The saddest thing about losing in the playoffs is not the loss itself. Baseball fans are used to losing. It’s a long season, and even the best teams generally lose more than 60 times.
No, the saddest thing about losing that final playoff game is the knowledge that your team—the team you’ve been with for 162 games as they made it nearly to the top—will not be remembered.
Legacy is cruel. It is not the same as history, which is a collection of facts and stories that can be dug up and rehashed whenever the current time has need of them.