both on easy mode. The game seems pretty fun, and there is so much more to it that we haven't even dove into yet. We just played the quickplay mode, but I am sure when we have more time we will jump start our careers.

After dinner, it was my turn on the drums. I had tried once or twice to play drums at my friend Mark's house on his Rock Band - and failed miserably. I did get into a pretty good rhythm during our second six-song set. The orange symbol, however, and sometimes the pedal really gave me fits.

All-in-all the game looks to be super fun, and if we hadn't just come back from vacation in late Sunday night - I am sure we would have played a lot longer last night.

But, we have about a week's plus of shows to watch from being on vacation, so we decided to dive into it last night.

Which leads me to my DVR issue.

Last night when we looked at our recorded shows, we were completely out of recording space. The good news is, we only missed two shows, as they were cut short on Sunday night only 19 minutes in.

I quickly went through and deleted everything we weren't going to watch to make room for last night's shows (which we ended up lucking out and not having many due to the baseball game). Then we dove right in and watched a good three hours of shows to clear even more space.

This is one reason why I absolutely loved my TiVo when it was working. Although the DVR's the cable companies have do their jobs for the most part - the TiVo was way beyond anything they have to offer.

I miss the larger hard drive for recording space, plus the nifty little folders that grouped shows together for a nice clean look. Plus, the few second jump back when fast-forwarding really sped up the show watching.

But, I think we are set now, and with not much going on this weekend we should be able to knock out most of the shows and get in a few jam sessions on our new Guitar Hero.

Guitar Hero: World Tour

My wife has picked up Guitar Hero: World Tour and I am anxiously waiting until I can get home and jam with her.

Check out this commercial that aired yesterday featuring just a few of today's popular athletes:

In case you didn't pick those out: (Alex Rodriguez and Michael Phelps on guitars, Tony Hawk on drums and Kobe Bryant on the mic).

Week Without Internet

This past week my family and I were in Disney World (if you want to read about the actual vacation, please see Kano's Kogitation II).

The weird thing about this entire vacation, is I was sort of out of the loop in terms of internet. I must admit, I am pretty addicted to visiting my certain sites every day (most likely visiting them multiple times in case of updates).

But, there is something to say about not hitting the internet. It was a peaceful week, but today I am definitely catching up on blogs I have missed, updated sites, etc.

I have missed an entire week of television, which I will be trying to catch up on in the coming weeks. Plus, I only watched a few movies (bits and pieces) this week. So I have no real update in those terms.

Hopefully something will come to my mind in the near future.

I did realize, however, on my Disney trip that it has been ages since I have actually watched a lot of those films. We have purchased each Disney film on DVD when they are released (not those stupid direct to DVD sequels, but the real movies) but I don't think we have actually sat down and watched them in a good long while.

Although, I have seen Cars about 27 times now - since my son absolutely loves it. After one viewing, it wasn't very high on my list in terms of Pixar films, but on viewing 15 or something around those lines - I have grown pretty fond of it (and thank goodness I did).

Anyway, more updates and things to come in the near future. Sorry for the lack of blogs this week. Check out the other site if you are interested in news from our vacation - something should be up by later tonight.

Ciao.

Quick Rant: Survivor (10/16/08)

WARNING: Contains Spoilers!

I have been an avid Survivor watcher since the end of the first season. Occasionally, with a bad cast I might lose interest - but out of the 17(?) Survivor seasons I think I have only lost interest twice.

So, as I may not be a complete expert on the subject - I think I might be pretty informed.

Which is why the end of last night's episode truly had me steaming.

After merging last week, the Fang Tribe finally looked to be heading in the right direction. And I believe actually made two brilliant moves during last week's episode. They obviously threw the immunity challenge and - even though the editors did a nice job thinking it might be Kelly - made the right move in voting off Jacquie.

This gave the original Fang Tribe the power. No matter what happened they could still pick off the members of the Koto Tribe.

With the loss of Jacquie, however, Sugar was added to the Fang Tribe. Sugar, is also Ace's ace-in-the-hole (pun intended).

