The National League is Awesome

Last night’s Rockies – Padres game was exactly what October baseball is supposed to be like. I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. I mean, it was a Rockies – Padres game, after all. Nothing against those teams in particular, but the home team had black sleeveless jerseys while the away team wore sandstone. All of this airing on TBS in between House of Payne reruns just didn’t make me think epic playoff baseball at first. But as the Monday Night Football game became increasingly unbearably boring, the Padres and the Rockies churned out one of those baseball games that causes sleep deprivation. One of those games in which each inning is more tense than the last. One of those games where the crowd energy becomes more palpable with each pitch. One of those games where the mascot goes behind home-plate and turns his giant mascot head around in an attempt to distract the opposing pitcher. (Seriously, I think that triceratops thing that the Rockies have creeping around got to Hoffman. At the minimum it traumatized some kids.)

But really, that was the epitome of October baseball. (Or as Dane Cook says, Auctoober!) Extra innings, rallies, disputed plays at home plate. Fantastic. But really, the National League had been the epitome of September baseball as well. With the Diamondbacks inexplicably having the best record in the National League while simultaneously being outscored by 20 runs this season. From the Rockies’ meteoric climb the Mets’ catastrophic fall, the National League was simply much more exciting than the American League this year. The only thing really different about the American League this year is that the Red Sox and Yankees switched places, but they both still made the playoffs.

I’m an admitted AL guy, but this year I’m looking forward to the National League playoffs a bit more. Even though the AL teams are far superior, the if the NL playoffs are anything like the regular season it will be enough for me to give up sleeping all together.