After seeing what is going on in the hockey and basketball playoffs this year so far, I am absolutely convinced that the playoffs in all sports is a crapshoot, and that any team, no matter how low their seed, is capable of beating a higher seeded team on a given night.
Look at the hockey playoffs. I dont follow hockey, but I do know that the number eight seeded Canadians eliminated the Washington Capitals, the top seed.
In the NBA playoffs: The same thing. The Western Conference seventh seeded San Antonio Spurs took out the second seeded Dallas Mavericks last night. The number one seed in the West, the Lakers, are having all kinds of problems, and have played like Sybil in their series with the Thunder, smashing the Thunder in LA, while getting blown away in Oklahoma City.
The number three seed in the East, the Atlanta Hawks, as has been mentioned before, are one loss from elimination, after blowing a two game to none lead, against the sixth seeded Bucks.
While my Braves suck now, I say to everyone who taunted about "fourteen straight division titles, and one World Series win". These series prove that the playoffs is a whole different season. Sometimes, in the major sports, the "favored" teams win playoff series. On other occasions, it is little more than one player, or team, having a hot or cold series.
This is why I never taunt that a team who won a playoff series, even from my Braves, should not have won. In all the years of the Braves division title runs, There was only one time that I felt the Braves truly "Blew" the series, and that was in the 1996 World Series. As baseball fans might remember, the Braves kicked the Yankees asses in two games in New York, before losing the next four, including all three at home. Even Bobby Cox, the Braves longtime mamager, has said, that in all his years of managing playoff baseball in Atlanta, that was the only series he felt the Braves truly "Blew". On one other occasion, I thought they probably should have won as well, but less so than the Yankee fiasco. That was in 1992, when they carried a lead into the ninth inning of Game Two at home, after having won Game One, and their closer at the time, Jeff Reardon, served up a home run ball to Ed Sprague. If the Braves win that game, they would have taken a two game to none lead in the WS, and would have had a good chance to win the series, I think.
Other than that, the playoffs, in any sport, is a tossup. My view is, you watch the games, root for the team you want to win, and understand that anything can happen.
Mitch
Look at the hockey playoffs. I dont follow hockey, but I do know that the number eight seeded Canadians eliminated the Washington Capitals, the top seed.
In the NBA playoffs: The same thing. The Western Conference seventh seeded San Antonio Spurs took out the second seeded Dallas Mavericks last night. The number one seed in the West, the Lakers, are having all kinds of problems, and have played like Sybil in their series with the Thunder, smashing the Thunder in LA, while getting blown away in Oklahoma City.
The number three seed in the East, the Atlanta Hawks, as has been mentioned before, are one loss from elimination, after blowing a two game to none lead, against the sixth seeded Bucks.
While my Braves suck now, I say to everyone who taunted about "fourteen straight division titles, and one World Series win". These series prove that the playoffs is a whole different season. Sometimes, in the major sports, the "favored" teams win playoff series. On other occasions, it is little more than one player, or team, having a hot or cold series.
This is why I never taunt that a team who won a playoff series, even from my Braves, should not have won. In all the years of the Braves division title runs, There was only one time that I felt the Braves truly "Blew" the series, and that was in the 1996 World Series. As baseball fans might remember, the Braves kicked the Yankees asses in two games in New York, before losing the next four, including all three at home. Even Bobby Cox, the Braves longtime mamager, has said, that in all his years of managing playoff baseball in Atlanta, that was the only series he felt the Braves truly "Blew". On one other occasion, I thought they probably should have won as well, but less so than the Yankee fiasco. That was in 1992, when they carried a lead into the ninth inning of Game Two at home, after having won Game One, and their closer at the time, Jeff Reardon, served up a home run ball to Ed Sprague. If the Braves win that game, they would have taken a two game to none lead in the WS, and would have had a good chance to win the series, I think.
Other than that, the playoffs, in any sport, is a tossup. My view is, you watch the games, root for the team you want to win, and understand that anything can happen.
Mitch
