THE BEST POSTSEASON IN SPORT

Sammy Brezovsky

The 2022 MLB playoffs are about to start. This begins the most exciting postseason in all of sports. I’m aware that a three hour game that can end in a 1-0 score isn’t thrilling, but there is a reason for my bold claim.

Baseball is weird. One game a team can win against another 28-5, while the next game can end in a 2-1 thriller. The reason for this is all the variables involved. Unlike hockey, football, or basketball, the lineup in baseball is never the same. Sure, the infielders and outfielders may remain the same, but often the batting order will change, the alignment of their positions change, but most importantly, the pitching is never identical to the game before.

Since pitching is a very strenuous activity, with most pitchers aiming to pitch 6 innings plus, they only take the mound about once a week, every 5 days. This means in a series, a team’s ace, their best pitcher, will generally only be used once or twice. The starting pitcher is the bus driver for the team’s defense, and it changes every game, having a huge impact on the final score. If the pitcher has an off-day, the team suffers, if they are on, the team is rewarded, which is why every game is so different from the next. Unlike other sports, fans never really know what to expect.

Another reason baseball playoffs are so exciting is the moments they create, and the impact they have on the fans, players, team, and in some cases, the sports world.

Take Game 5 of the ALDS, in Toronto, in 2015. A game that in the end, meant nothing to that year’s playoffs, but meant everything to an entire country. The 7th inning began with controversy as Rougned Odor was granted a run, after Shin-Soo Choo placed his hand over the plate knocking Russell Martin’s throw to Aaron Sanchez awry.

However, in the bottom of the inning, magic happened. After Josh Donaldson tied the game, Jose Bautista hit a 3-run shot to make the game 6-3 and flipped his bat, resulting in one of the most iconic sports moments in Canadian history.

At the end of the day, the Jays lost the next round, the game didn’t really matter, but the postseason allows for so many great moments like this.

For an example where the results do matter, a moment that comes to mind is David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals. In Game 6 in the 2011 world series, he made a defensive blunder in the outfield, an error that looked like it cemented the world series for the Texas Rangers. That is until the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, he hit a triple, tying the game at 7. It was tied until the 11th when Freese once again came up clutch. He hit a walkoff shot, taking them to game 7, ultimately winning the World Series the next game.

I picked two isolated moments in 146 years of baseball. Moments like these happen every year. And they can happen on one swing of the bat, one toss of the ball, or one catch. You never know what’s gonna go down once the first pitch is thrown, and it all starts tonight.