I like to consider it as them winning the "NL Wild-card division"... which wasn't a bad division at all. Houston Philadelphia Flordia Milwaukee NY Mets Washington Chicago. That's a helluva lot better than winning the NL West... where all the teams are sorry, and you get to play more games against those sorry teams. The barely over .500 Padres getting to make the playoffs over the Phillies is a bigger travesty for baseball than celebrating wild-card success.
They were still better than this year's Padres... and that was still when there was a balanced schedule, so being in a bad division back then didn't give you the advantage of getting to play the majority of your games against bad teams, like it does now.
Let's remember that four teams have one the World Series after entering the playoffs via the Wild Card slot. Just because your the wild card team doesn't mean its not an accomplishment.
Braves have won one world series in thirteen years. The Marlins have won two world series in that same span of time and both while being the wild card team.
On another site someone quoted Berkman as saying, "We'll take care of the Braves, sweep the Cardinals, and sweep the White Sox. I have a flag football season this playoff thing is cutting into." I think that about says it all right there.
yeah that flag football line was classic. he also brought up the R.I.P article in the chronicle and asked anyone if they still subscribe to it. said he'd be using it to light his fireplace in winter. berkman's awesome, i remember there was some article where he was talking about how he liked playing the outfield in chicago cause all the fans messed with him about being fat.
What's even better is that he proceeded to hit a huge 2-run HR the very next inning after he ate the twinkie. He even credited the twinkie for the extra strength... we love Lance!
