Tight divisional races a boon to schedulers

This is going to be a year with one of the best finishes in major league baseball – if you like lots of teams in the running. Since the creation of division play, there have never been this many teams this close to a playoff spot in every division and the wild cards.

That means the schedulers may actually get some credit this year.

Over the years the schedule places interleague play in the middle of the season as a sort of break or diversion to generate interest.

The end of the season is left for games against division opponents. Those are games that have double the value for teams competing for a division lead.

This year, there will be lots of those very meaningful games. That is a fan’s treat.

The Sox and Yankees are in that boat. Both teams are incomplete, leaving the door open for a wild finish.

The Sox hope Curt Schilling will be the Schilling of the championship year. They need his starts to be solid down the stretch, and Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield will both need to complete excellent seasons.

David Ortiz’s shoulders and knees are not good. There are games in which the Boston designated hitter plays in much pain.

The doctor’s advice has been not to miss a pitch. Why? Because the pain is greater when he does – really. Nice prescription, but no one has yet found the pharmacist who can fill it.

The Yankees are struggling to get a bullpen in order. Jaba Chamberlain as a reliever and Phil Hughes as a starter are two rookies the Yankees need to grow up fast.

They both are extremely mature players. Chamberlain will be a starter next year. For that reason, Yankee manager Joe Torre says Chamberlain “comes with instructions.”

That means if he pitches one inning, he gets the next day off. If he pitches two innings, he gets two days off and so forth.

A history of injuries and uncertainty about his current arm durability throwing the 99 mph fastball are the reasons for the instruction book on Chamberlain.

Mariano Rivera’s cutter has done less cutting of late and Baltimore this week pinned the Yankee closer with a blown save and a loss in one series.

Torre says that is a matter of not being perfect and Rivera actually said after the Baltimore series, “I’m human.”

Good news for a league full of hitters who thought otherwise.

There are plenty of other great stories around the game. The Chicago Cub fans can hardly stand it.

Milwaukee’s dream season is taking on nightmarish fringes. St. Louis, all but pitied for much of the year, is suddenly in the race and nobody knows how except the teams ahead of them can’t win.

Ah, the end of summer and some red-hot races. Enjoy.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.