The Baseball Gods can be cruel.

In a wonderful postseason full of great stories, just about all of them have been eliminated. The small market Twins and the echo chamber known as the Metro Dome? Gone. The even smaller market Oakland A's? Gone. The San Francisco Giants, with Felipe Alou finally helming a playoff team, and the greatest player on the planet? Gone. The Atlanta Braves? Well, okay, no one was pining for the Atlanta Braves.

Life was still good after round one, because at least these teams were being eliminated with some great baseball; the play at the plate to end the Marlins-Giants series, late-inning heroics, a pair of game 5s, a matchup of two knuckleballers, and even a walk-off homer. Best, of all, when the dust of the first round settled, there was still a tantalizing World Series matchup in the offing:

Boston Red Sox - Chicago Cubs.

Now I am not a fan of the Red Sox. Frankly, I don't care for them. The whole "Cowboy Up" thing got old in a hurry, and Manny Ramirez's showboating after the home run off Zito was silly and classless. In Bob Gibson's day, Gibson would have received the new ball from the ump and beaned Manny on his way back to the dugout. If baseball's going to tolerate the showing up of pitchers, at least let them pitch inside again.

The Fenway faithful may be loyal fans, but they're pretty full of themselves, too, and a little unstable. These are fans who will cheer "Yankees Suck" when the Red Sox are home to the Jays. There are some deep-rooted psychological issues here. Captain Ahab would tell these people to lighten up.

But the Cubs. How can you not cheer for the Cubs? When a couple thousand people turn up to stand on the street outside the stadium, well, how can you not feel for those people? And within the Cubs were some compelling stories, a great young pitching staff, Dusty Baker at the managerial reigns again, Sammy Sosa. This would have been a World Series played at baseball's oldest and greatest palaces. Seven games at Wrigley and Fenway. The Ivy and the Monster. Baseball's best young pitching against its best offence. Curse vs. Curse. And something would have had to give. It would have been magical.

And we almost had it. Just two games away. Just outs away. And yet just as quickly, the Baseball Gods snatched it away, and reminded us just why these teams haven't won a championship for 85 and 95 years, respectively. So now, we're left with the Florida Marlins and New York Yankees. Teams that haven't won in 3 and 6 years, respectively. Jeffrey Loria or George Steinbrenner. Talk about Sofie's Choice.

In a perfect world, Jeffrey Loria would have to pay the Montreal Expos a couple hundred million in alimony payments before being allowed to own another major league team, let alone win anything. But as a Jays fan, you simply have to cheer against the Yankees, because every post season failure drives Steinbrenner closer to doing something stupid, like firing Joe Torre or Brian Cashman, that could lead to a Yankee downfall. Besides, the Marlins do have the more compelling stories going for them, including a 72-year-old manager gunning for his first World Series, and a thought to be washed up catcher in Pudge Rodriguez playing out of his mind. What do the Yankees have? Roger Clemens retiring? Yeah, he needs some more hardware.

It pains me to say it, but Go Marlins.