Pull up a couch. It's time once again for a little at-home amateur psychology.

	There are no cheers for Mr. June-July-August when it's October.

The most overplayed story of the postseason, no surprise, concerns Barry Bonds and his postseason woes. Before this week, one number -- .196 -- hung around Bonds' neck like a curse. He couldn't fight it. He could only hope to refute it.

But if you want to know the roots of the problem, you have to listen to what Bonds says before the playoffs begin. Veteran Bonds watchers know the routine: He tells everybody that he'll get his team to the playoffs, and then it's their job to get him to the World Series. He says it with a disarming smile, and everybody usually laughs. The problem is, everybody also figures it's true.

Psychologically, it's a strange phenomenon. Bonds carries himself with the utmost arrogance through 162 games. He performs feats only a handful of players in the history of the game can even hope to achieve. And then, when the postseason arrives, this supremely confident, remarkably talented athlete starts looking around the room for Mark Lemke.

Reggie Jackson didn't do this, and neither did Kirby Puckett or Orel Hershiser.

It might all end in the next two weeks -- Bonds' postseason woes (that's always the operative word) might be eliminated, removing the only blemish on his storied career.

Still, it's interesting to see it as a problem of personal mindset rather than a result of perceived pressure. Just watch him -- the man knows how good he is. He just seems to forget when September turns to October. It's a funny time to choose humility.

This Week's List

Oh, hold on a second

Okay, I'm back: Just needed a minute to be the virtual manager on television.

Now that I've told Joe Torre to take out El Duque before he gives up back-to-back homers to Anderson and Glaus, and now that I've cast my vote for Greg Maddux as the best Braves starter: Time to go back to work.

Given the special access granted to ESPN, we were able to listen to Torre's speech before the Angels series, and we're here to report the following excerpt: "Okay guys, if we can hang in there till Scioscia goes to the guys in the glasses, we're in business."

This week's essay question: Compare and contrast your feelings regarding Jose Hernandez's season before and after Jerry Royster decided to sit him out the final week to spare him the alleged embarrassment of breaking Bobby Bonds' strikeout record.

By the way: If you're Bud Selig or any of his dancing minions, and you consider it your job to inform people how teams such as the Brewers can't compete, don't you give a guy like Royster a raise and an extension for proving your point?

Welcome to Detroit and Milwaukee: Where a new stadium doesn't prove a damned thing about either competition or attendance.

Just for the heck of it: Jerry Willard.

And just remember this name as you watch the postseason: Eduardo Perez.

You can choose Reggie v. Bob Welch, or Fisk's foul-pole dance, or Mays with his back to the infield, but for my money there's one October moment that stands above the rest: Joe Buck, singing "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" on the air, in reference to El Duque's pitching motion.

And yes, I guess you could go ahead and say it: Buck's performance was head and shoulders above the rest.

The Braves' bullpen: Making the world safe for gray-haired, gray-bearded relievers.

By the sixth inning, I was feeling kind of itchy and hot myself: Watching Kevin Appier pitch through the lenses of the Fox Extreme Facial Close-Up style, I couldn't help but think of the Chris Elliott character in There's Something About Mary.

Just a question: If Ben Weber and Mike Fetters were locked in a room together for five or six hours, wouldn't you want to read the researchers' report?

You don't expect it, especially in your quiet community, but you know it happened somewhere Friday morning: The Diamondbacks lost their second in a row -- first Johnson, then Schilling -- and somebody somewhere sat down at a computer and wrote the following words -- "What a difference a year makes."

Ignore the save numbers and look at everything else (ERA, etc.) and answer this question: Does John Smoltz deserve more MVP or Cy Young consideration than Eric Gagne?

On the topic of the AL MVP, we defer to the wisdom of an old friend, Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle: "No, it's not Alex Rodriguez's fault the Rangers are in last place," Jenkins writes. "But it's his fault that he's in last place."

The most offensive thing on television used to be the Mets, and then along came: The new-breed Coors commercials.

And finally, for months I've been saying he had something in his eye, or the lights weren't situated properly, or the ball was sweaty, but now we're all free to speak the truth, for the truth will set us free: Sacramento's Doug Christie, discussing his work during the Western Conference finals against the Lakers last year, told the Sacramento Bee, "I was scared to death."

Tim Keown is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at tim.keown@espnmag.com.