MLB Playoffs Bringing Out the Best (Worst?) of Local Media

If you're a fan of the Major League Baseball postseason, the first week has been a classic.

Already, the playoffs have delivered a nearly unforeseeable upset (the Detroit Tigers' sweep of the Houston Astros in the American League Wild Card round); an epic come-from-behind win in an elimination game (the New York Mets' victory in Game 3 in Milwaukee); and a rekindling of a 40-year-old October rivalry (between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees) that has octogenarians coming out of the woodwork to talk smack.

Hey @Royals, kick the Yankees ass! 😂
— Cookie Rojas (@CookieRojas1) October 3, 2024

The last 48 hours have seen the local media lean into all the emotions of their respective fan bases. This has been particularly true in the National League, where MLB could not have orchestrated the geographical rivalries any better if they tried.

The New York Mets are playing the Philadelphia Phillies. The San Diego Padres are playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. The winners of each best-of-five series will meet in the NL Championship Series. The stakes are high; the storylines require no manufacturing.

For six months, MLB basks in the nuance of and subtleties of a 162-game regular season. In October, all hell breaks loose. Seasons are reborn and die on a whim. For fans of high-brow commentary that rises above the fray, weekends like these are the worst. If you enjoy analysis that leans into hot takes and hyperbole, there's no better time of the year.

"Anyone out there walking around town wearing a Dodgers jersey today should be embarrassed," wrote Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, one day after Game 2 of the NLDS required a 10-minute break for crowd control of some unruly fans at Dodger Stadium.

After the Phillies gave the Mets a taste of their own medicine with an epic Game 2 comeback of their own Saturday, David Murphy of the Philadelphia Inquirer tried to capture the moment — but fell several chapters short by his own admission.

"Game 2 of the NLDS would require multiple volumes to fully capture what went down, what it meant, and what it might signal for the future," Murphy wrote. "At the moment, we only have room for 1,000 or so words. It will take half that many just to know where to start."

On the other side of the aisle, Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post practically had to remind fans that other teams were capable of storybook endings.

"No one team corners the market on magic in October," Vaccaro wrote. "Not even a team who regularly has “Amazin’ ” and “Miracle” as their unofficial first name. Not even when that team, the Mets, has broken out the witchcraft so regularly at so many unexpected times across the past week."

If the games themselves aren't enough to amp up a baseball fan in the local markets, October has become a time to forgo your morning coffee, pick up the local paper, and feed off the adrenaline dripping from each page.

MLB playoffs bringing out the best (worst?) of local media

By J.P. Hoornstra | 1:42 PM EDT