Relishing baseball's postseason

The Kansas City Royals made the playoffs this year for the first time since 1985, and then swept the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the team with major league baseball’s best record, to advance to the American League Championship Series.

The Baltimore Orioles won the American League East, the division that has been baseball’s best over the past decade, and then promptly knocked off the Detroit Tigers and the last three AL Cy Young Award winners in three-straight games to move on to the ALCS.

Matt Adams, the St. Louis Cardinals’ lumbering lefty first baseman, hit a hanging curveball off of Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw for a go-ahead three-run homer to put the Cards into the National League Championship Series. It was the first time a lefty major leaguer has ever gone deep on a Kershaw curveball.

The San Francisco Giants rolled into the NLCS with the same quiet excellence they have exhibited for years, defeating the Washington Nationals through execution and pitching instead of star power and flash.

Baseball’s postseason exemplifies everything that fans love about the game. As we head into the two League Championship Series, every kind of story line has been played out or is about to play out. Fans can see stars and upstarts, unknowns and celebrities. We have seen comebacks and dominance and underdogs. Nostalgia reigns as teams like the Royals, Orioles, and Pittsburgh Pirates (who lost in the NL Wildcard round to the Giants) harkened back to the 1970s and ’80s. The Cardinals and Giants bring sustained excellence and metronome-like consistency.

Among the greatest aspects of these playoffs is the excitement of two beleaguered fan bases, those of Kansas City and Baltimore. After years of futility, disappointment, and embarrassment, one of these two teams soon will capture the AL pennant and play in the World Series. No matter how it ends up, their fans have memories and excitement and optimism.

In the National League, the opposite happened. Two teams with overflowing résumés face each other in a battle of the best. The Cardinals and Giants are two of baseball’s flagship franchises, always competitive, always tightly run, always with a strong present and a bright future. They do things the right way and are what struggling franchises aspire to be.

There isn’t a single narrative to sum up the playoffs. A great drama is unfolding with a deep and varied cast of characters. This is why baseball is beloved. It’s what makes it such a beautiful game. It is why so many analogies can be drawn from baseball to life, more so than other sports. In many ways, baseball, especially the postseason, is a microcosm of life and a depiction of society. Why else would so many connect with it so deeply?

As the League Championship Series kick off this weekend, revel in them, observe and study them. Let the alternating momentum and lassitude carry you along. Watch for your favorite heroes and keep an eye out for new ones. There is much to be taken away, learned, and even more to be celebrated.