MLB Wild Card Collapses: Rays and Cardinals Won by Having Nothing to Lose

I’m sure you’re tired of hearing this, but, wow—what a night for baseball Wednesday turned out to be.

I usually don’t like to throw my voice into such an oversaturated market of baseball commentary, but I can’t help it. Honestly, I’m tired of listening to people who’ve never played the game for a living bash, justify, rationalize and otherwise divine reasons for how two teams that should be in the playoffs are not, while two teams that shouldn’t be are.

My friends, any player can tell you that baseball is not fair, and yet, baseball is the most fair game there is, proven handily by Wednesday night’s happenings. Teams that refused to quit despite long odds were rewarded, and teams that had hold of victory let it go and lost. It was a reward and a punishment all rolled into one.

While which side of these semantics you find yourself on may differ, the one thing I think we can all agree on is that it was damn good entertainment.

I don’t mean to sound like anyone’s dad here, but while so much of the world sits around, hair blown straight back, repeating, “I can’t believe it; I just can’t believe it,” I can totally believe it. That’s because, during this time of year, players are not immune to what is coming—the end.

The season is going to be over, and their 162-game marathons will finally be decided. For some teams, the value of their season may have been decided many games back, but for others, the last six games could very well pronounce the last 156 a success or bust.

How a player in contention responds to this pressing sense of finality is crucial. In fact, it is all-out mental warfare.

For the player in the lead, the mind tends to gravitate to thoughts of what it would be like it to lose said lead. This player must fight back a constant sense of fear in his head—one that breads doubt and worry about things outside his control.

His team has something to lose, and what if it’s his fault the team loses it? Could you imagine what the fan base would do to him? Could you imagine what a fan base like the Red Sox's would do to him? From hero to pariah in the blink of an eye.

You may say that a player has been paid a lot of money to perform in the face of this fear, and I hear you completely, but the mind is a funny thing. Sometimes we know exactly what is happening in our heads and still can’t control it.

“How can I go,” asks the player, “from a man so full of confidence I captured the lead to now finding myself so scared of loosing it that it seems inevitable I will?” Pressure, hype, media and the steady stream of unchecked what-ifs—that’s how.

Even the most stalwart players have this fear. They are better at controlling it, usually because experience has taught them how dangerous it can be if they don’t. But apply enough pressure and even the strongest minds can crack. In a game of inches and split seconds it only takes a little doubt to wreck a whole season.

On the other hand, the power of a team in the hunt, one that feels it has nothing to lose, should never be underestimated.

It’s not often that a team can feel empowered in its weakness, but that’s exactly how teams that are not in contention become winners. They are fearless, and the thought that dominates their minds is of them beating the odds and being the heroes.

Instead of thinking, “What if I am the reason we lose?” the players that make up this team think, “What if I am the reason we WIN?” And what better thought is there in this game of inches and seconds than that?

Wednesday night, more so than any other I can think of in recent baseball history, we watched teams cripple themselves with doubt, and empower themselves with belief. Yes, baseball is not fair, but for the player who believes he has nothing to lose and everything to gain, it’s more than fair, and it always will be.