Live to play another day

Last night, I casually mentioned to my wife that I watched live for the final pitch of every World Series since 1991. It's something I'm a little bit proud of - not to the point of über-obsession, but I still think it's sort of cool. (And yes, I understand it's nerdy). So as we got later in the night, the wife was asking me why I hadn't gone downstairs yet to see the final pitch. She took something that was important to me and made it important to her. In short, she understood. Just another reason I love her!

Anyway, last night didn't end up being the final game of the World Series, and while I was watching the ninth inning, I realized something that was a little surprising. Last night was the first time since Game 7 of the 2002 Series that a team won a World Series game when a loss would have eliminated them. That really surprised me. I couldn't believe it had been nine years since a team held off elimination, if even for one game. (This is not counting other playoff series, of course, as there have been several such instances in the ALCS since then.)

Then I thought about what actually took so long, why it took seven years to find a team with a fighting spirit, for lack of a better term. Then I thought about the last time the defending champion played in the World Series, and I had to go back to 2001, when the Yankees were in it for the fourth straight year.

This points again to how much the mental aspect plays into baseball success. Since it's a game with so much downtime in the action, with the all breaks between innings and even between pitches, there is plenty of time for somebody to mull over mistakes or worry about their next at bat. Mentally weak teams don't do well in the playoffs. The Yankees went to four straight World Series from 1998 to 2001 because they had players who didn't shrink from the moment and who wanted to be up in the big situation. Say what you want about how much money they're able to spend, but all the money in the world can't buy you confidence. When those Yankees stars started to retire in the early part of the decade, their dominance started to wane.

So it's refreshing to see the Phillies back in the World Series. Winning it last year gave them the confidence they need, and they know they'll never be intimidated in the playoffs again. So while I was originally surprised that it took this long for a team to fight off elimination, maybe I shouldn't have been. It's no coincidence that the first team to do so in seven years happened to be the defending champs.