End Of Season

Today was the last game of the regular baseball season. The one game I followed was the Detroit Tigers-Minnesota Twins matchup: the Tigers won, thus avoiding the ignominy of tying the 1962 Mets’ record of losing 120 games in a season. The downside of their sudden winning ways—they just took 3 games out of 4 from the Twins—is the fear that the Twins won’t be up to their forthcoming duty to eliminate the Yankees from the playoffs.

The playoffs look to be quite exciting. All three of the teams we root for—the San Francisco Giants, the Boston Red Sox, and the Oakland A’s—made the playoffs. Alas, at most two of them will make it past the first round since the A’s play the Red Sox right away. Then there’s the Cubbies factor. The Chicago Cubs swept yesterday’s doubleheader with the Pirates to win their division. I was pleased by this event; Pica less so, since this sets up the possibility of a Cubs-Red Sox World Series. Since the Red Sox last won the Series in 1918, and the Cubs in 1908, heartbreak is inevitable. Indeed, some suspect such a series would be a sign the Apocalypse is near.