It's the most wonderful time of the year

The night's are getting darker. The temperature is getting colder. The leaves are falling off the trees. It can only mean one thing. The start of the MLB playoffs. That's right, after a short 162 game season, 8 out of the 30 teams are now qualified to start playing some real ball.


This is the time of year, for me, where baseball is actually fun to watch. There is always a difference between the regular season and the playoffs in all sports but personally, the World Series is to me like the Stanley Cup is to most Canadians. Mostly, I think that is because I remember when I was growing up, my parents and I would come home from work and school, make some deli sandwiches and soup and sit in front of the TV for the evening to cheer on our favourite teams.


For me, the New York Yankees are my pick every season. Not solely based on the fact that, sure, they can even afford to buy God to play on the team, but because they have real talent, real management, and real fans. More so this year than ever, they have a young team that has worked their tails off to make it to the top once again.


For my mom, she always picks the underdogs. While she may not know who that is right away. She quickly finds the team she likes and roots for them until they are eliminated. Then she moves on to the next underdog.


Then we come to dad. I think dad's enjoyment of the playoffs isn't so much that he has a favourite team to root for or that he even knows who's playing. More so, he cheers for any team that comes up against the Yanks. I think he gets a kick out of how much he can try to get me going about every little thing my team does wrong or every little play that doesn't go our way. And I'm not saying it doesn't get me going. But he'd even go so far to say that a perfect game winning home run by my team "wasn't fair because they probably bought some crazy wind machine that blew the ball out of the park." Or, the perfect strikeout only came about because "the umpires were being paid extra on the side." But it's these little comments that probably made the World Series playoffs the most entertaining TV time with the family.


Now I'm all grown up and living away from home. But I'll still come home every night, make my sandwich and soup, and sit down on the couch to watch my team play ball. It will probably be a lot easier without someone balking in the background at every pitch. Question is, will the phone be ringing every 5 minutes with some other excuse as to how my Yankees managed to "cheat their way" to another great win. My guess is probably. But that's ok. You can root for your 7 teams old man. I've got my 1 team and we're already planning the parade.


Play ball!