Notes from Dakin Street:

A few thoughts on the baseball playoffs and beer:

The St. Louis Cardinals had a big win last night, and I watched the game alone on my couch with a 6 pack of Bell's Amber Ale.

First, the game: Adam Wainwright and Josh Kinney were awesome last night, and I can't believe how lucky Larussa is. He has been getting credit for "going with the young kids" out of the bullpen this postseason, when, in fact, he has been lucky as hell. If he had his druthers, and everyone was healthy, Braden Looper would be setting up Jason Isringhausen, and we would be giving up roughly one run per batter faced. As it is, Kinney and Wainwright have been dominant in this posteason so far - I just hope Carpenter can get the ball to them tonight.

For all the noise that has been made about the Mets utter lack of competitive starting pitching (when did Glavine become an 'staff anchor' again?,'), the Cardinals offense hasn't done much. If the Mets want to blame someone, it should be their hitters. Weaver, to his credit, has pitched with more focus and bite on his curve ball than I have ever seen. But the Mets hitters are just better than Weaver, and they couldn't get to him.

That being said, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Mets blow out the Cards in these last two games: (See Vietnam flashbacks from the 1996 NLCS vs the Braves).

Also, it's a joy to watch Rolen, Pujols, and Edmonds field their positions. All three of them do it better than anyone. With men on 2nd and 3rd and one out in the 9th, Shawn Green hit a ball of the end of his bat to centerfield. It's the kind of a huge swing that causes most CF's to break back on the ball. And Jimmy, started running forward at the crack of the bat (He plays very shallow anyway), and caught the shallow ball holding Carlos Delgado at third base. With a lot of guys, that's a two-run single. It's just fun to watch them.

If you don't think I'm buying a Ronnie Belliard t-shirt jersey this offseason, you're crazy.

Also: Bell's Amber Ale is really quite good. I'm not a crazy Bell's beer fan like some Michiganders, but it's got a nice hop aroma, very refreshing, full-flavored. It was the perfect beer to go with the game.

That being said, I drank 6 of them, alone, on my couch. So, I'm not sure what that says about me. But it definitely gets my seal of approval (Beer tally for the week (since Monday): 6) (Yes, from now on, I will keep a beer tally, so that there will be a public record to be used for my intervention in 5 years.)

And, of course, because the Cardinals won, I woke up with no hangover at all. Had they lost, I probably would have needed to call in sick.

- Anthony