October: The Road to Valhalla
October is the post-season in Major League Baseball. This is what it all comes down to. As Joe Posnanski recently wrote in Sports Illustrated:
"ANYTHING can happen in October. Who was the best team this year? Who cares?
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Just in the last dozen years, we have seen the Boston Red Sox come back from a three games to zero deficit, we have seen TWO Florida Marlins teams sneak in as wildcards and win the World Series, we have seen a 116-win Seattle Mariners team lose in the first round. How about the 2006 Cardinals? They lost nine of their last 12 games and looked like they might pull off the most spectacular collapse in more than two decades. They hold on, make it to the playoffs with 83 wins, win a playoff round, then beat the Mets in seven games, and then take out Detroit in the World Series.
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It can happen -- anything can happen -- because baseball is like that. The best NFL teams win 80 to 90 percent of the time. The best NBA teams win about 75 to 80 percent of the time. The best college basketball and football teams win 90 to 100 percent of the time.
But in baseball, great teams only win about six out of 10. So you can do the math: It's a whole lot easier in baseball to take three out of five or four out of seven from a great team. Call it magic. Call it luck. Call me irresponsible. But you never know where it's going to go. I once asked Brooks Robinson if he thought his '69 Orioles were better than the Miracle Mets. He smiled and said the eight words that might best describe October baseball: 'It doesn't matter what I think. They won.'"
That's what makes baseball so great, and that's also why I tell my friends never to bet money on baseball. It's too unpredictable. And too fantastic. Who wants prediction when you can have edge-of-your seat frustration and anticipation from one pitch to the next?
As I get pumped thinking about the playoffs and thinking about the Red Sox (despite lamenting that my favorite National Leaguers, the Braves, had a long walk home with their heads hanging down), I realized that being a 3L feels a lot similar to a constant October. Applying for post-grad jobs, clerkships, fellowships, co-ops, taking classes, looking out onto a hazy horizon of your future (which may be hazier than you thought even if you got an offer from a firm)--it is all post-season. What could happen? Who looked like they had great chances at a job and were all lined up last week? Who cares? One great interview, one day, could change it all.
Stay tuned. Go strong, go well, or go home. Go Sox.