Last night, the St. Louis Cardinals used a 9th inning home run from Yadier Molina to defeat the New York Mets in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. The Cardinals now hop on a plane to Detroit, to meet the Tigers in game 1 of the World Series.
This series illustrates how much baseball has changed in my lifetime. When these two teams last met in the World Series, it was 1968, and I was in diapers. Both teams won their leagues in the last year before divisional play. There were no division series or league championship series, but the best team over 162 games won the pennant and went to the World Series.
Turn the clock to 2006. The Tigers led the American League Central Division for almost the entire season, until the final weekend. They had a series at home against the Kansas City Royals, the team with the worst record in baseball. Detroit needed to win only one game to clinch the division. The Royals swept three games from the Tigers, including a comeback from a 6-0 deficit in the final game. What did it cost the Tigers? They got to be the wild card team, and had to play the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs, instead of hosting Oakland. In the old days, they would have stayed home, with 95 wins. Instead, they got hot, winning the last three games against the Yankees, and sweeping four games from the Athletics.
The Cardinals, on the other hand, led the weak National League Central division for the entire season. With two weeks to play, they had an 8 ½ game lead over the Houston Astros. They lost 8 games in a row, and the lead shrunk to ½ game, before they split a four-game series with Milwaukee to salvage a division championship. They advanced to the post-season with a record of 83-78. They would have finished 13 1/2 games out of first place in their old division, the National League East. They were given up for dead in the post-season, but beat San Diego 3 games to 1, then beat the Mets in a 7 game series to advance to the World Series.
What does this prove? Baseball has changed, especially with the addition of the extra division and the wild card. The best team in the regular season does not always win at the end, especially in the convoluted post-season. Anything can happen in a best-of-5 or best-of-7 series, and usually does. It’s all about timely hitting and pitching.
I’ve bombed one prediction already, as I picked the Yankees to beat San Diego in the World Series. I’ll take a do-over on that one. Detroit in 5.
Friday, October 20, 2006
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6 comments:
I agree with you, John, and you might recall another key element that revolutionized the game in 1973 -- the oft-debated designated hitter. Being a fellow AL guy, as you know, I like the DH but I also like the way both teams have to utilize each league's set of rules regarding it come Series time.
Since the eight-team playoff format began in 1995 -- a year late because of the dreaded '94 strike, which killed the Expos' final serious title run and Matt Williams' run at Roger Maris's HR record* -- a staggering eight wild-card teams have now made the Series, including both in the 2002 Fall Classic between the Angels and Giants and now at least one for four straight years. And the Marlins, who have won two Series, have done so without ever having won a division championship, emerging as the wild-card from the NL playoffs both times. Joe Garagiola was right, baseball truly is a funny game, and even though the owners are stupid enough to chunk out all the money to the ego-loaded players (and look at the return the hated Yankees got from the $252 million man this year), it's still a great game and is so because it's unpredictable, with heroes like . Just wonder if anyone parlayed $10 in Nevada on the Tigers to win it all back in the winter.
I am sure there were purists who complained in the late '60s that the League Championship Series would ruin the significance of the regular season, but it didn't. Then they complained again in 1993, when we saw the last great winner-take-all division title race between the 104-58 Braves and the 103-59 Giants, but the Braves were out of gas when it came time to play the Phillies in the NLCS. And even those '73 Mets and their mere 82 regular-season wins took probably the best of the A's teams the distance in the Series.
Maybe the Tigers and Cardinals' respective final-stretch swoons were just what they needed to prep themselves for the postseason and regain their focus. You have two managers who have both won rings and know how to get the best out of the hands they are dealt, and both are even Steven as far as bullpen injuries are concerned. I think the Tigs will win, but I'd like to see it go six just so they can win it in front of their fans -- but let's spare the extracurricular car-burning celebrations from '84 this time! If the Cards win, though, it will be a clean and well-deserved celebration in the best baseball town in America, and all that will matter will be the 11 wins in the playoffs, not the 83 in the regular season.
The baseball season is not nearly as meaningless as say, the NHL regular season, but it has changed a ton with the wild-card, interleague play, and the return to the unbalanced schedule.
More teams are involved in pennant races for sure. The National League was terrible this year, but there were 8 or 9 teams with a chance at the wild card in the last two weeks of the season. In this year's American League, those teams would have been done. In the two-division setup, those teams would have been done. It does keep it interesting. It helps with gate receipts and TV ratings, also.
I can't forget, though, the last pennant race in before the most recent realignment. It was in the 1993 National League West. The Braves and the Giants both won more than 100 games, and it came down to the last game of the season, with the two teams tied. The Braves won on the last day, and the Giants played the archrival Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. The Giants ran out of pitching, and were down to young Salomon Torres (who is still pitching for the Pirates). Tommy Lasorda treated that game as if it were their World Series, and the Dodgers sent the Giants home miserable. The Giants were very good that year, and had to stay home. However, it was a very high quality and entertaining pennant race. Now, it is odd for a team such as this year's White Sox to win more than 90 games and stay home.
Things change, even in the old sport of baseball. I probably would have been ok with the Giants staying at the Polo Grounds and the Dodgers in Brooklyn. But, there is price to be paid for progress. Baseball needs help. The wild card and three divisions are a little unstable by baseball standards, but, overall, it's good for baseball. Most people aren't like me.
Terry: Great analysis.
BTW, they didn't burn cars in DET after the last Pistons championship, so hopefully they're done with that. They just have gang wars between hip-hop artists in DET now. :-)
Or, maybe they did burn cars in DET after the last Pistons championship. I just remember no one died there, and that was a little shocking.
So much to say ... I'll just say this. Go Tigers.
p.s. MLB is the only league that does playoffs right, imho.
And, on top of his teaching and coaching duties, he serves on staff at a church. http://www.mbbc.edu/page.aspx?m=212
I noticed when I was calling coaches in Wisconsin last year that a lot of the high school coaches there often teach a full load, and often teach classes other than history or driver's ed. Also, the athletic director is usually not the football coach, but is an activities coordinator for the school.
Oops, I placed the Maranatha comment under the wrong subject.
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