By Jiminy

Last month was one of those Septembers that a baseball commissioner dreams about. Three of the four division races were up in the air until the last week of the season and two of those races came down to the wire before being decided in the last few games.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, the only team in the majors to win 100 games this year, overcame pressure from the red hot Big Red Machine from Cincinnati to win the National League West. The Reds, with a 98-63 record, better than any other team except the Dodgers, are probably wondering why along with Atlanta they are in the Western division while teams west of the Mississippi like St. Louis are in the Eastern division.

The Dodgers are favored to take the elder ieague's title over the Pittsburgh Pirates who clinched the Eastern championship on Wednesday over the St. Louis Cardinals by a one-game margin. While the Pirates-Cards race was a close one, both teams would have finished no better than tied for third and fourth, respectively, in the Western division.

The American League East is beginning to sound like a broken record: 1969--Baltimore, 1970--Baltimore, 1971--Baltimore, 1973--Baltimore, 1974--Baltimore. Those of us who aren't from Maryland wish there was some way to vote this repetitious tune the "bummer of the week" to get it off of the top of the charts and out of our hearts, so to speak.

It is a shame to waste such baseball talent in a city like Baltimore. The Orioles have a hard time attracting fans to the park, even during a close division race. "Pennant fever is just a common cold in Baltimore," one Bosox fan who was seeing orange muttered recently.

Towards the end of September the anti-Oriole feelings rose to such a pitch that even many die-hard Boston fans were rooting for the Yankees just so Baltimore wouldn't win the division title for the umpteenth time.

Though the titles have been decided, it still isn't too late for me to hope the O's will not win the American League crown. Despite the fact that Baltimore is the hottest team in baseball, winning 28 of its last 34 games (as an Oriole lover who lives down the hall from me reminds me 14 times daily), I have to go with the Athletics to win the pennant. If Baltimore wins, I would have to pull for the National League to win the World Series for the first time since 1969.