Friday, October 19, 2012

The Luck Of The Second Wild Card

As I sit here watching Game 5 of the NLCS, I cannot help myself but to think how crazy it could be to have the Cardinals in the World Series for another year. At the beginning of the year, they lost Albert Pujols, Dave Duncan (their pitching coach), and Tony LaRussa. Yes, they did add Carlos Beltran, but with losing LaRussa and Pujols, it seemed like a long season for them. Fortunately, Bud Selig added a second Wild Card team into the playoff mix. This new format would have the top two teams outside of the division winners play a one-game playoff to decide who the Wild Card winner is. Since 1994 when the Wild Card was created, four teams have won it all by being the the Wild Card team with St. Louis winning the Series last year. This year, they were lucky enough to get the second Wild Card spot.

Let's play the "What If" game and say what if the Cardinals beat the Giants in the NLCS and move to the World Series and beat the Detroit Tigers. Not only did they beat the Nationals in the NLDS and the Giants in the NLCS, both division winnners, but they would beat a Tiger team who won the AL Central, took down a hot/streaky team in the Oakland A's, and embarrassed the crap out of the Yankees. If that would happen, it could go down as one of the greatest stories in baseball history. Yes, the Cardinals have a good team. They got Freese, Beltran, and Molina leading the offense, and with Carpenter and their bullpen, you could say they deserved to be an elite team, but they still are that second Wild Card team who BARELY made it in!

I say good job Bud Selig for adding this extra team. I watched both Wild Card games and thought it was a definite success. First, you had the Baltimore Orioles, who has not been to the playoffs since the 1990's, beat an elite squad in the Texas Rangers, who many had winning the whole thing! If that wasn't enough, you had the Atlanta Braves, led by Chipper Jones in his farewell season, lose to the Cardinals, who many did not even pick to make the Wild Card. With all that said, I hope the Cardinals lose because I love my San Francisco Giants, but if they do beat the Giants and go ahead and mow down the Tigers, I will give much respect to Mike Matheny, their new manager, along with the entire Cardinals organization. I predict to see this new playoff system become extremely successful with the fans and also gain much revenue for the MLB. I can't believe I am saying this...but..thanks Bud Selig, but most importantly...GO BASEBALL!

Peace and Love!

D

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