A Hundred Reasons ESPN's Page2 Loves the MLB Playoffs

I already posted my exuberant thoughts about the ushering in of the greatest month & sports time of the year. But also ESPN's Page2 Staff published a great piece today about the 100 Reasons they love the MLB Playoffs. Its a fun article. If you're a baseball fan, do yourself a favor, click on over, and check it out.

Here are my favorites, starting with what I am actually looking forward to, followed by the funny ones:

7. K-Rod versus Big Papi … bottom of the ninth. Sox down one. One runner on.

10. To see whether Jim Edmonds, washed up in April with the Padres, will provide that key lefty bat in a Cubs lineup filled with righties.

15. To see the great Ken Griffey Jr., his paunch a little bigger, his bat a little slower, but finally back in October, with the chance to make his first World Series.

45. Seeing millionaires sweat it out (emotionally and physically) on a 52-degree night.

50. To watch Carlos Marmol (.098 average allowed versus right-handed hitters) stare down Manny Ramirez in the eighth inning of a tie game with two runners on base.

52. The leading team looking like it'll never lose and the losing team looking like it'll never win -- until one play changes all that.

61. For the chance to see J.D. Drew prove he really is clutch for the second year in a row!

83. The possibility of Josh Beckett's pulling a Willis Reed, followed by a Josh Beckett.

86. Because maybe this year we'll get a seven-game World Series.

93. A packed Wrigley Field going nuts for a Carlos Zambrano masterpiece.

96. A packed Fenway Park going nuts for Jonathan Papelbon closing out a win.

100. To see how the Cubs will detonate the hearts of their fans this season … or to see whether Kerry Wood can erase the memories of 1998, the elbow injury of 1999, the Game 7 start in 2003 and the years of DL stints and be on the mound, leaping for joy, when the Cubs finally win the World Series.

And now, the funny ones... :)

17. To see a historical postseason home run poetically clank off the Tropicana Field catwalk.

22. The oddly hypnotic music made by the Red Sox Bullpen Band.

28. To see the TV cameras pan to Derek Jeter's parents in the stands.

34. Two words: Rays tradition.

35. Asking the guy next to you whether he knows how many Octobers there are right before that Randy Jackson ad comes on.

(Answer: There's only ONE October!! BWAAAHAHAHAHA!)

*38. Any time a team is down 0-3 and the graphic appears that starts, "The last team to come back from a 3-0 deficit …"

* Insufferable Red Sox fans only

39. Longing for the days of Thunderstix after hearing the Tampa Bay cowbells. Nothing says you're a pure baseball fan quite like clanging metal or banging plastic balloons together.

43. To wonder exactly what the heck Ryan Dempster is doing with his hands as he begins his windup.

48. Any delay that prompts footage of The Bug Game.

51. Because we're going to keep track of how many times the announcers call Dustin Pedroia "scrappy."

78. "Frank TV" is back!

81. To hear the phrase "Harvey's Wallbangers" meaningfully invoked for the first time in 26 years.

82. To watch an October in which A-Rod has a legitimate excuse for going hitless.

85. To see Fox executives leap for joy when the Rays meet the Brewers in the World Series.

88. Because there is nothing else of national significance going on right now.

90. The dependable consistency of seeing the Yankees playing in Octo -- uh, never mind.