The faces always change, but the words remain the same.

In clubhouses across the Majors, people are talking about the Wild Card again. It has been this way for a decade now, as the 10th anniversary of those first Wild Card races manifests itself with more implausible drama and must-win days and nights.

Consider this past weekend:

"You focus on your end goal -- to make the playoffs," said Marlins outfielder Jeff Conine, who won world championships with the Marlins as a Wild Card survivor in 1997 and 2003. "You know what you have to accomplish every night to do that. You go out there and try to win that game. It's a dogfight. When you have this many teams bunched up this tight, it's almost like the last one standing gets to go to the playoffs."

"The division leaders better watch out for the Wild Card teams because that's what happens," Phillies catcher Todd Pratt said. "Teams start playing playoff baseball the last month, where division leaders are playing well, but the pressure's not there. You've seen that happen a lot."

"To this point, it was the biggest game of the year for us," said Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez after the Yankees' 1-0 victory over the Red Sox on Sunday. "It was a lot more important game for us than it was for the Red Sox."

Yes, it is officially that time of year again. Survival time. Pins-and-needles time. Scoreboard-watching time. Wild Card time.

It's that time again when half of baseball seems to be battling for some kind of playoff berth, and most of them are focusing on that wonderful opportunity that was first seized by the Yankees and Rockies in 1995 as a way to get into a respective league's postseason without winning the division. The pressure is palpable every day now for the teams in those Wild Card races, as precious time dwindles fast.

And if the season ended today, the Wild Card would be coming out of the Central Division in both leagues. That is fairly significant in itself, because no AL Central club ever has won the Wild Card.

National League

Houston is clinging to a half-game lead over Florida in the National League Wild Card race, and those clubs are about to meet in Texas for a drama-packed series starting Monday with 20-game winner Dontrelle Willis taking the mound for Florida against the Astros' Brandon Backe. Philadelphia is just 1 1/2 games behind the Astros after beating the Marlins on Sunday behind Pat Burrell's big home run. And there are a slew of teams still bunched tightly not far behind. The Nationals are four out, followed by the Cubs, Brewers and Mets (all 5 1/2 out).

"We're going to see their guys," Astros second baseman Chris Burke, who homered in Sunday's lost cause, said of that huge series coming to Minute Maid Park. "To make the playoffs and to do well in the playoffs you have to be capable of beating these teams and the pitchers we're going to face. Hopefully we put our best foot forward and try to keep the [Wild Card] lead."

American League

Cleveland is rapidly emerging from a Wild Card "darling" into a tour de force over in the American League. That was emphatically clear to anyone who watched the ESPN Sunday Night game. It was over barely after home-plate umpire Paul Schrieber yelled, "Play ball!" The Indians hit for the cycle in their first five at-bats against Minnesota and had 10 runs after the first two innings. They have won seven in a row, and their winning pitcher Sunday, Cliff Lee, is 16-4 and hasn't lost since July. The Indians are 33-13 since July 22, easily the Majors' best since then, and they seem to be the 2005 version of the 2003 Marlins and 2004 Astros.

The Indians were able to maintain a 1 1/2-game Wild Card lead over the Yankees, who are in the decidedly unique position this September of playing chase. Naturally, the Bombers aren't relying on the Wild Card -- their classic 1-0 victory over the rival Red Sox on Sunday at Yankee Stadium pulled them within three games of Boston in the AL East standings. But time dwindles fast starting now, and the Wild Card becomes more important every day. Oakland lost a game in that race on Sunday and is now 2 1/2 behind the Tribe. It's a three-team race at this point, because the Twins are now 8 1/2 out and apparently relegated to spoiler status the rest of the way.

"I think anybody who's come out and watched these guys play, it's something to be proud of," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "These guys bring it every night, and they've been doing it all year."

C.C. Sabathia  /   P
		Born: 07/21/80 Height: 6'7" Weight: 290 lbs Bats: L / Throws: L More info: Player page Stats | Splits Gallery Team Site | Shop

Now left-hander C.C. Sabathia (13-9, 4.35 ERA) brings it to Jacobs Field in the form of a personal seven-game winning streak, and he will face Danny Haren (12-10, 4.04 ERA) as Oakland visits for a three-game series that could just as quickly change the Wild Card order. Meanwhile, the Yankees, who have won their division every year since 1998, follow up their series victory against Boston with a travel day on Monday and then a three-game series starting Tuesday at Tampa Bay. It would seem favorable for the Bombers if you just went by the present standings; most everyone, however, knows that the Devil Rays are 11-5 this year against the Yankees and could go down as one of the most important X-factors this entire season.

Giambi, whose home run was the lone scoring in Sunday's pitchers' duel in the Bronx, described this upcoming series as a test against "what seems to us like world champion Tampa Bay."

The Yankees are not only chasing Boston, but also a Cleveland club that has not celebrated a world championship since 1948. Houston never has won a World Series since it entered the Majors in 1962. But if the season ended right now, those would be your two Wild Cards. And here is the inescapable truth: The last three World Series winners have been Wild Cards. It was Anaheim in 2002, then Florida, then Boston. Ask many players, and they will tell you that there is a logical reason rather than coincidence: Right now is when October irons are being forged.

"We're playing every game like it's the last game of the season," Phillies outfielder Bobby Abreu said after Friday's game against Florida.

Perhaps the sentiment that best captured yet another September onset of Wild Card hysteria was shared by Indians pitcher Scott Elarton after his victory Saturday.

"I felt it tonight in the seventh," he said. "I knew it was a big inning for me. I had to step off the mound and ask myself, 'What are you doing?'"

He and the Indians were doing what so many fans seem to live for at this time of year. The Wild Card was maligned by baseball purists when it was instituted, but now it is probably hard for younger fans to imagine what pennant races were like without it.

"I didn't like it when it originally came up. I wasn't too crazy about it," Marlins manager Jack McKeon said last year. "But the more I see it, I think it's great for baseball. I didn't realize it had such an impact on so many cities."