…and so here it is. As you know, I take some pride in keeping this site as free of politics as possible, because it’s such a clearly divisive issue and we’re here to talk about baseball, not social issues.

That being said, today’s obviously a special day, because a national presidential election only comes along once every four years, and people are going to want to talk about it. (And it’s not like there’s any baseball news happening tonight, anyway.) So with that in mind, this is a “game thread” of sorts to give people that outlet, while also serving as a clear signal to those who prefer to avoid it that they’d be best off not wading into the comments here. (Baseball discussion can still be found on today’s earlier post reviewing Bobby Abreu.) As I joked yesterday, which you’ll only get if you watched The Wire: this is “Hamsterdam“. (If you have not watched The Wire, please stop whatever you are doing immediately and watch The Wire. In-deed!)

So discuss the election here if you must, but keep in mind two rules: 1) be civil. Not everyone’s going to agree for very obvious reasons, and disagreement is fine, but to a point. In so many words… don’t be a dick. Seriously. If it gets out of hand, I’ll shut it down. 2) If you don’t make the effort to vote, you lose the right to complain. Make sure you’ve voted today, no matter who you choose to go for.

And.. look, I’m not dense. I know you were expecting me to end this with a video clip about “voting for Kodos” or “twirling towards freedom,” but come on. That’s played out. A pox upon those who are claiming they’re blameless because they voted for Kodos. Instead, I leave you with the only true voice on the election:

How can you not love this team? (ESPN.com)

At a little after 5pm ET on Friday, Kris Medlen is going to kick off the 2012 playoffs with a pitch to Jon Jay (most likely) of the Cardinals in a one-game NL Wild Card playoff matchup as the October tournament officially gets underway. Extending a drought that is nearly a quarter-century long, the team that’s lifting the championship trophy at the end of the month won’t be the Dodgers. So who are Dodger fans to root for?

That’s a question which has a different answer for each person. Some like to see the NL come out on top; some have a particular player they always like to pull for. For me, I like stories, and there’s no shortage of that this season:

1) Athletics. With apologies to Baltimore, this is the greatest story of the year, doing what they’re doing behind five rookie starting pitchers to catch Texas on the final day. Lest we forget, they were thirteen games out at the end of June, and if that sounds familiar, it should; it’s the same margin as the 1951 New York Giants overcame. (Albeit from later in the season.) I guarantee most people who aren’t very serious baseball fans couldn’t name more than one player on this team – if even that – and more of America needs to know who Brandon McCarthy, Yoenis Cespedes, A.J. Griffin, Sean Doolittle, Josh Reddick, and friends are. But mostly, I just want to see Grant Balfour coming in to more games, because watching a few thousand Oakland fans go nuts to the dulcet tones of Metallica’s “One” is one of my favorite things about this run.

This team is beyond fun, winning approximately 198 games this year in walk-off fashion, and it might also draw more attention to the horrible stadium limbo they’re in as Bud Selig refuses to make any sort of progress in their battle with the Giants. Besides, If they win, it’ might finally get all of the anti-Beane fanatics to shut up, though they aren’t exactly a traditional “Moneyball” team – they hit a lot of homers and aren’t great at getting on base.

You know what else? I love the green n’ gold. Not enough pro teams wear green anymore. Let’s go A’s.

Former Dodgers: none

2) Nationals. I know it’s a bit more complicated than this, since they weren’t even in the sport for a few decades, but Washington hasn’t had a baseball championship since 1924. So yeah, they’re due. This is a fun team too, with Ryan Zimmerman constantly underrated and some legitimate mashers in Mike Morse & Adam LaRoche. Oh, and there’s that Bryce Harper guy, and love him or hate him, there is no way that having your 19-year-old superstar on the biggest stage around can be a bad thing for the game of baseball. You’d feel bad for Expos fans, I guess, but it’d really solidify what a quality franchise the Nationals have become.

Bonus: we can avoid a lifetime of “should the Nationals really have shut down Stephen Strasburg?!” second-guessing.

Former Dodgers: Cesar Izturis (briefly), Edwin Jackson, Jayson Werth

3) Orioles. The Orioles are arguably an even bigger story than the A’s, given that they won 93 games in the brutal AL East – though I would note that with Boston down this year, the AL West might actually have the toughest competition in Texas and Los Angeles. I find them confounding, however. Bringing back Dan Duquette out of cryogenic storage shouldn’t be seen as a good thing, and while a whole lot of the crap he threw against the wall worked somehow, it’s not exactly a model that anyone should be following for success. Still, that’s a minor quibble; Adam Jones and Matt Wieters are legitimate stars who deserve recognition, Manny Machado is only barely behind Harper in the “incredibly youthful player making his mark” standings, Dylan Bundy could be too if they let him on the roster and Chris Davis has long been a favorite of mine. And that bullpen… well, you probably can’t name half of them without looking it up, but it’s unbelievable.

Baltimore’s a great baseball town, however, or at least it was before the team became unwatchable over the last 15 years, and it’s good for the sport when the Orioles are good. When it’s full, Camden Yards is still one of the best parks in the sport, which is another reason why I want them to beat Texas tomorrow – so they get at least one home game. Hey, how fun would a Beltway series be?

Former Dodgers: Wilson Betemit, Dana Eveland, Steve Johnson, Jim Thome, Randy Wolf

4/5) Reds. I really don’t like Dusty Baker, but this is another one of those midwest teams with a ton of tradition that hasn’t seen success in a while. It’s not quite Pirates-level bad, of course, yet it has been 23 years since their last title. When healthy, Joey Votto is potentially the best hitter in baseball – once again, someone who deserves more attention – and the back end of the bullpen is absolutely filthy. Just a fun team to watch.

