This will not be the first season in which player payrolls will not determine the makeup of the post-season population, but it continues the trend of recent years and could become the clearest example yet of the uprising of the poor and the downtrodden franchises, or put in a different perspective, conclusive evidence that money no longer dictates the post-season races. What it also could mean is that architects of lower revenue teams have done a better job of building winners than their wealthier brethren.

Entering Sunday’s games, 18 teams either led division or wild-card standings or were fewer than five games from the leaders. Most notable among the missing: the Boston Red Sox, whose $166.6 million payroll ranks behind only the New York Yankees’ $220.7 million and the Philadelphia Phillies’ $168.9 million. The payrolls, which are based on Aug. 31 40-man rosters, were sent to the 30 clubs by the commissioner’s office last week.

With the Yankees struggling to shake off the Baltimore Orioles and stay ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East and the Phillies a belated entrant in the National League wild-card race, it’s possible that they both could miss the playoffs, too, along with the lagging Anaheim Angels, who are fourth at $159.5 million, and the Detroit Tigers, fifth at $139 million, who can’t seem to overtake the Chicago White Sox in the A.L. Central.

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Roger Clemens has made two appearances as the star of the Sugar Land Sideshow. Now it appears that the 50-year-old – yes, 50 – Clemens may be ready to move to the Midway in Astroland.

Five years after he threw his last major league pitch (for the Yankees against the Indians Oct. 7, 2007), Clemens could take his place in a lineup with Bertha the Bearded Lady, Alphonso the Fearsome Fireater, Mehanahope the Living Mummy, Sebastian the Snake Charmer and El Hoppo the Living Frog Boy.

This would seem to be the appropriate milieu for a 50-year-old retired pitcher who seems intent on unretiring. I include him with these other sideshow figures (freaks?) because by coming back to pitch at his age and after his five years of retirement, Clemens is making himself into a carnival act.

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One national event centered in Washington, D.C., is scheduled for the first week of November. The city’s baseball fans hope another national event comes to the capital just before that. Great debates surround both evens. Which one will stir more passion and more controversy?

The event that is scheduled for Nov. 6 will mark the conclusion of the debate for the Presidency between Barack Obama, the incumbent, and his challenger, Mitt Romney. The event that is less certain is the possible conclusion of the World Series Nov. 1. For that date to be meaningful in Washington, the Nationals would have to be in the Series, and it would have to last seven games.

The debate in that instance would be over the absence of Stephen Strasburg from the Nationals’ roster and starting rotation. Mike Rizzo, the team’s general manager, declared that the pitcher’s season would end with his start Sept. 12 against the Mets in New York. On Saturday, though, manager Davey Johnson shortened Strasburg’s season even more, saying he was finished for the year.

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