The lights are down low in the Tap Room today. This has been a rough start to the week.

Another national tragedy that makes all of our hearts sink.

And even the things that are supposed to help distract us from real life – like sports and music — aren’t exactly comforting right now.

Since I dropped my sports fandom, for the most part, in the years I have been a journalist, I delved deeper into music – allowing myself to get lost there.

After blues giant B.B. King died in 2015, and I failed to see him perform in the years leading up to that despite numerous chances, I made a “bucket list” of musicians to go see before they – or I – kicked the bucket.

I finally saw Van Morrison perform live this summer. Great experience. High on my current list include The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.

Tom Petty, who suffered a cardiac arrest Monday at age 66, was right near the top of my list. Very sad.

Petty is all we’re playing on the Tap Room jukebox today (mixed in with some Mudcrutch; if you don’t know Mudcrutch, Petty’s original band that he re-formed a few years back, you have to check them out).

We’re also talking about the post mortem of the Orioles season, of course. For the next few weeks and beyond.

And we’ll keep talking Orioles throughout the rest of 2017 and beyond. Just because the Orioles’ season is over doesn’t mean we are done at BaltimoreBaseball.com or in the Tap Room. We’ll be filing something most days throughout the next few months, keeping you updated and keeping you thinking about baseball until spring training begins.

That will be our third season at BaltimoreBaseball.com, and Steve Cockey and I can’t thank you enough for making us a part of your daily routine. We are headed into our 18-month of existence and our numbers have completely blown us away – far exceeding anything we could have hoped for in our first two seasons.

We know there are some great baseball sites and great Orioles sites out there, so we want to thank you for choosing us to hang out with on occasion.

So, since we are being communal, I figured we’ll go beyond the Orioles for a day today and talk about the postseason – if it’s not too painful for you all.

At the beginning of this season, we made our 2017 staff predictions, and I woefully misjudged how good the Orioles would be. I had them winning 90 games and capturing another Wild Card berth.

I was way the hell off.

But when it came to overall baseball, I did pretty solidly. I correctly predicted every division winner and had the Cleveland Indians beating the Washington Nationals in five games in the World Series. I’m willing to stick with that one.

Now, it is your turn.

Give me your predictions for the 2017 World Series participants, who wins and in how many games. I’ll check back at the end of the month to see who got the closest, and maybe we can throw some BaltimoreBaseball.com swag your way.

You can even answer the question twice. Who you think is gonna make the World Series, and who you want to make the Word Series. I know that’s not always one in the same.

So, again, thanks for sticking with us this year. It is much appreciated. Now, with the playoffs starting tonight, what happens this month in MLB?

Tap-In Question: Which teams make the World Series, who wins and in how many games?