Opinion

NOVI, Mich. — On the front door of his Michigan home hangs a wreath streaked with golds and reds, matching the leaves on the changing trees surrounding it.

Inside, the man who tore through Octobers past by smashing two of the most dramatic World Series home runs of our time answers the doorbell by yanking open the door and practically leaping into view, devilish grin, twinkling eyes, greeting a visitor as if teasing a trick-or-treater.

"Aaaaaahhhhahhhhhahhhh!"

The already-classic National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets is going the distance. Would you have it any other way?

Better late than never, as the saying goes. And certainly, this is doubly true when "late" is somehow the same thing as "right on time."

Just ask Johnny Cueto.

The gods that oversee the game of baseball, they were livid.

And they had every right to be. There's no way they ever envisioned a do-or-die elimination playoff game's being decided this way.

The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-4 on Tuesday night, winning the team's first National League Division Series title since 2003 in front of a raucous crowd at Wrigley Field.

Now, this is a life-giving sentence for Cubs fans, but it doesn't really do justice to how Chicago went about dispatching the league's winningest regular-season team.

When you have a great season in your contract year, you're due for a monster payday.  

Can the Mets hold on to Yoenis Cespedes? Which top pitchers are due big bucks in 2016?

It's too soon to know a lot about what's coming in the MLB offseason, but at least this much is certain: David Price is going to make the big bucks.

NEW YORK — Clayton Kershaw got through the seventh inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers got through the fourth game.

And all it means is that this National League Division Series is headed where it was always supposed to end up.

Once you've won a League Championship Series MVP and a World Series MVP, as Cole Hamels did in 2008 with the Philadelphia Phillies, that pretty much seals your postseason legacy. On Wednesday in Toronto, however, the Texas Rangers southpaw will have a chance to gild his October lily.

CHICAGO — Every traditional sports rivalry has similar components—geography, divisional ties and decades of history. The Cubs-Cardinals rivalry can be similarly characterized but with one very unique attribute attached: envy.