By By Ed Morrone
In Green Day’s newest single, vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong croons on the chorus, “Wake me up when September ends.” Hearing this led me to ask: why? Seriously, why would anybody in their right mind want September to end? It is a time when both college and pro football begin and most importantly, baseball’s pennant races are at a fever pitch.
This is the time baseball fans wait for all year, because even if your team is terrible (Mets fans, take notice), you can still enjoy great baseball every day. Each year, the race for the post-season seems to outdo itself, and this season is no exception. With just over a week left in the regular season, only the St. Louis Cardinals are sure-fire playoff locks.
Think about that for a second. Seven of the eight spots are still up for grabs with a week left in the season! Unbelievable! Keeping all of this in mind, let’s sift through the division and wild card races, picking the seven teams aside from St. Louis who will grab playoff spots:
NL EastThe Braves are the next closest team to clinching a playoff spot, holding a six-game lead over the Phillies with ten games to go. So, barring a monumental collapse, the Braves will win an unprecedented 14th consecutive division title. Every year they lose more players to free agency, experts doubt them and they come back and win it again. Nobody does a better job managing a team than Bobby Cox because he gets the most out of all 25 players. Winner: Braves
NL Central The Cardinals won this in May, so we’ll just move on. Winner: Cardinals
NL WestThe award for the most pathetic division in baseball goes to…*drumroll*…the National League West! How bad is it? The Diamondbacks, currently in fourth place, are 16 games under .500 and still are not mathematically eliminated. This should make baseball fans everywhere cringe. Anyway, the mediocre Padres have been leading the division since July despite being no better than .500. The Giants are still hanging around, but Barry Bonds’ late season return won’t be enough to win this putrid division. Winner: Padres
NL Wild CardThis is where it finally gets interesting in the National League. Though it’s not as tight as it was a month ago, four teams (Astros, Phillies, Marlins, Nationals) could win it. Count the Nats out after a late-season collapse and the Phils & Fish will miss out simply because they and the rest of the NL East will beat up on each other down the stretch. The Astros, meanwhile, have a cupcake schedule playing in the NL Central. Plus, Roger Clemens is still really good.
Baseball should make a rule allowing two Wild Card teams into the playoffs and leaving the Padres at home. Since this won’t happen, the NL playoffs will include the Braves, Cards, Padres and Astros. Excuse me while I go take a nap. Winner: Astros
AL EastSurprise, surprise! With a week left in the season, the Yankees and Red Sox are fighting it out for the division title. The Red Sox have had the lead since June, but the Yanks have recently closed the gap to half-a-game. This means the division will come down to the last series of the year-a three-game set at Fenway Park from Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Considering Boston has the best home record in baseball, they should prevail once again over the Evil Empire. Winner: Red Sox
AL CentralThis shouldn’t be a debate right now, considering the White Sox had a 15-game lead on Aug. 1. But Ozzie Guillen’s bunch has somehow blown it to make things interesting, as the Indians have crawled back to within two and-a-half. These two teams play each other four more times (three in Cleveland) and Cleveland’s schedule is easier than Chicago’s, but it’s hard to fathom the White Sox completely folding.
It will all depend on whether the Indians will show up to play against league doormats Kansas City and Tampa Bay, because they’ll have to be within a game and-a-half going into the series with the White Sox to win the division. Then again, it doesn’t really matter what I think, considering I picked the Twins (currently in third place in the division) to win the Central and represent the AL in the World Series. Oops. Winner: White Sox
AL WestThe American League is pretty much the direct opposite of the NL, as all three divisions in the AL are still up-for-grabs. The AL West is no different. Earlier in the season, it looked like a two-team race between Texas and the Los Angeles why are they called Los Angeles when they play in Anaheim Angels.
However, Texas faded fast and the light-hitting, pitching-heavy Oakland Athletics roared back into the race-as they always do in the second half-after an awful first two months of the season. It’s been back-and-forth ever since, with the Angels currently holding a slim one and a half game lead. This will be an absolute fight to the finish, with the two teams meeting for a four-game series in Oakland starting on Monday. The A’s lead the season series, 8-7, but I’m going with the Angels’ experience over Oakland’s young arms. Winner: Angels
AL Wild CardNow this is where it gets really interesting and confusing. The Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox and Indians are all Wild Card contenders. Two of these teams will win their respective divisions, one will win the Wild Card and the last will be left on the outside looking in. The scenarios could play out in several different ways, but let’s stick with the original prediction of the Red Sox and White Sox winning the divisions, leaving the Yankees and Indians fighting for the last spot. Considering the Yankees end the season with seven straight road games and the Indians finish with six at home, the Tribe has a leg up.
Cleveland also has been baseball’s hottest team over the past month, and they should beat up on the two aforementioned trash teams of the AL. It would also be really funny if the Yankees missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993 a year removed from the biggest post-season collapse in sports history. Winner: Indians
As is usually the case with predictions, some of these will probably be incorrect, but one thing remains certain: I don’t want to sleep through September Wait, check that. Let me sleep through the NL playoffs, and just make sure I’m awake when the AL plays.