L.A. or Chicago Could Be Headed Toward Inter-City Showdown

In the latest issue of Vanity Fair, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg noted that his greatest fear is that he might be in City Hall eight years without seeing a subway series. Perhaps the exact opposite fear can be found in network headquarters and Major League Baseball’s offices, because while New York’s already shut out of the American League playoff picture — and if the Mets bullpen has anything to say about it, New York might be absent from the entire playoffs — there’s nevertheless the possibility of two other parochially comfortable outcomes. In Chicago, with both the Cubs and the White Sox comfortably in control of their own destinies and likely to win Central Division titles in their respective leagues, the specter of an all-Chicago World Series looms. Similarly, in Los Angeles, a showdown between the Angels of Anaheim and the Dodgers as dueling champs of the two Wests is becoming all the more possible.