Hitting to all fields as season winds down

Some general baseball observations as we hit the final week of the regular season.

I begin by lamenting the impending retirements of Mariano Rivera, the greatest relief pitcher in the history of the game, and Todd Helton, one of my favorite hitters over the past decade and a half. They both will be missed.

The most overlooked team in baseball? The Atlanta Braves by a longshot.

They will have spent every day except one this season in first place, but because so many people assumed the Washington Nationals would win that division the narrative has centered on the Nationals, not the Braves.

Of course, in the end, Fredi Gonzalez's club can steer baseball's October script by continuing to win. But we have been remiss in not acknowledging how great they've been, especially considering all the injuries they have had to overcome.

For a while there, we were spoiled having two of the classiest, most professional of athletes in the history of this city manning first base for the respective North and South side teams — Derrek Lee and Paul Konerko.

Paulie outlasted D Lee in uniform, but his tenure in a Sox uniform could now be coming to an end.

I don't claim to know the White Sox captain very well, but I always have found him to be especially compelling in his honesty and certainly fun to watch as a player.

He has had a wonderful career here, and I wouldn't expect his No. 14 to ever be worn again by a White Sox player once he hangs it up.

Bud Selig's tenure as commissioner has been marked by a lot of huge developments: realignment, more playoff teams, interleague play, video replay, the steroid era, the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.

But his big platform years ago was competitive balance, which led to revenue sharing and luxury taxes.

With a potential postseason group including the Pirates, Athletics, Rays and Indians, we will be seeing some of baseball's smaller markets represented in October. That's good for a fan who likes new blood and the “little” guys having a shot at the crown.

Yet, we know how MLB's biggest financial partners — the national television networks — feel about it, right? They want the Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago markets involved as much as possible to get the most eyeballs on the product.

So while many fans will be pulling for the lesser-known teams to make a deep run, just know that the networks want the Goliaths such as the Red Sox and the Dodgers to hang around as long as possible.

Having said that, with no specific rooting interest in the postseason with the Cubs on the sidelines, my team just might be the Oakland A's.

We were there in June for interleague play, and I was blown away by their small but very vociferous fan base.

The outfield fanatics and their Balfour Rage dance is a thing. They adore their team and it's fun to see, particularly with a club that doesn't have a ton of widely known names.

I'm not saying they have a perfect setup. They play in a mausoleum of a ballpark and their fan base, while having quality, doesn't have much quantity.

The A's want to move to San Jose, and maybe that's what the franchise “deserves.” But I also feel like those bleacher fans are owed a team, too. My hope is that by some baseball miracle the A's will find a viable way to remain in Oakland for the long haul.

And maybe a few deep playoff runs in the near future will help achieve that.

ŸLen Kasper is the TV play-by-play broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs. Follow him on Twitter @LenKasper and check out his [URL]blog entries;http://wgntv.com/news/stories/len-and-jds-cubs-baseball-blog/[URL] with Jim Deshaies at wgntv.com. To post comments or questions for Len, click on the comment link with his column at dailyherald.com.[/URL]