The Wild Card round came and went in two days thanks to four sweeps. Of the 16 best of 3 series played over the years, the winner of game one has now won 14 of them with 13 of them being sweeps.
Honestly, I wish the NBA would do this in their first round. Not only would it add some excitement it would get those 1 vs. 8 series over a lot faster. I might actually watch it.
The National League features to interdivision series. The Arizona Diamondbacks will be my favorite team for a week as they take on the LA Dodgers. So if you have tickets to the Guns N Roses show at Chase Field next week, please note it has been postponed.
You know ownership has faith in a team when it schedules a concert during the early portion of the playoffs.
The Snakes series with the Brewers was by far the most entertaining of the Wild Card round. And how about the OC kid Evan Longoria turning back the clock and flashing some serious leather?
On the east coast the Phillies will take on the Braves in the series I’m sure will get all the prime time games. Checks the schedule, yes the east coast teams get all the best time slots. Which is cool because we don’t have to stay up until midnight to watch games out here on the Best Coast.
It has been a long time since a playoff win. Being in the crowd is amazing. Listen to this. The only time I’ve experienced anything like it was when Torii went deep against bahstun in 2009.
Meanwhile the network heads have to be crying in their beers over the American League playoffs. There’s nary a Yankee or Roid Sux game to be aired.
The upstart Baltimore Orioles will take on the Bruce Bochy led Texas Rangers starting tomorrow. I know I’m supposed to hate the Rangers but this group is led by Bochy (who I love) and is missing the outright douche factor Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, and Ian Kinsler brought to the earlier clubs.
I’m rooting for Baltimore but would be just fine with Not Houston coming out of the AL. And, really, the talk of when Bochy gets into the Hall of Fame as a manager needs to be a lot louder.
Want to hear some more October energy? This is a great split screen of the Twins clinching a Wild Card series.
Folks, there will be an entire off season to dissect the Angels 2023 and debate about the future. Links get pretty slim around the end of the year. So I’ll keep the Angels related stuff pretty brief and go into the key storylines in much more depth after the playoffs wrap up.
There are two pieces of real news out of Anaheim. Phil Nevin won’t be back. And Perry Minsasian held a press conference in which he didn’t blame Phil but said somebody had to take the fall. Actually, Perry took the blame himself but also kept his job.
So for now let’s enjoy the baseball that is taking place and join the game threads here.
I can’t end this without sharing one baseball story. My son is playing Fall Ball and our game last Sunday was at Sea View in Huntington Beach. 4 to 6 year olds playing ball while the largest air show on the West Coast took place. At one point we were in the field and two military jets made a turn directly over our field and low enough you could practically jump up and touch one. I somehow heard a ping and saw a ball rolling out to the outfield. Everyone was looking up at the planes, coaches included. It was absolutely adorable and I’m not doing it justice here. A few seconds passed, the planes left, and it was game on after we located the ball.
Enjoy your weekend. Link what I missed. And join us in the game threads.
