This year was my first season as a baseball fan. I didn’t even catch it at the start of the season – the first Jays game I watched was this one, and I knew so little about the game that I was confused when Casey Janssen came out to pitch the eighth instead of Jesse Litsch, and was really confused when neither of them took the mound the next day (it was Kyle Drabek, I believe). In my mind pitchers were like hockey goalies. You probably had two of them ready to go, right? And they probably pitched every day?

I’ve come a long way since then.

Now I follow a veritable army of baseball bloggers on Twitter and argue with people about WAR and have read Moneyball and seen Moneyball, and despite the fact that I grew up a hockey fan (and still am one, thanks very much, Flames home opener is playing right this very moment) would probably be able to play fantasy baseball one heck of a lot better than I do fantasy hockey. It happens.

It’s already been a bit of a wild ride, but nothing beats September 28th, the final day of the regular season and the night that they’re calling the best day in baseball ever. I am pretty glad I managed to jump on the bandwagon in time to witness September’s madness, culminating in some of the most intense sports drama I’ve ever seen in my life.

If you haven’t watched the MLB recap video just do yourself a favour and watch it right now. I mean now. Look, I’m even posting it here for you.

This is the kind of thing that keeps me coming back to baseball. Coming from hockey, a 162-game season is mind-boggling to me. Add the fact that that many games can still lead to such high drama on the final day of the regular season — a tie in both the American League and the National League for the wild card, a ridiculous comeback from a 7-0 deficit through seven innings to win in extras and take a playoff spot, two of the worst collapses in September history … well, things got pretty awesome this season.

Of course, the Rays were the first to be knocked out of the ALDS (despite hating them in the regular season, I was quite heartbroken), but it was a great story while it lasted, and Evan Longoria’s walk-off home run isn’t going to be easily forgotten. Nor is the Dan Johnson tying shot that hit a dude in the nuts. Oh yeah.

Coming up sometime: more baseball talk like the 2012 season, free agent freakouts, Yu Darvish, Adam Lind, you know — all the good stuff. Stay tuned.

Edit: Joanna over at Hum and Chuck has written a nice little post about the end of the season and the Red Sox collapse, so go check it out here.