Eight teams, two pennants and 13 things to watch during the postseason:

1. The commercials
Yes, you heard me right: the commercials. You should do this for two reasons:

1) You need to keep the networks interested in sponsoring these games. Otherwise, they'll be even harder to find next year.

2) As a consumer, how else will you know what to purchase?

2. The lower-seeded teams
"Seeded" is really the wrong word in baseball since the team with the best record does not necessarily play the team with the fourth-best record, owing to there being a standing rule against having the wild-card team play its division winner in the first round. So, for the purposes of this, "seeded" will indicate order of record in terms of wins and losses.

Since the advent of three-division, wild-card baseball in 1995, here are the postseason records of teams with the first-, second-, third- and fourth-best records in the regular season:

First: 79-57 .581
Second: 42-46 .477
Fourth: 58-64 .475
Third: 43-55 .439

First-round exits:
Third: 9
Second: 9
Fourth: 5
First: 4

The worst showing in this time period by a best-record team was last year's Astros, who swooned out of the playoffs to the Braves in three games, being outscored 14-6. The year before, the White Sox were swept by the Mariners by a similar 14-7 count, but had held a lead in each of the three games. Houston only had one lead in its series.

Championships:
First: 3
Second: 2
Third: 1
Fourth: 1

Prior to 2000, the championships had been flagged by first- or second-ranked teams. The 2001 Diamondbacks came in third in the league and the 2000 Yankees were fifth, but count as the fourth team for purposes of this study.

3. Your absence time from work
Unless you are unemployed, a student with an undernourished schedule or someone who works a night shift, you are simply not going to see much of these playoffs unless you call in sick to work. Five of the first 10 games have starting times right in the middle of the work day, plus you'll have to search around for the ABC Family Channel to find some of them. This is ruinous for fans of shows like 38th-generation reruns of "Seventh Heaven" but a real boon for those of us who follow the national game.

Here it is in a nutshell: If the only place MLB can find to show the first round of the playoffs is a cable channel that is an adjunct to a real network then it is pretty obvious that the first round is totally superfluous! We have sacrificed so much to have wild cards and interleague play (like real pennant races and the competitive integrity of symmetrical scheduling) and what is it we have to show for it? A lot of games that most of us will never see.

4. Reggie Sanders

	Bonds vs. Sanders
	When it comes to having something to prove in the postseason, allow us to let up on Barry Bonds for a moment and focus instead on Reggie Sanders, who has whiffed a remarkable 39 times in his 92 postseason at-bats. Like Barry, Sanders has something to prove –- although, unlike Barry, he has had good individual series and played for some winning teams. The totals make for some very similar postseason stats:
		Sanders	Bonds
	Games	26	27
	At-bats	92	97
	Hits	18	19
	Homers	2	1
	Runs	13	12
	RBI	5	6
	Average	.196	.196
	OBP	.308	.316
	Sl Pct.	.293	.299
	Walks	15	17

With Barry Bonds getting on base at a greater rate than anyone in the history of time dating back to the days of the ancients, why didn't the Giants score more runs this year? I'm going to put some of the blame on Reggie Sanders, a man caught in a bizarre yo-yoing of his slugging average. Had this been one of Sanders' "up" years, the Giants would have been good for some more runs. Alas, it was an even year, and in even years, Sanders slugs under .500. Watch:

1994: .480
1995: .579
1996: .463
1997: .510
1998: .418
1999: .527
2000: .403
2001: .549
2002: .455

5. Mariano Rivera's shoulder
With Luis Gonzalez out, Rivera's tender shoulder is probably the biggest question mark of the postseason. Of course, the maddening thing for fans of the other seven teams is that the Yankees can win without him. They went 38-25 during his three longest absences this year. That's a .603 winning percentage; not as good as the .663 during the rest of the year, but good enough to have still won the division.

6. The sea
As in offshore. Offshore gambling dens ... so exotic ... so forbidden ...

Without too much thought, you can probably put the teams in the exact order the gambling houses have them from most favored to least favored. Well, you can at least get the favorite and the biggest 'dog correct, right? That's it: the Yankees and Twins.

Yankees: 11 to 5
A's: 7 to 2
Diamondbacks: 7 to 2
Braves: 4 to 1
Cardinals: 11 to 1
Angels: 12 to 1
Giants: 12 to 1
Twins: 18 to 1

These odds are presented for educational purposes only. They are not to be utilized for any reason other than probability studies undertaken in the pursuit graduate or post-graduate degrees.

7. Barry Bonds versus Greg Maddux

	Bonds

	Maddux

More than 15 years ago, a rookie Cubs pitcher faced a sophomore Pirates outfielder for the first time. Two Hall of Fame careers later, they are destined to meet once more, this time with considerably more on the line in Game 2 of the NL Division Series. In the interim, Bonds has held his own against Maddux. He has a career .938 OPS against him and has drawn 22 walks in the process of 138 or so plate appearances. Bonds has been equally effective against Game 1 starter Tom Glavine, posting a .945 OPS in about 90 plate appearances. Of course, these OPS figures are considerably less than what Bonds has been throwing up on the board overall in the past few years and considerably more than he has ever posted in a previous postseason.

