All athletes like playing on the STUNNING TRAIL.  The fall season is exciting. It has the conclusion of the long MLB season followed by the expanded playoffs and the excitement & high hopes of college & pro football.

…The 2025 MLB season brought us much excitement down to the very end of the season. There were many teams that have taken a STUNNING TRAIL as we’ve seldom seen some reach the heights of playoff baseball for the 1^st time in a long while. Granted this was the 1^st year of 6 playoff teams from each league. (It’s too many for my taste—40% of teams reach the playoffs. That’s even more than the 1/3 of the NHL teams making post-season.) But…it certainly did achieve its goal…to heighten interest in the last weeks/day of September!  Heck, even our Cardinals were, despite sinking below .500, in the “hunt” until the last few days of ’25 season.

…The MLB playoffs have a different look about it in 2025. The 3 wild card teams (which now bring the total to 6 teams in each league (40%) had some surprisingly unusual looks as many  of the teams and some of those teams walked a STUNNING TRAIL to get there!

…The Cleveland Guardians STUNNING TRAIL & “run to the playoffs”(yet unnoticed by most sports fans outside of Cleveland) was sneaky to most MLB fans. The Guardians were 15 games out of 1^st place in July and still 11 games behind the Tigers on September 4. Their 21-7 record in September elevated them past the Tigers on Sept 23 (5 days before the end of the season) as they won 6 of their last 7 games to reach the playoffs.   

…The Guardians, despite their perennially tiny payroll by MLB standards, are a team that deals in a couple superlatives—the longest World Series drought, the longest no-hitter drought, but, now has the largest in-season comeback in baseball history. Wondering how many of you could name 5 Guardian Players?   Brayan Rocchio had a crucial walk-off home run in the 10th inning of the game that clinched the division. It symbolized his strong late-season performance for Cleveland.

…It seemed to me that this was a very unusual result for Cleveland. I was completely wrong.  This was Cleveland’s 5^th post-season appearance since 2018!! Take a look: 2024: Lost in the AL Wild Card Series

2022: Lost in the AL Division Series 2020: Lost in the AL Wild Card Series 2018: Lost in the AL Division Series. This is really, really incredible when one considers that the Guardians are 26^th (of 30 teams) in team payroll and 28^th in MLB in RUNS SCORED in 2025!! Cleveland made the largest division title comeback in standings in MLB history.

…In the other dugout were the Detroit Tigers. Detroit had a STUNNING TRAIL throughout the 2025 season! They were in 1st place by themselves or tied with another team for 132 days during the 2025 MLB season before they really tumbled at the end of the year. The team finally clinched a playoff spot with a win on September 27. Detroit’s fall late in 2025 season was due to a combination of poor pitching( except for Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize), a struggling and inconsistent offense, a bullpen that fell-apart after a deadline trade, and the impact of their young, inexperienced, key player’s inability to perform under pressure when it really mattered. Detroit has a wonderful “core” of young players who now have gained some experience in the “dog days” of a pennant race and should really benefit from it in the future.

….But Detroit prevailed against Cleveland with a 6-3 win in game 3 of the Wild Card series.. In addition to the upgraded emotional aspect of a playoff game, there were other factors that heightened the intensity of the series. They had faced each other in consecutive post-seasons (each went the distance) and this year they recently played 9 times in a short 17 day span. While Detroit was struggling to hang onto the AL Central Divisional lead, that match-up heightened the emotional part of each game. But, the Tigers “got it together” and nudged out their divisional foe.

….the National League 1^st round playoffs had a STUNNING TRAIL also. The San Diego Padres didn’t clinch their playoff spot until September 22. Like many other San Diego games it had drama! The playoff clinching game ended with a dramatic walk-off, 11^th inning win against the Milwaukee Brewers. The hero that night was Freddy Fermin. He hit a single to score Bryce Johnson, securing a 5-4 victory to end the game. This is the fourth time in six years that San Diego has reached the playoffs. In both of Manger, Mike Schildt’s years, the Padres have gone to the post-season dance. He’s probably grateful now that the Cardinals removed him as their manager!

