Today's Fantasy Rx

The two biggest baseball news stories of the year both occurred within the last week. While a World Series win by Boston or Houston might qualify as more interesting given the histories of those teams, Commissioner Bud at least attempted to remedy his two conflicts-of-interest. Reports indicate that the Brewers accepted a bid for the franchise, finally divesting the Commissioner's family from his hometown team. More importantly, the announcement of the Expos' move to Washington, DC will give all 30 clubs independent ownership for the first time since 2001. Of course, the racketeering lawsuit by the Expos' former limited partners still could prevent the move, and even a new home city doesn't preclude MLB from retaining team ownership, but don't expect an MLB team in Montreal in 2005.

Barry Bonds' ongoing destruction of opposing pitchers, managerial strategies, and the objectivity of most mainstream reporters continued unabated despite many wishes by the latter group that the BALCO scandal would derail Bonds' pursuit of 755, thus justifying columnists unfairly maligning him for refusing to provide regular soundbites. The Braves won their fourteenth straight division title after losing three All-Stars over the winter, Minnesota won a third straight title since the original contraction announcement, and St. Louis again fielded the most impressive heart-of-the-order in decades. All three primary Moneyball teams remained in the hunt until the last weekend of the season before Oakland finally yielded to the vastly superior bullpen depth of the revitalized Angels. Most intriguingly, the Astros, after acquiring the best player available during the season in Carlos Beltran, remained steadfast in their Roger Clemens-fueled playoff run rather than preemptively dumping, and finally secured the NL Wild Card this afternoon.

An extended offensive slump against some of the NL's worst teams keeps the Cubs from another post-season appearance, although Chicago at least managed consecutive seasons above .500 for the first time in three decades. Unfortunately, extended whining by the club's elder statesmen, including Dusty Baker, leads to extensive public displeasure with the team as Cubs' fans wait 'til next year. Again.

Opening Day 2005 is only 181 days away.

Today's Fantasy Rx: Enjoy the last games of the regular seasons, relax this evening as most networks debut their fall Sunday schedules, and then join us again tomorrow as we continue to post new articles each and every day of the year.

My two-week in-depth season review begins here on Monday