Final weekend of the baseball season

This is it. The final weekend of the baseball season. The Yankees clinched a few days ago, and are playing for home field advantage through out the playoffs. It still feels a little strange to even think about homefield advantage in the playoffs. I am going to date myself by saying that I remember when there was ONLY the world series. Well, those years are going, and now we have the designated hitter in the American League . . .

This is going to be an interesting final weekend of baseball, especially for the National League. The Mets clinched the east a couple of weeks ago and just lost one of their pitchers, Pedro for the playoffs. The NL central division is up for grabs with Cardinals, the Astros, and the Reds in the hunt. Though the Reds have to get lucky, IMHO to win. The NL west will be represented by the Padres or the Dodgers. And the Philies are still in the hunt for a wildcard berth.

I remember my first post season. 1963. I was recovering from that broken hip that I wrote about in my earlier entry on the solar eclipse. When you spend most of the summer in bed at the age of nine, what do you do? I watched baseball. Dodgers v. Yankees. I remember watching Sandy Kofax pitch and he was my hero. The Dodgers won in 4. I was too young and new to the game to fully appreciate Sandy Koufax. He had a 1.88 era. 1.88. Even in the National League, without the designated hitter, it is an almost unheard of era.

In the meantime, it is time for me to go back to the game.