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I don't know when I'll get time to reflect on my predictions from the beginning of this baseball season, but needless to say, very few of them seemed to be accurate. As it turns out this year, the regular season concluded with two teams left tied for the final Wild Card spot in the American League. Ironically, these same two teams were also involved in a fairly controversial game way back on April 8 in which home plate umpire Marty Foster called out Tampa batter Ben Zobrist on a Joe Nathan pitch that sure looked to be way low pretty outside. At the time, you could dismiss it as being just one game, but sure enough, here we are with those same to teams tied for the final postseason berth.
Oddly enough, the Cleveland Indians avoided a possible three-way tie for these final two spots by winning one more game this year. Of course, Cleveland was perhaps the recipient of an even more dubious call the following month when famed abomination of an umpire Angel Hernandez actually reviewed a home run call and opted not to make the correct ruling in an Indians game against the Oakland Athletics. Fortunately for the A's, they won the West by a comfortable margin and the game proved to be inconsequential. Still, had the right calls been made (GIFs available here and here), it could very likely be a different playoff scenario—one without a 163rd regular season game, perhaps.
Nonetheless, here we are. And of two teams that I had both making the playoffs this year, only one of the teams playing Monday night is going to live to fight another day.
A whole variety of new faces in new places this season in the NFL, but what difference will that really make? Some of last season's strongest teams appear to have gotten even better and most of the initial picks I've seen thus far seem to have either the Broncos or the Patriots as the pretty clear favorites in the AFC. Over in the NFC, the opinion is a little more mixed, as the conference has a number of teams that could be contenders, but the Packers and the 49ers seem to be popular choices.
This is now my fifth year of making NFL predictions, and my track record really isn't that great. Ever since the first year of making picks in 2009, the only season I had more than half the teams in their correct final spots, I've had a fairly lousy track record at doing this. Nonetheless, making predictions is more or less what this blog has become entirely dedicated to and I'm anxious to see how this NFL season plays out.
I'll attempt to take a few risks this year so this doesn't look like another version of the average of everybody else's predicted finishes, but ultimately I think that it's probably smarter to go with the consensus in the AFC and relegate the surprises to the NFC. That almost certainly means the opposite was true.
Considering it was less than two years ago that what seemed like a sure playoff berth in the third quarter instead ended up being a monumental collapse that year, it is hard for Braves fans—or at least this one—to begin making championship parade plans just yet. Even if the team did have a 14-game winning streak during this past quarter. And they have now won 17 of their past 19. 27-13 since the last time I did an update on this team.
But the Braves are a different beast than, say, the Blackhawks are when it comes to my Four Bs. Where I entered the most recent NHL Playoffs with enormous confidence and felt like a Stanley Cup was a very realistic goal, I remember full well that crazy shit happens in the baseball postseason. And while Atlanta has been playing out of their mind in so many respects, it just takes a couple guys going into a sudden slump to watch the whole dream vanish in a matter of three or four games.
Still, there is no denying that what the Braves have accomplished thus far this season has been remarkable. The East has not just been the complete disappointment of the Washington Nationals that many people expected to end up in the Fall Classic, but this Atlanta team has also been better than most anybody expected. If they can indeed maintain this level of play, then the team has as good an argument as anybody. While the use of the Tim Hudson season-ending injury in this third quarter graphic is very reminiscent of the Chipper Jones third quarter injury three years ago, the Braves have just continued to reach into the farm system and plug in another pitcher every time it seems that they have suffered a devastating loss. The depth club's depth has been nothing short of remarkable, and now with it seeming that a division title can be wrapped up much earlier in September than anybody could have possibly hoped for, there won't have to be any worry about overextending key players before the playoffs begin.
All things considered, everything looks quite golden for Atlanta ... for now.
