The Playoffs

By Lou Parrotta

The Major League Baseball season is in the stretch run and the pennant races have hit the boiling point. As of this writing, there are nearly 15 teams in the hunt for a playoff position and fans of all ages are glued to their sets when they would otherwise be focused on the start of both the college and professional football seasons. Maybe the current playoff system, the brainchild of embattled Commissioner Allan "Bud" Selig when he took office in the early 1990s, is the one good idea he has had in his otherwise horrible tenure. 

This year's American League playoffs has basically one team already determined, the New York Yankees in the East Division. The Central Division is a true battle between the resurgent Chicago White Sox, a team that finally got its act together under Jerry Manuel, and the sweet surprises of the 2002 season, the Minnesota Twins. Still mathematically in the chase, too, are the Kansas City Royals, a team that no one except enigmatic manager Tony Pena thought had a chance of being in contention that long. In the West Division, the Oakland A's are in the midst of their now-customary second half surge and their only competition is the Seattle Mariners, still winning despite the loss of skipper Lou Pinella to the pathetic Triple-A-like Tampa Bay Devil Rays. 

The Wild Card race really only has the loser in the West battling with the perennial second-best East Division Red Sox of Boston. 

In the National League, the Atlanta Braves seem certain to make the playoffs for their 13th straight season. Their glorious run began in 1991 when they went to the World Series one year after finishing dead-last in the 1990 campaign. In the Central Division, the Houston Astros, the Chicago Cubs and even the St. Louis Cardinals are going at it. While it seems like the Astros may sew it up, the loveable losers, the Cubs, are giving them a run for their money with the Cards dropping fast. Finally, in the West Division, the San Francisco Giants, led by the ageless superstar Barry Bonds, are poised to their second straight post-season berth with a strong possibility of being in the World Series come October. 

The National League Wild Card is where the real excitement lies. The Florida Marlins, today's leaders, are resurgent after Jeff Torborg was replaced by the seasoned skipper and all-around fix-it man, Jack McKeon in May. They are on a roll, and Florida's fans are getting reminiscent of 1997. Other teams in the race include Larry Bowa's Philadelphia Phillies, who some thought would finally dethrone the Braves in the East, and the Cubs, who are trying to reach the World Series for the first time in nearly three generations. 

I personally think it will be the Yankees, Twins, A's and Mariners in the American League and the Braves, Cubs, Giants and Marlins in the National League. But, of course, that is just today! I cannot wait to see what really transpires come October.

September 18, 2003