The Sambard's Lair

1939 World Series: Four Straight

2012-02-27T05:09:00.003-08:00

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (106-45) - 11th World Series (Won in 1923, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938)
National League: Cincinnati Reds (97-57) - Second World Series (Won in 1919)

What Happened
The 1939 season started on quite a downer for the Yankees. Legendary first baseman Lou Gehrig took himself out of the lineup after only eight games, never to play again. The Yankees were devastated at the loss of their captain because of what was then a little-known disease.

For most teams, losing a legend and leader like Gehrig would have meant the end of the season. Not these Yankees, though. They hadn't won three straight World Series by being a one-man team. They went through their proper bit of mourning, then went about dominating the American League. Some historians say this Yankee team, and not the 1927 one, was the best baseball team of all time. With a healthy Gehrig, they might have broken the single-season wins record. Even without him, they won 106 games and were never really challenged in their run through the league.

Waiting for them in the World Series was the Cincinnati Reds, who made the World Series for the first time since "winning" the tainted 1919 series. They were eager to get rid of the bad taste from that win, and they had the team to do it, with two 25-game winners in the starting rotation and a good lineup led by Hall-of-Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi. In the first game, Cincinnati's Paul Derringer matched Red Ruffing pitch for pitch, with each giving up one run on four hits through eight. In the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees' own Hall-of-Fame catcher, Bill Dickey, ended the game on a walk-off single.

Following Game 1 was two games of Yankee dominance; Monte Pearson carried a one-hitter into the ninth in a 4-0 win in Game 2, while the Yankees took advantage of tiny Crosley Field to hit four home runs in a 7-3 Game 3 victory.

Defining Game
Game 4 was a true classic. After Derringer and Oral Hildebrand took dueling shutouts into the seventh inning, when the Yankees got on the scoreboard with a pair of solo home runs. The Reds responded with three in the bottom of the inning then one more in the bottom of the eighth. Three outs from forcing a fifth game, the Reds instead fell apart, letting the Yankees come back to tie the game.

In the top of the 10th came one of the weirdest plays in World Series history. With runners on the corners and nobody out, Joe DiMaggio hit a single to right that scored the go-ahead run. When right fielder Ival Goodman bobbled the ball, the Yankees' Charlie Keller tried to score from first. Goodman's throw got to home plate at the same, and Keller crashed into Lombardi. Keller knocked the ball away, but more importantly, knocked Lombardi dizzy. With Lombardi still recovering, DiMaggio came soaring around third and slid home to score the third run. Despite diving up a devastating "Little League" home run, the Reds fought back in the bottom of the 10th, putting the first two runners on base before going down.

Despite the Reds' valiant effort, the Yankees were just too good. Their fourth straight championship came easily, a fitting close to baseball's first great dynasty.

MVP
This was still the era before official MVPs were named, but this one would have been a slam dunk. Keller batted .438 with a double, a triple, and three home runs. With that, plus being prominently involved in the series-deciding three-run play, he would have been an easy pick.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Cincinnati	1	0	3	4
New York	2	4	7	7 (10)

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

85. 1939 - New York (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-0
86. 1910 - Philadelphia (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-1
87. 1905 - New York (N) def. Philadelphia (A) 4-1
88. 1965 - Los Angeles (N) def. Minnesota (A) 4-3
89. 1961 - New York (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-1
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1910 World Series: Transitions

2012-02-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: Philadelphia Athletics (102-48) - Second World Series
National League: Chicago Cubs (104-50) - Fourth World Series (won in 1907, 1908)

What Happened
The 1910 World Series was a series of transition, featuring one team on the way up and another on the way out. On the way out was the Chicago Cubs, looking for one more championship to cap their their run of four National League championships in five years. Like always, the Cubs had a great pitching staff, leading the league in virtually every pitching staff. For once, they added a strong offense, leading the league in home runs and triples. But with most of their stars getting into their 30s (which was old for ballplayers in that era), they were running out of opportunities to win.

