Knock them out of the park with your baseball knowledge

The 2006 Major League playoffs are underway, the Dodgers, Mets, Padres, Cardinals, Yankees, Tigers, A’s and Twins are all trying to extend their baseball playing days until the end of October.

All eight teams are involved in the best three out of five preliminaries to the League Championship Series and then the World Series itself. Only two will eventually survive to play off for the bragging rights for another year of Major League Baseball.

With games on from 10 am through till 8 and 9 pm during this first round, there’s a good chance eventually somebody is going to ask you “did you see the game yesterday.” Now for the average fan this poses a problem if you say Yes, you’re indicating that you have some interest in the sport and thus put yourself in the position of having to try and show off your vast encyclopedic knowledge of the ins and outs of America’s past time.

This can pose a problem, since only the most dedicated of baseball fans have followed the roster moves and managerial decisions from opening day in April to the last game of the year on October 1st. So in a bid to help you bluff your way through the playoffs, Justin Peters of the Slate website has provided the perfect resource, a guide to all that’s good and useful in the baseball world. It does a major service for the casual fan, as it gives you your talking points for any baseball chatter emergency!

Read it over a few times and before you know it you’ll be throwing off terms like the “A’s are proving that Money ball really does work” or “Boof Bonser isn’t just a cool baseball name, but a pretty good pitcher to Boot!”.

Point out that Tigers were a laughingstock a mere year or two ago, or suggest that the baseball bashing trio in the Mets lineup could make it a subway series for the ages and baseball purists will sit in awe at your knowledge of the sacred rites.

Two things to remember as you do your best to make it through to the World Series without getting found out. The Yankees are always the EVIL EMPIRE and no one, not one soul should ever cheer for the Dodgers after what they did to the Expos on Blue Monday.

Follow those two passages of biblical baseball proportions and your playoff experience should be a wonderful thing.