Don't become stupid, baseball

Okay, I'll preface this post by admitting I have a vendetta against the Cardinals. They have knocked out my favorite team, the Padres, from the playoffs each of the last two years. However, now that they are headed to the World Series, it's not just that they beat the Padres that is making me angry.

The Cardinals finished 83-78 during the regular season. That's five games above .500. Now, they are four wins away from being the "best team" in baseball for the year. How their bullpen magically became awesome in two weeks after being absolutely atrocious down the stretch is beyond me.

There were twelve teams that had better records than St. Louis in the regular season. That's 40% of baseball that was better than them during over a 162 (0r 161 game, maybe that's why they have been so good, they're less tired!) game schedule. They won the worst division in baseball by 1.5 games. The collective win percentage of the NL Central was .467. The next worst division, the AL East, was .495, so it wasn't really even that close.

Now, one might say that I am hypocritical b/c I did not complain when the Padres were 82-80 as division champs of maybe the worst division ever in the 2005 N.L. West. That's true, but they also got swept in the playoffs. Would I have been happy had they gone to the World Series? Of course, but it would have been cheap.

I know it is often popular to cheer for the underdog, but the Cardinals have had far superior teams in the last two years and at best, will do at least as well as the much more talented 2004 team that got swept by the Red Sox.

Now, the regular season of course shouldn't dictate who always wins. There are so many variables that make a long season tick. The team with the best record in the regular season doesn't always win and they shouldn't necessarily. They could feed off a terrible division all year long or have a slightly better record than another team who may have had key injuries for most of the year. However, the Cardinals didn't really deserve any of these accolades. In a normal season they wouldn't have even made the playoffs. They were terrible in the second half of the season and did not play in a difficult division.

That's why the baseball Gods must smile upon the Tigers come Saturday. They were good almost all year. They did falter down the stretch, but seemingly due to perhaps their best offensive player and catalyst, Placido Polanco, being hurt. They played in a division with two other teams who played above .550 ball, including the defending world champions.

The idea behind "that's why they play the game" is what makes sports so exciting. But sometimes playing the games brings injustice to the game as a whole. Or maybe this is the baseball Gods revenge for 1985.

J.H. Naners