On the way up was the Philadelphia Athletics. Though they had played in the World Series in 1905, much of their team had turned over by 1910. In their place was talented youngsters, including three-fourths of what would become the $100,000 Infield. Third baseman Frank Baker, shortstop Jack Berry, and second baseman Eddie Collins were in the starting lineup, and first baseman Stuffy McInnis was in his final year as a bench player. Those four would come to be known as the $100,000 Infield because of their eventual combined salaries. Yes, combined. The point is, they were stars, and their careers were just getting started.

But reach the top, they had to get through the Cubs. They were dealt a blow when ace Eddie Plank, one of their few holdovers from 1905, had to sit out the series with a sore arm. Taking his place in Game 1 was Charles Bender, who was given the clever nickname of "Chief" because of his Native American heritage. Bender only gave up three hits - two coming in the ninth while the Cubs tried to rally in vain - while Baker got three hits himself for the A's. The Cubs pounded Three-Finger Brown in Game 2, while 30-game winner Jack Coombs got the win for Philadelphia.

In Game 3, with Coombs pitching on only one day of rest for some reason, the A's offense exploded for 12 runs on 16 hits. They were a win away from the title, which became one inning away as Bender took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth. But for the second straight start, Bender tired in the ninth, and the Cubs tied it on Frank Chance's triple before winning the game in the 10th.

Game 5 was between Brown and Coombs, who was pitching on two days of rest this time. It was a 2-1 Philadelphia lead entering the eighth when Coombs himself started a rally with a single. Five runs later, and the A's started celebrating. It was the birth of their dynasty, and the end of Chicago's.

Defining Game
Chicago's offense showed some spark throughout the series, but Game 4 was the only one where they got any payoff for it. Chance's triple scored the tying run, and the Jimmy Sheckard hit the game-winning single to center in the bottom of the 10th. Sheckard's single was more than the hit that helped the Cubs stave off elimination - it was also the first walk-off hit in World Series history.

MVP
The A's only used two pitchers all series, so it would have been easy to pick either Bender of Coombs, but their offense was the real show. Collins, Baker, and Danny Murphy all batted above .400. Baker had three doubles and a triple, Collins had four doubles and four stolen bases, and Murphy had a series-high 9 rbi and the series' only home run. In other words, take your pick of any of the three.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Chicago	1	3	5	4 (10)	2
Philadelphia	4	9	12	3	7

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

86. 1910 - Philadelphia (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-1
87. 1905 - New York (N) def. Philadelphia (A) 4-1
88. 1965 - Los Angeles (N) def. Minnesota (A) 4-3
89. 1961 - New York (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-1
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1905 World Series: A String of Zeros

2012-02-21T05:19:00.000-08:00

The Teams
National League: New York Giants (105-48) - First World Series
American League: Philadelphia Athletics (92-56) - First World Series

What Happened
The Giants almost killed the World Series before it could establish itself. After a successful inaugural series in 1903 left many baseball fans wanting it to become a new annual tradition, the Giants, runaway winners of the 1904 National League pennant, announced that they would not participate in the World Series in 1904. The stated reason was that manager John McGraw didn't want to legitimize the American League, which he still considered a minor league.

Another main reason, though, was that it looked like the New York Highlanders (who would eventually be renamed the Yankees) would win the American League pennant. The last thing McGraw wanted was an opportunity for the Highlanders to claim the title of best team in New York, so he refused to play them. When Boston lapped the Highlanders in the final week of the season to claim their second straight AL crown, the Giants took a lot of heat for not playing in the World Series, but McGraw didn't back down. Eventually, though, the fans got their way. Though the move came too late to save the 1904 series, the National League announced that it would make the World Series an annual event starting in 1905.

It was fitting, then, that the Giants won the pennant again in 1905. Whatever their thoughts about playing in the World Series, they had to be happy that their opponents in 1905 were not the two-time champion Boston Americans (Red Sox) nor the cross-town Highlanders but the Philadelphia Athletics. The A's were a fine team, blessed with great pitching and a legendary manager of their own in Connie Mack. But in truth, they didn't have a chance, because the Giants had Christy Mathewson.