In this episode, GC began to flake out. He didn't want to be there anymore, and flat out told everyone after they lost the immunity challenge to vote for him.

Crystal, Ken, Kelly and Matty then proceeded to go through Sugar's bag as her and Ace were taking a dip in the oh-so-refreshing water. And what do they find? That's right, the hidden immunity idol.

So, they begin talking about possibly voting Sugar out - because with the immunity idol she holds a bit of the power.

BRILLIANT!

But, as Jeff Probst reads off the votes, it's GC who gets all but a single vote - and is the fifth person voted out of Survivor: Gabon.

Have these people not watched the show before?

This was set up perfect for all of them.

The only logical vote was to be made for Sugar. And no matter the outcome - the tribe still wins.

If Sugar doesn't play the immunity idol not only is she voted out - but the immunity idol is gone (perhaps replanted at 'Exile Island', but still out for now).

If she plays the immunity idol - the no harm done either. The idol is out, and GC goes home anyway.

I can't stand when the people playing this game do so many stupid things. The only thing that would have hurt any of that - is if GC flat out quit, but he didn't. So, his only way out was by the vote.

Now, Sugar still holds the power.

Stupid move. But, what can you expect from a tribe that seems to have been cursed from the start?

You Don't Mess with the Zohan

I had a few moments last night while eating dinner and finishing up a few things around the house, so I tossed in You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

The film stars Adam Sandler as Scrappy Coco/The Zohan. He is a military phenomenon for Israel. But, he no longer enjoys the fighting - he has longed for being a hairdresser under his idol Paul Mitchell.

During an assignment to track down his nemesis The Phantom (John Turturro), The Zohan allows The Phantom to believe he is dead so that he can escape to America.

Once in America, he changes his look and his name, and takes a job as a hair sweeper at a small beauty salon - after getting turned down by everyone else, including Paul Mitchell.

It isn't long before one of the salon's stylists quits, and Coco jumps at the chance to cut hair - and all of the ladies absolutely love his style - and of course the happy endings.

The owner of the salon, Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), soon begins to fall for Coco and vice-versa. But, Dalia is from Palestine, the mortal enemy if Coco's Israel.

All the while this is going on, a businessman Walbridge (Michael Buffer), is trying to force out all of the local businesses in order to build a large mall. But, none of the patrons are budging - so he gets creative. He hires people to vandalize local businesses and disguise themselves as either Palestinian or Israeli.

This forces both sides to blame each other for vandalization - and again has the two countries at war, this time on US soil.

The movie was actual pretty enjoyable. I must say I was not expecting much, which is why I might have actually enjoyed it - I had low expectations. Sandler's accent is a laugh, but pretty much everyone who had to pretend to do an accent did it pretty awful.

There were also the cameos throughout the film, like Chris Rock, Kevin James and John McEnroe. Missing, however, were Sandler's usual compadres Peter Dante, Allen Covert and Jonathan Loughran.

Another person I was not expecting to see - Dave Matthews as a redneck racist, gaybasher. His roll was pretty hilarious - especially the final scene.

Is this Sandler's best work? No, but it was a pretty good watch for the most part.

Grade:

Apologies

My apologies for the lack of blogs this week. I have been major busy this week.

I am just finishing up something at work, I had midterms this week (plus an additional week of homework to finish because of next week's vacation), oh and getting ready for vacation too.

Anyway, I might have time to watch a movie tonight, so I should get a quick blog in tomorrow. I should have some free time now that this job at work is finishing up.

Just a few more things for school to do and some last minuted things around the house.

Can't wait to go on vacation - it's long overdue.

LT meet Troy

This is sort of an extension of the Nike commercial that started last year. A year ago it was the St. Louis Rams' Stephen Jackson running through various NFL teams and field conditions and then the San Diego Chargers' Shawne Merriman doing the same thing on defense. It was pretty original.

This one takes it a little further with two players, the Pittsburgh Steelers' Troy Polamalu and the Chargers' LaDainian Tomlinson. It goes from their birth through high school and college - until they finally meet - Head On.

