Baseball Diamond Journal

The wild card races are just that… wild! But it is not necessarily just the wild card race, but the teams that will meet once it is decided. Of the six divisions, there appears to be one close, check-the-scoreboard, and potentially classic divisional race — in the American League West. In the National League West and Central, there are not blowout races, but there are also no white-knuckle races. The Wild Card race, featuring the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are tied after 145 games each, is a close one. The Houston Astros are not completely out of it, just as they are not completely out of the race in the Central. The AL Wild Card is obviously not a done deal either. But one of the most compelling things about the 2002 home stretch is this NL Wild Card chase. The fact that the two currently tied clubs are historical rivals just adds to the drama. The Dodgers and the Giants with something at stake, late in the season, is the sort of stuff of which the game has been built. The idea that the something at stake is a Wild Card berth rather than a Division Title does not seem to diminish the competition or the enjoyment of the competition. And then baseball took its turn. The Dodgers salvaged their only victory of this three-game series, 7-3. Thus, they pulled back into a tie in the Wild Card race. The Dodgers were suitably thankful for the work of starting pitcher Hideo Nomo, who is now 10-3 lifetime against the Giants. The Giants and the Dodgers play four games in Los Angeles next week. Even that series may not settle this argument. This is a fine thing for baseball. And it is the sort of thing that makes you re-examine the Wild Card and say: Umm, all right. With an expansion to 30 teams over time, maybe a few more clubs in the postseason does not constitute an assault on the game’s integrity. Look at the Dodgers and the Giants. These are teams worthy of the postseason. And in the AL, the loser of the Oakland/Anaheim race, or the Seattle Mariners for that matter, will be a playoff team bringing considerable merit to the postseason.