MLB Playoffs, Days Nine and Ten

Being in your 50's is a lot different from being in your 30's.  For example, to me -- at the age of 55 -- things that happened in the 1990's feel like they happened about five years ago.  I was stunned to realize today that Colin Powell was 84 years old, just like I'm surprised every time I see how old Rick Pitino is these days.  To me, 1995 just wasn't that long ago.

So from my perspective, it hasn't been that long since the Braves were on top of the baseball world.  They won the Series in 1995, and they dominated the National League throughout the 1990's, and to me those events are still very much in living memory.

But it must look very different to someone who was 12 years old in 1995.  I was 12 years old when Kentucky won the NCAA basketball tournament in 1978, and I was 30 when the Cats won again in 1996, and to me those 18 years seemed like about 50.  I used to get more worked over any one season in the 1980's then I am over any five seasons today.  And so I can understand how if you were 12 years old in 1995, and 16 in 1999 -- the last time Atlanta won the pennant -- then the last 22 years must seem like a very long time indeed.

Those kids who grew up watching the Braves dynasty of the 1990's are in their late 30's and 40's now, and they never would have dreamed in 1999 that so many other teams -- including the Florida Marlins, the  Colorado Rockies, the Arizona Diamonds, Chicago Cubs (!), and the Washington Nationals (!!!) would win the National League before the Braves could got back to the World Series.

And it's not like the Braves have had bad teams.  Since 1999, the Braves have reached the National League Divisional Series on twelve different occasions.  Nine times out of 12, Atlanta has failed to survive the divisional series.  In 2001, they advanced to the LCS, but were crushed 4-1 by Arizona.  Last year, they reached the LCS -- won the first two games, then the first three out of four, only to lose when the Dodgers took the last three games 7-3, 3-1, and 4-3.

So while I'm still thinking about how the Braves dominated the Dodgers in the early 1990's, the folks a generation behind me are thinking of the Braves as a snake-bitten with a long history of coming up short in the playoffs.  I don't think about them that way -- I still remember them dominating the National League in the 1990's.  But I can understand how others would feel differently.

Anyway, there must be strong feelings among Atlanta fans now, because over the weekend their heroes won two back-to-back walk-off games against the Dodgers.  On Saturday night in Atlanta, the Dodgers and Braves got into a typical National League pitchers duel.  The score was 2-2 after four innings, and stayed there until the Braves won it 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth.  Last night in Atlanta, events were even more dramatic.  The score was once again 2-2 after four, but this time the Dodgers got two runs in the top of the seventh, and went into the bottom of the eighth with a 4-2 lead.  But the Braves got two in the eighth, and then walked off the Dodgers again in the bottom of the ninth for a 5-4 victory.  So for the second year in a row, the Braves lead the Dodgers 2-0 in the NLCS.

Meanwhile, over in the American League, the Astros and Red Sox are playing a much more violent game.  Houston fell behind 3-1 early in Game One, from Minute Main Park, but home runs from Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa allowed them to fight back and take a 5-4 victory.  The next day, however, Boston stunned the Houston fans with two grand slams -- one in the first and one in the second -- to take an early 8-0 lead.  The Bostons then rolled to a 9-5 win that tied the series.

So with all of that out of the way we are ready to get down the real business of deciding who wins the pennant.  These are four solid, veteran teams who know how to win big games, and I don't think any of them will be easy outs.

Atlanta leads Los Angeles 2-0

Houston and Boston are tied 1-1

Tonight's game:

7:08 P.M. Central:  Houston at Boston (Fox Sports One)