Baseball at its Best Down to the Wire

In 2003, we enjoyed one of the most exciting postseasons in many years, and in 2004, we were treated to one of the most suspense-filled regular season-ending finishes with several playoff spots on the line until the last day. It was a great week just to be a baseball fan regardless of where one's loyalties lie.

Going to the playoffs this year will be the perennial favorites, such as the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves, but the Yankees end this year with a shaky starting pitching rotation and the Braves had a less than impressive first-half.

The most dominant club all season, of those going to the first-round of the playoffs, is the St. Louis Cardinals, although their pitching staff has raised questions for the past couple of weeks. Seemingly, the Twins won the American League Central division sneaking under the radar, which is the way they like it. And in contrast, the Boston Red Sox, the American League wildcard winner, acted like they won the pennant when they clinched the wildcard earlier in the week.

The Anaheim Angels were battling all season with either the Texas Rangers or Oakland Athletics for both the American League West title and later the AL wildcard title and none of them were dominant over the other all year.

This necessitated another nail-biter the last weekend of the season with the Angels beating the A's, winning two out of three, giving them the American League West title. Perhaps it was the injured players which the Angels had to deal with most of the season who made it back the past few weeks which was the difference, as Oakland started having injury problems late and Texas, as good as they were all season, finally ran out of steam.

The Los Angeles Dodgers could never put enough distance between themselves and the San Francisco Giants and had to battle it out against San Fran on the next to the last day of the season to put a lid on it and win the National League West.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Cubs played like a fast sinking hot air balloon. During that time, the Houston Astros played as remarkably well as the Cubs played poorly. The Astros won 15 of their last 16 games and 18 in a row at home (not accomplished by a MLB team in 10 years), to become one of the most surprising clubs to come back from the dead at such a late point in the season in many, many years.

After the All-Star Break, the Astros went on a two-week losing streak and took a nosedive while trying to adjust to a new manager as Jimy Williams was dismissed after his All-Star Game coaching duties, and replaced by Phil Garner. They also lost the services of starting pitcher, Andy Pettitte, for the remainder of the season in August due to elbow surgery. Their bullpen too was shaken up by trading Octavio Dotel to the Oakland A's and gambling on Brad Lidge, becoming a closer for the first time.

Prior to August, the only bright light on the club was Roger Clemens, who was carrying the whole team on his back. He went on to win 18 games while losing only four, but wound up with 11 no-decisions in which he pitched under seven innings only three of those times. Most of his wins as well as no-decisions were pitching clinics in the art of pitching, with many including double-digit strikeout totals and a very limited amount of hits allowed.

Had Clemens had a run-generating club behind him, he could have easily won over 20 games, but ends up in the top-five in ERA in the National League at 2.98 and with 218 strikeouts.

It was not until Roy Oswalt, considered to be the ace of the pitching staff in Houston when the season began, started getting it together that the Astros finally came on strong in August. Oswalt finished winning 20 games, losing 10 with 206 strikeouts and third in innings pitched in the National League. And then finally the roster of Astros veterans, looking lackluster all season, started to hit. Jeff Kent, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and midseason pickup Carlos Beltran all found their rhythm.

The Houston Astros have nothing to lose in their appearance in the playoffs. After their wheels came off in July, no one in baseball expected them to make a go of it, disappointingly so given their hopes in the beginning of the season.

While the last two World Series champions were both wildcard teams, the Anaheim Angels and the Florida Marlins, respectively, they weren't expected to wind up in the postseason.

In Houston's case, they were first considered contenders and then management was actually contemplating dismantling the team midseason in an attempt to rebuild for 2005. In that sense, they are more of a surprise than the Angels or the Marlins were. Especially unexpected was the poor performance of the Cubs. Similarly, the Giants never dominated all season, and came on with too little, too late.

So after all is said and done, the stage is set for a MLB playoffs season with no sure winners and more parity than we may be used to than in the past. More importantly, it lends itself for great theater on the diamond with possible surprising upsets. And you can't ask for any more from this game of baseball, which takes on new meaning every October, weaving new stories of hope and disappointment, always leaving us rooting for more.

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