End of the Season

Baseball is such a game of losers (before any of you start screaming – I’m kidding!).

A starting pitcher in a season will start about 34 games and if good and with a good group around him, might win half the games. Half – that is like 50%. I mean, if I got half right on a test, I failed – at least that’s what my Dad said to me.

Yet, a starting pitcher that wins about 25% of his games (8 or 9) will likely get to play next year. Just 25% – that is like losing 3 out of every 4. Yet, not booted!

And what about batters. To hit 1.000 is to get a hit every time they step into the batter’s box. And how many come close? NONE! Zero!

In fact, very few even hit 300 which is 30%. Thirty percent! WOW – if I turned in only 30% of my work to a teacher, I know what the parent/teacher conference would have been like and what the one-way talk at home would have been like.

OK – I really like baseball in part because of no clock and in part because of the many cat and mouse games going on all the time. So we come to the postseason – and what a good season it has been! Boston has been in rare air all season. They might win 110 games in the regular season – WOW. But wait! That is only 68% – still a failure in most of my classes. WOW!

Still the Red Sox had a great year in the AL. Houston and Cleveland were the other division winners and the Yankees and A’s will play the Wildcard. The Yankees have to play a one game Wildcard despite having the third best record in ALL of baseball. In a sense, they are losers in that they only get one shot to fully make the postseason.

OK – enough chatter – I’m settled into a Yankees and Red Sox game at Fenway. Go Yanks!