When both Eric O'Flaherty and Jonny Venters suffered season-ending injuries, I thought that meant for sure that Atlanta's bullpen would inevitably be struggling throughout the season to hold leads and allow Craig Kimbrel to even have a reason to enter ballgames. As it turns out, the Braves arrived at the halfway point of the season with the best relief ERA in the majors (2.70). But the even bigger surprise is that Fredi seems to have learned from what many believe was the error of his ways a few years back when he seemingly exhausted the arms in his bullpen, as the amount of Atlanta's relief innings after 81 games was the fifth-fewest in Major League Baseball.
So midway into this 2013 season, the pitching has in fact been remarkably strong. That, of course, was the story throughout the 1990s, which could just as easily make the average Braves fan confident as it could skeptical. Still, with the second-best overall ERA (trailing only the remarkable Pittsburgh Pirates—whom you might recall I picked to win that division this year) in baseball, I'd be nuts to complain.
In addition to the pitching, the other pleasant surprise at this point would be that Atlanta is no longer in the lead for that team batting strikeout record that I thought they would eclipse this season. The Astros overtook the Braves in that category, and ended up only four behind where the 2010 Diamondbacks that own that dubious record were after 81 games. Of course, Atlanta's batters are indeed still striking out a lot, but they've been scoring and winning too. All things considered, it's hard to have asked for more at this point.
Oh, right. So this is what it was supposed to feel like. I guess I kinda forgot after two straight years of first round exits in the playoffs. None of that bullshit this year though, no sir.
I entered this year with my expectations for the Blackhawks somewhat tempered by the fact that the defending champion would be bringing back essentially the entire roster it won the Cup with in 2012—not to mention the fact that some of their players were getting about three more months of rest than Cup winners normally do. However, when Chicago came storming out of the gate and made through each of the first two quarters of this 48-game season without losing a single game in regulation, those expectations were raised about as high as they could be set by the time we got to the third and fourth quarters of the year.
Entering the playoffs as the top seed, anything less than winning the whole damn things seemed unacceptable. That said, this year's run did not seem to be quite the formality it felt like in 2010. I might be downplaying some of the more stressful moments from that postseason, but you could see supposed fans of the team this year leaping off the bandwagon at numerous times when Blackhawks trailed in games or series. Judging by the parade turnout yesterday, I think most of them came back. Maybe they now realize what fans in other cities learned this season the hard way: you can never count this team out.
It's still rather hard to believe that less than six months ago, many of us we're sitting here thinking that we were on the brink of seeing an entire NHL season wiped out for the second time in less than a decade. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, the puck dropped, and things could not have worked out more perfectly.
I will clearly get to my fawning Final Thoughts wrap-up of the beloved Blackhawks' season in the next post (hopefully tomorrow), but it's important to step back and look at the Playoffs and the entire season as a whole. It apparently wasn't just me who was enjoying the hockey this year. Following the conference finals, the playoffs were the second most-watched in 16 years. This year's Stanley Cup Final was the most watched on record (which, admittedly, only goes back to 1994), and the deciding Game 6 was the ninth-most watched game ever in the United States.
But let me not read too much into those numbers. It is customary for most hockey fans to complain about the lack of attention the sport is receiving, but if we can acknowledge that this cult sport remains fourth in popularity among the four major sports, those of us who did watch were royally treated these past two months. There were overtime games galore, a good number of competitive series and a Stanley Cup Final that at time seemed to be about as evenly matched as any I've ever seen. Much like last year's shortened NBA season, it felt as though this 48-game NHL campaign not only compelled viewers to pay closer attention during the regular season, but brought out another level of competitive spirit from the players as well. The end result is a conclusion so glorious, I suspect many might even forget there was a work stoppage in the first place.
My pick for the NBA Finals last round made no secret about my borderline boredom with a majority of this year's playoffs, but I thought I made clear that I had pretty high expectations for the final series of this basketball season. Consider those expectations completely shattered. Decimated. What I just saw is certainly among the greatest NBA Finals of my lifetime, and I would not be surprised if in future posts I refer to it as the greatest of all time.
