Playoff Time!

I know there are a lot of basketball fans out there, and I’m glad you guys finally got to see the NBA season come to a conclusion with the Lakers dispatching the Heat in pretty convincing fashion. And I know it’s football season (complete with Arkansas getting screwed out of a huge win last Saturday), and that’s cool.

But for me, October is about baseball. Yes, it’s been a weird season, what with not starting up until the end of July and only playing a 60-game schedule in front of cardboard cut-out fans. I don’t care. I love watching, playing, talking and thinking baseball, so I was glad to get it in any form, All of these sports, from tennis to professional wrestling, are part of our culture and for those months when we didn’t have sports, it was just sad, so even in a COVID-19 world, any sports equals good sports.

And baseball has certainly provided me with some exciting moments this season, including some pretty thrilling playoff games. In case you don’t follow the sport, we’ve reached the League Championships Series portion of the postseason — basically Major League Baseball’s version of the Final Four. Now, admittedly, the field does not include many of the marquee teams that might draw a huge national audience. The Cubs and Cardinals got bounced pretty early. The Yankees just missed, losing a deciding final game in the Division Series. And the Red Sox were just terrible this year.

On the American League side, it’s the Houston Astros tak-

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ing on the Tampa Bay Rays for a spot in the World Series. The Astros are the current villains of baseball, thanks to a sign-stealing scandal that taints their recent success. The Rays are a good team, but aren’t even really super popular in Florida, much less the rest of the nation.

But you traditionalists will be happy to see the Dodgers are still in the mix. Los Angeles has a long storied history in the big leagues, and on paper, they are the toughest team in the league this year. And that leaves my team, the Dodgers’ NLCS opponents, the Atlanta Braves.

Back in the early days of cable TV, the Braves were touted as “America’s Team,” because all of their games were carried nationwide on WTBS. I started watching them back in the early ‘80s, and they were terrible. It was basically Dale Murphy, Tim Horner and a parade of nobodies.

But then in the early ‘90s, they got good, and they stayed good for a long time. In 1995, they won the World Series. That was 25 years ago, and I’m ready to see another one. They’ll have to beat L.A. to do it to even have a shot at winning the Fall Classic. By the time you read this, a pivotal Game 1 will already be in the books.

I’m just glad to have baseball back in any form, but it would be a nice ray of sunshine during a gloomy year.

Go Braves!