Did Dean Wormer pull the plug on the UW band?

The older gentleman in the grocery store had it right.

As he passed by and we compared our Sox caps and shirts, he added the obvious: "the difference between us and them" -- them, clearly being Chicago Cubs fans -- "is that we have no expectations. IFF we have a good season like this, we can enjoy it, where they have all that "curses and 100 years" stuff to deal with."

Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf seemed to concur as well, telling the Sun-Times, ''Once we got into the postseason that was it, it was a great year for us. Everything is about expectations and we overachieved this year I think, given the injuries. There's no way we should have been in the postseason with all these injuries. But these guys battled it, battled it and battled it.''

The rival Tribune's Rick Morrissey also agreed to a point, "This is a lesson in expectations. There weren't many surrounding the Sox, so when they won those three do-or-die games to clinch the division, it was a nice, fun story."

Still, he added, "the Cubs lost when the priest was brought in to sprinkle holy water
Everything that came after was a pale imitation of that incredible error in judgment.

The Cubs were done, finished, cooked by the symbolic gesture—not for any karmic reasons, but because it was another reminder of a painfully misguided franchise."

So, while the Sox are reletively pleased and the Cubs are morose, the Angels are furious with themselves. ESPN's Amy K. Nelson observes, "since 1990, only the 1998 Yankees and 2007 Red Sox finished with the best record in baseball and won the World Series. Now you can add the 2008 Angels to the list of those who came up short."

After the Phillies clinched their first NLCS appearance in 15 years by beating the Brewers in Milwaukee Sunday afternoon, P Cole Hamels opined,  "Hopefully it will turn the city red a little bit more than it is green."

Paul Hagen asks whether Philly is a football or baseball town while discussing something of feud between the Phillies and Eagles. "Hamels was onto something, though. These two organizations don't have the warm and fuzzies for each other. It appears that the bad feelings began when the Phillies felt the Eagles weren't doing their fair share to maintain Veterans Stadium. The Eagles were unhappy that the Phillies weren't as prepared as they were when state and city funds became available to build new parks, delaying the openings by a year. There have been reports of petty jealousies over which team has gotten the better play in the newspapers on a given day."

The Capitol Times' Dennis Punzel asks where do the Brewers go from here, wondering aloud about Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks.

• Is Fielder's power production and presence in the middle of the lineup still an essential part of the team's makeup? Or is all that outweighed by his defensive shortcomings, ballooning upper body and the virtual guarantee that as a Scott Boras client, he will be pushing the salary envelope over the next three years in arbitration before he inevitably becomes a free agent bound for the highest bidder?
• * Is Weeks just a late bloomer who needs a little more time, a la Cincinnati's Brandon Phillips, to emerge as a top talent? Is he really a second baseman, or a center fielder, or a third baseman?

Meanwhile, Kurt Warner wants to set the record straight after that internet report that he considered retiring after seeing the scary way teammate Anquan Boldin was hurt on Sunday.  "From one game to the next, it's the greatest thing in the world and the next game it's like, 'Do I really want to put myself through this again?' " he said. " . . . They're always looking to replace me anyway.

"But I don't think I'm going to be one of those guys that's going to be horribly saddened when it's over, because I count my blessings every single day."

It's bad enough that the Wisconsin football team has lost two winnable games in a row and hosts No. 6 Penn State this Saturday night, but add PennLive.com to the torrent of jokesters having fun with the school's disgraced and suspended marching band.

"The) Badgers might have to face unbeaten PSU without the services of one of the nation's top bands. The Badgers' marching band is on indefinite suspension and didn't attend the Ohio State game due to recent "misconduct" allegations, according to Wisconsin's student newspaper. Darn it! The Patriot-News has learned Douglas C. Neidermeyer, Sergeant-At-Arms, turned in the band to Wisconsin Dean Vernon Wormer. Neidermeyer, he's a dead man!

Still, the Badgers' slide hasn't hurt them in recruiting, as yet anyway. The Miami Herald reports that Conor O'Neill, a highly-ranked LB recruit, has decided to attend the university.

``It came down to Clemson, Auburn and Wisconsin, and in the end, the Badgers were the right fit for me.'' O'Neill said.

''The education, football program and environment all sold me. This is a huge relief for me to get this selection done so I can focus fully on the season.''