Forget Mariano Rivera. Donald Fehr and Bud Selig had the best save in Major League Baseball this season, when they reached a new labor agreement hours before the players were scheduled to go on strike. The truce now gives the opportunity for the real closers and the rest of the baseball world to switch from the bargaining table to the diamond for what promises to be an exciting September.
The labor agreement, signed last Friday, aims to, amongst other things, afford teams with smaller revenue streams the ability to compete with squads from the larger markets. The deal also saves baseball from losing its post season for the second time in eight years, a move that would have had long term consequences for the troubled sport.
For those who tuned out baseball when the season was in jeopardy, it is once again safe to break out the cap for your favorite team and let pennant fever set in.
As the season heads into its final month, three of the six divisions are all but decided. The Atlanta Braves lead the NL East by 18 games. Atlanta has been baseball's best team, compiling an 87-49 record behind a pitching staff anchored by starters Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, and the unhittable stopper, John Smoltz. The Braves staff has allowed only 473 runs, 78 runs fewer than any other team.
Baseball's biggest surprise is the Minnesota Twins. The team was almost contracted last season, but this year leads the AL Central by twelve and a half games with a low payroll and a plethora of young talent.
In the AL East, the New York Yankees hold a seven and a half game lead over the hometown Red Sox with only 25 games remaining. While the Yanks' success is expected, injuries and inconsistency have spread like chicken pox through their pitching staff, making another winning October run anything but a foregone conclusion.
In the NL West, the Arizona Diamondbacks have put a healthy cushion between themselves and the division's other two solid teams, the San Francisco Giants and the LA Dodgers. Arizona currently leads the Dodgers by six games.
The St. Louis Cardinals lead the Houston Astros by only four games in the NL Central, as the Cincinnati Reds, who competed for the division crown well into summer, have fallen below .500.
Baseball's most intriguing division is the AL West. An incredible18-game winning streak has propelled the Oakland Athletics to a three and a half game lead over Anaheim, with Seattle only six games behind. Oakland is led by a group of amazing young arms, Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Corey Lidle, who has not allowed an earned run in over 30 innings.
The Anaheim Angels currently leads the chase for the AL Wild Card by two and a half games over the Mariners, while Boston, at five games behind, is dangerously close to falling out of the race completely. Yet with baseball's unbalanced schedule, teams play often within their divisions. After the current three-game battle with the Yankees, the Red Sox do not face another team with a winning record, while the Mariners and Angels must battle each other, Oakland, and the heavy-hitting Texas Rangers, who compiled one of baseball's best records in August.
The Dodgers and the Giants are separated by only two games in the chase for the N.L. and have integral games against each other and the Diamondbacks in the season's waning weeks.
The final four weeks of the season promises countless unforeseen twists and turns. What is certain is that the games will transpire, which provides relief to everyone.
