Every year around October I remember again why fall is the best time of the year. The weather is perfect, pumpkin ice cream goes on the shelves, and two of the greatest holidays-Halloween and Thanksgiving occur. Fall is literally the perfect time, it’s ashame it can’t last all year long. But for me at least, despite all these great things there is nothing greater about the fall than playoff baseball.
The drama and excitement surrounding the postseason is unmatched by any sport. Despite the fact that the team I route for is not playing October baseball for the first time in five years, this postseason, to date has been among the most exciting I have seen.
A Triple-Crown winner leading his team to the ALCS to match up against a revamped 41 year old slugger who many had written off just a year before. The come-from-behind Cardinals, who again down to their last strike fought off elimination and moved on yet. There is truly something magical about the sport, and magical about the five or seven game series that teams spend nine months or so preparing for.
Baseball is about history. You might see something one day that has not been done since 1890 or maybe something that in over a century and a half of baseball has never been done before at all. Postseason baseball turns men like Miguel Cabrera and Raul Ibanez and so many others into legends. There have been thousands of players to pick up a glove and a bat, and the ones that perform in October seem to live on forever and ever.
But it’s funny, though, how sometimes baseball actually has nothing to do with the sport itself. We see this in movies all the time. Field of Dreams was not about baseball per se, but the sport is so dramatic and different it can symbolize all sorts of different things. It’s incredible how watching a baseball game with your father or grandfather or even playing wiffle ball in the yard with family can produce incredible and lasting memories,almost moreso than anything else I can think of. The sport really does bring people closer together, just as it has for more than a hundred years and counting.
Regradless of whether you even like baseball or sports in general, immerse yourself in it this October. You never know what you will see.Whether your favorite team is still in the hunt, or whether they missed the playoffs by 40 games, flick on the TV this fall and watch some of the postseason with family or friends. You will be able to see the magic of the sport.
-Kenny Ayres
Editor-In-Chief
The Quad