There Is Much To Be Decided

Today's a pretty significant day in baseball, being the last day of the season and all. Quite a few things are still up in the air, particularly in the AL. And I'll be honest with you... I'm probably not going to see a second of it. I am of the belief that Sundays are for football, and that's how I'll be spending my day. Sorry. It's just how I'm made.

But I think I have the scenarios straight here. The Padres and Dodgers clinched playoff spots last night, but the NL West title is still to be decided. The Padres have a magic number of 1, and it's way more magical than the Dodgers magic number of 2. The winner of the division would avoid the Mets in the first round, and play either the Cardinals or the Astros. Speaking of which...

The only way the Cardinals are not winning the NL Central is if they lose tomorrow, and the Astros win... then they'd have to play a makeup game against the Giants on Monday, lose that, and then lose a one-game playoff to the Astros. So they need a three-game losing streak. It's unlikely, but these are the Cardinals, and they've lost three straight on twelve different occasions this year. It's conceivable that the Cardinals would head into the playoffs having played on something like 20 consecutive days. There's a recipe for postseason success.

In the AL, the Central division title is up for grabs, and a Detroit win over Kansas City or a Minnesota loss to Chicago would give the division title to Detroit. And that's alright with me. It might be fun to see Johan Santana potentially facing the Yankees twice in a short series.

So if the Beers beat Detroit and Denver beats Atlanta in the American Southwestern Division East Northern, then Milwaukee goes to the Denslow Cup, unless Baltimore can upset Buffalo and Charlotte ties Toronto, then Oakland would play LA and Pittsburgh in a blind choice round robin. And if no clear winner emerges from all of this, the two-man sack race will be held on consecutive Sundays until a champion can be crowned.