…In a 1^st round playoff game, the Padres faced the Cubs. Talk about pitching dominating—the total number of runs scored in the series by both teams was just 11 runs!! Cubs won their 2 games by the same 2-1 score while the Padres won their game 3-0! Really amazing!!! An old MLB phrase…”you win with pitching” sure rings true in this 2025 post-season series.

…In another Wild Card series (1^st round) the Dodgers edged the Phillies in game 3 (best of 5 series) 5-3 to take a 2-1 game lead in the series as LA bunched all 5 of their runs into 2 innings—the 6^th & the 7^th. Former Cardinal, Tommy Edman batted 5^th in the LA lineup and drove home a run & scored a run as a key element of LA’s offense. Another former Cardinal, Jack Flaherty was the starting pitcher in game 5 for the Tigers. What does that say…most teams generally try to save their ace or #2 pitcher for game 5. He pitched just about what has become the normal length for a starting pitcher these days– 4 2/3 innings, gave up 1 run, 3 hits, struck out 4 batters.

…You don’t always get YOUR “take” on the STUNNING TRAIL about, “who really IS the star” player(s) on the Cardinals. Well, I just saw an StL ad featuring Masyn Winn of the Cardinals. I guess he’s been crowned as the next Cardinal “star” by at least 1 of the  ad agencies!!

…Speaking of the StL Cards, it’s still providing more surprises along this seldom-traveled STUNNING TRAIL of 2025. A trail that didn’t show a competitive team from the last year. Both Sonny Gray & Nolan Arenado (the 2 “stars” of the team according to most fans/experts  prior to season), have made it known that they wished to be traded. Gray had a very good year on a mediocre team—14-8 (on a 78-84 team), #1 in Innings pitched-180; #1 strikeouts-201 (more than 1/inning) & faced the most batters of any pitcher (753). But…he can see the direction that the Cardinals have indicated that they want to travel (develop players @ the MLB level, don’t sign any significant free agents, disdain any Hopes of a “divisional” run to the top.).

… From my view, it’ll be a STUNNING TRAIL to move Nolan Arenado. It’s really going to be a “challenge”!. His career batting numbers are good but his 2025 numbers were very mediocre—avg-.237; 12 HR in 436 AB’s—that’s about 1 HR about every 36 at bats!! That’s while carrying a $21million salary. His contract calls for a salary of $16m in 2026 & $15m in 2027.  Which teams want that pay scale with that production?  Time will tell….it WILL be worked out at some point!! The Cardinals may (probably will) have to swallow more, much more, of his salary than they want to do if they REALLY want to move him. Some teams likely to at least “kick around” the idea of considering Arenado & do have a 3B need are (in no particular order)- NY Yankees, Seattle Mariners, LA Angels, LA Dodgers. Many other teams won’t even consider Arenado due to his cost.

…As baseball tip-toes towards another round of playoffs, college football is in full swing with some STUNNING TRAILS evolving around some of the quality teams. Let’s start with the UCLA coming into the Penn State game holding an 0-4 record and NEVER EVER being in front of any game at any time in 2025. Penn State was ranked #7 at the kickoff. But this STUNNING TRAIL saw for only the 5^th time in NCAA history, that an 0-4(or worse) team beat a team in the Top 10.  The Nittany Lions’ ballyhooed defense was gashed for 269 rushing yards allowed (a season high against them). In this week’s ratings, the Nittany Lions’ plunge out of the Top 25 teams matched the 1959 drop of Oklahoma for second-biggest drop out of the rankings. In 1959, the Sooners went from No. 2 spot to completely dropping out of the Top 20 after losing their opener to Northwestern.