Superhero Movie

I had a small moment this weekend where I was able to toss in a movie. So I rummaged through the multitude of movies I have yet to watch and selected one out.

Sunday I tossed in Superhero Movie another spoof movie - there seems to be about three per year nowadays.

The recipe is pretty familiar, find a typical type of movie franchise - in this film it was obviously the superhero franchise - mix in your typical pop culture references, throw in random celebrities, and try to get the audience to laugh at the slap-stick humor.

In most cases, the film follows one film pretty closely. In this case, it was Spiderman. Teenager Rick Riker (Drake Bell) is your Peter Parker-type character. He longs for the girl he should never get, Jill Johnson (Sara Paxton), is a bit of a geek and totally gets picked on by the bullies, one of which is his crush's actual boyfriend.

Well, Riker happens to get bitten by a genetically altered dragonfly on a class trip - and, yup you guess it - starts to develop super powers - and becomes Dragonfly.

Riker lives with his aunt and uncle (Marion Ross and Leslie Nielson), who try to be infuential in his life after the loss of his parents - all very Spiderman-y.

The villain is known as Hourglass (Christopher McDonald), who has a disease where he needs to suck the life out of a human each day to survive. He develops a plan to suck in enough life at a single time to become immortal. And it's up to Dragonfly to save the day.

The movie wasn't horrible - a lot of different parts could have absolutely been removed from the film, like the X-Men parts, but then the movie would have been under an hour.

I am a fan of Drake Bell from his Drak & Josh days, and he did pretty well in the starring role. I also think Sara Paxton is a knockout - so she wasn't hard to look at as well.

Like all spoof movies, everything and anything was well over the top to try and make a laugh. And, I laughed a few times during the film.

I think that the Scary Movie franchise has done the world a diservice by continually marching out these films. The first one was done rather well, but they have to know where to draw the line.

But, for a quick 100 minutes or whatever, it wasn't a total waste of time.

Grade:

Married Siblings

So, I watched the latest episode of Private Practice yesterday and I was a little intrigued by one of the storylines.

For those of you who don't know, Private Practice is a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy. It follows Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) as she left Seattle Grace to join her best friend's private practice. The practice has a slew of different types of doctors, such as Dr. Cooper Freeman (Paul Adelstein) who is a pediatrician; Dr. Violet Turner (Amy Brennemen) a psychiatrist; Dr. Pete Wilder (Tim Daly) who specializes in different types of medicine. And they are all under the watchful eyes of Dr. Naomi Bennett (Audra McDonald) and Dr. Sam Bennett (Taye Diggs), a divorced couple who started the practice.

Anyway, back to the storyline at hand. In this particular episode a young couple wanted to have a child. They had been married five years and were having trouble getting pregnant. Apparently, they were both very shy in junior high until they found each other - and had been together ever since.

Dr. Montgomery and Dr. Naomi Bennett took the case and looked into reasonings behind why they were unable to get pregnant. After further investigation, it became not why they couldn't get pregnant - but why they shouldn't. Apparently, the happy couple just so happened to be brother and sister.

Not the typical type, however. These two were only related because each of their parents were unable to conceive so they looked for the help of a sperm donor - and both sets picked the exact same one.

Obviously, this is a lot to take - especially when you have devoted your life and are absolutely head over heels in love with this person.

The doctors of the practice were obviously on both sides of the fence on this one. In order to continue to be married, the wife opted to have her tubes tied, so she and her 'husband' could stay together, but wouldn't risk getting pregnant.

At the end of the episode, the 'husband' confessed that he had actually figured out they were brother and sister before they had gotten married - this led to the 'wife' getting completely grossed out because he had known before everything went as far as it did and didn't tell her.

Anyway, my question is simple. This could actually happen if people aren't careful - I mean it's a simple mistake that neither child knew they had been created due to sperm donation. What are your thoughts on the subject? Is it disgusting to continue to want to be married to the love of your life, after just finding out that you are actually related? What would you do? If you found out the love of your life was actually your brother/sister could you stay with them?

