The Cold Filtered Ramblings of Gene Mueller
Best..time...of the year: Major League Baseball could be heading to another crazy finish
In the jungle, the NFL jungle, the zebras work tonight.
Don't look now but as pro football officials punch back in, MLB could be poised for a bizarre finish that could rival last year's.
With the addition of another wild card qualifier in each league, it could be mind-blowing. Toss in unpredictable October weather and, well, let's just say no fan should be filling out their calendars in ink.
ESPN's Jayson Stark was the canary in the coal mine on this issue earlier this month when he looked at the standings, the schedules and the rules. The bottom line: potential chaos.
Yahoo Sports lists, chapter and verse, the wild card tiebreaker rules minus the potential travel complications. Bring a mop and a bucket before you start reading, because you head is certain to explode.
As of this writing Thursday morning, five teams are in the American League wild card hunt. In the National, it's five as well including the Brewers who are four out with seven to go.
What's even better is that the final three days of the regular season play out on week nights, not on a weekend when they'd have to compete with college and pro football for the spotlight. MLB has the stage all to itself.
This is the kind of chaos that's GOOD for a sport. Bud Selig has plenty of national detractors but I largely remain a huge fan. Adding the second wild card is a stroke of brilliance that invigorated what would've otherwise been a very sleepy end to baseball's regular season. The thought of tie breaking games adds further drama and uncertainty while giving teams that otherwise would've been thinking about 2013 a chance to live the dream in '12.
It tastes like "awesome".
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