Last Monday was one of those days I used to live for.

Wall-to-wall playoff baseball. Four games, starting at 10 in the morning, probably going until 10 at night.

Years ago, I might have rustled up a bowl of cereal, settled into a chair just before 10 a.m. and kept myself planted there the rest of the day.

But not last Monday.

Can't do it.

No way.

NOT SURE why - maybe it's because, as you get older, you have more interests. Or maybe it's the same problem baseball has had for years - the games take too darn long to play.

There was a time not long ago - OK, it was kinda long ago, in the late 1960s - where Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals could pitch a complete game in just over 2 hours. Now, a game is barely into the fifth inning by that point.

These days, pitchers nibble. Strike zones tighten. Each pitch seems to take on more importance, because there is so much time between pitches.

This gives the TV cameras time to zoom in on every single facet of the game - the pitcher peering in for the sign, the batter stepping out to adjust his batting gloves, one manager watching intently, the other manager spitting, cute fans for the one team, old fans for the other. And there's the pitch ...

... Just outside.

Then we go through the same process again. Finally, here's the pitch ...

... Fouled, out of play.

And on and on it goes.

Maybe baseball could do what some rec softball leagues do to speed up play - start every batter with a 1-1 count, or better yet, go to one-pitch at-bats.

Years ago, home one night and watching a playoff game between the Yankees and Red Sox - who may have invented the current glacial pace of play - I couldn't take it anymore. I got out of my chair, paced behind the furniture, watched ball after foul ball after batter stepping out after pitcher stepping off the rubber ... and I opened the door and marched out into the front yard for some fresh air - during the middle of an at-bat.

And what did I see across the street? My neighbor, who was out in HIS front yard. He was watching the same game, and he couldn't take it anymore either.

ANOTHER PROBLEM surfaces when both teams in a series are teams you usually pull for. But I rooted for the Dodgers to beat the Braves, partly because I was a Dodgers fan before I was a Braves fan.

After their last World Series win in 1988, the Dodgers took a couple decades off from competitive baseball, so they were hard to care about until recently. Meanwhile the Braves, partly because of the Superstation WTBS thing and the fact they were actually in the playoffs, became more appealing.

So, as fun as it was to watch the Dodgers win that series, it was hard to watch the Braves lose, because I probably would have pulled for them against everybody else.

(And what is it with teams going crazy for simply winning a division series, and advancing on in the playoffs? You'd think they'd already won the World Series. Shouldn't they save that for at least the League Championship Series?)

NO SUCH problem in the National League Championship Series, though the Cardinals are way more balanced and way more deep, and should have little trouble putting the Dodgers out of their misery.

Only the Cardinals could let a superstar walk away in free agency, plug in someone you've never heard off and see him produce - then see him get injured, and plug in someone else you've never heard of, and see him produce.

I've rooted for the A's since the glory days of the Charlie Finley-owned teams of the 1970s. So it was painful to watch them come up short again in the playoffs, again to the Tigers. "Money over Moneyball," as someone tweeted.

(Still, it's funny to watch the Mariner faithful make fun of the A's, with their lack of perceived talent and their sewage-infested ballpark. Of course, the A's have won the AL West the past two seasons, and are more frequent visitors to the playoffs than are the Mariners, with their still state-of-the-art ballpark, but with their perennial rebuilding team.)

BACK TO slow play, a problem in baseball as well as golf. You could almost watch an episode of "The Middle" in the time it takes an at-bat to be completed. Even the Mariners, in the midst of their annual losing season, seemed to take longer to play this year.

In the office, when they played on the west coast, we could usually count on the M's to not hit, pitch well, play quick games and help us make deadline. But even that was a struggle this year.

Instead of waiting until the end of the inning to go out and get the mail, I now head for the mailbox at the beginning of an at-bat. I know I'll be back for the conclusion.

Oh well, enough of that rant. Time to get back for the bottom of the first.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached by phone at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.