It’s the time of year when I love baseball the most – when September turns into October, when leaves turn golden, and the drama and excitement of play down the stretch turns our attention toward the diamond.
Wild Card fever stretches across North America this weekend as seven major-league baseball teams continue to fight for a spot in the Wild Card Playoffs.
I must disclose that I haven’t followed MLB as closely in 2016 as I have in previous years, but I’m still magnetized to the game, especially now. The amazing storylines of October baseball are waiting to unfold. Which players will be the heroes? Will the Boston Red Sox give soon-to-be-retired David “Big Papi” Ortiz a championship send-off? Is this finally the year for the Chicago Cubs?
Before we get to baseball’s denouement with the World Series later this month, our appetite is whet with the last two days of regular-season jockeying for Wild Card positions and the Wild Card games themselves. The meat of the postseason soon follows with Division Series and League Championship Series confrontations.
This weekend, we’ve got four American League clubs trying to clinch one of two Wild Card berths – the Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners. Over in the National League, three teams – the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals – are in the mix for the two WC spots.
I will be checking in via the MLB At-Bat app on my phone, which beats how I used to check on my L.A. Dodgers teams in the late 70s and early 80s via a phone – calling a 1-900 sports scores hotline. Technology has changed, but excitement for fall baseball is decidedly familiar.