I'm excited about the American League games. New York and Boston always make things interesting, and it's fun to watch the outstanding young pitchers from the Indians and Angels. These National League games, though...The entire National League has been pretty abysmal this season. The Cardinals took a mediocre championship team and, even though expectations were already low, still managed to disappoint. The Mets, chosen by many to be World Series champions, didn't even make the playoffs. None of the teams finished with over 90 wins. And I can't bear the thought of either the Cubs or Phillies playing (let alone winning) a World Series.
It was a rough year for the Cardinals, and I looked for positivity wherever I could find it. However it was always marred by something. I was still celebrating April baseball when Josh Hancock tragically died in a car accident. The Birds delivered the Phillies their 10,000th franchise loss in July, but Philadelphia is now in the playoffs and the Cards are not. The Ankiel story was a good one, at least until HGH caught up with him. Now I can't believe in anything good ever again.And although I'm bummed that the Cardinals didn't make it to the post-season this year, I'm at least glad that their collapse (losing 14 of 16 in September to go from 1 game behind the Cubs to 9.5) was overshadowed by the Mets' freefall (dropping 12 of 17 at the end of the season to lose their division lead).
If I had to choose an NL team to root for right now it'd be the Colorado Rockies, and not just because they have a chance to stop Philly from advancing. They won 14 of their last 15 regular-season games to take the NL West by surprise. I kind of feel they deserve it.Of course after that playoff-to-make-the-playoffs game between the Rocks and Padres, everything else seems sort of anti-climactic.
