Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are conducting intense research into their sport of choice …
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One of these days, I’m going to have to break their hearts and inform them th at there is no Stanley Cup for tabletop hockey.
Anyway, baseball’s regular season is almost in the books. Team-wise, the American League’s postseason roster presents a mix of familiar names and a few we haven’t heard for a while in conjunction with October baseball. The New York Yankees are once again rulers of the East, with the Cleveland Indians Guardians winning the Central and the Houston Asterisks Astros topping the West. The wild card holders are the Baltimore Orioles, who last appeared in the postseason last year when they were the AL East Champions; the Kansas City Royals, who last appeared in the postseason in 2015 when they won the World Series; and the Detroit Tigers, who last appeared in the postseason in 2014. The best-of-three format, with the highest-ranked team hosting all games, has Detroit at Houston and Kansas City at Baltimore. Note of interest regarding the Tigers and Astros: the Tigers’ manager is A.J. Hinch, who used to manage Houston and won a World Series there in 2017 before he lost his job the hard way following the revelation of the Astros’ 2017 cheating scandal.
In the National League … um, we’ll find out later on today who’s who here. The division champions are set in stone (or at least printed on t-shirts available online and at the ballpark): Los Angeles Dodgers in the West, Milwaukee Brewers in the Central, and Philadelphia Phillies in the East. The San Diego Padres hold the top wild card spot. Beyond that, it is officially a mess.
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Tied at 88-72, we find the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets. One percentage point behind them is the Arizona Diamondbacks at 89-73. Yes, the Diamondbacks have played two more games than the Mets and Braves. New York and Atlanta will rectify this with a doubleheader today at Truist Park.
If either team wins both games, that team will secure the second wild card position and immediately head to San Diego to take on the Padres starting October 1, with Arizona slithering off to Milwaukee. If the Mets and Braves split, both make the postseason, eliminating Arizona. Atlanta would be the fifth seed, and New York would be the sixth seed. There will not be a quiz on this later.
Saving the NFL wrapup and MLB playoff preview until Tuesday, a brief look at the latest AP Top 25 poll for college football. After its instant legend win over Georgia on September 28, Alabama is unsurprisingly #1, dethroning Texas, which slides to #2 through no fault of its own. Georgia has dropped to fifth, while Missouri and Michigan have entered (or reentered, if you prefer) the Top Ten. The big losers after their respective losses on September 28 are Ole Miss, down six spots from its previous #6 ranking, and Utah, which dropped eight positions from its last perch at #10.
Survive Monday, everyone.