Hobbs needed just a few games with the semi-professional Hebrew Oilers to catch the eye of New York Knights' scout Scotty Carson. Spencer, meanwhile, toiled for six years in Class A ball before splitting 1996 between Class AA Norwich and AAA Columbus. Finally, only at the end of his second full season with Columbus, did Spencer get the call to "The Show." Hobbs was quite an accomplished hurler, firing a fastball through the side of his family's chicken coop as a youth and striking out renowned slugger "The Whammer" at a carnival en route to a tryout with the Cubs organization as a young man. Spencer does actually have five innings pitched to his credit and six career strikeouts. But those innings all came in 1992 and 1993 with Class A Greenville. It's doubtful Spencer ever whiffed someone with The Whammer's pedigree.

Hobbs joined a last-place ballclub and almost singlehandedly lifted it to the pennant with his offensive pyrotechnics. One clear sign the Knights' lineup was anemic: they had a guy named "Olson" setting the table for Hobbs. (The most significant athletic achievement in our family tree might be a couple of father-son bowling trophies. Oh yeah, I once fouled a couple of pitches off a future major leaguer pitcher, Jeff Juden, at a 12-year-old All-Star game. Then, as a Pony Leaguer I had the pleasure of watching Juden strike every one out from second base.)

Spencer, meanwhile, is just a bit player in one of the most feared lineups of all times. Hobbs once stepped across the plate on a pitchout to slam a homer. No one's pitching around Spencer. Furthermore, most of Spencer's blasts came in meaningless games against teams playing their own September call-ups. As far as I'm concerned, Spencer has hit a grand-total of one homer that has counted, the one he hit in Game 2 of the Yankees sweep of the Texas Rangers. I also suspect that there'll be one more difference between Spencer and Hobbs. After Hobbs' final home run of the season, he retired to a life on the farm with the son he never knew he had. After Spencer's final round tripper of 1998, I figure he'll be dealt in the offseason for an established star, further fortifying the Yankees position as the team to beat in the American League. The unsuspecting suitor will then find out the hard way that Spencer is more Lee Stevens than Roy Hobbs.

OTHER PLAYOFF THOUGHTS: The baseball gods probably ordained long ago that perennial postseason hero Jim Leyritz would hit a game-winning home run in a playoff game on Saturday, Oct. 3. It was just a question of which uniform Leyritz would be wearing at the time.

That home run could have been the swing that kept the Boston Red Sox' season alive. However, months ago Boston GM Dan Duquette shipped Leyritz, whom he deemed a clubhouse cancer, off to the Padres for minor-league catcher Mandy Romero and pitchers Dario Veras and Carlos Reyes. Then again, as it turned out, either Veras or Reyes might have been a better option for the Sox than Tom "Flash (in the Pan?)" Gordon in the 8th inning of the Red Sox' season-ending loss to the Indians.

Speaking of the Red Sox, Pete Schourek probably saved manager Jimy Williams' job by pitching 5-plus scoreless innings on Saturday. If Schourek had been hit hard the Red Sox lost with Pedro Martinez watching helplessly in the dugout, it would have greased the skids for the Sox to take another run at Jim Leyland. Boston was reportedly Leyland's second choice before he joined the Marlins and ultimately led them to the World Series title. Now, with no good reason to fire Williams, Duquette will probably have to watch with envy as two managers he has coveted in the past, Leyland and Felipe Alou, change addresses.

Let me report from up here in Boston that there have been no mass suicides since the loss to the Indians. In fact, even before the final out of the season, I think many Red Sox fans had begun to realize the futility and potential for embarrassment that would result from a so-called "showdown" with the Yankees.

I mean, if a team with nine hitters in their lineup, like Texas, could muster only one run in three games against the Bronx Bombers, what would a lineup like Boston's, with only two hitters (OK, two plus John Valentin occasionally), do? Is it possible to score a negative number of runs? (The New England region did gain a measure of satisfaction Saturday when the Umass Minutemen came from behind to shock fifth-ranked Hofstra in a Division 1-AA football showdown. Hey, beggars can't be choosers.) The thoughts of Red Sox fans have instead turned to whether they've seen the last of Mo Vaughn in a Boston uniform. Allow me to waffle for a second. A couple of months back, I had written that I trusted the Red Sox front office to cover for the loss of Vaughn. Now, I no longer think that's possible. With his bat, glove and most of all, his leadership, Vaughn was as important as anyone for how far the Red Sox came this year. If I were the Red Sox, I'd sign the check and let the all-star first baseman fill in the numbers. I'd put the Foxy Lady's finest on the payroll so Mo could have a lap dance during the seventh-inning stretch. Next to the car-pool lane, I'd create a sealed- off MOV lane (Mo-Occupancy Vehicle), so the big guy could flip his truck with impunity whenever he wanted. Whatever you want, Mo. Just don't leave. It's also too bad that regular-season award balloting couldn't have extended into the playoffs. I have a feeling Nomar Garciaparra would have nipped Juan Gonzalez at the wire for MVP, and David Wells would have closed the gap for the Cy Young.

Over in the National League, my, don't we all feel silly for ever caring who won that three-team Wild-Card race?

The Braves made quick work of the Cubs, and now may get another bit of good fortune if Randy Johnson comes through and extends the Padres-Astros' series to a fifth game. Whoever prevails (and my money would be on the team pitching Kevin Brown), would not have their ace available in Game 1 and perhaps more importantly, would only be able to start that ace twice in the series. Speaking of Brown, how much money do you think the free-agent-to-be made by outdueling Johnson in their Game 1 showdown?

NFL PREDICTIONS, REVISITED: We're now far enough into the NFL season to revisit my NFL picks and see how I'm doing so far. The most glaring mistake appears to be my dissing of Ditka. The Saints were 3-0 until today and took the New England Patriots down to the wire before suffering their first loss.

My snappy retort was going to be that New Orleans apparently had cut a deal with the NFL to play the worst opponent available over the first three weeks, and that it was hard to tell which of the Superdome's tenants, the Saints or the Tulane Green Wave, would have a greater "strength of schedule" rating in Jeff Sagarin's computer. (The Green Wave, by the way, are 4-0, boasting wins over Cincinnati, SMU, Navy and, most recently, Southern Mississippi.) But there's no denying that the Patriots team that the Saints hung tough with to the wire this past week was a quality opponent. I have to tell you. I watched the Patriots-Saints game, and I still don't know how the Saints are doing it. The quarterback (Danny Wuerrfel) looks like he's giving himself a hernia every time he's throwing the ball downfield (which isn't often). With no vertical passing game, the running game was predictably awful against the Patriots. Still, somehow those 3-yard outs to Lamar Smith and 4-yard dinks to tight end Cameron Cleeland kept adding up to first downs. And Ditka had his defenders whipped into a frenzy flying around the field, making big plays throughout the game. I still say New Orleans falls far short of the playoffs, and that Ditka could mess up a one-team draft. But the Saints took all of three weeks to surpass my predicted win total for them, and for that they deserve credit. My other bad call was Washington to win the NFC East. At 0-5, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.