One of the real challenges I find with presenting my various saves on here is how to keep things interesting for those reading along. Just because certain elements seem vitally important to the person whose universe it is doesn't mean everyone else shares that view. It is well-documented (by myself) that I can tend toward overkill, and thus my continued tweaking of the way I share them with you until hopefully stumbling upon the Goldilocks zone of coverage.
Key to an interesting thread is, of course, a close race. There's nothing more boring than a runaway winner. So I always check the late-season series to look for potential suspense in the retelling.
This year I saw early on our series against the Cubs to start October. As the season progressed the importance of this series faded as the Cubs took control. Never at any stage after about May did I figure this series would have any meaning. Never over the same period did I even remotely think we would still be alive when this series was upon us.
Well, guess what? We are.
Sure, the Baby Bears still have a handy 4 1/2 game break on us. Sure, their magic number is just 2. But, thanks to a torrid 18-8 month by our lads, we are still mathematically viable with five games to play.
Amazing.
You will notice that Washington has clinched its first AL Pennant. Congratulations to all involved with the Senators franchise.
Wagner cooled off a bit but still slashed 398 / 462 / 581 with 14 RBI to rightfully claim the NL Batter of the Month prize. Danny Murphy, Hans Lobert and Del Howard were also fantastic, while our pitching held up under enormous strain.
As you can see, the odds are still stacked...
stacked... against us, but sometimes - as I think I have pointed out before - it is the journey, not the destination that counts. Or, to repurpose half of Red Sanders' famous quote,
winning isn't everything.
Here are the other updates for September. Back in a week or so for the final recap and World Series.
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