World Serious.

Tonight the Beloved Mets take on the Embittered Royals for the first game of the Major League Baseball championship series. I call the Royals embittered because of the way they were robbed! ROBBED! of the championship last year by the San Francisco Giants in seven games. And let's face it: The Giants are, unlike the loyal New York Giants of football, the San Francisco Giants are deadbeats and jerks, who fled their fans in 1958 for greener shores.

But the Mets are embittered too, or at least their fans are, having lost the 2000 World Series to the evil Roger Clemens and his Evil Empire buddies.

On an emotional level, it may be difficult to choose for whom to root.

Oh, who am I kidding.

A kid in a store noticed my Mets cap and asked if I was "all excited." I said I was guardedly excited, that as a Mets fan I was used to failure and disappointment.

But they've stunned me and everyone else this postseason, hanging tough with the Dodgers, steamrolling over the Cubs. peaking at the right time. I think they have the pitching, the canniness, and the defense to take home the trophy.

Everybody sing!

It all starts tonight. Let's go, Mets!