Very odd topic I know, but it truly got me thinking about what people would be able to do. It's a very rough situation to be in.

Quick Rant: Heroes

I know when seeing the headline you may think that I am mad at the television series Heroes when in fact I couldn't be happier.

This rant is tossed out to those who are constantly complaining about the television show - and actually I could open it up even more and say television shows in general.

I am an avid television watcher, I have stated that many times before. But I don't just watch the shows, I also take a look at recaps and read some of the comments that readers/watchers out there are constantly writing.

I write this blog more about Heroes, but like I said it can be for any other show as well.

I am a huge fan of the show Heroes and even I know that the show dipped a bit during it's sophomore season. Most shows that come out of the gates the way Heroes did usually do. That being said, however, the show was still watchable and I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

The series is now in its third season, and from the few episodes I have seen it appears to be way ahead of what was given to us in season two.

But, as I continue to peruse the comments and forums, Heroes is still getting slammed by some of these so called 'fans'. Is this show ever going to live up to its magical season one? I seriously doubt it. Why? Because it was original, it was new - and that newness has worn off.

But, the show is still a lot better than a lot of the other television shows that are being offered.

Why am I upset? Do I not think that people have the right to complain about a show they used to love? No, of course I believe they have the right. My issue is this: the constant threat to stop watching the show after not enjoying a particular episode. If you don't like the show, then you don't like the show - just leave and get it over with. Some of us - and it still seems to be a lot - actually enjoy the show and want to read conspiracies/clear thoughts about the show - not your crying.

My belief on movies are a little bit different. I feel you do have the right to complain about a terrible movie. Why? Because a movie is a one time thing. If you see it, you wasted your time and money if you don't like it. And perhaps someone out there may not want to do the same, and actually wants to view your opinion.

I am usually not one of those people, however. I have found that I actually enjoy a lot of the movies that critics despise - so I am not a fan of hating on a movie even before I see it.

But, when it comes to television, the show is on every week - so those who enjoy it are still coming back. If you didn't enjoy a movie, would you watch it over and over again? Then why continue to watch the show - just leave and let us that do enjoy it continue to in all of its aspects - including comments and forums.

News & Such

I have decided to make Kano's Kogitation, or what you are reading right now, into a full-fledged movie/television/sports blog.

I am going to abandon the family and life stories on this particular blog and focus on blogs about movies, television and sports.

However, I have started a brand new blog Kano's Kogitation II that will now be used for only updating all who are interested in family news & notes.

A new blog about the past weekend should be up there by the end of the day. So, if you are interested check out the new site. I will do my best to stay current with both sites, but felt it was a good idea to separate the two blogs.

Thanks.

Iron Man/Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I did something this past weekend that I am normally not accustomed to doing. And I can now sort of see why I never do it, although I must admit it was worth it.

I have gotten pretty accurate in returning my Netflix DVDs in order for them to return on a Monday. When this happens, I almost always get a movie that is coming out brand spanking new on Tuesday - I usually get them on Wednesday. Anyway, if you miss out on getting them right away - it could be months before you luck out and get one.

Last Tuesday, two movies I have been longing to see since they were released in the theater dropped on DVD - Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Iron Man. I told myself not to send back the Netflix DVDs until a certain time so that I could get both of these on Wednesday. But, without thinking, I tossed my returning DVDs into the mail and they got to Netflix way before they are allowed to ship me the brand spanking new movies. So, I screwed up.

Anyway, with movies like these two I would never had received them from Netflix until possibly Christmas - so I blew the dust off of my Blockbuster card and traveled over to rent these two movies. In the end, it cost me nearly 12 dollars. I have certainly learned my lesson.

But was it worth it?

(Possible Spoilers hidden in the article)

I will start with Iron Man as I have heard so many great things about the movie this summer. From what I could tell it was the best movie of the summer not named The Dark Knight.

