What baseball’s postseason lacks in hometown teams, it makes up in story lines.
On Wednesday, when the Phillies’ Cole Hamels delivered the first pitch of the playoffs, against the Brewers, it was the first time in 14 years neither New York team was involved in the postseason. But if you can push past the Mets’ newest version of the collapse and the Yankees’ 2008 futility, you can enjoy some tremendous October baseball.
And if Cal Ripken Jr. says you should tune in, shouldn’t that be enough?
“Nobody watches a game and gets into a game like New York fans,” said Ripken, who will be doing studio work for TBS throughout the postseason. “It is baseball and it is the most exciting time of the year. You still can enjoy baseball, it doesn’t end just because the Yankees and Mets didn’t make it.”
And there’s plenty to follow.
Joe Torre and the Dodgers will be trying to keep the Cubs’ 100-year World Series drought in tack in the NLDS. Torre also could stick it to the Steinbrenner clan, who offered the man that won them four World Series titles a one-year contract. Torre subsequently fled for the Dodgers. His best chance of West Coast postseason success will be riding longtime Yankees killer Manny Ramirez, who was traded to Los Angeles from the Red Sox minutes before the trade deadline expired on July 31.
“It seems like Joe Torre’s teams get better as the year goes on, because he defines roles and shakes things up a little bit,” Ripen said. “And the infusion of Manny Ramirez makes this a whole new team offensively. The young players kind of rallied around Manny and felt less pressure.
“And Manny is phenomenal in the postseason, and I think the Red Sox will miss that presence more in this time of the year. The Dodgers are a very dangerous team . . . If it was me, I would have kept Joe (with the Yankees) as long as he wanted to stay here.”
If looking to the past doesn’t pique your interest, what about the future? And a Rays team, taking on the outspoken Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox in the ALDS, that wedged the Yankees out of the playoffs by demolishing team records and everyone’s expectations winning 97 games this season.
“I have been mesmerized by the Tampa Bay Rays,” Ripken said. “We knew they were good, but they have come together faster than anyone thought. All they’ve done is gone on to play big series after big series. They won close to 100 games, so it is interesting to see how the group of young players are going to do in the playoffs.”
There’s always the hate factor: Mets’ fans can root against the Phillies, and Yankees’ fans can jeer the Manny-less Red Sox.
The World Series possibilities are juicy, too. Ramirez and the Dodgers against the Red Sox is one possible scenario. Another is a Windy City World Series between the White Sox and Cubs, who are together in the playoffs for the first time since 1906.
And you thought New York had it bad.