Opinion - Welcome to October, MLB playoffs

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on October 1, 2008 1:10 PM

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I once heard the coach of a mid-major college basketball program use the terribly overstated but poignant phrase 'when a sponge is squeezed, what's in it comes out' to describe his team's performance in pressure-filled situations.

No stage possesses the ability to invoke pressure on an athlete more than a packed baseball stadium on a crisp autumn evening with his team's season on the line and the whole world watching.

As Major League Baseball's postseason gets underway today, here are some keys to this season's quest for baseball lore.

Call to arms -- Like any postseason, pitching will play a significant role in determining which club becomes the latest to hoist the Commissioner's Trophy.

Boston enters its series at Anaheim with ace Josh Beckett battling a strained oblique. Cancer survivor Jon Lester will get the start for the Red Sox tonight in game one with Beckett taking the ball in Sunday's game three.

Shutting down the Angels' sluggers and bridging the gap to its closer Jonathan Papelbon will be huge for Boston's pitching staff.

Milwaukee's CC Sabathia has gone 14-3 since being traded from Cleveland and the 6-foot-7, 290-pound lefty enters the postseason with a 2.70 ERA. However, with Ben Sheets done for the season, the onus falls squarely on Sabathia, Jeff Suppan and a handful of unproven arms for Milwaukee's first playoff trip since 1982 to be successful.

Prove it -- The Tampa Bay Rays' 97 wins and AL East crown is one of the best stories in baseball history, but great stories don't win championships. The Rays finished with a winning record in season series against both Boston and Anaheim and swept a three game series at the Cubs.

The Chicago Cubs have the National League's best home record and have a better team than the one that was a handful of outs away from reaching the 2003 World Series before the Marlins got a little help from Steve Bartman. When faced with injuries and losing streaks this season, both Chicago and Tampa Bay found ways to rally in the face of adversity.

The Rays are making their first postseason appearance while the Cubs are looking to end a 100-year drought since their last world title. Proving they belong on baseball's grandest stage with the elephant-sized weight of history on their backs could be a completely different story.

Who's the Manny? -- What a difference a change of scenery can make. Since being shipped to the Dodgers on July 31, Manny Ramirez has feasted on National League pitching to the tune of 17 home runs and his batting average has held steady at .332. One of the most clutch players in history, Ramirez has 24 homers and 65 RBIs in 95 postseason games.

If Manny can continue his torrid pace against a deep Cubs pitching staff, and get his teammates to buy into his laid-back attitude even when the pressure gets ratcheted up, the Dodgers could send Joe Torre to his fifth World Series crown.

Whether your favorite team's playoff hopes have been dead since July or your club is alive and well this time of year is what being a baseball fan is all about.

These are the moments that define a player's career, that young boys dream of growing up to take part in and that baseball junkies will relive and argue about for years to come.

This is October.