So it’s all over. Hang on a minute, it’s actually only just beginning. 162 games you say? How about an 163rd? Tampa Bay and Texas meet up in Arlington, Texas tonight for a winner takes all – actually, winner plays the Indians in Cleveland for another win-or-go-home scenario, beginning a fantastic lineup of postseason play that really is too good to call.
The Dodgers, better known now they are in October as the ‘Yankees of the west’ – I cringe at that personally – are supposed to win it all right? Of course not, after all they were ‘supposed’ to win in April and May, but instead relaxed in last place in their division.
The Red Sox have been surreal all year, finishing above .500 every single month. A lock for a ring? No, because if Cleveland beats either Texas or Tampa in the wild card game on Tuesday, Terry Francona will be heading back to Boston again this season, with revenge and playoff advancement on the table. He is an expert at the latter, having led the Red Sox to five playoff campaigns and two World Series championships during his time in Boston, but this is different; these are Francona’s Indians, fresh off a ten-game winning streak. Francona himself is still fresh off a 2011 sacking from Boston, which may rear its ugly head once again if the two teams meet in the ALDS.
Texas were supposed to win the west – don’t even get me started on the Angels, until later… – but Oakland, starting the season with the fourth lowest payroll in major league baseball, won 96 games and the division by five games. Credit to Billy Beane, and apologies Athletics for not yet finishing Moneyball – I will get there after my fiction fix.
The Houston Astros and Miami Marlins lost a combined 211 games, but credit to Miami for losing only 100 of those, and it’s a toss up between the NL East and West for the worst division in baseball.
The Cardinals were simply the Cardinals this year, packing their stadium out for 81 games while winning consistently and, although it looked like Atlanta would finish with the best record in the National League, Mike Matheny’s team pipped them by one game and as a result will play either the Pirates or Reds in the NLDS, two teams who they are very familiar with from the NL Central.
While we’re on the subject, what about those Pirates? I was willing them on from the first day in August, the team having blown their chances of a plus .500 season the last two years after dropping considerably from August onwards. But this year was different and manager Clint Hurdle has to be awarded the NL Manager of the Year award. Hurdle has a very good team this year, and the Pirates’ first winning season since 1992 can be over-praised because of how long it has been since there was a good season for the ballclub, but Hurdle has mastered a team with positivity, making sure the Pirates didn’t implode down the stretch for a third straight season.
What did I love this year? Obviously, the Dodgers are in the postseason for the first time since 2009, and they have a great chance with their rotation. Who wouldn’t fancy a team in a playoff series with Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun Jin-Ryu at the top starting the first three games?
I loved the send-off for Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer in baseball history and without doubt one of the most gracious men in sports. What athlete gets serenaded at every stadium like Mariano did? It is a testament to the great man that his number 42 will be retired by baseball. Pitching for the final time in Yankee Stadium last week – and what turned out to be his final appearance as a professional baseball player – it was classy by Joe Girardi to let the Captain, Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte – another Yankee legend who ended his playing career on the final day of the season yesterday – come out to the mound with two outs in the ninth and get the ball from Rivera.
Make no mistake about it, Rivera wasn’t being relieved. After the game he admitted himself that he didn’t know how he was able to record the first two outs considering the nerves that accompanied him, and it was an emotional moment when he shed tears in the arms of both Jeter and Pettitte. It was the signing off of the last remains of the Yankee dynasty, which all but ended a decade ago – New York has won only one world championship since it won four in five years in the late 90’s, early 2000’s – but that group of fantastic players is on its way out, with only Jeter left, and even the Captain is struggling to get back. They will be fondly missed.
The Angels sucked, and I didn’t mind. Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols are further evidence that long-term contracts for players on the downward phase of their career generally don’t work and carry huge risk. Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder are exceptions, but Pujols and Hamilton have disappointed in what has been a terrible year in Anaheim, and now the future of Mike Scioscia has to be decided, whose contract by the way runs until 2018. Next in line to test the waters on a big money, big year deal are the Yankees when they decide what to do with their free agent second baseman Robinson Cano this offseason.
Cano is 31 and although a star player is also getting to the age where performance will decline. On the flip side, the Yankees don’t lose players they want to keep, and who will the fans come to see next year if their lone superstar is gone? Watch this space, but my guess is that Brian Cashman will not bank on Vernon Wells and Ichiro Suzuki to carry the mantle as they try and get below the luxury tax threshold in 2014.
I’m pleased for James Loney, who had a solid season in Tampa after several disappointing ones in Los Angeles, and I am sad but not surprised that Baltimore failed to make the postseason. Their unbelievable record in one-run games last year has been completely flipped in 2013, an unsurprising event considering the nature of close games. The Orioles must upgrade their starting pitching if they wish to compete in the AL East next year.
And finally, the Blue Jays experiment… didn’t work.
So, it’s Tampa Bay @ Texas tonight and the winner plays Cleveland on Wednesday in the AL wild card game. In the NL wild card, the Reds face the Pirates on Tuesday, with the winner facing St. Louis. The NLDS gets underway on Thursday while the ALDS starts Friday. Enjoy people, it’s about to get a whole lot better..
