| | | Christian Yelich |
"We've only just begun," or it seems that way? On the other hand, it seems as if we haven't. This might be the attitude of many fans of Major League Baseball, in the United States and Canada, "seems we just get started and before you know it, comes the time we have to say so long." The two month season, on the other hand was so baseball packed it seems to have gone on forever. Today, though, was the decision day. The last day of the "regular season" singled out the winners and the losers. Today the winners and seconds of each of the six divisions were stamped with the seal of approval and advanced to the playoffs. In addition, four other teams were allowed to advance to the first round of the playoffs, which begin Tuesday, in the American League, at the baseball stadium of the highest seeded team of each coupling. These games continue on Wednesday and Thursday, if necessary, and the winners of each set advance to the next round, to be played at neutral sites. The National League games will begin on Wednesday, and continue through Friday (if necessary). The World Series, for the first time ever, will be played at a new stadium, where no one has ever played, on October 20-28 in Arlington, Texas. Until this COVID infested year, the venerable series has been played in the two stadiums of the competing teams. Hopefully, things will return to normal next year. Entering Sunday, none of the eight Wild Card Series matchups was settled, with the final two National League postseason spots up for grabs and many other teams still jockeying for seeding. It was a crazy afternoon of baseball, but now all of the teams are set: The Wild Card Series in the American League includes (seeded position in parentheses) the Toronto Blue Jays (8) at the Tampa Bay Rays (1), the Chicago White Sox (7) at the Oakland A’s (2), the Houston Astros (6) at the Minnesota Twins (3), and the New York Yankees (5) at the Cleveland Indians (4). The Yankees had started the season as the perennial favorites, and then went through a severe mid season slump and slide, but recovered enough to withstand a bad last week. The National League games are also set, including the Brewers' Christian Yelich, well known to readers of this space. The Brewers were the last team to qualify, and did so with a losing season. The Milwaukee Brewers (8) at the Los Angeles Dodgers (1) is the first matchup of the National League. Also playing in this first round are the Cincinnati Reds (7) at the Atlanta Braves (2), the Florida Marlins (6) at the Chicago at Cubs (3), and the St. Louis Cardinals (5) at the San Diego Padres (4). The COVID struck Cardinals were on hiatus for two weeks early in the season, but recovered, and clinched their Wild Card spot on the last day of the season, that is today. Congratulations to all the teams on the successful completion of the regular season. COVID or not. As Always, Eric http://speedorex.blogspot.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/omnisport/812576340.1308043.1601258277407%40mail.yahoo.com.
