Final Four

MLB has its Final Four. Since the top four seeds advanced, did we really need the preliminary rounds?

The #6 Phillies lost to the #3 Braves. The Braves finished ahead of the Phils in the NL East. The #4 Padres beat the #5 Cubs. The Pads won more games in the regular season than did the Cubbies. The #2 seed Dodgers beat the Braves and the #1 seed Brewers beat the Padres. The two best teams in the NL will meet in the NLCS.

In the AL, #1 seed Tampa Bay had to beat the #4 seed Yankees, a team they had already topped over 162 games. The Yanks got there by beating a team they finished ahead of in the AL East, the #5 Red Sox. The lowest-rated team, the #6 seed Wild Card White Sox provided the only excitement by beating the #3 Astros. Houston won the AL West with an impressive 81-81 record! The Pale Hose lost to the #2 Guardians but only after throwing them a scare.

I don't really have a problem with the top seeds making it to the semifinals but I think it is stupid when first-place teams have to play the second-place finisher again. Didn't we just spend six months determining who was the better team? And seeding a team ahead of a team with a worse record is also dumb.

In the meantime we'll see if the high-flying Brew Crew have the stuff to beat LA. I'd certainly like to see that. The last time the Brewers were in the World Series was 1982, losing to the Cardinals in seven games. The Rays have never won it all in their 29-year history but have two pennants (2008 and 2020). The Guardians were the Indians in 1948 when they last won it all. That franchise has four pennants since then (1954, 1995, 1997, and 2016).

So, who is your non-LA rooting interest? I'm an amateur brewer so it is easy to pick Los Cerveceros. But a Rays win would be fine, too. They seem to have super-smart people there who consistently build winning clubs without big payrolls. I really like Kevin Cash--he's the longest-tenured manager in MLB (12 years). Of course Cleveland fans may be baseball's longest-suffering. They really should have beat the damn Cubs in 2016, and they just missed out in 1997 against the Marlins. Long-time Giants fans know how it feels to be the bridesmaid and not the bride!

--M.C.