IT'S LIKE 1950 ALL OVER AGAIN

Here's the deal, so that you never have to read me go through it again - from now on, whenever I write about this, I'll just link back to this page (the day of Game 1 of the 2009 World Series) so that you can refresh your memory if need be.

The 2009 baseball season is dead to me.

If the Mets aren't in the World Series, I start rooting for matchups that have never happened before. So the Angels would have been a great fit in the 2009 World Series - they have only been to the World Series once before, and they didn't play the Phillies.

The Yankees? They've been, many times...and they've already played the Phillies.

So this season, in my crazy, muddled mind, becomes a waste. (Not like I didn't see that coming after watching the Mets play in April and May.)

The past couple of years had been great - the Tampa Bay Rays and Colorado Rockies each checked a team off of their 'played in the World Series' list (yes, there is one) - but there have been some wasted years recently, too. So many, in fact, that I've had to begin making exceptions to my rules, like:

1) "At least they haven't played in my lifetime." This applied to the Red Sox-Cardinals in 2004, Tigers-Cardinals in 2006, and this year with the Phils and Yanks.

and

2) "Well, maybe at least the team that lost before will win this time." That worked in 2004. And I guess under this clause I'd be rooting for the Phillies this year.

But it's just not the same as a new matchup.

This all applies to the Super Bowl, too (it's in the back of my mind with the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals, too, but I just don't apply myself to those sports in the same way).

As such, it makes the back-to-back Bills-Cowboys Super Bowls tremendous wastes - not only did the same team win twice, but both were in my lifetime. Ditto for Yankees-Braves.

I suppose if the Mets made the World Series, I'd waive this idiosyncrasy...but it's gotten so bad that if the Mets played the Red Sox, Yankees, A's, or Orioles, part of me would feel like I wasted a season. That's not the case in 2009, though - this year there's no doubt the season feels wasted.

And so another baseball season comes to a close for me - before the World Series even gets underway.