Posted By Jeff Fletcher on October 21, 2009 3:01 pm

It’s about 2:30 on Wednesday and I’m basically killing time here in the Angel Stadium press box, because I’m finished with my baseball work for the day (more on that later), and tonight I’ve got tickets to go across the street and see the Ducks and Stars. (That’s NHL, not a breakfast cereal.) An old friend of mine works in the Ducks’ front office, and he’s getting me tickets, along with entry to the club-level restaurant before the game, so I can watch the Dodgers-Phillies game. Sounds pretty cool, huh?

As for the baseball, today is an off day in the ALCS. They built in this extra off day a couple years ago just so they’d have a little cushion if there were weather issues. Of course, we have none of those in Southern California. It’s just an extra opportunity for everyone to cram into the clubhouse and write the same stories.

• The Yankees are up 3-1 in the series, but they aren’t looking ahead to the World Series.
• The Angels are down 3-1, but they aren’t giving up.

Most everyone will write some variety of those stories, along with a bunch of stuff that says “Hey, A-Rod is having a really good postseason.” I sort of wrote that one last night. I actually have something different today, although not totally unique, since Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com was going around asking the same questions as me. Great minds think alike. My story will be showing up on MLB FanHouse later today, or maybe tomorrow.

It’s tough for anyone to get a different story because there are so many people talking to the same players in the same limited times. The postseason is a bit of a media circus under any circumstances, and when you add in the Yankees, forget it. There were probably 75 reporters in the Yankees clubhouse today for the one-hour availability — and that’s on an off day. When there is a game, it’s probably double that. Meanwhile, there were only two or three players in there at a time.

Speaking of that, I have to tell you about Derek Jeter. I am always amazed by the way he handles the whole deal of playing in New York. From my perspective, he makes himself available most of the time for any questions, and he will stand there until all the questions are done. He manages to be polite to everyone. He never snaps at a dumb question, even though he gets asked plenty. Also, he keeps religiously to his little script of boring quotes. You’d think a guy would slip every thousand interviews and say something controversial or colorful. Nope. Just the same old stuff. Over and over. I’m sure that is by design. That’s how you survive in New York. No one has done it better than him.

Now that the Yankees and Phillies are both up 3-1, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that my dream scenario of spending the rest of the postseason in California is not going to come true. I want the Phillies to get it over with tonight, so I can go home for the weekend, and then I’d like the Angels to win on Thursday. Even if they don’t win the series, it’ll make for some more interesting games.

Oh, and I almost forgot about this. Sometimes the view from the press box is not that great.