YouTube doesn’t do any favors to classic songs.
In our mind these superstar musicians keep it 100 at all times. Way cooler than us. Way. They’d never agree to get video taped lip-syncing on a cheap plywood platform with some ‘artistic’ paint bucket spills, right?
Right?
Oh.
Truth be told, I was just going to quote Mr. Petty and say something like ‘waiting truly is the hardest part’ when it comes to the NLCS. But then I saw that video and figured you could use a little reminder that everything you do in life is going to end up on YouTube eventually.
Plan accordingly.
Point i’m trying to make? I’m over the waiting. It’s time to see some mothertrucking baseball.
+++++
The Cardinals haven’t scored a run in over a week. In fact, they haven’t scored a run in October!
A little misleading? Yes, considering they’ve only played 3 games and none of them counted for anything. But still a sharp contrast to the Cubs who have won 9 straight and travel to Busch Stadium as the hottest team in baseball.
FiveThirtyEight.com ran the Elo projection before GM1 and the Cubs have an expected win probability of 51.3%, even with a home field disadvantage. The data seems to back up the feeling that these are two teams that are trending in opposite directions.
Elo is neat and all, but what about when people are betting their hard earned money?
Vegas doesn’t know.
Currently both the Cubs and Cardinals are at -105 or a virtual coin flip to move on to the NLCS. If you look for trends in Vegas cash flow, the Cubs opened the series as a very slight favorite and a bit more money has appeared to come in on the Cards. Then again, the Cubs are a public team, so their lines are going to be skewed. It’s a clear stay-away.
Ugh.
We spent all day yesterday reading and watching every single thing we could about this series, yet we’re no closer to having clarity on what’s going to happen tonight or the rest of the week.
+++++
The Cardinals and Cubs are playing in the postseason for the first time.
This is not a drill. This is for real.
As a Cardinals fan, this is the single most important series since the 2006 World Series.
The Birds have spent a century crafting a very specific narrative about Cards v Cubs: winner’s win, losers lose. While a single 5 game series loss won’t erase a century of success, it will open the door for a new story to emerge – that the Cardinals couldn’t beat the Cubs… in the playoffs.
*Spine Shiver*
You know that’s on the table. No matter how many times you bring up the 11 rings in bar arguments, all you’re going to hear about it this one series one time in 2015. For the first time in any of our lives, we won’t have a 100% infallible comeback. This isn’t a beatdown from the Astros or Red Sox – we’ve got 19 games scheduled with the Cubs next year.
I’d prefer to enjoy them. And the rest of this October, for that matter.
+++++
We’ve still got to wait until 5:45 tonight. Something tells me it’s going to feel like more than the few hours it actually is. Cardinals. Cubs. Playoffs for the first time.
Doesn’t get better than this.
Photo: NY Times
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