The Wild Card is getting really wild now with the weatherman stepping in. By the calendar, the 2016 regular baseball season is scheduled to end on Sunday. Throw the calendar away because no one knows when it will really end. We already have the real possibility of ties for the Wild Cards, and now we have rain wreaking havoc on the schedule as well.
I’m sitting on my back deck in Catskill, New York, watching a steady rain pour down. Sixty miles away in the Bronx where the Baltimore Orioles are in town to close out their season, it is also raining.
In Boston where the Toronto Blue Jays have everything on the line as they seek to win a Wild Card berth, there’s a 90 percent chance of rain throughout the night.
And in both cities, rain (much needed by the way) is expected to continue throughout the weekend. Already, the game last night between Cleveland and Detroit had to be postponed and a makeup is scheduled for Monday on an as needed basis if the game means anything in the final standings. At this point, it’s hard to imagine a scenario wherein the game would not have to be played.
But that’s only half of the equation that will end the 2016 regular season. The other half is the the very real possibility that either or both leagues could end up in a tie for the Wild Card. That would force MLB to launch into their tie breaker rules which account for (hopefully) every conceivable possibility (read them at your own peril).
George Carlin would get a real kick out of this though. Because much like a baseball game, which in theory can go on forever with endless extra innings, no one can say today (for sure) when the regular season will end this year.
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But one thing is for sure. When we wake up Monday morning, it’ll be a miracle if everything is settled and the playoffs schedule (as scheduled) will be intact. And you know what… if it does happen, there will be nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’ll be a whole lotta fun.