In truth, all the pitchers in the 1905 series stood out. All five games ended in shutouts, a World Series record that will almost certainly never be broken. Another virtually unbreakable record was set by Mathewson: he pitched in three games and threw three complete-game shutouts. That's 27 scoreless innings in one World Series.

There are all sorts of numbers that show just how dominant the pitching was in this series. The Athletics only batted .155 as a team, for example, with only five extra base hits. In the entire series, there was only one relief pitcher used, and he only pitched one inning of one game. And in the only game Philadelphia won, Game 2, all three of their runs were unearned, meaning that the Giants had an ERA of 0.00 in 44 innings pitched in the series.

The leader of it all, though, was Mathewson, whose brilliance made the series seem very anticlimactic. Maybe McGraw was right about the American League being an inferior league.

Defining Game
Game 5. One win from the title, McGraw gave the ball to Mathewson for the third time in the series for Game 5. Mathewson, of course, threw a shutout, giving up only five hits and four walks. Befitting the series, though, was how the Giants scored their two runs. They got one in the fifth on two walks, a sacrifice bunt, and a sacrifice fly that turned into a double play, then got another one in the seventh on a walk (to Mathewson), a ground-rule double, and a ground out. So yah, pitching ruled.

MVP
You really have to ask?

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	3	0	9	1	2
Philadelphia	0	3	0	0	0

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

87. 1905 - New York (N) def. Philadelphia (A) 4-1
88. 1965 - Los Angeles (N) def. Minnesota (A) 4-3
89. 1961 - New York (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-1
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1965 World Series: Lefty dominates

2012-02-20T05:51:00.001-08:00

The Teams
National League: Los Angeles Dodgers (97-65) - Third World Series (won in 1959, 1963)
American League: Minnesota Twins (102-60) - First World Series

What Happened
It might look strange, seeing a seven-game World Series ranked so low on the list. I mean, it had a winner-take-all game, the best kind of baseball game because they're so rare. Shouldn't a seven-game series automatically be considered an instant classic? Well, if the individual games themselves are all kind of "meh," it doesn't matter if there's four of them or if there's seven of them. And most of the games of the 1965 World Series were definitely "meh."

The biggest story lines of the '65 Series happened before it began. It started with the rise of the Twins, whose appearance was noteworthy not so much because they had been the Senators only four years earlier, but because they weren't the Yankees. It was only the third time since 1949 that someone other than the Yankees won the American League pennant and many baseball fans were happy to see someone new in the World Series.

The second story came before Game 1, when Dodgers' ace Sandy Koufax said he would not pitch in the game because it fell on Yom Kippur. While the Dodgers respected Koufax's religious beliefs, it put them in a bind. Not only would he not be available for Game 1, but it also meant that he most likely only be available for two games in the series instead of a possible three.

The Dodgers were in even more trouble when Don Drysdale, their other Hall-of-Fame starter, got rocked in an 8-2 Game 1 loss. Koufax came back to start Game 2, and he also lost, leaving the Dodgers stunned. Their biggest advantage was supposed to be their starting pitching, but the Twins had beaten Drysdale and Koufax in back-to-back games. The Dodgers went back to Los Angeles hurting and desperate.

The friendly environment of Chavez Ravine reinvigorated the Dodgers' pitching staff. No. 3 starter Claude Osteen shut out the Twins on five hits in Game 3, and then Drysdale and Koufax each got seven runs of support in wins in Games 4 and 5. Just as quickly as they had dug themselves a deep hole, the Dodgers turned things around and put the Twins behind the 8-ball.

Back home, the Twins beat Osteen in Game 6 to set up the deciding Game 7. Up to that point, the home team had won every game in the series. If the Twins were to make this the first World Series where the home team won every game, they would have to defeat Koufax in Game 7. Though it was Drysdale's turn in the rotation, Dodgers manager Walter Alston went to his star lefty on short rest. It turned out to be the right decision, as Koufax threw his second straight shutout to give the Dodgers the title.

