One quick note to begin: Thoughts and prayers go out to the family of longtime Cardinals Minor League instructor and baseball fundamentals genius George Kissell, who died Tuesday at the age of 88. We never saw much of Kissell besides a feature story on TV here and there during spring training, or in the background hitting fungoes, but he was a tremendous mentor to many Cardinal players for nearly 70 years.

George Kissell is one of the reasons why the Cardinals are one of the most successful organizations in all of sports. Despite our fan complaints about the smallest of things, I’d like to think that we can acknowledge that we’ve got it pretty good here when it comes to baseball. 

A huge thank you to Mr. Kissell for all he has done for the Cardinal organization over the years, and once again, thoughts and prayers to the Kissell family.

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Hopefully you haven’t given up on the baseball season just yet. I know for most Cardinal fans, the rest of the playoffs aren’t that appealing, but there still are a few reasons to watch October baseball. The two at the top of my list:

-Jumping on the Rays’ Bandwagon

-Watching the Red Sox Get Their Asses Handed to Them in the ALCS

I’m usually loyal to National League baseball, but not this year. I am hungry and focused, hoping that the World Series trophy ends up in central Florida at the end of October. I showed a similar determination to knock the Cubs out of the playoffs (as you know, bloggers have these powers), so now all energy is geared towards ending Boston’s back-to-back dreams.

Living in the Midwest, we’re always pissed at the national media because of their Yankees/Red Sox bias, so how could you not root for the Rays and their $43 million payroll? They have a ton of young stars including Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton and Scott Kazmir, the ace of their talented pitching staff. They’ve sat comfortably at the bottom of the AL East for years, and the young stars (with a nice mix of vets) have shown so far that they deserve to be in the playoffs.

But if you’re not on the bandwagon now, what are you waiting for?

Over at bertflex.com, we laid out a step-by-step process on “How to be a Tampa Bay Devil Rays Fan,” back in February. When you’re hardcore like us, you should embrace the “Devil” in the team name, not eliminate it. Back then we said the Rays would be the next sports dynasty, you just didn’t listen (okay, our seven readers didn’t listen; you just found out).  And not to mention...they are rocking mohawks.  These guys are top notch badasses, just like you and me.

Sure the fans in Tampa suck, thus there will be about 60% Red Sox fans at Tropicana Field for games one and two, but that only means you’ll be seeing more miserable looks when the cameras pan the crowd.

And there’s nothing I like better than seeing sad and distraught Red Sox fans. I take an unhealthy amount of pleasure seeing them in pain.

Game one is Friday night. You don’t have a life, do you?

For more HMW head over to www.bertflex.com