The Front Row with MARK NELKE Oct. 30, 2011
... But it probably wouldn't have been.
Atlanta, you may remember, led St. Louis for the NL wild card by 10 1/2 games on Aug. 25, and still by 8 1/2 games on Sept. 5, before plummeting faster than the Peach Ball on New Year's Eve, and with worse results.
Losing at home on the final day of the season and handing the wild card to the eventual World Series champion Cardinals probably was a good thing for the Braves. It saved them a plane ride to St. Louis for what would probably have been 3 1/2 hours of torture in a one-game playoff loss the following night.
How they address an overused bullpen and a light-hitting lineup will be key to next year for the Braves, who still have to deal in their division with the big bad Phillies and their deep lineup and their all-star pitching staff.
Of course, the Cardinals quietly sent them home, too.
IT'S HARD to work up an excitement for St. Louis, though it's just as hard to work up any hatred for them as well. The Cardinals always seem to have a solid team that is contending for the playoffs. They have unsung heroes (David Freese, Alan Craig) who have now graduated to "sung" status. And as near as I can tell, their fans didn't burn anything down, and nobody died, as they celebrated their World Series title Friday night.
They remind me of a cat that was once in our neighborhood in Sandpoint. We named it Bully Cat because it always hung around, and never left. I don't think it meant any harm, but it was always there.
For some reason, I found myself pulling for the Texas Rangers - perhaps because they had a few former Spokane Indians on the roster, perhaps because they reside in the AL West.
After years of having a strong hitting team, the Rangers finally put together a good pitching staff, only to see their arms fail them when it mattered most. Texas should be back in the mix again next year, depending on how they deal with the lingering effects of back-to-back losses in the World Series.
Fortunately for Texas, the Rangers reside in a division where, if it were a TV show, would be called “Two and a Half Teams,” starring the Rangers and Angels, and for part of the season, the Mariners. The Athletics appear to have de-emphasized baseball in recent years.
n A Kansas tiebreaker has morphed into an event all its own.
People who don’t go to another football game all year look forward to going to a Kansas tiebreaker, like the one Monday night at 6 p.m. at Coeur d’Alene High, where Post Falls, Lake City and Lewiston will square off to decide the 5A Inland Empire League’s second berth to the state playoffs.
Even more than during a regular game, fans circle the field for a Kansas tiebreaker, creating a gladiator-type setting as the combatants go at it inside the proverbial circle. One team emerge victorious, while the others are figuratively dragged off to the side.
I’ve seen some that were double-elimination that lasted nearly as long as a regular football game. I saw one that ended in five plays — 1991, where Mullan lost a fumble on its second play, and Clark Fork scored three plays later to win it. (That was back when they started on the 10-yard line; nowadays, they almost always start on the 25. Either way, each team gets one possession to score, and if it’s tied after one possession, they do it again.)
THIS WILL be the third Kansas tiebreaker in four years around here. Two years ago, Coeur d’Alene emerged from a tiebreaker with Post Falls and Lewiston, won its first-round game four days later on the same field, and nearly beat eventual state champion Eagle at home the following week in the semifinals.
In 2002, Sandpoint beat Lake City during the regular season, but wound up in a tiebreaker with LC and Coeur d’Alene because of another loss earlier in the year. With two berths up for grabs, Lake City won and hosted the first round, and Sandpoint beat Coeur d’Alene for the second berth, but their reward was a long bus trip to Mountain Home four days later.
Sandpoint won, but Bulldog coaches said the combination of not winning the Kansas tiebreaker and having to travel in the first round meant the team had little left the following week, when Lake City beat them in the state semifinals in what probably was the de facto title game. Lake City went on to win the state title the following week.
This year, Monday’s winner of the Kansas tiebreaker travels to 5A Southern Idaho Conference champion Eagle on Friday in the first round.
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at [email protected].