Baseball kind of gets lost in the shuffle here in Canada around this time of the year. You have ice hockey starting up, the NFL going strong south of the border and some fans are even still into the CFL. It’s a real pity too, consider that this is the best that baseball gets.
In the divisional round, even if it was short series, we saw some great baseball and some memorable moments. And we’re not even going to include the terrible umpiring in a few games.
First and foremost, we saw Roy Halladay absolutely dominate the best hitting team in the National League, but we already talked about that one. Talk about a great moment. It was astounding how both Halladay and then Cole Hamels in Game 3 were able to shut out such a good offensive team like the Reds. It is kind of hard to feel sorry for them though; with their young core, they’ll be playing in October again soon.
In the Braves-Giants series, you had Brooks Conrad commit three errors in what was probably the biggest game of his life. It is really befuddling that a team built with groundball pitchers like Derek Lowe and Tim Hudson that you would start such an inept defensive team behind him. Then again, thanks to injuries Troy Glaus seemed to be the only other option – and a poor one at that.
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There also happened to be this kid on San Francisco who happened to be almost as dominant as Halladay was in his no-no. Yes, I’d be afraid of Tim Lincecum if I were the Phillies. And that Halladay-Lincecum Game 1 matchup is going to be one of the best pitchers duels we have seen in a long time.
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In the American League, we saw the same-old, same-old with the Yankees creaming the Twins. If anything, their dominance is getting pretty memorable for every fan of Minnesota. What kind of bad luck do they have to have to meet the same bully every post-season? At least next time they should Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan back in the fold.
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Then there was the lone series to go the distance, the Rays-Rangers affair that saw the visiting team win all five games. Looks like no home fans went home happy here and – surprise – fans actually showed up in St. Petersburg! I’d even venture a sarcastic guess that the Rays lost their home games because they weren’t used to seeing Tropicana Field packed full.
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Now, we move onto the League Championship Series, which might actually be the best of the best baseball. Considering how the World Series is played with different sets of rules, the home teams always have a slight advantage. Here, we get to see each league’s best two teams duke it out for the pennant and a chance to play for the world.