Mike Celizic

Somewhere, there are still people who think wild cards are an abomination that has no place in baseball. None of them are from Texas, Boston, San Francisco, Colorado, Atlanta or Miami.

Without the wild-card races, this September would be as exciting as watching pennies tarnish. But with them, baseball’s got all the excitement it can hope for.

It’s got not only traditional powers like the Red Sox and Braves fighting for yet another date with October baseball. It’s also got the Rangers, who haven’t been seen in the playoffs in a decade and have never been spotted beyond the first round. And along with them are the Giants, reborn without BALCO Barry Bonds, and boasting a starting rotation that should scare anybody — if they can get past the most surprising team in the majors, the Colorado Rockies.

The Rangers, Giants and Rockies are everything wild cards should be. The Rockies came out of nowhere, inspired by a managerial change and their mile-high launching pad. They’re also got four pitchers with double-digit wins backed up by a pretty good closer, Huston Street.

But the team you don’t want to run into, should it draw the wild card, is San Francisco. In a short series, pitching usually rules, and the Giants have two kid aces, Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, along with the resurrected Barry Zito, who’s finally pitching somewhere near where his enormous contract says he should be. They can all pitch deep into ballgames, and that makes them dangerous.

In the AL, the Rangers are not just a wild card but a question mark. They can hit. Texas has four players with at least 22 home runs and eight with at least 12. They don’t have much depth in the starting pitching — Scott Feldman at 14-4 and Kevin Millwood at 10-8 are their only starters with more than seven wins. And they rely on a two-headed bullpen with Frank Francisco and C.J. Wilson sharing closing duties.

But somehow, the Rangers keep hanging in the race. And, after taking two of three from both Boston and the Yankees earlier this month, they’ve got everybody’s attention.

What makes it great theater is the team they’re chasing — Boston. Texas still has a shot in the AL West, but the Angels have a five-game lead. The Red Sox lead in the wild card is 4 games, and the Red Sox are wounded.

If it were just the Rangers chasing the Angels in the AL West, half the country wouldn’t notice. The games finish too late. But anytime Boston is involved, everyone pays attention either because they want the Red Sox to win or are sticking pins into Kevin Youkilis bobble heads in hopes that they crash and burn.

Any way you look at it, then, the wild card is where all the action is. The divisional races are all but closed.

Boston’s 6 1/2 and not getting any closer to the Yankees in the AL East. For Red Sox Nation, it’s wild card or nothing. It’s six games for the Angels in the AL West, and in the AL Central, the Tigers enjoy a 3½-game lead over the Twins, who have had to rally desperately to get their record up to .500.

St. Louis is lounging on a 10 1/2-game cushion in the NL Central. Philly has loped out to a 7 1/2-game edge in the NL East. The Dodgers, after threatening to give up a big lead in the NL West, have reestablished a 5 1/2-game lead over Colorado and San Francisco.

I’m not saying none of the division leaders are in danger. But we’re past the point where a hot streak alone can vault a team into the lead. Somebody’s got to help by going into a swoon.

Without the wild card, we’ve got six teams pretty much in and three teams with slim shots — nine teams playing for six division titles.

With the wild card, we’ve got four National League teams fighting for the extra slot and two in the American League. That’s 12 teams going for eight playoff slots. You can call the wild card unnatural, but you can’t deny that it makes you pay attention.

And this year is made more intriguing by the presence of Colorado, Texas and San Francisco in the mix. Boston, Atlanta and Florida have all won the World Series in relatively recent memory. But while the Rockies have been there as recently as 2007, they’ve never won a Series. The Rangers have won only one playoff game in their history, and that was 10 years ago.

And then there are the Giants, who haven’t won since they were playing in the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan.

Baseball excels at giving us the usual suspects in the playoffs, and this year it’s right on track do it again. The Dodgers, Yankees, Angels, Tigers, Cardinals and Phillies have been there before, and we’d be disappointed if most of them weren’t playing for a ring.

But it’s the wild card — the unexpected — that makes us continue to pay attention even after the NFL has unleashed itself on the landscape. This year, it’s doing just that.

Also on NBCSports.com Will Serena surive Week 1 at the French Open? 'Dancing' man Castroneves talks Indy 500 PFT: Jets' Scott doesn't want son to play football Follow us on Twitter: @NBCSports  |  And Facebook