on eager ae te -& Suits The perfect final four in baseball The remaining four teams competing for the World Series all make great stories By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor flaws in Major League Baseball’s playoff format. Arguments have been made in the past that not enough teams qualify each October or that the first round of the playoffs are nothing more than a crapshoot with the lightning fast best-of- five structure. Without a doubt, there’s merit to those gripes, but it’s hard to deny that the 2009 post season could be one of baseball’s best. With the second round ALCS just kicking off, all four remaining teams not only deserve to be there, but also all come with compelling stories that would make a World Series victory all the more meaningful. For the New York Yankees, 2009 is all about the return of the dynasty. After years adrift in bloated free agent signings and in-clubhouse turmoil, baseball’s more storied franchise is back with a vengeance. The team blew away the rest of the league in the regular season and the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS, and they have to be considered heavy favourites to win it all this year. New York finally appears to have settled. The team appears to have accepted Joe Girardi as manager and has moved on from the messy Joe Torre departure two years ago. All of their major signings this year, Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett most prominent among them, have worked out beautifully and all have been brilliant so far in the playoffs. Much maligned superstar Alex Rodriguez is finally delivering in the clutch and the Yankees really seem to be a real team again. Then there is New York’s opponent in the ALCS, the Anaheim Angels. The Angels were bound together by tragedy in April when a drunk driver ran a red light [ isn’t particularly difficult to find and killed rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart. He was just 22. Since then, the Angels have far from forgotten him. Adenhart’s locker remains untouched and the Angels play with a #34, his number, patch above their hearts. A number of Anaheim players have talked about the emotion they feel this post- season because of Adenhart and that their goal is to present his parents with a World Series championship ring. In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies are looking to repeat as World Series champions after winning it all last season. They’ve been bolstered by a rejuvenated Pedro Martinez and dominated the NL East this year, winning by six games. If Philadelphia is to win this year, they’ ll be the first repeat World Series winners since the legendary Yankees dynasty of the late ‘90s and early 21“ century. To do that though, the Phillies need to get past the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have been one of baseball’s best surprises this year. If L.A. can make it to the World Series, it'll be a blockbuster event regardless of who they face. First off, there is the possibility of an all-L.A. final this year for the first time in modern history if both the Dodgers and the Angels advance and while the MLB head office would despise an all-West Coast final, there’s no denying it’d be unique. If we see a Dodgers-Yankees final though, it would pit L.A. manager Joe Torre against his former team where he built his legacy, not to mention the two biggest media markets on the planet going head to head. No matter who wins the World Series though, this has to be considered a real win for every baseball fan out there. Sit back and enjoy this one folks, this will go down as one of the best ever. Garth McLennan sports editor ver the past several years the Omer Canucks have been able to contend and compete strongly in the Northwest Division by staying relatively healthy. Yes, Roberto Luongo has gone down a few times for short spurts but on the whole, the Canucks have been bale to keep almost all of their key guys off the IR. For example, last season both the Sedin twins, Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, Willie Mitchell and Mathias Ohlund all played the full 82 game schedule. Perhaps not coincidentally, all of them except Ohlund were nominated for the team MVP award. Steve Bernier played 81 games while Alex Edler suited up 80 times. Sure, Sami Salo once again struggled through numerous injuries but Kevin Bieksa, who led the squad’s defence in scoring, was around for 72 games. Shane O’Brian played 76 times. As a whole, Vancouver’s core defence lost just 40 games to injury last year and 22 of those can be credited to Salo. This year though, things aren’t “This appears to be the perfect time to give Michael Grabner or Sergei Shirokov another shot.” looking as good. Daniel Sedin, who in the past six years has missed exactly one game, broke his foot in a loss to Columbus and will be shelved for four to six weeks. No matter which way you slice it, that’s a devastating blow to the Vancouver offence. Losing the finishing half of a tandem that produced 164 points last year is a bitter pill to swallow; no matter how many times Alain Vigneault tells you that everyone is going to have to step up. Then, to make things worse, Salo (surprise!) hurt his knee in the Canucks’ first game without Daniel against the Dallas Stars. It’s unknown how long Salo will be sidelined and even though Vancouver squeaked out a 4-3 shootout victory over Dallas, that can’t be a positive. At least the Canucks are deep on the back end. Then there’s Cody Hodgson. While it has been well documented that 1/1: x Canucks’ injuries could decimate team scoring Daniel Sedin team’s top prospect has a bulging disc in his back, it was a huge setback for both him and the Canucks when he was returned to junior because he couldn’t keep up with an NHL pace. Hodgson was supposed to make the team this year and be a supplementary scoring threat and a Calder Trophy candidate to take some of the pressure off the Sedins. Defenseman Mathieu Schneider was signed during the summer to provide depth and lend experience to the Canucks’ blueline. However, complications with off-season shoulder surgery kept the 41-year-old veteran off the ice and there is no timetable for his return. With Salo out, the sooner Schneider can come back and make an impact, the better. On top of all this, Pavol Demitra has suffered a major setback during rehab for his own shoulder injury. He was originally expected back in the line-up some time in late October, but that has now gone out the window completely. The latest talk has been that Demitra will be out for the entire season. Where Vancouver goes from here is the real question now. All of the scoring pressure now falls to Henrik Sedin (who, to be fair, has been brilliant so far) and guys like Burrows and Bernier will need to continue their strong play. Looking to the Moose though, this appears to be the perfect time to give Michael Grabner or Sergei Shirokov another shot. While Grabner disappeared in the pre-season and Shirokov was invisible early in the regular season, both guy are clearly loaded with skill and have impressive numbers to back that up in the AHL and the Russian leagues. If things don’t work out with them then they don’t work out—but this would be a golden opportunity to give both guys are good shot with front line ice time.