The #WhyNotUs Index: The MLB 2014 Playoff Teams

Why not us? | Credit: www.boston.com

Now that Ateneo’s basketball season is over, I turn to the MLB playoffs for entertainment. No matter how much boring baseball is for most people, it actually climaxes well during the playoffs. Anything can happen and any team can come back as baseball is not time-dependent. Of all the major sports in the United States, baseball is actually the only sport that finds the right balance of regular season, postseason and even all-star games. Yup, I am not kidding despite of the 162 game count. OK, I might be a bit biased here but consider these:

NBA: Does the regular season really matter? Half of the teams reach the playoffs anyway!
 

Little Giants No More

The new World Series Champions

Sem Break 1997. It was a fine morning in Manila as I watched the final game of the 1997 World Series with Lolo. It pitted the Cleveland Indians and the Florida Marlins. One team was one of the teams with the longest championship drought (although the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox still belonged in that list) while the other team was in its first ever World Series appearance. It would be a big delight to the fans whichever team wins. As my favorite team was already eliminated then, I was just a mere spectator. But if there was one team that I wanted to side with, it would be the Cleveland Indians. My favorite team – the Atlanta Braves – defeated the Indians in the World Series a few years back so I never had the jealous type of hatred on them. The Marlins, on the other hand, killed the hopes of the Braves in 1997 on the way to the World Series.

Me and our Nolan Ryan baseball

Cleveland was on its way to victory when they led in the final stretches of the game. I can still remember ESPN flashing the teams with the longest championship drought. Cleveland was among them and that led me to sympathize and root for them further. However, the Marlins found a way to inch closer. By the end of the ninth inning, the game was already knotted up at two. The Florida fans screamed louder. If you happen to root for the visiting team, it is always a sick feeling to hear fans roaring when the home team gets the huge momentum at the crucial moments of a team game. There is a mix of helplessness, terror and intimidation. This was one of the first times I genuinely felt that (since I never got to watch Games 6 and 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals and Houston just purely dominated Orlando in the 1995 Finals). The Indians apparently shared the same feeling that I had. They struggled to score in the next two innings. Florida, on the other hand, got to reach the bases in the 11th inning. The fans roared when the young Edgar Renteria stepped into the plate. He hit the ball and scored the championship-winning RBI as the Marlins rejoiced their first taste of championship.

Best Bandwagon Teams of the 2000's

Credits to bleacherreport.com

It has been a week since my Atlanta Braves got eliminated in the MLB Playoffs. However, this did not stop me from watching the remainder of the playoff games last week. If you love the sport, watching it does not end after your team gets eliminated. You either watch it for entertainment’s sake or you root against your team’s rivals. I had both reasons when I watched the League Championship Series as Atlanta and Boston’s division rivals, namely Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees, were battling it out. Actually, both teams were pegged to duke it out in the World Series just like last year. Their lineups were just loaded. And their opponents? A bunch of teams who struggled to even reach the playoffs. The Texas Rangers never won a home game in the postseason prior to this year’s ALCS. Nobody expected the San Francisco Giants to reach the playoffs as San Diego was in a comfortable lead some months back. The San Francisco Giants’ last World Series appearance was in 2002 when they suffered a heartbreaking Game 7 loss to the Anaheim Angels. Both teams never won a World Series trophy. The Giants did but they were not yet situated in San Francisco then.

I first got to watch the Game 1 of the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers. The Yankees had their probable Cy Young Winner, CC Sabathia, in the mound and I expected them to crush the Rangers who just had little rest from their five-game series against Tampa Bay. Then, the unexpected happen. CC Sabathia struggled to find the strike zone as he walked batters, gave up a home run and was even down by a huge deficit early in the game. The sluggers of New York were also rusty. Even the analysts were astounded. If they expected a pitcher to have 30 more pitches than the other, it would not have been Sabathia. The huge lead had the Rangers and their fans complacent to the point that they forgot to boo A-Rod and Mark Teixeira. Nolan Ryan was comfortably chatting with George Bush and Texas seemed to coast to a Game 1 victory.  Then, 8th inning arrived. C.J. Wilson was exhausted after giving up a run. They had to replace him with Darren Oliver who walked the next two batters. This ensued a huge Yankee rally that was good enough for the comeback win. Using Bill Simmons’ term, Texas just experienced a stomach punch game. They thought everything went right. The announcers were stating that it was history taking place for them as it will be their first postseason home win. Just when they thought that things were finally right, they got hit out of nowhere. In the final innings of the game, you can read the words “Oh no! Here we go again!” etched in their faces.