by Steven Fernandez
Daily Lobo
If the Major League Baseball playoffs are half as entertaining as the last couple weeks of the regular season, ESPN's John Kruk just might have a seizure.
Then maybe we can enjoy "Baseball Tonight" clips without having to suffer through his rambling. We can only hope.
Anyway, 2007 should be a thrilling postseason for baseball.
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Here are the five things I am looking forward to most in the playoffs:
5. Colorado Rockies - With Colorado's proximity to New Mexico, the Rockies were always the easiest target for making a joke about crummy baseball teams. Well, that was until this year. The Rockies had an amazing run, winning 13 of their last 14 games to make it to the postseason. With the emotional 13-inning come-from-behind win in the one-game playoff against the Padres on Monday, you've got to wonder how much Colorado has left in the tank. But with the roll they're on, they will definitely go down swinging.
4. Offensive explosions - Well, except in the case of the New York Yankees. Their entire lineup can get food poisoning for all I care. In the first-round series pitting the Rockies against the Philadelphia Phillies, pitching should be an afterthought. Both clubs slugged their way into the playoffs and have the bats to go off in any given inning. Conventional wisdom has always said great pitching beats great hitting in the playoffs, but the Rockies and Phillies might just bash that thought away this year.
3. Potential for healing - In the National League, three of the four teams have suffered through years of disappointment, and there's a chance an entire fan base can be relieved this year. Being a Red Sox fan, that feeling of heartbreaking loss after heartbreaking loss was enough to make me sick, until all Boston fans were cured with the 2004 World Series Championship. So, for fans of the Rockies, Phillies and Chicago Cubs, there is hope that their teams can finally lift their spirits. Of course, if the Arizona Diamondbacks - which won it all in 2001 - win the NL, it will be another rough offseason in those cities.
2. Red Sox vs. Yankees - Boston and New York have to get by incredibly tough first-round opponents, of course, but it just seems like an ALCS between the two was destined to happen. If the Red Sox can get past the Angels and the Yankees can conquer the Indians, the hype for this series will once again be off the charts, leading many non-Yankee or Red Sox fans to complain about the amount of coverage given and even more reason for me to enjoy it. The Yankees owned Boston the latter part of the season, but here's hoping the Red Sox get the last laugh.
1. Unpredictability - Every year, fools like myself try to make sense of the playoffs before they happen, only to have a wrench thrown somewhere in their predictions. That's the best part of the postseason - the sheer insanity. The parity in the eight remaining teams is as clear this year as it has been in a while, and every series is worth watching. Let's just hope that I'm right for once and these playoffs are as exciting as I think they
will be.
