This is one of my least favorite days of the year.

Baseball's regular season ended today (well, not quite. We'll get to that later.) While we still have a few weeks of playoffs to go, the day in, day out rhythm of the baseball season is over until April, 2009. It reminds me that winter is coming, that the days are getting shorter and that I'll be outside shoveling snow before I know it.

That doesn't mean the last day doesn't have it's upsides. Four teams were competing for the last two playoff spots today. Unbelievably, one is still up for grabs and may be until Tuesday.

The one race that got settled was the National League wild card. C.C. Sabathia came up big on three days rest again and led the Brewers to a 3-1 win over the Cubs. Meanwhile, the Mets lost to the Marlins 4-2 in the last game at Shea to complete a second straight collapse and miss the playoffs again. While not quite as epic as 2007's disaster, the Mets were up 3.5 games on the Phillies as recently as September 10, yet Philadelphia took the NL East crown for the second consecutive year.

With all the hype about the last season at that other New York ballpark in another borough, isn't it nice that someone actually remembered that the last game at Shea Stadium was today?

The two New York teams spent nearly $347 million on player salaries this year and don't have a playoff berth to show for it. By comparison, Tampa Bay's payroll was just under $44 million and the Twins were a hair under $57 million.

In the other league, the AL Central is still up for grabs. Both the Twins and White Sox won today, so Chicago has to play a makeup game against Detroit tomorrow afternoon. The Twins lead the White Sox by .5 game right now. For Chicago to win the division, they have to beat the Tigers tomorrow and then beat the Twins in a one game playoff on Tuesday night. If they lose either game, the Twins win the division.

The Tigers can't be too excited about having to go to U.S. Cellular Field tomorrow to play this game after their own incredibly disappointing season. We'll see if they can be giant spoilers tomorrow. Me, I'm hoping the White Sox win so we'll get the playoff game Tuesday night.

The Sox start the playoffs Wednesday night in Anaheim. We'll discuss that more as the week progresses.