I consider myself the luckiest man on the planet because now
I get to explain baseball playoffs to my sainted wife.
Being a New York Yankee fan from the American League, and a
Washington Nationals fan from the National League, I have my time pretty well
scheduled for the remainder of October.
When my sainted wife asked me who was in the World Series, I
was forced to tell her we didn’t yet know.
I needed to tell her the regular season games weren’t over yet and at
that time we would know who would be playing to win their Division Series.
“But, the newspaper said that the Nationals won their
Division,” she tossed out for me to address.
“Yes, but technically, they still have one game to play,” I
added.
“The Nats lost their game last night and still won their
Division?” she asked.
“Sure. Remember that
they are so many games ahead that they can’t lose their Division,” I proudly
announced.
All seemed to make perfect sense to me when she asked if it
was all over when she mentioned that the Atlanta Braves had a playoff
berth. “How can Atlanta get in if the
Nats have the best record?”
That was a pretty good question to which I did not have an
answer. Common sensibly, if you win the
most games, you win your division.
Unfortunately, we are not talking about common sense when involving
sports.
Indeed, for some unknown reason, the Braves get a chance to
win a spot in the World Series representing
the National League, even though
they don’t have the best record this year, being three games behind the Nats.
In any case, my sainted wife’s vigor to help me cheer the
Nats on to a World Series victory seemed to wane significantly with this
good-news-turned-bad.
“What about the
Yankees?” was her next logical question.
“They need to win tonight’s game or it’s all over for them
for the season,” I deftly explained.
“Wait one second! The
Yanks are one game ahead but, if they lose they are out? What about the Braves? They are three games back and they get a
chance!” she protested.
And, I was right behind her protesting to the newspaper
about this seemingly unfair situation that could let a less qualified team play
the most qualified team for bragging rights and fan satisfaction and the World
Series trophy. What’s up with that?
Suddenly realizing I was losing a sports debate with my
sainted wife, and not knowing why, I thought it best to simply get more
information from the internet.
It seems as though the baseball rule book states that “when
games are played after 2:00 PM, on a Tuesday after the full moon, and a
three-legged dog runs by a blue sedan on Elm Street, the National League team
in second place wins their Division. The
only exception is that if the wind-chill temperature in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota is less than 37 degrees on October 2nd, the first place team
should win unless someone changes this carved-in-stone rule.”
Since this now all makes sense, I stood to call my sainted
wife to give her the details when my phone rang.
My Mother was calling to ask why her Tampa Bay Rays were not
in the division playoffs. I say let them
all play and give them all trophies.
