Three days after it happened, I’m still in shock about the final day of baseball’s regular season. My Cardinals made the post-season as a wild card team after the Phillies, to their credit, played the season out and beat the Atlanta Braves. I watched that game, noting that the Atlanta park was no more than two-thirds full while the home team was playing for its season — a scenario that tells you all you really need to know about Atlanta as a baseball town. The Braves and the Nats likely will battle for the top of the East over the next five or six years as the Phils get older, so it’s good to see this sense of justice rained down on top of such embarrassing fan indifference.

It was in the American League, though, that the drama really was jaw-dropping. The Boston Red Sox completed a historic collapse by losing in Baltimore on a bad fielding play by a high-dollar left fielder who underperformed all season. And the Tampa Bay Rays, another talented team being undermined by lousy fan support (and the worst ballpark in professional sports), came back from a 7-0 late-inning deficit to beat the Yankees, of all teams, and clinch their own wild card spot.

While all of this was happening, I was at home, remote in hand as I flipped between the games. I had to give up on three of the games, which dragged into the late night and started shrinking the hours until my 7 a.m. work shift. I woke  up at 4, couldn’t stand it any more, flipped on SportsCenter and got the good news.

The playoffs started last night and it’s the teams that haven’t gotten too much attention that are going to be fun to watch. Detroit won its division outright and is a real threat against the Yankees, and I was surprised at Tampa’s 9-0 win over Texas, which is my pick to win it all. The Cards? I’ll always be a fan but it’s hard to make an objective case for them against the Phillies — although Philadelphia struggled in much of September (yet still managed to win 100 games). Here comes baseball’s best month. I can’t wait.