I have to be honest.

Although, I’ve been a lifelong sports fan, enthusiast, involved in some way or another since I was three or four, I really wasn’t a fan of baseball.

It was slow. There wasn’t enough action. And even when Michael Jordan left the NBA, basketball was my everything at that time similar to the rest of Chicago and the Chicagoland area, and went to baseball, I couldn’t jump on the wagon.

Until I went to Southern Illinois University and took a job with SIU sports staff and did absolutely everything, including shagging balls during Saluki games and picking up after the boys in the club house.

Through the job and the crew, I found an appreciation for baseball and the technical difficulty of the sporting activity. Something I’ve kept with me, especially every October when the MLB Playoffs come around.

It is still hard to keep up with a 162-game regular season for a guy like me, but when its October and the NBA regular season hasn’t started yet and the NFL is amid wadding out the bad teams for the compelling matchups later in the season, it’s time to watch the MLB.

Although, I’m a Chicago fan of everything, including both the Cubs and the White Sox who stopped playing in September, this postseason has been a lot of fun with awesome games, and teams I can’t stand getting knocked out of the race early, i.e. the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves.

The No. 6 Detroit Tigers, mixed feelings about, and the No. 5 Kansas City Royals, only one tier above the Astros and Braves, took out the better seeds, the No. 3 Astros and the No. 4 Baltimore Orioles, in the American League Wild Card Series, while the No. 6 New York Mets have been on fire in the National League and knocked out both No. 3 Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card Series and No. 2 Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series. 

I don’t know many sports fans, any sport, who don’t love a good Cinderella or underdog story. The Mets maybe it this year.

The little guy story line aside, the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers have done what No. 1s do. The Yankees pounced the Royals 3-1 in the AL Division Series and currently have a 1-0 lead in the AL Championship Series over the No. 2 Cleveland Guardians, still tied for the worst team name with the Washington Commanders in the NFL.

The Dodgers fell behind against the No. 4 San Diego Padres in the NLDS and were in elimination games but willed their way to the victories they needed to face the Mets in the NLCS.

If there is a team to extinguish the New York blaze, it’s Shohei Ohtani and the L.A. squad.

There has been clutch home runs.

Followed and preceded by standout pitching performances. 

Just the way a baseball fan likes it. And if you call me a fair-weather fan, then the weather is very fair because its’ been delightful under my MLB Playoff umbrella.