Yes, I know the Pirates played their last game of the season yesterday, but who cares? They lost 3-1. The Pirate broadcast booth was as nauseating as ever, but even they said you could not sugarcoat this season. They left out that they tried like hell to do so. What is so depressing to me is that I do not see any changes coming. I do not even think they will fire the hitting coach. I’m not sure how to spell his last name, and I’m not going to look it up. I was going to do a playoff edition tomorrow, but I needed something to cheer me up. Therefore, I am doing it today. This will give a little more time to see if I am wrong about the pitiful Pirates. But enough of them already, and on to playoffs.
This should be the best baseball playoffs since they expanded the fields. Three of the four wild card series are toss-ups. I do not think anybody will be surprised by who wins the Tigers-Guardians, Padres-Cubs, and Red Sox-Yankees series. The Dodgers will be the solid favorite over the Reds. The Dodgers have already helped out the Reds by not putting Clayton Kershaw on the wild card roster. I pity any left-handed pitcher on the Dodgers in this series. They had better be perfect. Kershaw had a solid year for the Dodgers. He has an ERA+ of 118, and they recently tried him out of the bullpen. The Dodger bullpen is their weakest area. I cannot imagine the rationale for not having him on the roster. Maybe they want to give the Reds a fighting chance. Even so, I do not think the Reds will pull off the shocker. I know predictions are a dime a dozen. I have not a clue who might win the other three series. The Padres and Cubs split the six games they played against each other this year. In the other two series, there is a decided edge. The Red Sox beat the Yankees nine out of 13 times. The Guardians beat the Tigers eight out of 13 times. We will see if that has any meaning in the playoffs. Here is the one prediction I will make. No matter who wins the wild card round, that is as far as they are going. I feel that all four bye teams are going to win their respective series and face each other in the Championship Series. Speaking of predictions, I did not do badly on my preseason predictions on the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers. I said the Mets would not make the playoffs. I said the Yankees would not make the playoffs. Wrong on that one. Despite some significant bumps in the road, the Yankees did much better than I expected. I said the Dodgers would not be as dominant as everybody said they would be. I said they would make the playoffs but not the World Series. So far, so good on that one. I feel that at least half of the wild card round will go three games. That has not happened since the expanded playoff formula. It will be great just watching some solid baseball being played. After watching the Pirates desecrate the game 162 times, it will be like being in Shangri-La. Tuesday, the fun begins.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 