OMG! OMG! I know this is a political blog. But listen, there is an incredible pennant race going on in the National League East. So here's a brief analysis of the American Pasttime, baseball, so that even Kossacks who don't follow baseball can participate in the excitement.
Tomorrow is the 162nd and final game of the regular major league baseball season. The American League is settled: the four teams that go to post season play have been chosen (Boston, New York, Cleveland, and LA Angels). But the National League isn't decided at all.
And so even if you never follow baseball, tomorrow is a day that will be filled with exciting final games that might actually determine the pennant races. It's a good time to open a few brews, eat some hotdogs, and watch the culmination of 6 months of almost daily baseball. It is, after all, the American thing to do.
Join me in the bleachers.
Let's take a brief, non-technical look at the National League East. Only two teams are in the race, New York Mets and Philadelphis Phillies.
After 161 games the Mets and the Phillies are tied with identical records of 88 wins and 73 losses. Tomorrow the Mets play the Marlins in New York at 1:10 pm ET, the Phillies play the Nationals in Philadelphia at 1:35. That means that fans in both places will be able to follow both games. If one team wins and the other loses, the winner goes to the post season.
And what of the loser? Well, the loser could go to the post season as a wildcard team depending on what happens when San Diego (the Padres, not Carmen) plays at Milwaukee at 2:05 pm. All three games will overlap and you can follow all three at once. The Padres are now 89 wins and 72 losses.
Here is how all of this may work out, the permutations:
*Mets win and Phillies win? Mets and Phillies play a playoff game to see who won the division. Do you remember Bobby Thompson and the Giants? Or Bucky Dent and the Red Sox? If the Padres lose, the losing team and the Padres would have the same record and would have to determine who the wildcard team was.
*Mets win and Phillies lose? Mets go to post season and Phllies go home with 74 losses.
*Mets lose and Phillies win? Phillies go to post season and Mets go home with 74 losses.
*Mets lose and Phillies lose? Both teams have a playoff game to see who won the division. The loser goes home with 75 losses.
The Mets, my team in all of this and through the entire season and, to be truthful, since 1962, have been on a long, long slide reminiscent of Casey Stengel and have been playing horrible baseball for the past 2 weeks or so. The Phillies on the other hand have played very well and have caught the Mets after being down 7 games in the standings just 2 weeks ago and after being presumed to be out of the race.
Today the Phillies lost unceremoniously, the Mets destroyed the Marlins and John Maine almost pitched a no hitter.
But you never know with the Mets what team will show up tomorrow. Tomorrow the aged but revered Tom Glavine, a future Hall of Famer, will pitch against Dontrell Willis, an amazing pitcher having a terrible year with a last placed team. Willis has always been a problem for the Mets.
In Phladelphia Jamie Moyer will pitch for the Phils; Bergmann for the Nats. Philadelphia's offense has been explosive in the past month; the Nats have been pretty listless.
I don't want to draw analogies to politics. I leave that to you in the comments. But I did want to set it up for you so that if you want to catch the last games of the season you'd know what the drama is all about.