Hi, folks! Jay Bell here. Yeah, this was supposed to be part of Yard Work’s WORLD SERIES PREVIEW, but time’s a luxury nowadays. I just spent the last two weeks in Diamondbacks President Rich Dozer’s gorgeous solarium, hashing out a strategy for next year. Here’s a hint: it involves lots of winning! This being my first year as part of the D-Back coaching staff, I gotta say I was surprised to get invited! It’s great being a part of an organization that accepts input from everyone in the organization. If I had a penny for every time I saw Bob Melvin chatting up a ball girl or one of the player’s wives, asking them to come visit his office after the game for some one-on-one time, I’d have one heckuva piggy bank!

But anway, onto the World Series! Lots of folks have been talking about this series being the return of Small Ball. Well, don’t call it a comeback, folks – Small Ball’s always been here, especially in the National League, the home of Real Baseball! And there isn’t a better example of Real Baseball than with the two teams playing in this year’s World Series. Yeah, the first two games of the Series have seen lots of long flies, but that happens sometimes. Both the Chicago White Sox & Houston Astros know the value in the fundamentals of baseball – see that FUNDAMENTAL sign at US Cellular? And, as these teams know, nothing’s more fundamental in baseball than the bunt. It doesn’t take a lot of discipline to swing hard and hit a ball far. Heck, even Scott Podsednik can do it! However, it does takes something special to give yourself up for the sake of the team, to square around against a hard-throwing head-hunter and turn his 95 MPH heatseeker into a meek little grasscutter so a baserunner gets 90 feet closer to the promised land. It takes a certain intestinal fortitude to hold your bat out there and send the ball down the 3rd base line while you hightail it to 1st base. And ask any fan worth a program what the most exciting play in baseball is, and they’ll tell you it’s the suicide squeeze. That we were lucky enough to see two such squeezes executed to perfection is only more proof that this year’s postseason is gonna be one of the best ever!

Phil Garner’s scrappy Astros, being a Real Baseball team, bunt with the best of them. In Adam Everett & ROY hopeful Willy Tavares, they have two of the best giver-uppers you could ever hope to see. And, of course, their pitching staff really knows about the art of the sacrifice. You wouldn’t know that Roger Clemens & Andy Pettite spent most of their careers in the American League, sitting on the bench spitting seeds while some jelly-bellied homer machine waddles up to the plate. The way they square around perfectly (feet forming a perfect 5-degree angle with the front of home plate) and gently cradle the incoming pitch with their lumber, you’d think they’d been bunting since they were born! (Remember kids – high, you try; low, heck no!)

But don’t discount the rest of the lineup! Garner’s known for his managerial trickery – hands up if you thought Jose Vizcaino would get the AB last night in the 9th! Even squatting slugger Jeff Bagwell might fool folks that think he’s there to simply grip it & rip it. And you know who’s a really good bunter on that team? Lance Berkman! One day, before a Houston-‘Zona tilt at the BOB, I watched Berkman take bunting practice. I figured that Berkman, being a tater-crushing man-mountain clean-up hitter type, would be lucky if he only popped up half his bunt attempts. Little did I expect Berkman to execute beautiful running bunts from both sides of the plate – it was like watching a plus-sized Jose Lind go to work! And there’s nothing more dangerous than having a big slugger at the plate dropping one down the 3rd base line. So look out Chicago!

As for those scrappy hard-nosed White Sox – well, they’re the spitting image of their manager. Scrappy, hard-nosed, willing to do whatever it takes to win, even if it means going deep. That said, there’s not a person on this team that can’t give themselves up for the sake of getting a run across. If Carl Everett can keep his cool and drop one down, then anyone on that team is liable to do so. Of course, the best bunter on the team is speedy little Podsednik. He’s the type of leadoff guy you want – he’s feisty, hard-nosed, scrappy, and annoying as all get-out. Not “annoying” like “Andy Van Slyke with a wet towel annoying”, but annoying nonetheless. And now, with his newfound power stroke in place, he could become the best leadoff hitter baseball’s seen since Rickey Henderson. And that’s not something I say lightly! Pod’s power opens up the opportunity for the White Sox to just mess with the Astros’ mind. Even though they’re playing in what folks call the Juice Box for the next three games (if it goes that far!), expect lots of trickery and sleight-of-hand when it comes to at-bats. Ozzie’s got the White Sox wielding their lumber the way a majorette wields her baton, so watch out! And don’t think the Sox are losing anything by not having a DH in Houston. If anything, it just opens up more opportunities for Ozzie to cast his spells or santeria or voodoo or whatever he does during his pagan downtime!

So, yeah – with the Astros down 2 games, I predict we’ll see them get back to basics and stop trying to keep up with those tricky White Sox hitters. And I predict the White Sox will do the same. There’s gonna be lots of action between home plate and the pitcher’s mound, so don’t miss any of it! I live for this game because I love its fantasticness! Enjoy some Real Baseball, folks!

Jay Bell lead the National League in sacrifice hits in 1990 and 1991. He is currently the bench coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks.