This is my take on postseason baseball. But before we get there, I want to make one little detour.

Ummm . . . did you hear that the Vanderbilt Commodores football team stunned Alabama with a 40-35 win—Vanderbilt’s first win in program history against the AP No. 1 college football team. Fans stormed the field and tore down a goal post before parading it down Broadway, through downtown Nashville (that part begins at about the 1:45 minute mark). The fans ultimately reached the Cumberland River, where they tossed the goal post into the water.

Somewhere, Tom Brown is smiling. My father was a proud graduate of Vanderbilt University and a lifelong Vanderbilt sports fan (which can be difficult in the Southeastern Conference).

Oh, and he hated the University of Alabama and its football team because they beat Vanderbilt by a score of 71-0 in 1945. The year before Alabama filled out its team with 17-year-olds and young men who were too injured to serve in WWII, but not—presumably—to play football.  (At least that’s the story that’s come down through our family.) By the time 1945 rolled around they had a year’s experience on everyone else and went 10-0.

So this win was for Daddy and the many long-suffering Commodore fans.

Now to the regularly scheduled programming.

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You may have heard that our Washington Nationals did not make the postseason MLB playoffs. Not. Even. Close.

The Nats had to win two-out-of-three from the Phillies in the last series of the year to get even with last year’s 71-91 record. Somehow the grand plan that Mike Rizzo and the Lerners have promised fans since the last glory days of the 2019 World Championship is slow to unfold.

Very slow.

With the exception of one observation that begins with the hometown nine, I want to focus today on the teams that actually made the playoffs. The favorites and the Cinderellas. We’re now through the best-of-three wild card round (more on that in a minute), and into the best-of-five division series. So here are some random observations from where I sit. beginning with a non-postseason rant.

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What the hell did baseball expect

With 8 games left in the season, the Nationals sent all-star shortstop C.J. Abrams to the minor leagues. The team said the surprise demotion was not “performance based.” And while Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez are not talking, the consensus is that the fact that Abrams was out at a Chicago casino until 8 a.m. before a day game (one in which he went 0-3) was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Many commentators have slammed the Nationals for an excessive punishment.

I’m with the Nationals management on this one. Abrams is a good young player (not a great one), but he’s often inattentive, especially on the basepaths. Frankly, it isn’t clear his head is in the game at all times. Breaking curfew so seriously is also about letting down your teammates.

But I’m mostly furious with Major League Baseball. What did they expect to happen when they sold their souls to gambling. Pete Rose—who died this past week—is the object lesson here. Young, competitive players with tons of money are going to gamble. Some, like Rose, will gamble on baseball. And baseball sees nothing wrong with taking $1.1 billion from the gambling industry while sending down a rising star who was out . . . wait for it . . . gambling.

Jay Mariotti had the best column on baseball’s gambling woes that I’ve seen.

“This industry is self-defeatist. So are similar industries that make as much money as possible from casinos and don’t care about the absence of integrity, including how it wobbles in Abrams’ mind. A month doesn’t pass without another miserable story, whether it involves baseball and NFL scandals, or Jontay Porter discharged from the NBA for life, or an interpreter stealing almost $17 million from Shohei Ohtani—the greatest player in sports—and impersonating him at the bank about 24 times, which remains shocking as he made 19,000 wagers in 26 months.

All it took, after seeing gambling ads in his daily sights and watching ESPN with its betting spotlight, was Abrams to spend too much off-time in a parlor. He could have been bombed on alcohol at 8 a.m. and not served baseball with more unscrupulous behavior. A young star was gambling, and while players can hang inside a casino, it suggests he didn’t know when to stop. What’s next for Abrams, a baseball wager?

As sports demands bets, players bet.”

Duh!? What the hell did baseball expect? I’m sick of all the in-your-face gambling ads all the time when I watch sports or attend a game. What a slippery slope we’re on.

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Change the schedule

These short three-game and five-game playoff series do a disservice to the best teams. Baseball is about the long season and how to manage its many ups and downs. There’s a reason the top leader in the dugout is a manager and not a coach. I like Joe Posnanski’s suggestion: go back to the one-game wild card matchup, and then make all the others best of seven. The better teams are likely to rise to the top.

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I know how those Milwaukee fans feel

I watched game 3 of the Mets/Brewers series and could feel the excitement in Milwaukee. The Brewers were two outs away from taking the wild card series, the fans were going crazy, and then Pete Alonzo blasted a home run to put the Mets ahead in a game they would soon win. The air just went out of the entire stadium.

I’ve been there. Twice.

The first was not the final game of the series, but it still hurt. I was in the stands in 2014 when rookie manager Matt Williams walked to the mound in the top of the 9th. There stood Jordan Zimmermann, just one out away from completing two of the most amazing back-to-back games with a potential win in Game 2 of the 2014 National League Division Series following his no-hitter to end the season. Only Williams never gives him the chance. Williams pulls Zimm from the game and puts in . . . yes . . . Drew Storen (more on him in a minute), who quickly gave up two hits and one run and the Nats went on to lose the game in an excruciating 18 innings. 

It was worse in 2012. I was there for Game 5 of the 2012 National League Division Series, camera up and ready to capture Drew Storen throwing the division-winning strike that never came.

I would refer Milwaukee fans to another baseball fan with a way for words, who said it best:

“It breaks your heart.  It is designed to break your heart.  The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.“

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Everywhere I look I see Nats . . . okay, former Nats

A number of teams still in the playoffs are populated by former Nationals. Recent Nats (i.e., post-2019 players) include Lane Thomas with the Guardians and Jesse Winkler with the Mets. Of course the hated Philadelphia Phillies start each game with three former Nationals at the top of the lineup. I have no problem with how Kyle Schwarber, and Trea Turner ended up with the team. But then there’s Bryce Harper, who left the Nationals when they were on the cusp of winning a World Series all for a few extra million dollars.

Oh, and the Nationals won the World Series in 2019. Bryce still doesn’t have a ring. That’s fine with me.

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Money, money, money

Can I just say up front that I hate turning batting helmets into billboards. For money (see gambling rant above), baseball has sold the rights to Strauss so that they can plaster their logo on every team’s helmet. It overwhelms the team logo.

I’m clearly not the only one, as this piece from Yahoo Sports suggests.

“Playoff baseball riles up fan bases from coast to coast with questionable strike zones and infuriating manager decisions. Yet nothing has brought out the anger quite like MLB’s batting helmet decal sponsorship with Strauss.

Three weeks ago, MLB announced that it agreed to a four-year partnership with the German workwear company, not only making it the league’s “official workwear partner” but also choosing it as the first brand to take advantage of a 2022 CBA carveout that lets the league sell helmet sponsorships in the postseason. Strauss will also be the helmet sponsor for the minor leagues starting in 2025.”

Baseball isn’t soccer. We’ve already seen commercial patches on the uniforms, however, so this feels inevitable in a sport that puts the fan experience way down the list of priorities. The only patch I’ve seen so far that I like is the #24 worn by the Mets in memory of the late Willie Mays.

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Trains not planes

During the ALDS, Bob Costas made the observation that three of the four pairings featured teams that were only a short train ride away. He went on to opine that it would be great for the teams to travel by train to get to the other town for the next game.

Come on New York/Philly. Detroit/Cleveland. Los Angeles/San Diego. Travel between games the civilized way.

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So who will win?

I would love to see the Tigers or Royals go all the way, but that’s probably the kiss of death. The Padres and Guardians would be fun. I’m not crazy about the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers, but I don’t have a visceral hatred of those teams. I do not want to see the Phillies win it all (which means they probably will). I don’t really have a favorite. In the end, I’m just hoping to see some great games.

Play ball!

More to come . . .

DJB

Photo by Clay Brown on Unsplash.