What's always impressed me about Cincinnati, as someone who didn't grow up here, is how the whole city embraces baseball and the Reds on Opening Day. It's another of those small ways that locals have stubbornly held on to a collective individuality, as quirky as three-way chili and "Please?" Baseball is the only American sport with any romance, so it's not surprising that Cincinnatians bond with the Reds.  

In 14 years since Major League Baseball introduced expanded playoffs, the baseball postseason stands apart from other sports and especially from its own regular season. In no other sport is the regular season less instructive about how the playoffs will develop.