On July 11, the best players from the American and National Leagues gathered at PNC Park in Pittsburgh for baseball's midsummer classic. Players and fans were still discussing Ryan Howard's victory in the Home Run Derby the previous evening, and the media was buzzing over the potentially dramatic playoff race the coming months promised.
The American League provided the most intrigue. The Boston Red Sox held a three-game lead over the New York Yankees in the East, and a five-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays. In the Central, the Detroit Tigers sat surprisingly, almost inexplicably with the best record in baseball, with the surging Chicago White Sox nearly maintaining pace at two games back. And in the West, all four teams were within two and a half games of each other-a September blood-bath in the making.
As the American League delivered its almost annual shellacking of the NL's finest, nine teams were legitimately in the playoff picture.
And five of them will never see October.
The Red Sox, Blue Jays, Texas Rangers, and Seattle Mariners have fallen completely off the radar, making for a much less action-packed end of September than last year, which had us on the edge of our seats through the last weekend of the regular season.
Realistically, there's only one race worth watching this year. The push for the Central Division title and the wild card spot between the Tigers, White Sox, and Minnesota Twins will likely come down to the wire.
On July 11, baseball analysts never even mentioned the Twins, who trailed the Tigers by 11 games and the White Sox by nine. Since then, Minnesota has overtaken the Chi-Sox, acquired sole possession of second place, and is turning up the pressure on the Tigers, who recently lost claim to the best record in the American League.
It seems obvious now that the wild card will come out of the Central, but the question still remains, "Which team won't be invited to the party in October?"
If the season ended today, the Twins would be squaring off against the Yankees, and the Tigers would host the Athletics. But in the two weeks left, plenty can happen.
Looking at the upcoming schedule, it appears that Chicago may be fighting an uphill battle. Not only do they trail the Tigers by three games and the Twins by a game and a half, but they also have the toughest schedule of the triumvirate. Their opponents' combined winning percentage is .540, with a series against Oakland starting tonight, a series against Detroit Sept. 18-20, and a series with Minnesota Sept. 29-Oct. 1.
On the other hand, the Tigers' opponents have a combined winning percentage of .484, and the Twins' opponents are at .507. Such a statistic may not be predictive, especially as the Kansas City Royals are auditioning for the role of spoiler, but it's still important to note.
The Tigers barely survived their last series against the Twins on Sept. 7-10, dropping the last three games after winning the first. They only have one series left with a viable AL Central opponent-a Sept. 18-20 bout with the White Sox.
While the Tigers are squaring off against the Royals, the Twins will host the Chi-Sox on the last weekend of the season, which may decide who's in and who's out when it comes to the playoffs.
Flash back to that warm summer night, when baseball fans threw around speculation on the league's heavyweights. Today, it's a whole different ballgame, reminding us why the regular season is six months long.
