Let’s do some baseball today. Back on August 1st, the NL East looked like an interesting race that could go down to the final series of the regular season. Here is how the Phillies and the Mets stacked up back on August 1, 2025:
- Phillies: 62-47 .569
- Mets: 62-48 .564
Well, the anticipation of a nail-biter of a race turned out to be disappointing at the very best. The Phillies have already won the NL East with 9 games remaining on the regular season schedule. Since August 1, 2025, here is how the fortunes of the Phillies and the Mets have diverged:
- Phillies: 29-15 .659
- Mets: 16-26 .381
As of this morning, the Mets still hold on to the final wild card slot in the NL playoffs, but they have three teams “hot on their heels”. The Mets lead the D-Backs by a game-and-a-half and the Reds, and the Giants are right there only two games behind the Mets in that wild card chase. Back in August I anticipated the Mets being in a tight race for a division title when in reality, the Mets are now in a tight race just to get a wild card invitation to the playoffs. Sic transit gloria mundi …
One other note from the standings this morning … The Colorado Rockies have ten games left on their schedule. They need to win only one of those ten games to avoid equaling last year’s Chicago White Sox debacle that produced only 41 wins for the year. As of this morning the Rockies record stands at 41-111. That is the good news of a sort. Here is the bad news.
- The Rockies’ run differential for the season is minus-402 – – with 10 games left to play.
- The MLB record for worst run differential in a season has stood since 1932.
- In 1932, the Red Sox were outscored for the season by “only” 349 runs.
- The Rockies have crushed that standard of ineptitude in 2025.
I have two Quick Quizzes for you today. No peeking, no Googling, no using AI:
- What is the largest US city without an MLB franchise?
- What is the largest US city without a franchise in either MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL?
Answers below … [Aside: I got the first one but missed the second one.]
Today is my grandson’s 18th birthday. If you have been reading these things for a while, you may remember that I have referred to him as The FOG – – the First and Only Grandson. He now lives in Dublin, Ireland but his introduction to baseball was when he and his parents lived within walking distance of Wrigley Field in Chicago and he is – naturally – a Cubs’ fan. Coincidentally, the Cubs have just clinched a wild card slot in the NL playoff this year having missed out on that for the last 4 seasons. I am certain that he is very happy to know that his Cubbies will be in the playoffs next month.
Moving on … MLB has played regular season games in London off and on since 2019. They had scheduled a 2-game series between the Jays and the Yankees for London in June 2026 but that had to be cancelled because the stadium in London will be used in May 2026 for an EPL game involving West Ham. Evidently, there is insufficient time to convert the stadium from a soccer pitch to a baseball diamond, and the series has been cancelled. That cancellation comes on the heels of another cancellation this year for the city of Paris where MLB was unable to find a promoter to take the games.
MLB has had success “exporting” its games to Tokyo, Mexico City, Seoul and Sydney. London has been a successful venue in the past but the cancellation in 2026 seems to me to be either very bad planning with regard to scheduling or a lack of urgency on the part of the groundskeepers there to work through two field conversions. Rob Manfred continues to say that MLB has an eye on Europe; he had this to say about this matter:
“We remain interested in Europe. We think London is an important jumping off point for us … We continue to believe that there’s an opportunity there and that we can get at the developed economies in Europe through that London entree.”
Somehow, that sounds to me like whistling by the graveyard…
Here are the answers to the Quick Quizzes:
The biggest US city without an MLB franchise is San Antonio TX with a population of 1.6M and a metro area of almost 3M.
The biggest US city without a franchise in either MLB, NBA, NFL or NHL is Austin TX with a population of 1M and a metro area of 2.4M.
Finally, I’ll close today with some advice for The Fog as his introduction to adulthood:
“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………