Playoff Baseball

As much as I love Opening Day and think it should be a national holiday (we need more national holidays), and as much as Opening Day is usually the best day of the year for a fan of a team like the Orioles, as a baseball--and sports--fan, the playoffs are my favorite time.  Game times that battle the fading sunlight and growing shadows of the late afternoon, fans that get no quieter than a steady buzz and roar with a haunting intensity, everyone--not just pitchers--wearing long sleeves: it's hard to beat.  

In basketball and hockey, I would say that the intensity of the game picks up, which then fires up the crowds.  Given the large percentages of teams who make the playoffs in the NBA and the NHL, it makes sense that there's an urgency gap between regular season play and post-season play. In baseball, however, with only 4 spots per league (and yes, I do faintly remember when it was just 2 spots per league) in the playoffs, there is less of a jump-up in intensity in the playoffs.  Rather, it's the fans, understanding the stakes, feeling the cold, cheering in the hopes of perhaps holding on to the last traces of summer, who up their intensity.