In spite of the quality of the competition, I have to believe Bonds is going to have a much better showing than in his previous trips to the fair. He is so much on top of his game right now it seems inconceivable that he could go three or four games without doing some damage.

8. The Twins on the road
While only 4½ games separate the best home record from the worst home record among the eight playoff teams, the Twins are far worse than the best on the road. In 2002, the Twins finished 40-40 on the road, 10½ games worse than the Yankees.

While it is rare for a team that plays that poorly away from home to go all the way, it has been done. In fact, the worst road team in history to win the World Championship was none other than these Twins:

Year	Team	Road record	Pct.
1987	Minnesota Twins	29-52	.358
1918	Boston Red Sox	26-30	.464
1997	Florida Marlins	40-41	.494
1945	Detroit Tigers	38-39	.494
1974	Oakland Athletics	41-40	.506

In their history, the Twins have played in seven postseason series and only managed to win road games in two of them. That '87 team, famous for getting swept on the road in the Series but winning all four at home to beat the Cardinals, actually managed to win two out of three games in Detroit. The 1991 team repeated the or-all-nothing trick along a home/road bias in the Series, but won all three of their games in Toronto to close out the ALCS. Overall, the Twins are 5-13 on the road in postseason play.

9. The Rally Monkey
So my antics are amusing?
My hairless human cousin.
When it is you're losing
The crowd it starts a-buzzin':
"Come forth, you little simian
And do your frenzied dance
Our task is Sisyphean
But with you we have a chance!"
So leap about and scream I do
Like one of those beserkers
I rave as though I've lost a screw
Like a half-crazed postal worker
And, sure enough, your team revives
And the enemy is thwarted
My existence once more justified
My charms again so courted.
But something plagues my mind unsolved
When on my record I reflect
Since you are so much more evolved
Then explain my cause/effect.

10. Your mouth
Owing to high birth rates in the last few years, there are probably more children around than is good for us. This, coupled with the fact that spirits are higher during the playoffs and folks are more susceptible to cursing, makes for some uncomfortable situations around the little ones. Remember, cursing someone does not demean the cursed, it demeans the curser.

Yeah, whatever. Actually, I've been thinking of marketing a couple of different devices especially designed for the profane fan. The first is just an old-fashioned leather strap –- the kind that pre-epidural cultures used to give to birthing mothers to bite down on while delivering. I am told they muffle screams nicely. Another device is far more complicated. It is called a PCU (Profanity Conversion Unit) and is affixed over the head of the language defiler. When he or she goes into action, spewing invective at the opposing team, umpires, underachieving favorite team or disagreeable broadcasters, the energy generated by these outbursts is absorbed by the PCU and stockpiled for use in running small household appliances.

11. Playoff perennials: David Justice, Tino Martinez and Bernie Williams
All Yankee teammates in the 2000 and 2001 World Series, they have now gone their separate ways but have all managed to get back into the postseason yet again. This marks Justice's 10th appearance in the postseason and Martinez's eighth straight playoff appearance. Justice has done this with four teams and Martinez with three. Bernie Williams is also playing in his eighth straight postseason, but all with one team. This brings up an interesting question: What player in baseball history has appeared in front of the most fans in person?

Clearly, to discover this would be a remarkable undertaking best left to someone who has lots of time on their hands. I would imagine that Bernie Williams has played in front of as many people as anyone in the major leagues. The Yankees have drawn well throughout most of his career and they are always a big ticket item on the road. Throw in 83 sold-out or nearly sold-out playoff games, and he's a pretty good candidate.

12. Faces in the crowd
A few years ago, Fox was broadcasting the World Series and had placed actors from many of their shows in camera-accessible box seats. After the 10th cutaway to Calista Flockhart of Ally McBeal infamy, Joe Buck got off a great line when he said, "It's a good thing most Fox shows are animated, otherwise, there wouldn't be any seats left for real fans." Greatest show in the history of television or not, by the time the World Series is over, you are going to be dead sick of seeing the promo for The Simpsons season premiere featuring Elvis Costello. Doubt me now, but just wait.

If I were a person hoping to land one of the many managerial jobs that have become available since the season ended just two days ago, I'd make sure I was hanging around the playoffs, getting air time, talking on two cell phones at once –- you know, creating a buzz. Or does that make one look desperate?

13. The Cardinals' revenge quest
Check out ESPN Insider as Jim reports on whether the Cardinals can get even with the Diamondbacks.

Jim Baker writes Monday through Friday for ESPN Insider. He can be reached at jimbakerespn@yahoo.com.