Saturday, September 23, 2017

Last night's game reminds us of the randomized danger and chaos of the Wild Card

Entering last night, I felt total, Schwarzenegger-level confidence in our 2017 wild card-bound juggernaut. Sure, we knew the Blue Jays would play hard; that's because they're poor sports. But Hurricane Jose Bautista is 35, going on Betty White, their sickly lineup has too many Goins on not enough Gomes, and - hell - those health care-crazy Canadians are already tailgating for the hockey season. We were on a Calgary stampede, roaring to the finish line, ready to clinch the prestigious, limited edition, wild card home field advantage crown of bronze.

Then comes a well-delivered pineapple, a colonoscopic reminder of all the shit that can roll our way in one single, measly, stupid game.

After six months of daily grind, the notion that your team's fate shall boil down to one rotten, stinking game - one dice roll, one stiff breeze, one cutting of the cards - shrinks my gonads to the size of a Doanes pill. If our pitcher gets cramps while theirs eats his "Wheaties"... if the home plate umpire stretches our strike zones and squeezes theirs to the size of Hitler's heart... if our home run misses the foul pole and theirs grazes the paint... so many variables. What if in the third inning, young Byron Buxton's testicles finally drop, turning him into a Reggie? Jeez... one game.   

Now, I can imagine one game deciding a football or basketball season, because over 60 punishing minutes, the raw, brute force of hunger will usually prevail. But there is a reason why the lords of baseball went nearly 100 years requiring five or seven game series to decide a championship - why they scorned the one-game, winner-take-all. And last night, we received yet another glimpse of how fast things can go south in a nine-inning season.

Of course, we won't let Masahiro Tanaka near our wild card game. I'm not even sure he should see the playoffs, period. He is 12-12. His ERA is 4.94. If he pitched on the West Coast, home run balls would fly so far into the Pacific that we'd think Kim Jong Un was testing rockets. But it's not just Tanaka. What about Dellin Betances? If he cannot throw strikes, a three-run lead is a joke. And what if our defense decides to, as it does some nights, hold soccer practice on a few ground balls, or if our big hitters get flashbacks to the home run derby?

For years, I have argued that baseball should return to the 154-game schedule - giving pitchers more rest and resetting HR records back to the Ruth era. It would allow the wild carders to play a best-of-three series over the final weekend. That, or eliminate the final wild card slot. But hell... neither will happen. There's money involved.

So get ready, folks. One game. And last night, we saw just how bad one game can be. 

9 comments:

  1. I have no idea how year in, year out the Yankees manage to make godawful teams look good. The Blue Jays as a team are probably hitting a cumulative .228 BA with 57 HR and 24 RBI's, but last night they looked like Murderer's Row.

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  2. As soon as we were down 2-1, the game was over.

    We got three hits.

    One of our " traded for" diamonds got called out on second with the " hidden ball trick."

    Then the guy who pulled that off, hit a grand slam.

    Tyler Wade DNP.

    How old is Mason Williams now?

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  3. Al MVP Teoscar Hernandez picks up from where he left off and keeps hitting homeruns against overrated Yankee pitchers. Anyone in the mood for pineapples?

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  4. HAH! Did you guys listen to Suzyn Waldman's post-game wrap-up? She asked Joe G. what he thought the keys to the season were. He offered the usual (e.g., "The guys worked really hard"), but then he spent considerable time crediting.....
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    all the trades that Brian Cashman made! Yes, it's true!

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  5. Nice bounce back today. Sonny "Gets Me Blue" Gray worked his usual six innings, but got 'em out. Bird, allowed to fly, came through.

    But I don't know if it's so bad we're limited to the one-game playoff. I don't see this team beating Cleveland or Houston; we're not ready yet. And like you say: we don't know what we're getting out of Betances, etc.

    I'm just hoping Tanaka opts out next year. Please, oh please!

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  6. When the year began I had zero expectations. This was a transition year plain and simple. A chance to see if Gary Sanchez was for real. He is. (Oh, and hey Gary if you're reading this and I know you are because all the Yankee players read this blog... don't watch it RUN IT OUT.) But I digress...

    It was a chance to see Bird fly (better late than never), to see who this big kid who looked kind of a cross between Lurch and Derek Jeter with a side of Ivan Drago was as well. Waiting for Mr. Gleybar. Waiting for Castro to step in the bucket and finally kick it.

    Transition year all the way.

    Then they came out hot. Really hot. Insanely hot. The Drago kid hit everything everywhere. We survived no Didi and no Gary. Some short guy who was signed by the ghost of Bill Veck turned out to be the most fun substitute ever since Mr. Press in my 8th grade algebra class. And, even though I was nervous that Aaron Judge won the Home Run Derby there was a part of me that was legitimately thrilled. Wow! We have a guy who can hit like that. Without roids. This was no A-Rod A-Fraud. This guy was for real. And, he was ours. Didi was back. Gary was back and...let's do it. And then, of course, they sucked.

    Back to transition year.

    But wait we traded some prospects... I know we differ on the value of that here and that's cool but I SO love having Robertson back and Todd Frazier turned out to be a good ball player and Sonny Gray? Guy keeps us in pretty much every game. Plus he's short like Whitey Ford. I'm getting tired of seeing these 6'8" guys who release the ball from 50 feet. But I digress...

    And then they found it again. Maybe not enough to pass the cheating Red Sox but I believe we are better than them and still have guys who are going to come up next year and make us better still.

    And so the one game wild card and either we win 12-3 or lose 2-1 but the truth of it is, we are in the fake playoffs with a shot at winning the real thing and,in a transition year, that's pretty damn good and good enough for me.

    Doug K.

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  7. Who takes the papers tomorrow? Is it the Yankees and their triumphant return to the Bud Selig cash grab game? Or is it the Knicks and dumping Carmelo for a bushel of wheat and a second round pick? My money is on the Knicks, for some reason the papers can't get enough of them. And good game I guess. Poetic to see Refsnyder make the final out.

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  8. Nice summary, Doug K.

    I feel much the same.

    For the record:

    —Yanks' 53rd all-time postseason appearance. Since they started in 1921, that makes 53 out of 94 possible postseasons (1994 canceled—when we had the best record in the AL).

    —19th postseason in last 23 seasons. Also not too shabby.

    On the downside...as a wild-card team, we are 1-4 in the first playoff series, with a record of 8-10.

    But...our one wild-card win was a three-game sweep of the Twins. So who knows??

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