It’s been a heck of postseason so far, with the highlight of course the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw coming out of the bullpen on one day’s rest after a 100-pitch-plus start to save the deciding game in the division playoff against the Washington Nationals. (Then, two days after that, Kershaw pitched seven masterful innings against the Cubs to even up that series 1-1.) Washington, being the parochial town it is, the local sportswriters and radio talkers tended to neglect Kershaw’s achievement in order to focus instead on the Nationals’ postseason failure. This was the third time in five years the Nats have failed in the division series, part of a sad modern history of Washington postseason sports failures: Since the Capitals made the Stanley Cup finals in 1998 (and even then they lost), Washington teams in the four major sports have made the postseason 23 times; none has even made it to the final round, let alone won the whole thing. Kind of an appropriate record for D.C.
But Washington handwringing shouldn’t obscure the fact that there have been an unusually high number of tense and gripping games in these playoffs, including interesting managerial challenges (L.A. manager Dave Roberts managed brilliantly in the deciding defeat of the Nats, then watched as a grand slam homer followed his two intentional walks in the first game against the Cubs). I’ve been reinforced, watching the games, in my dislike for the designated hitter rule, which takes so much of the strategy out of the game and tends to obscure the core fact about baseball–that, as the late commissioner Bart Giamatti wrote, “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.”
People say Americans are a simplistically optimistic people. Yet baseball is the national pastime. Maybe we Americans do have some appreciation for the tragic, melancholic side of life. But we can also appreciate Clayton Kershaw, making baseball great again!