Defining Game
Game 7. Based on the scoreboard, it was the only close game of the series. In reality, it was over when the Dodgers' Lou Johnson led off the fourth inning with a home run. The way Koufax was going, it was hard to believe the Twins would get two runs off him. When the Dodgers followed Johnson's home run with two more hits, leading to a second run, it was over. The Twins only threatened twice, and Koufax struck out 10 in a complete-game victory. I have it ranked 28th of the 36 World Series Game 7s.

MVP
Koufax, and it wasn't close. He lost Game 2, but that was more a result of his teammate's poor fielding than anything. Then he pitched complete-game shutouts in games 5 and 7, giving up only seven hits combined in the two games. His ERA for the series was 0.38, and he struck out 29 in 24 innings. Pure domination.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Los Angeles	2	1	4	7	7	1	2
Minnesota	8	5	0	2	0	5	0

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

88. 1965 - Los Angeles (N) def. Minnesota (A) 4-3
89. 1961 - New York (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-1
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1961 World Series: One for the role players

2012-02-16T06:16:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (109-53) - 26th World Series (won 18 previous times)
National League: Cincinnati Reds (93-61) - Fourth World Series (won in 1919, 1940)

What Happened
The 1961 regular season was all about the M&M boys. Two Yankees outfielders chased Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs, with Roger Maris catching and passing Ruth and Mickey Mantle falling just short.

Once the regular season was over, though, those two stopped being the focus of the Yankees. Mantle was injured and could only play in two games in the '61 World Series, and while Maris played the whole series, he was a non-factor with only two hits. Instead, the Yankees had to rely on their role players. Luckily for them, they had plenty of good ones, as would be expected for a 109-win team. Even without a healthy Mantle or an effective Maris, the Yankees were still better than the Reds.

A big reason for that was Whitey Ford. The 1961 season was the best of Ford's career, as he went a sublime 25-4, and he carried that momentum into the World Series with a two-hit shutout in Game 1. The Yankees gave away Game 2 with three errors that led to three unearned runs for Cincinnati. Game 3 featured Maris' only significant contribution to the narrative of the series, as his go-ahead home run in the ninth inning gave New York a 2-1 series lead.

Entering Game 4, Cincinnati had every reason to be optimistic. Sure, they were losing the series, but they had held the Yankees to just seven runs in the first three games; in fact, they had outscored them. They had every reason to believe they could hang with New York. But then they ran into Ford in Game 4. Though Ford only threw five innings, they were five more shutout innings. Reliever Jim Coates finished the shutout, and the Yankees bats came alive for 7 runs.

With the Yankees a win away from the championship, Game 5 turned early. With two outs in the first, Bobby Richardson was picked off first base, only to be safe when Gordy Coleman dropped the ball. Given a reprieve, the Yankees exploded for five runs in the first. Another five run inning in the third put the World Series to bed. A year after dominating the World Series but losing, the Yankees again dominated the World Series, but this time finished the job.

Defining Game
Game 3 was by far the best game of the series. The Reds took a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning, only to see that lead disappear on a two-out pinch-hit home run by Yankees backup catcher Johnny Blanchard. Maris then led off the ninth with his only extra-base hit of the series, a blast to deep right that gave the Yankees the lead. The Reds got a one-out double from Leo Cardenas in the bottom of the ninth but couldn't bring him home.

MVP
Ford was named MVP for his 14 shutout innings, but it just as easily could have been Richardson - who had nine hits, though all but one were singles - or Blanchard - who batted .400 with three extra-base hits.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Cincinnati	0	6	2	0	5
New York	2	2	3	7	13

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

89. 1961 - New York (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-1
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1990 World Series: The Nasty Boys

2012-02-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

The Teams
National League: Cincinnati Reds (91-71) - Ninth World Series (Won in 1919, 1940, 1975, 1976)
American League: Oakland Athletics (103-59) - Sixth World Series (Won in 1972, 1973, 1974, 1989)

What Happened
It wasn't supposed to be close. These two teams didn't deserve to be on the same field, much less play against each other in the World Series. It was a team about to establish itself as a great baseball dynasty against a team that had eked into the playoffs with a patchwork lineup, with only a strong relief corps as something to brag about. The 1990 World Series was expected to be a bloodbath.

