They say that the baseball season is way too long. 162 games is nearly twice as many as NBA and NHL seasons have, and nearly 10 times the amount of the NFL has. Everyone thinks that the excitement of the NFL season is what each of the other leagues needs to emulate. But I disagree, even though the baseball season is a marathon, it almost always comes down to a sprint in the end. That’s what we saw this weekend.
The final game of the year MLB does something that is great, and should be considered for other sports – every game starts at the exact same time. 15 games, across 4 times zones and every game starts within 20 minutes of each other. It’s a beautiful thing, especially when you have 4 teams fighting for the remaining two Wild Card spots. So the NL games weren’t as exciting, but that’s not the point. Games going on in Seattle, Toronto, New York, and Washington all had huge playoff implications. If either Toronto and Seattle win and either Boston or New York win we get a game 163. The best day of the year – a sudden death game to extend the season. It may have lost a bit of the luster with the advent of the Wild Card game, but it gives us a day of bonus baseball – and that’s always good.
Toronto held up their end of the bargain. After making some big plays at the trade deadline when most experts didn’t think they had a shot, the Blue Jays were in it on the last day of the season. They dominated an Orioles team that didn’t want to be there and had nothing to play for. Tampa clearly didn’t want New York to make the playoffs. The Yankees needed just 1 win in their three game series to clinch the Wild Card spot. The Rays weren’t having it, they were going for the sweep. It took a walkoff single and play at the plate (not a close play, but the throw was made) for the Yankees to make the Postseason.
Boston did what they’ve done all season. They came from behind. Now part of that might have been because Washington threw them a bone. They gave some of their big stars a curtain call. Once the Sox tied it up in the 7th and followed up with a 2 run home run in the top of the 9th, it was over. Despite having troubles closing out games during the season, the Nationals threw them a bone by sitting their stars when they needed a comeback. That was enough to put Seattle out of the playoffs. Seattle after going on a hot streak, winning 12 of their last 16 games to get them within striking distance, ran out of gas and fell early to the Angels and couldn’t make up the early innings deficit.
Sure, following 162 games for one team, let alone 30, is an impossible task. But that’s not the point. It’s the marathon that’s exciting – at any point a team can go on a run to make to put them in the race to the post season. You don’t have to see every game, let alone every pitch. But at any time there can be an exciting streak that will make the difference for a team. St Louis did it to clinch their Postseason spot. The Yankees did it to turn their season around in August. Toronto decided they were going to put their hat in the ring – even when it didn’t seem like they should. You don’t have to pay close attention, but tune in at any time and you’ll have a great time. Just like we had on Sunday afternoon.