Monday Madness

Will there by Champagne?

The regular season needs one more day.

Game 163s have been eliminated, but there’s no escaping scheduling gaffes initiated by weather and exacerbated by money. Today’s Mets/Braves doubleheader will likely need to result in a sweep to avoid questions about competitive integrity. That said, two playoff spots are on the line. I’m guessing the Brewers and Padres would love to know who they’ll face tomorrow

Before we prepare for today’s games, let’s look at a portion of the MLB-wide final standings:

Yes, it’s a lot of teams. This includes all postseason qualifiers and one team that, today, will get burned in a three-way script. I started thinking about the postseason prior to realignment — back when four division winners set the entire field.

Humor me for one paragraph, please: Applying the old divisions to this year’s records, the Phillies would have comfortably won the NL East; the Dodgers would claimed the NL West title and left the 93-win Padres with nothing to show for their investments; …