Why baseball should not be forgotten

Psst! Hey, over here! It's me, the 2010 baseball season. I know you probably forgot about me while you've been off getting excited for the start of football season, but believe it or not, I'm still around for almost another two months! I'm sure you most likely stopped watching because you don't think sitting through a three-and-a-half hour game where there are only eight hits in total is as exciting as watching two large men collide at train-like speeds, but there really are still a lot of reasons to stick with me until the World Series. Please hear me out, and I can guarantee I'll find something intriguing for you to latch onto for the rest of the season, even if your team has been out of it for what seems like months now.

For starters, there's a pretty good division race shaping up in the American League East between the Yankees and the Rays. There's nothing else in sports quite like a division race in baseball. Other sports may have division races, but none of them can produce drama the way baseball can. The Yankees and Rays play each other seven more times before I'm done. Seven times! That's seven chances for a team to either gain a game or put some distance between themselves and second place.

With football, a three-game deficit is practically a ticket to an early golf season. For my guys, one hot streak by your all-star third basemen - and if you're at all interested in the hot corner be sure to watch these games because Evan Longoria and Alex Rodriguez are two of the best in the game - and those three games back can turn into a one-game lead in less time than it takes to turn on the television. Don't believe me? Ask any Mets fan about late season standing changes and then be ready to duck quickly as they attempt to throw something at your head. With two of the deepest line-ups in baseball and two Cy Young award contenders - David Price and C.C. Sabathia - toeing the rubber, this contest will surely have a conclusion you don't want to miss.

Maybe you're bitter that your team is eliminated and you don't want to see any team fight for a postseason berth that has been denied to your club. That's OK, there's a personal race going on in the National League of the likes we haven't seen in ages. We haven't seen a Triple Crown winner - a player who leads his league in home runs, runs batted in and batting average in the same season - since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. This year, not one, not two, but three players in the senior circuit have their sights on the Crown. Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals, Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds and Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies are all in serious contention for the lead in all three categories. Right now, Gonzalez leads the league in batting average at .326, while Votto and Pujols trail him by .001 and .006, respectively. Pujols leads in home runs, but Votto is only three back and Gonzalez is a little further behind at six back. Finally, Pujols has the most RBIs with 95, with the other two within five of Pujol's total. Either one of these hitters is more than capable of catching fire at the plate and putting up numbers at an incredible rate. If that's not good enough for you, Pujols and Votto's teams are fighting for the NL Central title, so you know both will be attacking every at-bat with the utmost focus and intensity. I wouldn't want to miss these runs at history: Who knows when something like this will happen again?

Wait, what's that you say? The artificial biceps and home runs from the steroid era have turned you off from offense? That's OK, too, because I've got pitching the rest of the way that would make Walter Johnson tune in from the grave to watch. The media has labeled me "The Year of the Pitcher", and for good reason, too. I've given you two official perfect games already - Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay - and one that should have been if not for a blown call by an umpire on what would have been the final out of the game (Armando Galarraga). Only one of my brothers can say that - the 1880 baseball season. We've also seen a total of five (should have been six) no-hitters since Opening Day back in April, the most since 1991 when seven pitchers threw no hitters. With the weather turning colder, the ball traveling less and hitters less likely to dig in to defend the inside corner, don't be surprised if another pitcher performs the feat before too long.

Or if you're too busy with classes to tune in every night, maybe just watch every fifth day as Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals and Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies battle it out for the pitching Triple Crown. Currently, Wainwright leads the NL in wins and ranks fourth and fifth in strikeouts and ERA, respectively. Meanwhile, Halladay trails by one win, while leading Wainwright by 12 strikeouts and .03 earned runs. Either way, I wouldn't want to miss watching these two masters make opposing Major Leaguers look like junior varsity high school players as they battle for the postseason.

Well, thanks for letting me pitch myself to you. I really hope you'll be tuning in to see how I play out. I promise all these races and incredible feats will be worth it! And if they still aren't doing it for you, well then just turn me on in a few weeks when it gets cold to watch players wearing those face-covering hood things to try and stay warm - personally guaranteed to make you laugh every time.

Why baseball should not be forgotten