The Playoff Field

Wow. Pretty wild first round of baseball playoffs. Some capsules:

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Atlanta Braves: Decent Wild Card game marred by an umpire calling the Infield Fly Rule on a) a ball that was out in left field, b) the infielder wasn't "camped" under the ball waiting for it and c) the umpire didn't make the call immediately. Bottom line is that the Infield Fly never should have been called. Would it have changed the game? Maybe...

Baltimore Orioles vs. Texas Rangers: Surprised enough that the Oakland Athletics swept Texas to win the Western Division but then Baltimore comes in and beats up Texas pretty handily. That's why you play the games.

Cincinnati Reds vs. San Francisco Giants: I must admit that I wanted the Reds to win and it seemed to be going good after they won the first two in S.F. You gotta give credit to the Giants who, faced with a tall order of winning 3 in a row away from home, did it. They move on to the Championship Series.

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Washington Nationals: This was a good series that also went the limit. Again, I wanted Washington but St. Louis proved that Tony LaRussa isn't as great as we all thought he was. The Cardinals won with a rookie manager that's never managed anywhere before. The Nationals are young and will be back in the playoffs again.

Detroit Tigers vs. Oakland Athletics: When I found out that Oakland led the American League in strikeouts (that's batters striking out), I knew it wasn't going to end well. I wanted Oakland to win but Detroit won in 5 with Verlander pitching a Game 5 gem.

Baltimore Orioles vs. New York Yankees: [heavy sigh]. Yes, I wanted Baltimore to win (hmmm, I sense a trend here). Neither team hit the ball well except Derek Jeter and Nate McLouth (who now has a .321 career postseason batting average). McLouth is going to be a Free Agent so he just boosted his rep and potential payday. A possible pick-up for my Cleveland Indians....

I'm curious by the fact that the Yankees and Giants could play each other in the World Series for the first time since 1962.

The Tigers and Cardinals have never played each other in the World Series and, even though it's a curious match-up, it's a series that I have absolutely no interest in.

We'll see what happens.