October, and its effect on the mind

Maybe because I like my temperatures like I like my music — late ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s — I tend to look at October fondly.

Daytime playoff baseball — well, mostly, at least in the early rounds.

Crisp autumn afternoons — sunny afternoons in October are contractually obligated to be referred to as “crisp.” No one ever referred to a brutally hot October afternoon, at least around here.

College football on a “crisp” October afternoon. (Well, OK, Idaho plays in a dome, and Washington State plays a lot of night games to satisfy TV. But the drive down to the Palouse is still nice, and as an alternative, Eastern and Whitworth still play often in the afternoon. And when Idaho or Eastern plays a day game at Montana, at cozy, sold-out Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, that’s an experience not to be missed — although it looks like Eastern fans will miss that experience on occasion, as EWU and Montana are no longer guaranteed of playing each other every year, at least for the near future.)

TAKING A good look at your lawn, before it disappears for a few months, coming back in March and looking nothing like it did when you last saw it in the fall.

League play commencing in 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A leagues in North Idaho, which ratchets up the intensity. Not that September football is not exciting — some nonleague matchups are quite interesting. But others are blowouts that leave your mind drifting ahead to league play.

State high school volleyball tournaments — usually the last weekend in October, often before the weather begins its transition to winter.

(I was going to mention state high school soccer tournaments, but it seems as soon as someone puts on one of those, it rains off and on for 2 1/2 days).

BACK TO baseball.

I’m old enough to remember when World Series games played on the East Coast started at 10 a.m. I remember coming down with a few mysterious illnesses in October during those days, coinciding with the days those games were played, and just had to stay home from school. And while I was there, might as well watch the game on TV.

In fifth grade, on one of those days I was not “sick,” our class was able to watch the end of Game 5 of the 1969 World Series in our classroom during lunch hour. The Miracle Mets, as you know, beat the Orioles 4 games to 1. The game ended just before 1 p.m. When Cleon Jones caught that fly ball to deep left for the final out, I leaped out of my chair in celebration. A girl that was watching did the same. I have no idea of her whereabouts these days, but I bet if I caught up to her, she would understand the concept of pass routes.

Anyway, years later I would come home from school and catch the end of the Dodgers’ playoff games. They were regulars in the playoffs back then, during the Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey years.

And, what do you know? The Dodgers are back to being regulars in the playoffs again. They’re in it for the fifth straight year, but have yet to get past the NL Championship Series. This year, no pressure — if they don’t at least reach the World Series, this season will have been a colossal failure in the eyes of many.

Meanwhile, their opponent in the division series, the Arizona Diamondbacks, is one of those teams that is good only every few years. They are in the playoffs for the first time since 2011 — the last season they had a winning record — and posted 64- and 69-win stinkers in 2014 and ’16, respectively.

Arizona had made the playoffs just six times in its 20-year history, and just three times in the last 15 years.

If the Diamondbacks don’t make it past this round, no one is going to care — and years from now, few will remember they were even in the playoffs.

I BELIEVE the teams that continually work hard every year and make the playoffs, and go through all the stress that entails, should be able to build up some “equity” when they face teams that routinely stink, play very few games that matter, then one year, catch lightning in a bottle.

By that logic, instead of having to win three games in the best-of-5 division series, the Diamondbacks would have to beat the Dodgers four times to win the series. And if the Diamondbacks advance to the LCS against a team with similar “equity,” they would have to win five games in the seven-game series.

And so on.

That would make it harder for teams who just show up every few years, stink the rest of the time, then knock off the teams that have consistently been putting in the effort each year.

It’s almost like the Triple Crown in horse racing. The Kentucky Derby winner has to also go on to win the Preakness in two weeks and the Belmont Stakes three weeks after that. That’s a pretty grueling grind. But some of the other horse owners can pick their spots, and enter their horses only in the Preakness or Belmont, saving them wear and tear from the whole Triple Crown grind, leaving them “fresher” to take on the horse that had to work to win the first (and second) leg of the Triple Crown.

(Look at this goofball, trying to compare playoff baseball to horse racing. The heat must be getting to him).

No, the weather is just fine these days, thanks.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.