Visualizing Pennant Races

It's September, so naturally we're thinking pennant races here. The AL Central and the NL West are up for grabs, and of course both Wild Card berths. The NL Wild Card race is the most tangled: San Diego, Florida, Philly, San Francisco, Cincy, and Houston are all within 4.5 games of grabbing that coveted last spot.

This is one of the great pleasures of September, watching these races unfold, and there's a bit of irony in the term "pennant race" -- because it's day-by-day, the "race" is almost always painfully slow.

But when you get a chance to look back ... using BaseballRace.com's very cool visualization tool ... you can watch past pennant races unfold, from Opening Day on, real fast. A couple of my favorites: the 1964 Phillies collapse (you can almost feel the lactic acid building up at the end there) and the 1969 NL East, which provides a terrific view of my Mets overcoming a huge Cubs advantage in August to finish first, 8 games in front.

Too much. Bravo to Christopher J. Falvey, the man who created this nifty toy.