Today Is The Last Day of the Regular Season

If your team is one of the 22 for which the day after tomorrow has no meaning (unless, of course, the AL and NL Wild Cards remain tied, in which case, 20), start saying your farewells. As you fight back tears, do a once over of the lineup because, for better or worse, those same nine will not be back next season.

Legends like Omar Vizquel, Alex Cora, and Tim Wakefield, whether they want to or not, may make their last appearance before exiting through the Iowan cornfields, hopefully before their quickly eroding talents have been too harshly exposed.

For the non-prospects, those lucky few who snagged spots on the forty man roster and received September call ups, this could be the last day that they’ll ever get to lace up their cleats their in a Major League clubhouse; their their last day to soak up the larger paycheck while oggling women with both long legs and brains.

Meanwhile the bonus babies, getting their first taste of the Major Leagues, will ravenously attack the winter in hopes that they’ll finally take the place that has been promised to them since the day they were drafted, unaware that 95% of them will be seen as disappointments to the fanbases that built them up.

Despite baseball’s inherent cruelty, today marks game number 162 for all 30 teams, a level playing field unheard of in the natural world. So call in sick, grab a beer and enjoy the end of summer because the Reds take on the Mets at 1:10 ET.