Smell that? October Baseball is Coming

It should be well-known by now that the men of THMP have been devout followers of america's pastime ....and despite the fairly anti-climactic occurances over in the American League....the N.L. Playoff push is a high-flyin' sommersultin' cluster of F---k...and I couldnt' be happier. ESPN.com's Jayson Stark posted all "NL Playoff Scenarios" which as of today could have as many as FIVE N.L. teams tied with the same record! Absurd. Stark went on to explain the ramifications of this not-so--far-fetched outcome: four days of tie-breaker games BEFORE the Division Playoffs even begin!

The marquee playoff race at the moment is without question the furious rise of the Fightin' Phillies and the fantastical fall of the New York Metropolitans, who had owned a 7-Game lead as recent as September 12th. The NL East race proves all that is right in the game of baseball. Improbable comebacks, improbable collapses, passionate fanbases, crazed scoreboard monitoring, playoff-like atmospheres and stomach-tightening tension with every single pitch.

Anyway, this Phillies/Mets race has completely got me fired up, and this is coming from a 100% self-absorbed American League baseball fan. The Phillies have gotten me so excited with their they're character and heart. Watching them, I couldn't help but be reminded of the 2003 Red Sox, with their league-best offense, literally no lead was safe. They played that year, the same way this Phillies team plays: with this exhuberence born out of chemistry and a genuine love for being on the field playing the game.

One of my favorite moments of the year involved the Phillies, back in early July when they were on the road in Colorado, a big storm hit and the grounds crew lost control of the tarp which began to flail violently in the wind.....



The clip gives me chills when I see it. And I'm a big believer in karma, and I keep telling resident Philly die-hard Tad "Big Black Sassafras" Moses that this clip shows the character of the team more vividly than anything.

I don't have any awe-inspiring clips for the Mets fans to make them feel better about their squad, but I do have an excerpt from the Mets blog "Faith and Fear in Flushing" that really inspired me in a "William Wallace-we-will-not-go-down-without-a-fight" kinda way:

"I've been at this nonstop for 39 seasons. I have lived — lived — to have my team be in a position to go to the playoffs every single one of those 39 seasons. It is all I ever wanted when it was unavailable to me. It has been unavailable to me almost every one of those 39 seasons by the time those seasons reached this juncture. There have been ten exceptions to the rule. There were the seven seasons when they made it; there was 1985, when they took it to the second-to-last day; there was 1998, when they took it to the last day; and there is 2007, when they are alive on the third-to-last day.

I can't do a blessed thing about 1985 or 1998 anymore. But I can do whatever a lifelong fan can do right here, right now. As my Thursday night companion AlbertsonMets put it in a very perceptive comment on this blog yesterday, I am going to root like hell.

I am going to be at Shea tonight, and I am going to root like hell. I am going to be watching on SNY Saturday, and I am going to root like hell. I am going to be back at Shea on Sunday, and whether there is still something on the line or not — and there may very well not — I am going to root like hell."

So hooray for baseball. Hooray for school.

And on a completely unrelated note, apparently Paul Rudd was in "The Cider House Rules" and it was REALLY wierd to see him in it.