It's getting ugly

Very rare in my 24 years on this earth, almost 23 of them in Memphis, has the Memphis Chicks or Redbirds found themselves in the thick of a pennant race.

As stated on last week, in 132 seasons of baseball, the Bluff City’s professional baseball teams has won 13 overall league championships, the last of which came in 2000 in Autozone Park’s first season.

Title number 12 came in 1990 when the Chicks won the Southern League title, when yours truly was six years old and after that title, the Chicks won a couple of split-season titles in 1995 and 1996.

On that 1996 team was a player by the name of Derrek Lee, who won the Southern League MVP, the last MVP for Memphis professional baseball to this point.

So why am I bringing this up now?

Going into today, the Redbirds sit a half-game ahead of the pack in the American Northern standings after the Nashville Sounds lost to the Salt Lake Bees Sunday in Salt Lake and the Redbirds held off a hard-charging Colorado Springs bunch in the first of their four-game series Sunday in Colorado Springs.

Here’s Nashville’s and Memphis’ remaining schedule:

Nashville Sounds’ remaining schedule:

3 @Salt Lake

4 vs. Fresno

4 vs. Sacramento

4 @Isotopes

5 @Round Rock

4 vs. Redbirds

4 @ New Orleans

Memphis’ schedule:

3 @Colorado Springs

4 vs. Sacramento

4 vs. Fresno

4 @Round Rock

5 @Isotopes

4@ Nashville

5 vs. Oklahoma