As the fact that I picked against Miami each of the past three years when predictions are made for the final round indicates, I have enjoyed rooting against the Heat as much as the next non-Floridian or Cleveland resident. You know that I was sharing some of the giddy joy in that bar on Tuesday night when the Spurs were less than a minute away from a fifth title. Alas, that legendary game bears so much resemblance to another Lone Star State Game 6 meltdown, the Texas Rangers twice being within one strike of winning the 2011 World Series. I'm relatively certain that at this rate, it's either going to be the Cowboys, the Texans or maybe even the Stars choking away a title in 2015.
While I think a good majority of this NBA season unfolded pretty much as expected, the way it finished was spectacular. And at this point, you are either ignorant or bitter to deny giving credit to the Miami team that ultimately delivered the championship it was favored to win all season long. This team has been a deserving favorite for the past three years, and—barring an unprecedented trade or dramatic overnight rebuilding of some other entire roster—will almost certainly be favorites next year and maybe three more after that. As I remarked to a co-worker today, now I guess I know how other fans in other cities felt during the Jordan years.
That title's play on the Boston song title was admittedly swiped form a Facebook post by 670 The Score's Nick Shepkowski. I'll elaborate on that when I get to my pick at the bottom of this post, but I need to take a moment to note that, Stanley Cup winner aside, the rest of my original preseason picks for winners and losers of the last round and now, hopefully, this round, have been right on. I will elaborate on that overall performance this year in the final NHL post of this season, when I am hopefully celebrating Chicago's second Stanley Cup in four years.
Rest assured, this time around is nowhere near the gimme that 2010 felt like when the Blackhawks drew the seventh-seeded Philadelphia Flyers. Indeed, the Boston Bruins have simply been playing lights-out hockey ever since the remarkable opening round Game 7 comeback against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Of course, they've been doing it in the Eastern Conference, so make of it what you will. Me? I've got my doubts. Of course, I'm a tad biased.
The hopes were so high as we entered the conference finals, and the dramatic conclusion to Game 1 in the East certainly gave lots of people reason to believe that we were finally, finally going to get some basketball that was worth tuning in for. And, well ... not so much. San Antonio quickly did away with Memphis and while Miami and Indiana indeed went seven games, the finale was a predominantly one-sided affair. Alas, we arrive at the final matchup of the NBA season, and this one should definitely make for a pretty riveting conclusion to what has otherwise been a pretty forgettable basketball postseason. With the exception of, say, the upstart Golden State Warriors, the NBA Playoffs has more or less gone as expected and completely paled in comparison to what's been going on over on the NBC Sports Network most every night. But hey, don't take my word for it:
Now, you're bound to hear some people complain that the Spurs are "boring," that the Thunder were the preferred opponent, that this year's playoffs suffered when some of the game's best point guards (Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose) were unable to compete. However, San Antonio has been exceeding expectations, and this year's Finals has a nice narrative. Tim Duncan, arguably the greatest power forward of all time, against LeBron James, perhaps the greatest player of all time, period. A Spurs team that has never won consecutive titles trying to deny a Heat team back-to-back championships. LeBron getting an opportunity to avenge being swept by San Antonio in the 2007 NBA Finals. And, of course, Gregg Popovich getting the opportunity to accept what will be David Stern's final Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy presentation less than a year after the commissioner levied a ridiculous fine against the team for resting star players in a nationally televised game against this same Miami team. Yep, should be fun.
Before last night's Game 7 at the United Center, the five teams still remaining in the Stanley Cup Playoffs were also the last five winners of the coveted trophy. With the elimination of the Detroit Red Wings, the final four teams are, coincidentally, the last four Stanley Cup winners. If this manner holds in which the team with the longest period of time since its last championship is the next to be eliminated, then Pittsburgh would be the first club to fall in the upcoming round and Chicago would follow immediately after with Los Angles repeating as Cup winners by beating Boston. That, of course, would involve, both top seeds falling in this round, which is a scenario that I'm guessing not many people are ready to believe (or in my case, prefer).
Rest assured, if nothing else, both of these last two series before the 2013 Stanley Cup Final should be nothing less than more thrilling, must-see hockey, as has been more or less the standard established throughout this year's playoffs.
