Since the World Series has been an anti-climactic coronation of the American League Champion four of the last five years, as a National League fan the last weekend of September has become the highlight of the baseball season.
And once again, the NL sets up what promises to be the most exciting weekend of baseball this year.
The races are not quite as dicey as last year, where we went into Thursday with zero spots clinched and seven teams in the running. This year the Cubs are in and the Dodgers' magic number is 1. But the NL East is hairy again, with the Phillies 1.5 up on the Mets, who are tied with Milwaukee for the Wild Card. Houston is 3 1/2 out of the WC with 5 to go.
Don't look for any live blogs the year, though. San Diego has been auditioning rookies since June. The only drama left for Padres fans is whether we can split this weekend and avoid a 100-loss season.
But kudos to the Minnesota Twins for making the American League at least a little bit relevant this weekend. A half-game deficit going into the weekend should be fun to watch. The rest of the AL? Locked-up weeks ago.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Batting pitchers makes for closer games. Closer games make for closer pennant races. And half (or more) of the fun of a playoff is watching the teams get there.
So I'll be watching a lot of baseball this weekend. After that -- who knows?
Who even cares?
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