You can't say baseball doesn't know how to go out with a bang.

Oh, I know there are of course still the playoffs, and for once Milwaukee will be riveted to how the Brewers fare in October. But Wednesday night, with so much still to be decided, the American game that has survived five wars and 24 presidents made the entire sports universe stand up and say "Wow!"

Of course we were all watching and waiting for the Brewers to secure home field advantage for at least the first round of the playoffs in their final game against the Pirates. The Brewers were also looking at setting a franchise mark for wins in a season, and hoping to extend their record for home victories as well.

After the Brewers got off to a third inning 2-0 lead on home runs by Jonathan Lucroy and Corey Hart, you had a sense that they might be able to celebrate a little bit earlier than some of the nail-biters that September has sometimes foisted upon us.

After Carlos Gomez' three-run shot in the fourth, I felt comfortable enough to check out the other games that were going on. I'm glad I did. Because what I witnessed along with millions of others around the country was nothing short of incredible, and even reeled in casual baseball fans that had turned the page to football more than a month ago.

In Atlanta, the Braves were in the midst of an implosion for the ages. Having won just 9 games in September while surging St. Louis had already gone 20-8 in the last month of the season, Atlanta needed to hold their slim 3-1 seventh inning lead on Philadelphia. A win and a Cardinals loss would wipe the slate clean and the Braves could forget their September swoon altogether. If both teams won, at least Atlanta would be able to salvage their disappointment with a 1-game tiebreaker Thursday night in St. Louis.

When the Cardinals scored five runs in the top of the first inning in Houston, the Braves knew that this was it. Win or go home. The Phillies, playing for nothing with their top-seeing long since clinched, chipped away at the Atlanta lead in the 7th inning when Braves shortstop Jack Wilson committed a throwing error, allowing Raul Ibanez to score.

However, Atlanta still had 3-2 lead heading into the top of the 9th inning. Their all-star closer, Craig Kimbrel, was ready to shut Philadelphia down. From there, the Braves could head to St. Louis to meet the Cardinals, who just finished off the Astros behind Chris Carpenter's two-hit masterpiece, 8-0.

Kimbrel, however, just couldn't find the plate, walking three and surrendering the lead when Chase Utley's sacrifice fly scored Pete Orr from third.

Four extra innings later, Philadelphia deadline pickup Hunter Pence's weak two-out bloop hit somehow found the hole between first and second base scoring Brian Schneider from third, giving Philadelphia the lead at 4-3. The Braves were put out of their misery minutes later when Freddie Freeman grounded into a double play to end the game and their season.

In the 1990's, the Atlanta Braves were known for being baseball's bridesmaid. They had gone to the playoffs a record 14-straight seasons, but only had one World Series championship to show for it. This year, the Braves weren't the bridesmaid; they were that crazy, unstable aunt you really didn't want to invite to the wedding in the first place.

To put Atlanta's historical collapse into perspective, they were 10 ½ games ahead of St. Louis on Aug. 26. Even a week and a half later the Braves were still up by 8 ½ games. Last night, they became the first team in baseball history to blow an 8-game September playoff-spot lead.

By the time the evening was over, however, they wouldn't be the last team to accomplish that dubious feat.

Heading into play last night in the American League Wild Card race, the Tampa Bay Rays had caught the Boston Red Sox for the lead. Somehow, Boston's late season collapse was even worse that Atlanta's. Heading into play Wednesday night, the Red Sox needed a win not only to stave off elimination, but to avoid going 7-20 for September, which would tie their team record for the worst final month of the year.

Meanwhile, at Tropicana Field, the Rays were in instant trouble. After scoring one run in the first inning, a Mark Teixeira grand slam in the second put the Yankees up 5-0. New York tacked on one more run in the fourth and another in the fifth, and it looked like they would cruise to an easy win.

In Boston, Red Sox fans watching on television were breathing a sigh of relief; after all, even if the Red Sox were to lose, at the very least they would be able to redeem themselves with a tiebreaker game on Thursday afternoon.

In Baltimore, the Red Sox and Orioles were locked up in a back-and-forth affair with Boston leading 3-2 when the skies opened up. When the game's 1 hour 26 minute rain delay began, the Red Sox led and the Rays were trailing 7-0 heading into the 8th inning.

