Cincinnati Reds, a game away from the NLCS, are still out of mind

The Cincinnati Reds are one game away from the NLCS, which the St. Louis Cardinals are two games from, and I can't say I really care yet. I'm not sure what that says about me, but all season I just never felt really engaged with what they were doing. This year made me very baseball-fan solipsistic—the Cardinals were the roiling center of the universe, and everything else that went on was just a projection of a thing they were going through.

So the Reds came to mind, when they did come to mind, mostly as a sign that these Cardinals were underperforming their Pythag, and then as a confirmation that they would be competing for the Wild Card instead of the division.

If the Cardinals get to the NLCS, too—well, at that point I'll probably be able to muster some lingering distaste about them. But for now I'm worried enough about their own series that the rest of the division round is just a chance to watch baseball without every base hit inducing applause or nausea.

Aside from that Ichiro play at the plate. I'm still pretty into that.