Break out your flannel shirts, Sun Devils! October is here, and as usual, it will bring some pretty great things: Halloween parties, Oktoberfest, pleasant walks to class, and piles of leaves to violently crunch after a disastrous midterm (no judgement). But perhaps the most exciting part of October is something far less predictable than temperatures in the 70s: Major League Baseball playoffs.
After more than a quarter-century of watching miserable rosters flounder, Kansas City Royals fans had begrudgingly accepted their team as the worst of the worst. They were finally able to see their team attain some long-awaited glory in the form of a one-game wild card spot played between the other of the two best non-division winners of the American League: the Oakland Athletics. In a nail-biting, twelve-inning contest, the Royals won by a single run and secured a spot in a division series for the first time in 29 years.
The three-year existence of this wild card game had not yet seen a game as exciting as the A’s and Royals game. The loser-goes-home stakes make for an incredibly exciting start to the competition. There’s something compelling about a single chance to prove yourself. We see it in football all the time, as well as in soccer with competitions like the World Cup and the Champion’s League final, but this is the only time we’ve seen it in baseball.
Series-clinching games, like Game 7 of the World Series, are undoubtedly exciting as well, but we’ll be damned if it isn’t awesome to tell an underdog, “You have a single, momentous chance to prove yourself, and that’s it!” Quite the drama. We’re big fans of it.
To add to the excitement, the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the NL Central Division with a Pittsburgh Pirates loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. The possibility of the last day of regular season play ending with the Pirates winning and the Cardinals losing gave every St. Louis fan a queasy feeling; a tiebreaker game was on the horizon. Fortunately for the St. Louisans, Pittsburgh was vanquished, and celebrations were had.
Another intriguing storyline follows the Detroit Tigers, 2014 AL Central champions, who have basically been the MLB equivalent of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder: a talented, high-achieving team that sniffs at championships but ultimately falls short time and time again. The time to make the jump from contender to champion needs to happen soon.
All of this emotion is only heightened by the storybook ending to baseball legend Derek Jeter’s career. After playing 20 seasons, earning 14 All Star selections, and collecting a trophy cabinet that could make Michael Jordan jealous, the Yankee captain leaves only his legacy.
It’s time to get excited about America’s pastime. If this eager fanatic can sneak into a dugout, the least you can do is catch a few games.
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