…For years, the Alabama-Vanderbilt game had a “given” outcome—Bama would crush Vandy easily. Well, Vandy is now traveling down some new STUNNING TRAILS. It’s no longer a “push-over’’. However, last Saturday’s matchup seemed all too familiar to fans. #10 Bama beat #16 Vandy 30-14 Alabama’s offense was led by QB Ty Simpson. He threw for 340 yards and 2 touchdowns. Another major facet of this game– Alabama converted all 4 of its trips into the red zone!  On the other side of the field, Vandy’s QB Diego Pavia’s two turnovers left Vanderbilt without points in two critical situations. Vanderbilt’s running game that totaled 126 yards on 12.7 yards per carry in the first half was limited to just a total of  9 rushing yards in the 2nd half. Alabama’s win may have helped them push aside their week 1, 31-17 loss to Florida State.

…It’s better late than never on the STUNNING TRIP thru the 2025 MLS Season for the City SC team. City won 3 of their last 4 matches to raise their final record to 8 wins, 7 draws and 15 losses with the 3-1 win against Dallas FC in the most recent match. They have 31 points for 2025. (3pt=win;1pt-tie) David Critchley, who was then appointed as the interim head coach for the remainder of season in May, seems to have the club playing at a more competitive level of late. It brings lots of HOPE for the fans and for that matter, all of St Louis Sports fans.

… Some of the encouraging stats from my view in the last City match played against Austin FC were: City led in some key categories– Total Shots—23-15; Shots on Goal-8-2; City only needed 1 save in the match while Dalles GK had 5 saves. Individually, Marcel Hartel scored 2 goals (at the 28’ & 45’ marks). Simon Becher scored in extra time. So, the recent success of City in the very late part of the season brings lots of encouragement for the team, management AND of course, the City Fans as they all begin to think about 2026.

…The college game with the biggest STUNNING RESULT was in the UCLA-Penn State game. For only the 5^th time in NCAA Football history, a winless team beat a Top-10 rated team. When the clock ran out on UCLA’s(1-4) 42–37 win over No. 7 Penn State(3-2) Saturday, some college FB observers were quick to anoint it the upset of the year in college football! Man….we’re not even ½ way through the season yet-it seems a bit early to me to be crowning anyone or any team as a winner of anything yet!!!

…While it definitely scars Penn State’s current rankings, the NCAA football playoffs this year will have 12 teams!! The top 4 seeded teams will receive 1^st round byes. The NCAA realizes that having 12 teams will elevate their income tremendously at the gate by now, more importantly, it’ll “rake in” literally millions of dollars with the TV networks coverage. There are still several teams working hard to get that STUNNING TRIP to the NCAA playoffs. We’re in mid-season now, we’ve gobbled up the vast majority of games against Cupcake teams…so it’ll be some great college football matchups in store for us weekly.

…By conference, how did the Top 25 Football Rankings shake out this week–

SEC (9 teams in top 25): Nos. 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 20

Big Ten—which should be named the Big 18(Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington, Maryland, Rutgers,Penn State-were added this year) has 5 teams in top 25: Nos. 1, 3, 7, 15, 17 (2 of their teams are in the Top 3 teams!!—that’s really special!! )

Big 12 has 4 teams in top 25: Nos. 9, 18, 21, 22;    ACC (4 teams in top 25): Nos. 2, 13, 19, 25;

The American Conference has 2 teams ranked in top 25: Nos. 23, 24;  There is just 1 Independent Teams in the Top 25. To no ones’ surprise– It’s  No. 16 Notre Dame.  After losing in week 1 to the #6 team (Miami) 24-27 and losing in Week 2 #8 Texas A&M  41-40, ND has now won 3 in a row and it appears to me that it could “win out” the rest of 2025 season. 

…Well… we’ve reached the end of our trip through the STUNNING TRAILS! Thanks for your time & read!

YOUR comments are always invited. Join in on the fun and let YOUR thoughts be known. Please pass the word of the Buzz to other friends/family/ or heck for that matter—anyone 😊  Bob