* I don't write much about baseball here, but I am a big, big Cleveland Guardians fan, and there's been an interesting phenomenon going on involving them.
On September 4, they lost 4-2 to the Tampa Bay Rays. The loss saw them slip to 3.5 games behind the last wild card spot.
Since then, they've been on a big tear, going 11-1 since at the time of this writing.
And they are now ... 2.5 games behind the last wild card spot.
How the hell does that happen? You win 11 out of 12 and only pick up one game in league-wide standings?
Simple! Everyone else jockeying for the last wild card spot is also on a tear.
Seattle is 10-2 in the same span, with those 10 wins bookended by the two losses, so we picked up one game on them.
But no problem, because Seattle caught the Astros for first place in the AL West, so we just gotta catch the Astros now!
Except since being caught, the Astros are 5-1.
But both the Astros and Mariners both caught the Red Sox on September 13th!
Except the Red Sox have won 2 out of 3 since then.
It's a bummer, since despite their hotness, the Guards are still unlikely to make the playoffs. Not only because continuing to play red-hot for another week and a half is a tough ask at any rate, but it's especially hard for a team that is last in the AL in hitting. They have the best record in the AL since the All-Star Break, but have been fourth from the bottom in hitting even just counting that span! Through it all, they still sport a -25 run differential. So they've been lucky.
Still, can't at least one of these teams they're chasing at least play some .500 ball?
* Over on Big Ten twitter, there's a lot of indigence over making the poor Michigan State Spartans play a game at 11 PM local (Eastern) time as they travel to USC. Couple this with a sentiment that I've seen many times over the years about how the Pacific Time zone is the best for sports, because all of the action is done by 9 or 10 PM.
So my question is, when did we become such babies about staying up late?
I know I'm the minority here. There's also the fact that I don't have children to factor in to things. But in my day, Big Monday college basketball on ESPN meant a Big East game at 7 PM, a Big Ten at 9 PM, and a Big West game at midnight. AND WE LIKED IT!
I love, love, love late night sports. It's just neat to me that it can be past 2 AM and Hawaii is still battling Wyoming or whoever. I'm slightly bummed sports-wise that I even moved one time zone west, from Eastern to Central time, as an adult. While you are lamenting that you would have to stay up past 1 to watch Sparty, I am thinking about how much I would hate it if I had to get up at 9 AM to watch the Eastern noon kickoffs.
So, fine, this is a matter of preference, and I am a night owl. But be young and relish staying up late for once in your middle-class, two-kids, tending-your-garden-in-a-sunhat life.
* My picks in my last column rallied to go 4-2, and I continue to be extraordinarily lucky lately that I am making prognostications in this space on weeks I do well, and only getting hammered on weeks I make no picks for this article. So I'm just going to make one pick this time.
When I do get crushed, it's often because I am putting too much stock in transitive victories, which is really dumb of me. You need something way more solid than, "But they beat the team that beat the team!"
But it is just bonkers that Miami opened up just a -4.5 favorite over Florida, and while -7.5, where it sits now, is a scarier number, it's still worth taking in my opinion. The 'Canes beat Notre Dame and they absolutely obliterated a South Florida team that was everyone's darling because USF trounced Boise State and then beat ... Florida.
I was about to brag that I got Miami at the -4.5 number, but I just checked and it looks like I accidentally clicked on Florida. Haha ... FML, and go Gators.
Leave a Comment