Breath of Fresh Air

Looking back on the crazy events from the last night of baseball’s regular season, I guess I have to come back and eat the words that I wrote not too long ago about the AL and NL Wild Card races. If you recall. I said that both the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves would hold on as the leaders of the Wild Card races and be in the playoffs when they started on Friday. Obviously I was wrong about both of those races and I wanted to get on here and admit I was wrong. Major congrats goes to the Tampa Bay Rays and the St. Louis Cardinals for never giving up on the race and ultimately winning the Wild Card races. Everyone wants to talk about the Red Sox and Braves collapsing and tanking in the month of September. Don’t get me wrong, these are two of the most memorable meltdowns that has happened in sports history. When you have leads of 9 and 8 1/2 games like the Red Sox and Braves had earlier in the month, there’s no excuse why you shouldn’t be in the playoffs. But I’m writing to give credit where credit is due. The Rays and Cardinals could have easily given up on the rest of the season, but they continued to battle day in and day out and played their way into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season. So while it’s easy to get on the Red Sox and Braves for failing and melting down, let’s not forget that the Rays and Cardinals took care of the business that they had to handle in order to even give themselves a chance. I understand that you need a lot of things to happen at the same time for this event to take place, but from here on out we should talk about the teams that are in the playoffs. The bottom line is that the Red Sox and Braves are at home for the rest of the season and we can talk about them when spring training is about to start. I give all the credit to the Rays and Cardinals for not quitting on the season. Good luck to them in the playoffs and let the postseason begin.