Don't Cry For Them Argenti--er, Pittsburgh

Sorry Pirates fans, back to the Wild Card Game your team goes.

And yes, they own the second best record in the National League. Yes they are probably a better team than the Los Angeles Dodgers right now----the Mets being the better squad thanks to free agency. Yes, they are 11-1 against the two teams entering the playoffs above them in seeding. It all seems unfair, no?

Guess what, its baseball, and it’s a sport that thrives on being cruel and unfair. No two strike zones are the same, the rules aren’t always enforced every game, sometimes the ball does absolutely evil things and destroys your game, sometimes you’ll be on an endless losing streak, sometimes an opposing player comes out of nowhere and hits the game-winner, sometimes you’ll do everything right and STILL lose, and sometimes you are in a nasty, nasty division with the most organized franchise in the entire league. The biggest appeal of baseball is that it resembles life: it’s crazy, unpredictable, and it’s not the strongest that survive, it’s the most tolerant and mentally strong that survive. The Pittsburgh Pirates must get over the Wild Card hump and become more tolerant. Especially when always looking up at the St. Louis Cardinals.

Baseball used to be even meaner. The Blue Jays are in the postseason for the first time since 1993. In 1993, the second-best team in ALL of baseball did not even make the playoffs for being underneath the powerful Atlanta Braves. The San Francisco Giants won 103 games, had a lineup that included peak Barry Bonds and Robby Thompson---yet because of the pennant chase rules they had no shot at the postseason because of the way the division was split.

The Pirates at least have an extra second to breathe under the Wild Card format that the Baseball Gods have blessed us. Should it be a best-of-three? That argument is for another day, as I’m sure the equally awesome Chicago Cubs also wouldn’t want their magical season to end on just one game. The point is: in order to reach the top, you have to defeat the king of the mountain. And sorry, but you need to win those division games. The Pirates had a three-game set against the Cardinals and could have been within a single game if they showed up and made some noise. And they were IN Pittsburgh. Losing two of three when the Division Title was on the line is unacceptable. The ball was in your court.

The most underrated aspect of this Wild Card format are those division games which don’t get enough weight in terms of importance. The Pirates are 8-9 against the Cardinals, and 8-11 against the Cubbies. If they had won 75% of those games, they would have been celebrating the division crown. Just winning 2/3rds of their games against the Chicago/St. Louis combo would have wielded them the division. You have tons of opportunities to bring down your rivals on our way to the top, and not just that but also knock them out from playoffs. The last thing you want in the crapshoot of a postseason is a team that recognizes you and has tons of experience against you.

The thing about baseball is that every team in the postseason earned their spot. 162 game season weeds out the lucky teams, and the fake-good teams. The truly best are the ones that always enters the promised land of the playoffs. We would be disrupting a great playoff system and an already-taxing regular season if we start seeding the playoff teams because one division wielded three excellent teams on one particular season. 2015 was an awkward season because one division produced three World Series-caliber teams.

That being said, the Mets are awesome, the Dodgers are great, the Cardinals are elite---and have all earned their crown and playoff berths---and considerable fanfare to potentially represent the National League come World Series time. If the Pirates want to earn the crown and join the elite, they need to beat the king of the NL Central Mountain, there is no other way.





Besides, one way or another, in the postseason you will encounter them….