There's Nothing Like the Playoffs

by Mike DePilla
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
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Today is one of my favorite days of the year: the first day of the postseason, featuring nine straight hours of playoff Major League Baseball. To me, there is nothing like playoff baseball, and I could sit on the same couch for the duration of the whole triple-header today and be happy as a clam.

Do I wish the Sox were playing? Absolutely. But even without them you could say I get as much satisfaction out of watching playoff baseball as Steve Rosenbloom gets out of a Bears loss.

Now, Monday and Tuesday were two of the most boring days in the year. Of course, if the the league adopts the Second Wildcard playoff format, an idea the commissioner said yesterday is "clearly on my mind", Monday and/or Tuesday would have been filled with the excitement of one-game playoffs that always produce memorable drama (see Padres vs. Rockies, '07, Sox vs. Twins, '08, and Twins vs. Tigers, '09). But you've heard me go on about that before.

Already we're only halfway into the first game and we've seen tons to marvel over: Cliff Lee's continued dominance in the playoffs, Ron Washington's 3-0 green light successes, David Price's inconvenient off day and the Ray's defensive sloppiness. All this after five innings people.

I really think I could sit down and write 700 words on how much better Ron Washington, Bengie Molina and Vlad Guerrero have utilized 3-0 counts in five innings than Ozzie Guillen and the Sox did in a 162-game season. Did you see Guerrero's 3-0 swing? He didn't jump out of his shoes and pull the ball way foul. He didn't pop it up to the right side because he was late in deciding to swing. And he didn't keep the bat on his shoulder because he was one pitch away from a walk. He stroked a frozen rope double to straight away centerfield. RBI double. Rangers lead 5-0. Beautiful.

Sit back, relax and strap it down: playoff baseball is finally here.