Worst Seat In The House: What to watch

It’s crazy how the sports seasons overlap these days. Football gets its start as the Major League baseball season ends. With the playoffs going on now there is a good chance that the official end of the season will be knocking on November’s front door. There might be a less than warm evening or two to play a game in come World Series time.

I don’t have a team that I’m pulling for at the moment. The Washington Nationals have certainly had a season to remember rallying from a 19-31 start to make the National League Championship series. I guess they really didn’t need Bryce Harper after all. The Nats took out the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Division series making the Dodger’s season with106 wins a moot point. The team that is hottest at the right time has a tendency to win when it counts.

The one thing that I have noticed is that managers have a tendency to manage a ball club differently in the post season than they do during the regular season. A manager will often bring a starter in from the bull pen for an inning or two thinking the experience will win out and secure a victory.

We seldom see that happen during the season yet the manager sends a guy into the game and the skipper has all of the confidence in the world that good things will happen. A walk here and a home run there and the game has changed in a matter of 8 pitches.

A pitcher may have some good stuff but after pitching a whole season and putting up with a few nagging injuries it is hard for a pitcher to have his good stuff every night. Sometimes a manager’s crystal ball isn’t as good as he thinks it is.

This time of year fans will be surprised as to which player will step up and lead a team to victory. Let’s face it when a manager says that he had a hunch that the guy on the bench who was only batting .213 was going to hit a home run to tie the game in the ninth inning there is a good chance he was hoping beyond hope that that scenario was going to take place. Chances are the manager was merely playing the odds with a right handed batter going against a left handed pitcher. That it worked was a lot more hope and prayers than gut instinct. Or maybe the scouting report had something to do with it.

Whoever wins the American and National League Championship series will most likely get on a roll and the players will not rest on their laurels but play their best game each night out. When you get this close it would be hard to take not playing in the World Series.

So many great teams have been pushed to the curb already and two more will be eliminated before the week is out. Hopefully it will be a fun World Series to watch. This time of year is getting more difficult to enjoy baseball over football. I just need to respond by reminding myself that it is the World Series.