This fall is only the second time in those 48 seasons that both of our teams have made the postseason in the same year.

Yet this fall is the first time that our dreams have a real chance.

Beginning the postseason today as respective division champions, the Dodgers and Angels have baseball’s two best managers, two of its most dangerous sluggers, two of its best pressure starting pitchers, and two of its best bullpens.

The Dodgers will be fighting against the vagaries of youth. The Angels will be fighting against the perils of rust.

But if there was ever a moment in their history that they could both turn this fall into a true Southern California classic, it is now.

Here are 30.92 reasons it could happen, one for every mile:

* Mile 1: The Dodgers open against a Chicago Cubs team that hasn’t won a World Series in 100 years and will mess it up again. You know it, I know it, and, most important, they know it.

* Mile 2: The Angels open against a Boston Red Sox team that they have beaten six straight times.

* Mile 3: After the first round, the Dodgers would play either the Philadelphia Phillies or Milwaukee Brewers, two teams against which they had a combined winning record.

The Angels finished the season with the best record in baseball. The Dodgers narrowly won their division. However, they did it with their most talented team in the past twenty years. The city of Los Angeles has always been a baseball town first, despite the many great years Magic and Kobe have given with the Lakers. As Plaschke states, the Dodgers and Angeles have never met in the World Series, whereas the Cubs have played the White Sox (1906), the Yankees and the Mets (2000), and even the Athletics and the Giants (1989). For veterans like Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra, and Vladimir Guererro, a World Series ring would be the icing on the cake of their exceptional careers.