....but you have to figure the players on the remaining teams in the baseball playoffs prefer sunny California to the alternative. The NLCS and the ALCS are being played in very different weather conditions today. I've got the Phillies-Dodgers game on the office TV right now. The sun is shining in Los Angeles, and the gametime temperature was 93 degrees.

The Yankees and Angels will be facing the polar opposite tonight. (Polar, get it? Sorry, bad joke.) During yesterday's workout at Yankee Stadium, Angels players like Ervin Santana (pictured) looked much like Nanook of the North in the frigid conditions. Looking over the game preview, I see they are expecting drizzle, a 41-degree temperature and a 15-20 mph wind that will make it feel like 25 degrees during the game tonight in New York.

I was reading in the Tribune this morning that MLB executives are terrified either tonight's game or tomorrow's Game 2 will be rained out in New York. If that happens, the Yankees and Angels will have to play a makeup game Sunday, and that creates an interesting scenario for TV. Fox owns exclusive rights to the ALCS, but that network has a full slate of afternoon football planned. That would force the baseball game into the primetime slot, opposite NLCS Game 3 (to be telecast on TBS). That would split the baseball-watching audience and (gasp!) drive down ratings.

This year, Games 4-7 of the World Series are going to be played after the calendar turns to November. Game 7 would be on Nov. 4. Imagine what the weather is going to be like if this turns into a New York-Philadelphia series. After all the rainouts, they might still be playing on Veterans Day. It wouldn't be great for ratings to have a Freeway Series, but you wonder whether the baseball execs wouldn't be content with the Angels playing the Dodgers -- just for the sake of avoiding the weather headaches.

If nothing else, the bad weather during these postseason games should convince baseball NOT to expand the playoffs any further. Thanksgiving and baseball don't seem to go together, especially not in northern cities.