And weirdly enough, the prospect excites the hell out of me. Obviously, I would love to have my team in it - those nights chewing through sets of fingernails, goosebumps coming and going = all of it is one of the most beautiful feelings in the World. But you know what? I love this sport, and love a lot of those things about October baseball whether my team is in it or not.
I relish the chance of watching this October with only hate (for Boston and the Dodgers) in my heart. Truly, any of the other 10 teams winning (or 7 teams, as I write this) winning is perfectly fine with me. What I want more than any particular team, is to love the drama, live the drama, imbibe the drama, without the wretching baggage of being a fan.
There are few things better than a close, tense, baseball playoff game. Truly, in terms of sports playoffs, I would only put Overtime Hockey above it. Those 25 seconds between pitches, when it seems you can hear everyone in the crowd individually, when you can hear your heart beat, along with the pitcher's and batter's, when the calm, crisp air (assuming this is an outdoors game in the North) is basically filtering right through your TV screen. God damn, nothing is better.
I realize this is a weird position to take, that October baseball is as good (if not better...) when your team isn't in it, but the thing is, I've had a decade of practice. For nine years, my team wasn't involved - 2006 to 2014. Generally they were definitely not going to be involved come June (if not April, in 2011-2013). If anything, my love of the sport grew in those nine years - certainly my understanding of it. I got to sit through, mouth agape, some of the most dramatic moments in the sports' history in that timeframe. From the various Royals walk-offs in 2014, to Travis Ishikawa, to everything that was the 2011 Cardinals-Rangers series, to big walkoff wins, to Halladay's no-hitter, to so much more. That was a great time to be a baseball fan, and a really great time to be one of a team that was never involved in any of them.
Baseball playoff games are tight, taut operatic plays taking place in front of you, all with their own styles, features and nuances - no two alike. When you have a favorite team actually involved in it, the drama pendulum swings too far to the other side - every game a realization of that GIF around "game starts... I'm dying inside... great, we won" - a feature of baseball not a bug, with its technically unlimited run time. Take your personal favorite team out of it, and the drama dial is turned just right.
I write this watching the Yankees and Red Sox battle it out in Game 3 of the Wild Card run. The Yankees are leading 4-0 in the 7th inning, with a rookie starter somehow pitching into the 7th inning in the year of our Lord 2025. This is baseball (this all said, I can pretend to be detached, but to be honest, if the Red Sox were up 4-0 I wouldn't be writing any of this). The DS's start on Friday. We're getting to see October baseball in Wrigley, in Milwaukee, in Seattle, in Philadelphia. We're about to witness something great, as we do every Octber, but I'll get the witness it wihtout any risk of heartburn, hatred and the right degree of nervousness.
