Four famous old franchises - Yankees-Red Sox and Dodgers-Cardinals - will be going in the Wild Card play-ins. Which means that by Thursday, half of these teams will be eliminated from further play.

The people who look at the game's TV rating probably feel like leaping out a high window at that but them's the breaks....

Welcome to October. The Blue Jays have some important games to play this weekend.

Ah, the poor Jays. The bats are struggling. Could they be afraid? Is it time to summon the spirit of Mighty Jobu, with appropriate offerings of cigar and rum, to take the fear from the bats?

Or should we first see how they do against a bunch of pitchers who really don't have a whole lot of business being on a major league roster?

You're probably thinking - that sneaky old Magpie. Gives us thousands of words yesterday on the Tigers of the past because he's got nothing to say about the Tigers of today.

The end of the 2021 season's last long road trip comes into view.  Yes, after spending most of the last two years on The Longest Road trip in history, the Jays will spend most of the final six weeks at home. They have a three game trip to Detroit next week. They hit the road twice in September: once to visit New York and Baltimore, and once to visit Tampa Bay and Minnesota. They play 25 of the final 43 games in the Dome of Home.

The Western swing continues.