March Madness In October

Baseball’s postseason is facing a dilemma that often challenges March Madness–the tournament has peaked in terms of national interest after the first weekend.

It’s been a sharp decline for baseball since the conclusion of the division series, which couldn’t have been scripted any better given each series reached a decisive Game 5–a first in postseason history.

But the outcomes of those series, unfortunately, has left us with a Final Four lacking virtually any rooting interest from the masses.

Nothing would’ve been more fun, more interesting, than watching the excitement of Moneyball II, the New Red Machine, BUCKleup and Natitude compete against each other for a World Series championship.

Instead, we’re left with another ALCS appearance by the Yankees and a Cardinals team we’ve seen reach the World Series in 3 of the past 6 seasons…and most likely 4 out of the last 7 years once they defeat the Giants in the NLCS (just a tinny little touch of sarcasm).

Aside from Buster Posey, there’s hardly anything exciting about San Francisco, whose most colorful player, Brian Wilson, was lost for the season due to injury, and whose best starting pitcher, Tim Lincecum, has been demoted to bullpen duty. Oh yeah, there’s also the Melky suspension.

Detroit, of course, offers us one of the game’s most dominating hurlers in Justin Verlander, and one of the game’s best sluggers in Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera. But the Tigers are largely thought of as underachievers for its lackluster regular season play…and who wants to rally behind that?

It’s fascinating, yet greatly disappointing, how quickly this year’s postseason has lost its luster after all the all the dramatics and thrills from the final two weeks of the regular season through the division series.

If we’re lucky, we might get a World Series Game 7, something that would give baseball fans aside from the MLB Final Four cities a reason to care again. But until then, and if a WS Game 7 even happens, what’s there to root for, what reason do we have to care?

Our postseason brackets are busted, our teams bounced. It’s March Madness in October…and the best, it seems, has already come. At the very least, the first weekend was fun.

Baseball & Poker Share More Than World Series

This was written by Daniel Smith, a lover of baseball & poker.

The game of baseball and the game of poker are very different games. One is team sport with men working towards a common goal and the other is an individual card game where your goal is to take everyone else money. While the games are different, they both have similarities that fans of both can appreciate. Let’s take a look at a few of those similarities.

For starters, both games are considered by some to be somewhat boring by those that don’t understand the game. Baseball games have long periods of inactivity as batters go down in order inning after inning. Suddenly a huge home run can turn a dead crowd into a raucous one.

Poker looks very boring at the onset as most hands are folded with little or no action. Then a big hand develops and a player is all-in for their tournament life. The fans are then on their feet screaming for their player to either hit his card or for his hand to hold. With the closeness of the fans, a few dozen fans can sound like a stadium full.

Next, some venues are considered more sacred or special than others. For example, there aren’t many field left in the game of baseball with the history of Wrigley field. Every cub fan that has visited Wrigley has their own set of memories and wouldn’t trade the field for anything.

Poker players have their own hallowed grounds as well. Many poker players consider the halls of Binion’s in downtown Vegas sacred due to its history and being the original home of the WSOP. Any player that played prior to 2004 would say that Binions is the Wrigley of poker.

Finally, both games have their own World Series. The World Series of Baseballhas crowned the champion of the game of baseball for over 100 years while the World Series of Poker has crowned poker’s World Champion since 1970. In both games, success at the WSOP is what can make the difference between a storied career and a legendary one.

Both baseball and poker have a long history and are games enjoyed by Millions around the world. While they have their differences, their similarities can definitely be appreciated by lovers of both. That may be the reason why many baseball players and fans of the game also love to play poker.