The 2024 MLB playoffs are finally here after the season wrapped up with a doubleheader of playoff-impacting baseball on Monday.
For the third year, the 12-team postseason will kick off with an action-packed wild-card round that starts Tuesday on ESPN, featuring eight teams battling for four spots to advance to the eight-team division series.
The American League playoff picture was wrapped up when the regular season was supposed to end on Sunday, with the Yankees and Guardians taking the top two spots. But the playoff picture in the National League – where the Phillies and Dodgers claimed the top seeds – wasn’t set until the Mets and Braves finished up their two games on Monday. New York and Atlanta split their doubleheader to each clinch a playoff spot (officially eliminating Arizona), and they will head to their respective wild-card opponents in a quick turnaround before Tuesday. What a way to start postseason baseball!
I’m excited to see the Royals in the postseason for the first time since they won the WS in 2015, although I don’t think they’ll last very long. Great rotation but a shaky bullpen and inconsistent run production.
But anything can happen in the playoffs and right now they’re up 1-0 on the O’s.
I know we won it all a couple years ago, but I’m ready for some small sample variance sun runs that blessed other teams I’ve hated (PHILLIES) to even out this year.
The Royals played the Yankees in the playoffs 4 out of 5 years from '76 to '80.
My first sports memory is my mom storming off to her bedroom and shutting the door because she was so upset after Chris Chambliss hit the homer to win in '76.
The Royals then lost in '77 and '78. That '77 team had a 16 game winning streak, lost a game, then went on a 10 game winning streak. They were historically good.
Despite being a big Royals fan, my mom thought George Brett was a pig because when he was signing an autograph for her in Westport, he dropped her pen in his beer, then licked it off.
In '80 we were up 2-0 in the series, but down in the game, and then this happened:
My mom jumped out of her chair and screamed, “I LOVE YOU GEORGE BRETT!”
I told her these stories yesterday. She doesn’t remember any of them.