Former Dodgers: Jonathan Broxton, Dioner Navarro, Xavier Paul, Wilson Valdez

4/5) Tigers. Ridiculous arguments over Miguel Cabrera‘s AL MVP candidacy aside, there’s not a lot to dislike about the Tigers. Justin Verlander is almost indisputably the best pitcher in the sport, and watching Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Alex Avila, Austin Jackson, & friends go up against Craig Kimbrel or Aroldis Chapman or Gio Gonzalez or Medlen in the World Series would be a fantastic sight to see. You have to respect owner Mike Ilitch, anyway; he’s 83 years old and he’s proven he’s willing to do whatever it takes financially to bring a title back to his hometown. That’s not something a lot of owners can say, and it’s a nice story.

If the Tigers & Reds match up, it’ll be hard for me to have a rooting interest; that’ll just be a good, fun, series against two teams with a ton of history and no championships since at least 1990.

Former Dodgers: Octavio Dotel

6) Braves. I am surprisingly ambivalent towards the Braves. I have no strong feelings really for or against them; I wouldn’t really be excited if they won, nor would I be all that unhappy. I suppose I can’t decide if Chipper Jones ending his career with a title would be just an amazing story or fantastically annoying.

Former Dodgers: Reed Johnson, David Ross

7) Rangers. The tough thing with rooting for Texas to win the AL, I suppose, is that it could set them up to be the baseball version of the Buffalo Bills if they drop yet another World Series. The tougher thing is my intense dislike of Michael Young and Ron Washington’s worship of him, and while it’d be nice to see this team finally get over the hump for their first title, I’m not all that excited about the prospect of seeing them back again.

Former Dodgers: Adrian Beltre

8) Yankees. Unlike a lot of people, I have no particular hatred for the Yankees, and while they’re always in the playoffs, they’ve won the World Series once in the last eleven seasons, so they’ve hardly been dominating the league. The “former Dodgers” category is tough; while I’ll always love Hiroki Kuroda, I’m not sure I can abide seeing a ring get put on Andruw Jones‘ stubby fingers. Still, I’m only rooting for them if they’re playing St. Louis or San Francisco.

Former Dodgers: Jones, Kuroda, Derek Lowe, Russell Martin, Cory Wade

9) Cardinals. I find the Cardinals a lot less unlikeable – a lot – now that Tony LaRussa is gone. That said, they had their moment last year, and they are of course the team that beat the Dodgers out for the final spot this year, so it’s really only because of the presence of San Francisco that they’re not dead last here. Besides, can you imagine the hundreds of infuriating articles we’d have to live with if they win after letting Albert Pujols go sign for eleventy billion dollars elsewhere? Not interested.

Former Dodgers: Rafael Furcal.

10) Giants. Oh, please.

Despite the fun of a tied-for-season-high six-game winning streak, it’s probably too little too late for the Dodgers as far as getting into the playoffs. Sure, they could take the next two against the Giants and the Cardinals could drop the final two against the Reds and the Dodgers could beat St. Louis in a one-game playoff to get that second wild card spot and a trip to Atlanta, but there’s absolutely no room for error there and a whole lot of things have to go absolutely perfectly to even get the shot to face the Braves in a one-and-done. I appreciate that we’re even still talking about such things on October 2, it’s just hard to ignore the reality of the situation that the Dodgers have put themselves in by sleepwalking through most of the last three months of play.

Still, there’s value in these final games no matter what the Cardinals do, because heading into the offseason on a high is something that really can’t be quantified. Remember how Matt Kemp finished off his disastrous 2010 campaign? He homered in each of the season’s final five games, allowing us to spend the winter dreaming that the down season was merely a blip and that he’d rebound in 2011. (He did, obviously.)

For a team that has really disappointed, especially on the offensive side of the ball, since the big collection of trades Ned Colletti made in July & August, seeing it all come together now – even if it’s probably not enough to get into the playoffs – is not only welcome, but downright necessary. Imagine if the team that dropped seven of eight early in the month, with Adrian Gonzalez unimpressive, Kemp struggling to play through injury, Shane Victorino being awful, & Hanley Ramirez slumping had continued playing like that all the way to the end? The entire off-season would have been a just a mess of “the Boston trade was a failure herp derp!” and “too many HIGHLY-PAID GLOREE BOYS! Durrrr!” Now, hopefully, we can avoid that and start looking towards next year with optimism.

There’s no guarantee that any of this offensive success sustains in 2013, of course. Ramirez might revert to his disappointing late-Miami form. Luis Cruz may be a total mirage. A.J. Ellis might turn back into a pumpkin. But even if and when they fall just short of the playoffs, this late run is really going to allow us hope to believe that a 2013 offense anchored by Kemp, Gonzalez, Ramirez, & Andre Ethier, and supported by those quality supporting players really could be the high-powered force we all hoped it could be. Missing the playoffs in what was always going to be a transitional season – and let’s not forget, possibly winning 86 or 87 games after winning 82 last year and 80 the year before is hardly a disappointment, especially considering all the injuries and off-field hoopla – shouldn’t change that.

I hope the Cardinals fall apart over the next 48 hours and that the Dodgers can take advantage; we all do. But even if not, I think we can all head into the winter knowing that this team is in a far better position to contend than they were a year or even six months ago, and for that, be thankful.