And it was. Except the wrong team won.

After sweeping the World Series in 1989, the Oakland A's came back even stronger in 1990. Jose Canseco was healthy the entire season, Rickey Henderson won the AL MVP award in one of the best all-around seasons of all-time, and Dave Stewart won 20 games for the fourth straight season. They made mincemeat of the AL West, swept the Red Sox in the ALCS, and started licking their chops at the prospect of playing the lowly Reds in the World Series.

Meanwhile, all Cincinnati had to brag about was their bullpen, nicknamed the Nasty Boys both for their personality and for their stuff on the mound. Their lineup was above-average at best, their pitching staff was good but not great, and they were expected to be nothing more than a footnote in the story of Oakland's dynasty.

But then Cincinnati's Eric Davis hit a two-run home run off Stewart in the first inning of Game 1, leading the way to a 7-0 Cincinnati victory that put to bed all the talks comparing Oakland to the 1927 Yankees.

Their chances at a sweep gone, Oakland's started making careless mistakes. Over the course of a long season, Oakland's offensive prowess could usually cover up little mistakes, but in a four-game series with everything on the line, they were magnified. Such as when Canseco took a poor angle on a Billy Hatcher line drive in the 8th inning of Game 2. Hatcher ended up with a triple and later scored the game-tying run. Cincinnati won that game in 10 innings, taking a 2-0 lead. Then came Game 3, when Mark McGwire committed an error on a soft grounder in the third, which led to six unearned runs for the Reds and another stunning victory.

All the while, Oakland couldn't touch Cincinnati's pitchers, specifically their bullpen. In fact, Oakland didn't score a run after the third inning the entire series. The nadir came in Game 4, when the A's could manage only 2 hits against Cincinnati ace Jose Rijo. As expected, the series was over in four games. Like nobody expected, it was the Reds who were celebrating after Game 4.

Defining Game
Game 2. It showed the best of Canseco - a towering second-inning home run that played a part in Oakland taking a 4-2 lead - and the worst of Canseco - his misplay of Hatcher's liner, a play he botched so badly that it caused manager Tony LaRussa to curse him out in public and eventually bench him for Game 4. The game also showed off Cincinnati's biggest strength. After falling behind 4-2, the Reds went to their bullpen, and the Nasty Boys threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings the rest of the way. Then, Cincinnati showed that you can win without power, as three weak ground ball hits led to their game-winning rally in the 10th.

MVP
The writers picked Jose Rijo, which was a perfectly fine choice; Rijo won games 1 and 4, giving up only 1 run in 15 innings in the series. But they could have easily picked Hatcher, who started the series with seven straight hits and ended up hitting .514 for the series. In fact, the only thing that could stop him was being hit by a pitch in Game 4. While his teammates were celebrating the championship on the field, Hatcher was in the hospital with a broken wrist.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Oakland	0	4	3	1
Cincinnati	7	5 (10)	8	2

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

90. 1990 - Cincinnati (N) def. Oakland (A) 4-0
91. 1966 - Baltimore (A) def. Los Angeles (N) 4-0
92. 1927 - New York (A) def. Pittsburgh (N) 4-0
93. 2004 - Boston (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
94. 1932 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
95. 1908 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-1
96. 1999 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-0
97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

1966 World Series: The Birds fly

2012-02-13T05:37:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: Baltimore Orioles (97-63) - First World Series
National League: Los Angeles Dodgers (95-67) - Fourth World Series (won in 1959, 1963, 1965)

What Happened
With two outs in the bottom of the third inning of Game 1, Jim Gilliam drew a bases-loaded walk for the Dodgers, cutting their deficit to 4-2. Catcher Johnny Roseboro followed that at bat by popping out in foul territory, ending the threat. The Dodgers were likely kicking themselves for wasting such a golden scoring opportunity and only getting one run. Little did they know what was to come.

