Oct. 11, 2004 | ESPN.com's MLB playoffs coverage

No matter which sport you enjoy -- basketball, baseball, football, hockey -- coaching plays a role in the final score.

In the postseason, I get amazed at the micromanaging of every pitch as each play gets dissected and analyzed ... everything has a rhyme or reason.

I put a little damper on their party by reminding them that now it's pinstripe time!

I find it mind-boggling when guys like Johan Santana and Roger Clemens, dominant pitchers, are removed after five or six innings. I think back to the days of Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford and Don Drysdale -- these are guys who would never give up the ball after five innings. Do you think they would ever be concerned with a pitch count?

Hey baby, this is the postseason! This is playing for the gold, not an intramural game, so you want your best out there. If you're going to lose, have your best out on the mound. Some of the quick hooks this postseason have blown me away.

That said, the ALCS and NLCS should be wild. It will be exciting to see the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees battle in the ALCS. Think about how the race for the postseason captivated fans down the stretch. If there weren't a wild card, the Red Sox and Houston Astros wouldn't even have been there, and that would have been sad.

Sitting here recently at the Broken Egg restaurant in Siesta Key, Fla., I met up with a bunch of Red Sox fans who were celebrating their series win over the Anaheim Angels. I put a little damper on their party by reminding them that now it's pinstripe time! When it is all said and done, Joe Torre and the Yankees will be smiling, beating the Red Sox in six games.

I'll stick to my original picks: The Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals will make it to the World Series.

Dick Vitale coached the Pistons and the University of Detroit before broadcasting ESPN's first college basketball game in December 1979. Send him a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.