Down the stretch they come

This probably should be on the Baseball Blog but I'll put it here anyway.

You see there is nothing better than when your team is in a pennant race.

Just the other night I was at a social function when a Chicago Cubs fan was asking about a couple of scores. His team was in the playoff chase so he needed to know.

There are eight teams within five games of first place in late August.

OK, so it's not NFL parity. But it does keep fans hanging around.

Last year, a lot of the teams people around here follow weren't in the hunt in August. Only a late run by the Astros made the pennant chase remotely interesting.

Things are different this year. And it makes August and September great.