Best Ever Regular Season Night For Baseball?

As one of craziest nights of baseball wrapped up last night, ESPN baseball guru Tim Kurkjian said he essentially witnessed the "greatest regular season night in the history of the game."  A bold statement indeed, but it only took me a few moments to completely agree with him.

I know, a blog is supposed to kick up some dust, throw a little controversy on an otherwise glorious occasion.  However, I am choosing to enjoy the afterglow.

A lot of tight races down the stretch, and yet nothing like four teams staying alive for two wild card playoff spots on the last day, deadlocked in the standings.  Both the American and National Leagues had slated not one, but two extra games today if needed. As if that wasn't drama enough, most of the games lived well beyond expectation in the thriller department. 

The relentless run of the St. Louis Cardinals provided the only timely result by putting away the Houston Astros 8-0 on the road.  The only person who believed the Cards could pull it off, was future Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa.  His team had to get it done on the field of course, I just recall he was initially the only one who was certain his crew could pull it off.  That win put all the pressure on the faltering Braves, who battled the preseason World Series favorite Philadelphia Phillies for 13-innings. I looked at the Uggla replay a few times, and it sure could have gone either way.  Instead, it went against Atlanta, and they will be watching the Fall Classic at home.

The American League ending trumped all of the fantastic NL drama in a style that barely allowed enough time for ESPN to move from the ending of one game to the final finale.  There will be no dancing a jig for Jonathon Papelbon this year.  The extremely talented closer, with an ego to match, watched the lowly Baltimore Orioles send him and the mighty Red Sox packing for the winter.  Two outs and nobody on, and the Birds continued to assist the Bosox in their free fall, beating them five out the their last seven meetings over the last days of the year.

Within moments of Robert Andino's game winning hit eluding Carl Crawford's glove, the Tampa Bay Rays rode in on the bat of the ever clutch Evan Longoria.  Major League Baseball would have done worse trying to script this movie ending themselves, but it is hard to top one dramatic ending at Camden Yards only to see the Rays' winning home run so soon after the Orioles finally had a little fun in September.  Of course, Tampa couldn't get a shot at the extra inning home run if they did not rally for six runs in the eighth inning and one more to tie in the ninth against the New York Yankees.

All of that to decide two wild card teams.  Fans can only hope the playoffs are as fun and wild as this best ever regular season night of baseball.

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