Anyway, after watching the film I think I have to agree with all of the buzz. Robert Downey Jr. was simply amazing as Tony Stark/Iron Man, and I can see why is stock has risen to astronomical preportions.

I had done my best to sort of hide under a rock and not get the total idea of the movie, so it was pretty surprising to me when I saw a bald Jeff Bridges as Tony's right hand man, and eventual villain.

I had read a few opinions on the choice for Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Stark's secretary/obvious love interest. I must admit, I have never really seen Paltrow as an A-list actress, but her performance in this film I felt was very strong.

Hidden throughout the entire film were hints as to a sequel, which after the enormous box-office draw the film has seen, was already green-lit. It was fun to pick up on some of the lines and scenes of things that might become.

Anyway, to wrap up I was very much impressed with the entire story-line of Iron Man. It did what other successful comicbook adapdations were able to do. It told the story of Tony Stark, how he became Iron Man and his reasons behind his transformation, while also providing a serperate storyline that helped Iron Man become a true superhero. All the while keeping the audience entertained.

Grade:

The other film I was able to catch was Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

The movie was penned by Jason Segel of How I Met Your Mother fame. It is loosely based on a relationship that Segel himself had with, according to sources, Linda Cardellini of ER.

Segel is Peter Bretter, a musician who has been doing the music in the hit television show Crime Scene. His girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), just so happens to be the star of the television series.

Marshall, however, breaks Bretter's heart when she leaves him for another man. Bretter has a difficult time getting over her and his half-brother/friend Brian Bretter (Bill Hader) tells him to go on vacation and try and forget about her.

Bretter takes the advice and heads off to Hawaii, and checks into a hotel where Marshall also happens to be staying at with her new boyfriend, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), a pop singer.

This throws Bretter into yet another crying-fest, until he befriends a hotel worker Rachel Jansen (Mila Kunis).

I'll leave the plot at that, because everything else that happens is pretty important to the ending. I will say that the full-frontal scenes of Segel were definitely turn-away worthy. Although perhaps the ladies will enjoy it - I don't know, the wife didn't give me a thumbs up or anything. Brand was pretty decent in the film, I did find him a little over-the-top, but some of his lines were pretty funny. Jonah Hill makes another appearance in an Apatow-movie, as a host at the hotel's restaurant - but his role was a little flat for me. Paul Rudd makes a small cameo in the film, his role was a little better than Hill's but not by much.

I enjoyed the film a lot, but I guess I actually came away a little disappointed due to the amount of hype I put into seeing it. I think I'll have to see it again to truly appreciate it, but I do know I had a handful of laugh out loud moments, which always makes a movie watchable for me.

Grade:

LWITM: Angels in the Outfield

Every so often when I am strapped for something to write about, I like to dive deep into an older movie, perhaps one someone has seen in awhile, and see just how many talented actors were in that movie.

Perhaps some of these actors just had a bit part in this movie, it was before they hit it big. So, I have come up with the LWITM (Look Who's In That Movie) Series.

This is my fifth entry, and this time I have chosen the Disney film Angels in the Outfield.

The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt of Third Rock From the Sun fame. Gordon-Levitt has become a pretty large star as of late, and been in some pretty high-praised films. In this movie, he is known as Roger, a foster child who was told by his father that they will be together again when the lowly Angels win the baseball pennant.

So, Roger prays for the Angels to win so he and his father can be reunited.

Along comes 'AL' (played by Christopher Lloyd) to help things along. And all heck breaks loose, as the Angels begin to play well thanks to a little help from a handful of angels.

Also starring in the film is Danny Glover as the Angels' manager George Knox and Brenda Fricker is Roger's foster mother Maggie.

The team, however, is where a lot of now-famous actors are hidden. The most notable at the time was Tony Danza, who starred as a washed-up pitcher named Mel Clark, who gets rejuvenated and helps lead the Angels to the title.

