Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Inside baseblah

At long last, the baseball postseason has arrived. This is about the time where I start to care, but it hasn't happened yet. Right now I'm just mourning the absence of FOX shows like Prison Break and House until November.

I'm having a hard time developing much sympathy for the last day eliminations of the Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Phillies. All the Indians had to do was to participate in a four-team race with the White Sox, Yankees, and Red Sox without finishing fourth. All the Phillies had to do was not depend on the Cubs winning a late-season series.

Color me impressed but unexcited by the 14th straight division title by the Atlanta Braves. Sure, it was accomplished with a rookie-heavy lineup, and leading a division is nice, but it's difficult to stay positive when the Florida Marlins have 14 fewer division titles but one more World Series championship.

Fine, twist my arm. Angels over Yankees. Red Sox over White Sox. Cardinals over Padres. Braves over Astros. Busch Stadium closes on a high note as the Cardinals beat the Angels, and the best baseball town in America is rewarded after a long time.

Whatever. Wake me when college basketball starts.

1 comment:

bdure said...

This lifelong Braves fan (yes, including the mediocre 70s and awful mid-to-late 80s) thinks the Braves have become victims of their own success. This year's tale of winning with homegrown rookies would be inspiring if they hadn't won the last 13 division titles. People just think "same ol' Braves," when they're anything but.

The thing that irritates me -- when we watched the All-Star Game at Duke in 1990, I endured all sorts of comments from the New Yorkers around me about how much the Braves stunk and how the Braves' representative in that game (I believe it was Smoltz) was just some token schmoe. When I graduated in April 1991, the Braves were, as I recall, in last place as always. They came back and won the division and the NLCS en route to losing the best World Series ever (yes, I know all about 1975). And they've won ever since. And I don't have a time machine to go back and talk back to those guys.