By the time play resumed, the Red Sox Nation had to feel like they got a sucker punch to the gut.

In St. Petersburg, Fla., as the rain poured down 875 miles to their Northeast, the Rays had only six outs to work with and seven runs to make up on the Yankees. Johnny Damon, the former Red Sox cult hero, singled to lead off the bottom of the eighth. A couple of batters later, when reliever Luis Ayala came into put out Boone Logan's fire, all he did was dump a gallon of propane on the mess. With the bases loaded, the Rays' Sam Fuld walked, Sean Rodriguez was hit by a pitch, B.J. Upton hit a sacrifice fly and then Evan Longoria cleared the bases with a 3-run home run.

When the dust settled, Tampa Bay had put up six runs but still had one more to go. And all the Red Sox could do was watch in the Camden Yards visitor's clubhouse, waiting to go back on the field.

Down to the Rays' last strike; right on cue from the gods of baseball, little-used Dan Johnson, appearing in just his 31st game of the season, jerked a Cory Wade pitch over the fence for his second home run of the season and tying the game for the Rays.

The word "bedlam" in St. Pete is quite relative. Normally that description involves the local shuffleboard tournament over at Del Boca Vista, but among the embarrassingly small crowd of 29,518 that wasn't a displaced Yankees fan, bedlam did indeed break out.

Alexander Cartwright couldn't have written a script like this. Even Hollywood, known for their fantastical and fictionalized portrayals of sports (have you seen Any Given Sunday?) couldn't have penned clawing back from a 7-0 deficit in the 8th inning capped off by a two-out, two-strike moon shot from the last guy on the bench. Seriously?

As the Rays and Yankees took the field for extra innings, the Baltimore skies dried out, allowing the Red Sox and Orioles to resume play. Would the Red Sox be able to hang on to their slim lead? Could the Rays do the unthinkable and win after having trailed by so many runs down so late in the final game of the season?

In Baltimore, as the clock struck midnight in the East, the Red Sox and Orioles were heading into the 9th inning; in St. Petersburg, the Rays and Yankees were heading into the 12th.

Boston's Jonathan Papelbon, a four-time All Star closer, had calmly struck out Adam Jones and Mark Reynolds. And then all hell broke loose.

Chris Davis took Papelbon's first offering and doubled to right. The next batter, Nolan Reimold, took a 2-2 pitch to right for a ground rule double, scoring Davis.

Game tied. The Red Sox Nation looks for their defibrillators, while praying that Papelbon, as he had done 219 times before, would get them out of it. As Robert Andino's line drive sunk towards Carl Crawford's outstretched glove, so sunk the hopes of baseball's second most insufferable fans (you can use your imagination who is No. 1 on the list). Crawford, Boston's $142 million disappointment (and former Rays cult hero), couldn't come up with the catch nor the throw to nail Reimold at the plate.

Game over; Orioles win, 4-3. Four minutes later, just as the Red Sox all got into the clubhouse to watch it live before their already-dumbfounded eyes; Longoria sent a line-drive down the left-field line that cleared the 5-foot high fence by maybe six inches.

Rays win; Red Sox lose, thus Boston becoming the first team in baseball history to blow a 9-game playoff spot lead in September.

Wednesday night, in summation, we witnessed goats emerge in two all star closers (Kimbrel and Papelbon), we saw stars being stars (Longoria and Carpenter), and we saw clutch stardom from a couple of nobody's (Dan Johnson and Robert Andino). We also saw two long-since clinched No. 1 seeds play to the hilt to maintain the integrity of the final days of the season, which all of baseball appreciates. Well...almost all of baseball.

Wednesday night was a season-ender for the ages. If you missed it, you weren't alone. After the Brewers clinched home field advantage, many of you went to bed, secure in the knowledge that your team would be able to have a leg up in the NLDS. Some have said that it was baseball's greatest night ever. While I don't know about that, I do know that it was one I won't forget for a long time.

It also got me to thinking: If that's how the regular season ends, I can't wait for how the playoffs are going to unfold.