There is no greater postseason than baseball’s postseason. Let’s not even pretend like there’s an argument against it.

This year has already provided evidence of that … and it hasn’t really even started.

There were two extra games (technically, not the postseason but actually a 163rd game of the regular season) and then the Wild Card round started Tuesday night with an epic 13-inning game between Colorado and the Chicago Cubs.

Starting Thursday, the remaining playoff combatants will start playing a series (best of five in the opening round; best of seven after that) and that’s what baseball is built on.

But this one-game Wild Card thing has been a revelation to me. When baseball began this playoff format in 2012, I was dead-set against it. My argument was that baseball was built on playing a series, even if it was best-of-three.

Lo and behold, my favorite team (Atlanta) was involved in the first National League Wild Card game and got totally jobbed in that game by the worst infield fly rule call of all time. The Braves won 94 games that year and were out before the tarp was folded up.

You’d think that would have scarred me for life, but I’ve actually begun to embrace it. If you don’t like it, win your division and you won’t have to worry about playing in it.

But the best part of it is that baseball actually opens its postseason with a Game 7-like event. That means every pitch, every throw to first, every double switch, every umpire call seems like a life-and-death situation.

And to think, we still have a whole month of this stuff still to come.

Saturday night in Denton, Louisiana Tech squeaked by preseason C-USA West Division favorite North Texas, 29-27. It was a three-diaper game for yours truly, and two of those diapers were used on the final play as Tech blocked a field goal try that, if good, would have given NT the W and left me with a MUCH longer ride back home.

One diaper was used after the snap — the snap was good so obviously the kick, even though it was from an attention-getting 46 yards, is going to be good since the NT kicker was 10-of-11 on the year — and the second diaper was used after the kick was blocked by my main man Amik Robertson, who was in there off the corner so quickly he had time to spare. Thank you Amik.

The game was unsettling not because I am a Tech alum but because I hate to see a person/team get a bit shafted, and the Bulldogs, an 8-point underdog, every season since joining the league in 2014, have had to open the conference schedule on the road against a preseason conference favorite.

Same thing this past Saturday.

You’re not paranoid if they really are out to get you.

You’ve got to beat the best to be the best, but let’s just say every team deserves a level playing field. And the Scheduling Gods have not been kind to LA Tech in that regard when it comes to conference play.

After I’d asked this question of ‘Are We Getting Hosed?’ time and time again, The Statistician Magician, whose name I can’t give you because that would be indiscreet (Kane, his name is Kane), did some research for us. We will rest our case with his findings.

Since 2014, LA Tech has played all of the C-USA preseason favorites every year (and all eight times the games have come on the ROAD!).

2018 – at Florida Atlantic, at North Texas

2017 – at WKU, (Tech was picked to win the West)

2016 – at Middle Tennessee, at Southern Miss

2015 – at WKU, (Tech was picked to win the West)

2014 – at Marshall (C-USA Championship game), at North Texas

Compare that to a team like UTEP (played six out of 10 preseason favorites) or a team like UAB (four out of six – obviously didn’t play in 2015 or 2016) over the last five seasons and both teams have played ZERO preseason favorites on the road.

THIS THING GOES EVEN DEEPER. (I know. Like Watergate, right?!) In each of the most recent five seasons, Tech’s FIRST conference game has been against a preseason favorite — on the road!! (Kane uses double exclamation points when he’s REALLY angry/bumfuzzled. Can you blame him?) 

LA Tech – 2018 at North Texas (win), 2017 at WKU (win), 2016 at Middle Tennessee (loss), 2015 at WKU (loss), 2014 at North Texas (win)

Couple with this is the fact that LA Tech is the ONLY team in Conference USA to start each of the last five conference seasons on the road. Meanwhile North Texas, Tech’s opponent in Denton this most recent Saturday, has opened league play at home four times in the last five seasons.

Just sayin’…

Tech, 3-1 overall and 1-0 in C-USA, plays UAB in Joe Aillet Stadium Saturday at 6. For tickets, call 318.257.3631.

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