View from the Couch

By Screamin' Leeman

Once again, this time of year rolls around, and we welcome it with anticipation and glee.   This is the time of year for separating.  Separating the men from the boys.  The wheat from the chaff.   The Big Boys from the whiners.   The Balls-up Dudes from the screaming cry-babies.    The cigar-smoking, beer guzzling, meat-eating, bicep-flexing, unshaven, dirt-encrusted winners, who came to play, from the prancing, dancing, skirt wearing, sissified, flabby little girly-men with sagging buttocks.

This is the time of year to show who's got the stuff, and who doesn't.  To see who shows up to play, and who shows up to get beat on like a toy drum.

For joy, for joy, the MLB playoffs are here.

Although there was a little pre-separating in the four games that were played to decide the wild cards, now wasn't there?    And what a night it was:   In one splendid evening, on the very last day of the season, four separate games, with the Red Sox and the Rays and the Braves and the Cards, all tied up with one game to go!   It doesn't get any better than that.

I made sure I was in a local establishment where there were enough TVs to catch all the games.   How exciting!

Trying to watch all of them at once had me googly-eyed, and nearly speaking in tongues, but I persevered.

And watch them I did, in a six hour marathon of glorious edge-of-your-seat baseball.  It's a good thing there's a day of rest before the real playoffs start.   Watching all those games to the very end was exhausting.

In the most improbable, exciting, exhilarating night of baseball that I have ever seen, the Braves and Red Sox, after holding leads, both lost, thereby completing the biggest choke jobs in the history of the sport, while Tampa Bay came back from a seven zip deficit in the eighth to beat the Yankees and squeak into the playoffs.

Amazing.

Did I say that this is what it's all about?   Do I have to say it?

Get this:  the Yankees, ahead of the Rays all night, leading seven to nothing going to the eighth, coasting, when all of a sudden they get tagged for six, including Evan Longoria's three run long ball.   Then, in the bottom of the ninth, still down by one, and down to their last strike, Big Dan Johnson (Oh, he of the .108 batting average), hits one out to tie the game.   Then the Floridians win it in the bottom of the twelfth on Longoria's second home run.

Atlanta, Boston:  You know, no one likes a choker.   Even the most loyal fans will become disgusted when their team pulls a gag job.

The Braves went into a giant choke, losing 18 of their last 27 games, and finished it off with a loss against the Phils, thus ending their season and their playoff hopes in one fell swoop.  No one really gives a crap in Atlanta, though.   Those fans are so used to the Braves being in the playoffs and losing that they probably didn't even know there was a game on.

But you've got to give it to Boston for pulling off the all-time-choke in a long and well-known history of chokes.   They achieved something this year that no other team in the history of the game has done:  Missed the playoffs after being up by nine games on September 3rd.   They won a total of SIX games in September, for crying out loud!  Unbelievable.  Only the Red Sox could pull a stunt like that, and then top it off in the final game by having Baltimore down to their last strike, with J. Pappelbom on the mound, and blowing the game.

And although they don't deserve to be in the playoffs, you've got to feel for them, because they'll be reliving their September nightmare all winter long.

Now, the real playoffs start in earnest.   Besides starting in earnest, they also start in Texas and New York.

Oh, happy day!   This is what a baseball fan lives for.  Now we'll see what our boys are made of.   These are the times when the best players shine, and heroes are made.

Bring it on!