But, if you look deeper you'll also see Ben Williams in center field being played by Matthew McConaughey. Utility infielder Danny Hemmerling, just so happens to be future Oscar winner Adrien Brody. William Bass, another pitcher on the team, is talented actor Neal McDonough. Not as well known, but seen in a lot of movies/television shows is catcher Triscuitt Messmer, played by Tony Longo.

In a very brief part is Dermot Mulroney, who plays Roger's father. Another actor who is seen in a lot of different parts through movies and television is Taylor Negron, who plays David Montagne, Knox's assistant. Finally, Ranch Wilder, the voice of the Angels, is played by Jay O. Johnson.

It's pretty amazing to see now, especially the McConaughey, Brody and McDonough parts. Neither of the parts in the movie was really a large part, in fact out of the three, McDonough probably had the larger roll - and it is so different then the parts he is playing now.

Well, there you have it the fifth installment of LWITM. Hope you enjoyed it.

Blog is Back

OK. I can see the blog again.

Whatever hiccup blogger had going was only affecting my blog for some reason, but it has since been restored.

If I have time, an actual posting will be made this afternoon.

Adios.

Blog is Missing

For some reason, I cannot view my blog this morning. I am able to view all of the other blogs that I read on a daily basis, but for some reason I cannot access mine.

I am able to login and get to any other page on blogger, but I cannot see my page.

I don't even know why I am writing this. Because if I can't see my page, chances are no one else can either. But, I am taking a chance that somewhere out there someone can see this.

Hopefully, things will be restored.

Revisit: Baseball Playoff Predictions

Is the Major League Baseball season almost over? Finally. It is insane how long the season is. Want a small glimpse? I just tried to find my playoff prediction blog that I wrote to see how horrible I did with my picks - and it was my second blog written on this site.

THAT'S INSANE!!!!

Anyway, the Chicago White Sox finally made the playoff picture complete yesterday with a 1-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins. It's amazing, the baseball season is so damn long (please see above) and they still needed an extra game to sort this mess out.

Just to make things clear, in case you can't tell, I am not the biggest baseball fan. Like I have said before, the game is just not made to be watched on television. It's so slow. Games at a minimum are three hours long, and even then, the action is just too slow paced for my liking.

Baseball has long been labeled 'America's Game', but I have to say I think the NFL has long since surpassed it.

On to the actual blog.

Back in BLOG TWO: I predicted that the eight playoff teams would be as follows.

NL West: San Diego Padres
NL East: Atlanta Braves
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL Wildcard: NY Mets
AL West: Anaheim Angels
AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Central: Detroit Tigers
AL Wildcard: Cleveland Indians

As you can tell, these predictions sucked. I correctly picked just one team in the National League, as the Cubs did win the Central. And in the American League, the only true correct pick was the Angels winning the West, although the Red Sox did make the playoffs as the wildcard.

Down the stretch the Mets not only choked again, but they choked twice. After leading the East they allowed the Philadelphia Phillies to pass them again - and then allowed the Milwaukee Brewers to pass them in the wildcard. That is just as bad as the collapse from last season. But, the GM and the coach should get extensions - Oh wait, they did.

The Padres ended up being one of the worst teams in the league this season, so that prediction was truly terrible. The Dodgers outlasted the Diamondbacks thanks to the Manny Ramirez addition, and captured the West.

In the American League, I don't think anybody had the Tampa Bay Rays coming from the basement of the East to overtake not only the Red Sox, but the Yankees as well. A great story for the season, and I am rooting for them to make it to the World Series.

Well, as you can tell me baseball predictions were worse than horrible. Out of eight teams I correctly selected three - and only two of those in their correct location. Hope I do better in football and basketball (two sports I actually follow).

Anyway, to wrap up my playoff predictions:

Round One
Tampa Bay over Chicago
Boston over Anaheim
Chicago over LA
Milwaukee over Philadelphia

Round Two
Boston over Tampa Bay
Chicago over Milwaukee

World Series
Chicago over Boston

There you have it Cubs fans. Add me to the goat and Bartman. I have officially jinxed you from winning the World Series this year.

Now let's wrap up the season already. Spring Training starts in a month.