If there’s really only one October, as the commercials keep telling us, then how come every time we turn on the TV, there’s another champagne celebration?

Colleague Jeff Shelman* reminded me how ridiculous it gets seeing teams celebrate their first-round playoff clinchers as if they’d won the World Series.

A story from Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times began:

BOSTON — David Ortiz stood in a corner of the Boston Red Sox clubhouse Monday, his sweat shirt soaked with beer and champagne and his face creased with a smile.

“We’re kind of getting used to this,” said Ortiz, who has been through 13 clubhouse celebrations in his six seasons in Boston.

And, this from ESPN.com:

CHICAGO — Just in case Michael Phelps needs any more marketing concepts, Tampa Bay first baseman Carlos Pena has one. Champagne goggles.

“We had seen other teams celebrate, and we knew about the eye goggles. But some of us overlooked the eye goggles and how necessary they were,” Pena said of Tampa Bay’s first-ever celebration two weeks ago when it finally clinched a postseason spot.

In 2006, the Twins sprayed champagne when they clinched a playoff berth, then sprayed champagne again six days later when they won the AL Central. Had that team won the World Series — instead of going three-and-out against Oakland — it would have had five champagne celebrations.

Covering that team, I understood the overwhelming joy that group felt after finally surpassing Detroit on the final day of the regular season. But looking back, even the players felt the second celebration was a bit much.

Two Sundays ago, Twins closer Joe Nathan was describing the potential celebration if the Tigers had defeated the White Sox in their Sept. 29 makeup game, which would have given the Twins another AL Central title.

“Hopefully we’ll go a little less crazy than ‘06 — but ‘06 was worth it,” Nathan said, smiling as he caught himself mid-sentence.

If every team partied like the 2006 Twins, each season could bring up to 21 champagne celebrations — 8 postseason berth clinchers, 6 division titles, 4 division series, 2 LCS and 1 World Series.

I can’t fault teams for celebrating a postseason berth, since 162 games are such an extraordinary grind and a smaller percentage make the playoffs than in the NFL, NBA and NHL. If teams want to pop champagne after winning the ALCS or NLCS, that’s understandable, too.

The champagne probably tastes just as sweet after a World Series clincher, whether you’ve tasted it four times over the previous month or once. But teams should realize how overdone it all seems.

I don’t need to see Jonathan Papelbon doing his ridiculous dance again. I don’t need to see another team spray its fans with champagne from atop the dugout. With the 2006 Tigers, that was interesting. Now, it’s a cliche. If players want to salute their fans, go for it, but leave the alcohol in the clubhouse.

Someday, a team will clinch something and forgo the champagne, with players reminding everyone, “We haven’t won anything yet.”

Now, that will be a moment worth celebrating.

(* Shelman will be missed when he leaves the paper later this week, but he promises to keep sending blog ideas my way.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Around MLB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.