Bill Plaschke captures the Dodgers season in a few sentences:
The Dodgers chased those damn San Francisco Giants until the end, they were relentless down the stretch, they crossed the finish line in a sprint, in a sweat, in a roar.
And in second place.
LATimes.com
The greatest second place team ever is still a second place team. The Giants held that title after the 1993 season, and that season coupled with the expansion led to the wild card. Now Plaschke passively suggests that’s not good enough:
Instead of being seeded second in the National League’s playoff lineup, which would have happened in the NBA, the Dodgers are instead a wild-card team facing a scary winner-take-all game Wednesday at Dodger Stadium against the other wild-card team, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Of course, that would have made this race less interesting, since there would be a lot less at stake. I would still rather see an expansion to 32 teams and eight-four team divisions, where only the winners go to the playoffs. I like the tragedy of a great team finishing second. Maybe that happens Wednesday, but yesterday would have been fine.
I am suddenly Olde, as it seems just yesterday that the Mets of 1969 made the cover of Time magazine, but…. One of the beauties of baseball(despite the attempts of the powers that be to destroy both the beauty and accessibility of the game) is that the long season usually weeds out the lesser teams and the team that is standing at the end is actually better than those who trail it. Win or go home. The wild card has changed that, but the lesson remains. If you don’t want to risk a one game playoff, win your division. There have been plenty of close races in the history of the game. Some teams used the second place finish as a springboard to improve, while for others, it was as good as they were going to be. Everyone knows the rules…As we were told countless times as children, and quickly learned anyway, “Life isn’t fair.” On the flip side, why should the Giants, who held the off Dodgers all year, be subjected to having to play them(or Mil, StL,Atl) when SF was obviously the best team in the NL?
Luis has a very good take on winning the division. I agree wholeheartedly.