Homecoming

No matter how much fun a vacation is -- and make no mistake about it, this one was aces -- there's something quite comforting in returning home and finding things the way you left them. It makes settling back into your routine less stressful and unpleasant. So thanks to the Phillies, whose cruise-control season -- a handful of impressive wins followed by clunker after clunker after clunker, regular as clockwork -- continued unabated while I chased my daughter around a beach on Cape Cod for a week.

While the hometown nine lurched toward the end of their uninspiring season, the Red Sox kept on demonstrating what talent and character can add up to. Even if the Yankees manage to hold on to the division lead that they've nearly wasted, Boston has proven to be everything the Phillies are not.

Not that I needed seven days in area code 508 to confirm it.