Since I started this blog. I think it's gotten a little better, although that's debateable. It has expanded to include blogs for my daughter as well as the in utero offspring as well, referred to on the links bar as "Urchin 1.0" and "Urchin 2.0."

I hope this year sees the blog get updated more frequently, even it's just with some observational crap in between the rants and blather.

Anyway, what brought me here this morning was this year's baseball playoffs.

See, the Braves lost...again. They made it to the post-season by winning an amazing 14th consecutive division title. No team's ever come close to that and no team ever will. It simply defies reason.

However, the cloud outside of that silver lining is that the Braves have but one World Series Championship out of those 14 seasons, and there are plenty of people that like to shit on that and complain and whine about it.

But here's the deal. If you don't make the playoffs, you can't win the Series. Period. So many people have gotten caught up in this 2nd place is first loser bullshit that they ignore the accomplishments that exist.

Another problem is and has been the bullpen. Except for 1991 and 1995, the bullpen has sucked ass. It's just a fact. Now, a very good starting staff and starting 8 can overcome that over a 162 game season, but 7 game series' are different and 5 game series' are WAY different.

I would just remind fans of this. At least the Braves get you there, even if the level of hope is minimal. But imagine your life as a baseball fan if you were a fan of the Brewers, Mariners, Giants, Cubs, White Sox, Expos, Royals, Twins, Devil Rays, Mets, etc. They don't even make the playoffs 99% of the time. How much fun do you think it is to start tracking mathematical elimination day every year like Cubs fans do?

Oh, and finding out that the Yankees had lost in the Divisional Series to the Anaheim Angels in five games made me feel even better about our plight as Braves fans.

See, the Red Sox lost quickly despite a 220 million dollar payroll. Why? No bullpen, no real chemistry, and the fact that Curt Schilling and Keith Fowlke probably gave away the rest of their careers to pitch down the playoff stretch last year. And yet Red Sox fans were already booing both of them this year. 86 years since they had a title and six months after their current one, and their fans were acting like ingrates.

The Yankees lost in five games to Anaheim despite a payroll that, including luxury taxes, soared above 300 million dollars. Oh, and did I mention that most of their current list of veterans are shit asses? I love the fact that George the lunatic gets to look around this off-season and decide whether to fire Torre (the best manager he could have for that cast of prima donnas), Brian Cashman (who would suffer from depression if fired because he'd miss blowing the boss) or any one of his coaches or scouts, while not even considering that, like Felix Sabates' efforts in NASCAR, throwing piles of money at problems or perceived problems is not always the best answer.

Remember, the Braves are now an AOL-Time Warner property and opertated with a payroll of around 86 million. That's not chicken feed but it's not competitive either.

I just wish folks could appreciate what we do have and know that all you can really do is get into the playoffs and things can go any which way. But if you're 15 games out in September, you're already cleaning out your lockers anyway.

Which would you rather have?