Have the playoffs seemed especially... distant to you, lately? I feel like I'm at a party all my friends left about an hour ago, talking to that weird guy who signed A.J. Burnett to a huge contract just to say he could. Bernie Miklasz gives us the reason for that disconnect in Twitter form, on the occasion of the Reds' elimination from the playoffs:
↵↵↵I think the NL Central is 1-15 in postseason play since STL won it all in 2006. The win? Wildcard Milwaukee in '08.
↵The NL Central scorecard: Brewers 1-3, Cubs 0-6, Cardinals 0-3, Reds 0-3. Yikes.
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Once the Cardinals have been eliminated I get much less parochial about my baseball fandom, so I hadn't really noticed how stark the Central's recent failings were until they were put like that. The division hasn't always been bad since, either—four teams won at least 85 games in 2008, and of course it took the worst NL Central in recent memory for the Cardinals to win the World Series in 2006.
↵But the Cincinnati Reds are just the most recent champs to struggle come playoff time. It's a curse, Cincy—now you know how Matt Holliday's groin feels.