The New York Yankees are a scary baseball team.

Around 1995, George Steinbrenner, tired of losing, made a deal with Lucifer. In exchange for his soul, Lucifer gave him an excellent baseball team.

“Derek Jeter is overpaid and overrated,” “Bernie Williams can’t throw,” and “Alfonso Soriano swings at everything” are the common jabs at the Yankees.

These allegations are true, but the Yankees, although statistics may not agree with me, have the best offense in the American League.

Nick Johnson is one of the most underrated hitters in baseball with a .429 on-base percentage. Jorge Posada, is, in my opinion, the most valuable player in the American League.

Unlike Alex Rodriguez, he is a member of a first-place team. The New York Yankees would not be in first place without him, while the Rangers, to quote Branch Rickey, ” would be in last place without him.”

And the Yankees have Mike Mussina, Andy Pettite, and David Wells, probably the best mercenary pitching staff money can buy.

The Yankees excel in offense and starting pitching. The bullpen is a bit shaky, but Mariano Rivera is still unhittable in the ninth.

Boston has a cadre of excellent-hitting role players.

The Red Sox assembled statistically the best hitting team in baseball.

They had the a slugging percentage of .496, the best in baseball history. They also managed to hit .289 as a team.

The only thing the Red Sox lack is speed.

They also have several players having what one might say are career seasons, such as David Ortiz, Kevin Millar, Bill Mueller. These players could easily fall back to earth against the Yankeessuperior pitching.

They don’t play defense very well, although Nomar Garciaparra and Johnny Damon are better than most at their respective positions (short-stop and center field).

The Sox, in addition to a great offense, have one thing that sets them apart, Pedro Martinez, who just might be the most dominating pitcher in the history of baseball.

This league championship series should decide the winner of the World Series.

These two teams hate each other as much as any two teams in sports, although the Boston side of the hatred sometimes is unrequited.

I would initially say that the Sox would win the series, except then I realized that the Yankees have handled Pedro well. What they do is work the count until he gets tired after 110 pitches or so.

After that mark, he becomes human, and manager Grady Little is faced with a tough decision – keep Pedro in the game and watch him get hit and possibly hurt, or bring in his untrustworthy bullpen.

Kim has been banished from the bullpen, and Scott Williamson is now the closer.

This series combines two of the worst defensive teams I have ever laid eyes upon, but it will be a great series, although it may look like a little league game at times.

Even with this lack of style, the Yanks will win in six.

In the National League Championship Series, the Cubs have the Randy Johson-Curt Schilling of 2001 in Mark Prior and Kerry Wood.

These two pitchers accounted for all three wins in the Divisional Series against the Atlanta Braves. Until that series, I was sold on Prior, but not on Wood.

Wood appears to be the real deal, after dominating the Braves, who have some of the best hitters in the national league, twice.

I don’t believe in destiny or curses, and I think that “the clutch” is an overrated concept.

The Cubs will get the opportunity to get killed in the World Series for the first time since 1945, but the Marlins will make the series much closer than many people think.

The Marlins play something called “Whitey Ball,” which was made famous in the 1980s by Whitey Herzog and the Saint Louis Cardinals.

The premise of “Whitey Ball” is that by using speed and pressure, not only do you steal bases and advance runners, you apply pressure to the defense and make them nervous.

This strategy worked in the division series, as the Giants lost their cool and made many errors while the Marlins were running the bases.

If the Marlins can get on base against Wood and Prior, they might be able to squeak out a couple of runs.

This is a big if.

The Marlins are all right handed, and they hit twenty points lower against righties than they do lefties.

I like the Marlins in all games that do not involve Wood or Prior, but Wood and Prior are extremely good, and the Cubs will win in seven.

Then, the World Series brings into all those great questions, Supernatural versus Science, Good versus Evil and Relevation versus Reality.

So, if you believe that the former will prevail in any of the latter here, go for the Cubs, for they are the stereotypical team of destiny.

Their fans have been tormented – they haven’t won a World Series since the Tinkers-Evers-Chance days of 1908.

This series, amazingly, except third base and right field, is not close in terms of talent.

The Yankees are better than the Cubs at almost every position. The Cubs have no comparison to Jason Giambi, Soriano, Jeter, and Posada.

Even if the Prior/Wood monster can somehow calm the Yankee bats, the Yanks have Mike Mussina who almost never allows more than three runs in a game.

David Wells (although I really hate to talk about intangibles) is the definition of “big-game pitcher” who walks nobody. Their rotation is so good that Jose Contraras, who has an ERA around three and a huge strikeout totals, is a long reliever. Contraras would be a number 3 started for the Cubs.

If Prior and Wood can hold down the Yankees, then they might make the series respectable. As the Cubs walk out of Wrigley Field in game five or four, with their heads hung low, their fans will be screaming about the “curse of the billy goat.” There is no curse, just talent: the Yankees have it, the Cubs don’t. The Yanks will win it all in five.