Pro Baseball Regular Season Over

The Major League Baseball regular season has finally ended for 2009. Of the teams I had been following, only one, the Minnesota Twins, actually made it to the playoffs. They stand to be eliminated quickly, their first-round opponents the New York Yankees (with baseball's best record this year) having beaten them in all seven games played between them this season. And the Yankees won their first playoff game yesterday against the Twins 7-2.

This year I had concentrated my attention on the American League Central Division as well as on the two Florida teams and the Chicago Cubs. Although the Cubs, Rays, and Marlins all had winning seasons, none of them were good enough to make the playoffs. And the AL Central was baseball's worst division, with only Detroit having a winning record besides the Twins. Speaking of Detroit, they led the division for almost the entire season but lost it in the final three games, including a special one-game playoff that Minnesota won in 12 innings. I expected Kansas City to do poorly, but I was astounded at the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians, not only for how poorly they did, but also for how quickly their management gave up on them and traded star players away (notably Jim Thome from Chicago and Cliff Lee from Cleveland).

For the playoffs, I plan to root for Minnesota until they are eliminated (which will probably be sooner than later). Otherwise, I'll pull for New York to make it to the World Series. In the National League, I'd like to see the Colorado Rockies make it or, as a second choice, good ol' Joe Torre's Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yes, I would like to see a nice, frigid (if not snowy) World Series in late October, alternating between Denver and Minneapolis. Oh, did I hear you just say that Minnesota now plays their home games in an enclosed park? Party poopers!