Written by P.J Glasser
When baseball implemented the 2nd wild card slot for the American and National League who
knew it would make the baseball season so much better. It used to be teams were just playing to win
their division and then the team that had a really good year would also get in but there would be a
couple teams who had a good year but always got left out. With this new wildcard spot it seems like
year after year there are more and more teams fighting for that 2nd wildcard. Amazingly enough last year
the World Series was made up of two wild card teams and the Giants were the team that got in as the
2nd wildcard. 5 years ago the Giants don’t even get into the playoffs but because of the 2nd wildcard they
were able to sneak in, get hot at the right time and went on to win the whole thing.
This year is no exception as we have tons of teams vying for a wildcard spot especially in the AL.
There are currently 6 teams that are at least 5.5 games back of the 2nd wild card. This time of the year
anything can happen and if you get on a roll and have a little luck you just might find yourself in the
playoffs. As of today, August 25th, the Yankees and the Rangers hold the two wildcard spots and I think that is
going to change. I believe that the Rangers are actually going to win their division and the Angels are
going to end up grabbing the wild card which would leave the Astros out of the playoffs. This leaves
teams out like the Orioles, Tigers, and White Sox who all had high expectations at the beginning of the
year, but I just can’t see any of them getting into the playoffs. This time of year nobody knows what’s
going to happen and there is always that one team every year that squeaks its way into the playoffs and
I’m just interested to see who the team is going to be that gets hot and finds its way into the playoffs.
Let me emphasize that there is nothing better than playoff baseball. For 3 hours you are on the
edge of your seat knowing that every pitch and every play can determine the outcome of the game. We
aren’t quite there yet but all these games right now, for teams battling for playoff spots,
have tons of
meaning and any loss can be killer and any win can start something magical. It’s been a great year of
baseball and with all the trades that have gone down at the deadline there are a bunch of teams that
are going all in trying to win a championship. You can almost count on there being one team that not
too many people see making a deep run in the playoffs because we see it every year. Also, the beauty of
this year is that it’s an odd number year (2015) so we know that the Giants probably won’t win it. Any
way you slice it baseball is just getting good and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the season plays itself out.
