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The 2005 baseball regular season is finally over. This was a tough year for me, since it was my first without a real rooting interest. I could just never get myself to pull for the Washington Nationals, even though I like a lot of the players on that team. I took a little bit of comfort in the fact that they had a sufficient amount of turnover and increased payroll for me to consider them a totally different team. I never really rooted against them, but they are now just another team. And I still get an empty feeling reading through the National League scores and not seeing "Montreal" listed. So I'm looking to adopt a team, and I'm soliciting offers. My only real criterion is that it be a National League team, since I abhor the designated hitter rule.

(I posted on an MLB newsgroup shortly before the season started, asking people to make a case for why I should adopt their team. Alas, I turned a lot of people off when I made a joke about the team having to come from a blue state. People took it seriously! Man, you wouldn't believe the abuse I took for that throwaway line. Politically-charged people need to learn a little bit about the virtues of self-deprecation.)

One team that I was considering to adopt is the San Diego Padres, largely because they were the Expos' expansion cousins. And they have made me look good by winning the NL West like I had predicted they would. But they won the division at 82-80?!?!?!? They did, finally, finish above .500, but it's still ridiculous that a team can get into the post-season with that record. Washington was 81-81 and finished dead last in the East. This is what the six division alignment and wild card has wrought. And I hate it. (For the record, the Mets won the East in 1973 at 82-79 when it was four divisions and no wild card.) I also hate the fact that the Yankees and Red Sox finished tied, but they won't have a playoff to determine the division winner. I'm a bit of a purist in baseball, and liked it when ties were broken by playing a game rather than relying on a statistical formula like the other sports do. There is something sacrilegious about the fact that the Yanks and Sox won't settle their tie in a playoff because of what happened to a team in another division. I know that there are pragmatic reasons for this, but a division title is a great accomplishment over 162 games and a point of prestige, and the Red Sox shouldn't be denied the chance to win it just because they qualify as the wild card. It all leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I'm not even a Red Sox fan.

Now that I got that off my chest...Congratulations to the Braves for winning their 14th straight division title. (I won't mention that the Expos were 6 games up on them in 1994 when the strike happened.) I don't think people really appreciate what an amazing thing it is to keep putting out a winning team year after year after year. Because they've only won one World Series, they don't get the credit they really deserve. Really, it's a lot more impressive to consistently win over 162 games than in a short series. That's a nice way of saying that I don't think they'll make it to the Series this year.

I guess I should make a pick, so here it is. The Cardinals have a great team, and should make it out of the National League. But I'm sticking with my pre-season prediction of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (don't get me started on that) to go all the way. If it turns out this way, I look forward to seeing a portion of your winnings. If not, Poison Pero will re-imburse your losses.