So yes, 10/3/93 was probably a normal day, but it’s importance grows with each passing year.

The best single day of baseball has to have been last season’s final day.

Meanwhile, my one compensation will be preparing for our APBA draft in January, and getting all excited for that, the one day all 12 of us team owners live in hope.

Yes, the Astros will still visit NL parks with all the interleague play, but it won’t be the same. Best of luck in the designatedhitterball league. Make your farewells to the resignation of watching your pitcher stride unhappily to the plate, and the burst of joy when he oh-so-rarely gets a hit.

So long, Astros.

El Bravo is right. The off-season is a dick.

The Giants blew a massive August lead to go home with 103 wins. I think if they had made the NLCS that year they would have beaten Philly and made it to the Series. Not sure if they would have beaten the Jays, but damn, that would have been fun.

My favorite last day of the season is 2011. It’s probably going to be a popular answer, but I had like 4 games going at once on my TV and it was a fun evening to watch everything come together.

It won’t be very good today with the A’s/Rangers playing early and the Red Sox mailing it in big time with Dice K “pitching”.

1. Randy Miller – South Jersey Courier-Post (abuses BBWAA privileges, HOF vote by submitting blank ballots; also invented superhero Saberboy, which is cool)
2. Luke Scott – perennial all-star douchenozzle. Luke says, “you don’t have to worry about me unless you’re a criminal or communist.”
3. Ryan Braun – for cheating and also for not cheating, either way we will likely never know the truth, and that is annoying.
4. Jon Heyman – CBS (for having a documented history of talking up and selling Scott Boras clients to ball clubs)
5. Nick Swisher – seriously, do I need a reason?
6. C.J. Wilson – Tweeted Napoli’s cell number as “prank” b/c Napoli said he was looking forward to hitting HRs off of him this season.
7. Matt Bush – DUI and for ruining his career
8. Joba Chamberlain – for thinking he is capable of using a trampoline with his fat toady ass
[Joba’s addition was rescinded given how unlucky the poor bastard was and he was just trying to be a good dad.]
8. Bobby Jenks – DUI (influence mainly muscle relaxers…), amazing quote “When Deputy Sutphin asked Jenks if he had taken anything else other than the muscle relaxers, he told the officer that he “was going to be honest with you, I was just leaving Babes because I hit a car. I just had to get out of there.”
9. Delmon Young – Assault; anti-Semitism; generally just a D-to-the-nozz all around.
10. Pedro Gomez – BBWAA voter with no sense.
11. Cole Hamels – for beaning Harper for being 19 and talented.
12. Rob Dibble – Because he shoulda never left this list as the inaugural douchenozzle.
13. Bud Selig – repeatedly suggests, nay insists, that no one wants more instant replay in baseball.
14. Hawk Harrelson – homerism reaches new bounds by repeatedly calling out umps for hurting the “good guys” with bad calls.
15. Bobby Valentine – per Alex K, “Bobby V. isn’t on the list yet? He said a coach taking time off to tend to his sick kid was ‘on vacation.’ Total nozzle statement, bro.”
16. Yunel Escobar – Wore “TU ERE MARICON” eye-black like a douchenozzle would do.
17. Roger Goodell – The totalitarian regime of which is the NFL, headed by the iron fist of Goodell, is so powerful that the douchiness of their league temporarily penetrated the MLB blogosphere, hence the NFL-related DN addition.
18. Jamie McCourt – For trying to add on to her $131 million settlement with Frank b/c the Dodgers sold for more than she thought they would ($2 billion). Mainly though, for simply being in the news again this year, qualifying Ms. McCourt for this DN list.
19. The Offseason – no baseball. Seriously, the offseason is such a dick.

My own favorite final day–aside from last year’s insanely wonderful extravaganza, which seems untoppable–is 1997. At Wrigley Field with friends, watching a miserable Cubs team (the one that had gone 0-14 to start) on a stunning autumn day in a half-empty ballpark. It was Ryne Sandberg’s final game, and the crowd was well aware. After the last out, as the speakers played “Auld Lang Syne,” it was as if no one wanted to admit it was all over and winter was coming: people stood around, looking wistfully at the field. Eventually the Cubs came back out onto the field and waved at the fans, shook hands, smiled, threw caps. Ted Cox wrote beautifully about that day for the Chicago Reader soon after:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/sports-section/Content?oid=894479

In some ways looking back it feels like the end of an era: by spring Harry Caray was dead, Kerry Wood was up, and with their wild card win the Cubs began a relatively quick process of re-setting fan expectations. The feel of going to a game at Wrigley changed subtly, as tickets became harder to come by and the goal turned from having a good time to seeing a win. The past two years have been the first time since 1997 that I’ve felt the casual air of the older days returning. (Which, let’s be clear, while comfortable isn’t good.)