The Dodgers of the 60s had earned a reputation for being an all-pitching, no-offense team. With Hall-of-Famers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale anchoring the rotation, they didn't really need that much offense to have success. Their 1966 team took that reputation to the extreme, though: No regular offensive player batted above .288, and nobody drove in more than 74 runs. The Dodgers ranked in the bottom half of the league in every offensive stat except stolen bases.

The Orioles, meanwhile, were loaded. Aside from a pitching staff that rivaled that of the Dodgers, the Orioles had offense to spare, led by triple crown winner Frank Robinson. Thirteen years after leaving the ineptitude of St. Louis behind them, the Orioles had built a powerful, deep, and - most importantly - young team that seemed poised to rule baseball.

Because of the talent disparity, the Dodgers had to be nearly perfect to win this series. They were not. After Gilliam drew that bases-loaded walk in Game 1, the Dodgers failed to score the rest of the series. For 33 straight innings, the Orioles kept them off the scoreboard, and they often kept them off the bases altogether, as the Dodgers only got 17 hits in the entire series.

The Dodgers' pitchers did what they could. Sandy Koufax got no help at all in Game 2, as his defense committed six errors behind him and his offense gave him no runs; it was a less-than-ideal result for what turned out to be his final Major League game. Games 3 and 4 were tighter, both ending 1-0. But it's hard to win when you don't score. The Dodgers went down quietly. In the span of four games, the Dodgers' dynasty died and the Orioles' dynasty began.

Defining Game
Game 2. Koufax got the ball for the Dodgers hoping to turn the series around against Orioles ace Jim Palmer. The game was scoreless entering the fifth inning when, in a disastrous sequence, Dodgers center fielder Willie Davis committed three errors in the span of two batters, leading to the first two runs of the game. Baltimore added two more runs, knocking Koufax out of the game - and into retirement - in the sixth.

MVP
Frank Robinson. In his first year with the Orioles after starring for the Reds, Robinson won the triple crown in 1966, then capped that with two home runs and a triple. He also scored four runs, more than the entire Dodgers team.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Baltimore	5	6	1	1
Los Angeles	2	0	0	0

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

91. 1966 - Baltimore (A) def. Los Angeles (N) 4-0
92. 1927 - New York (A) def. Pittsburgh (N) 4-0
93. 2004 - Boston (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
94. 1932 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
95. 1908 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-1
96. 1999 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-0
97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

1927 World Series: Murderer's Row

2012-02-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (110-44) - Fifth World Series (won in 1923)
National League: Pittsburgh Pirates (94-60) - Fourth World Series (won in 1909, 1925)

What Happened
The story is told so often that you start to wonder if it's apocryphal. During batting practice before Game 1 of the 1927 World Series, the Yankees kept hitting blast after blast deep into the Forbes Field seats. The bombs didn't let up. Supposedly, the Pirates were so intimidated by the site of Ruth, Gehrig, and Co. making their giant ballpark look small that the series was over before it began. Or so the legend goes.

It's a convenient story to tell after the fact. After all, these were the Yankees, Murderer's Row, the greatest Yankee team of all time. Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, more than any other team in the league. Lou Gehrig hit 47 homers, with 175 runs batted in. Tony Lazzeri was third in the league with 18 home runs. A Yankee lead the league in every offensive category except batting average. They annihilated the American League so thoroughly that the pennant race was over in July. The World Series was supposed to be nothing more than a coronation, the crowning of the greatest baseball team ever assembled.

It wasn't quite that simple, though. The Pirates had won the World Series in 1925, beating the legendary Walter Johnson in Game 7. They had five future Hall of Famers in their lineup, a lineup that, aside from the home runs, was just as dangerous as New York's.

And the Pirates gave the Yankees a good fight. Many people forget that in the glare of the Yankees' 110-win regular season and in the fact the series ended up as a New York sweep. But the Yankees needed to hold off an eighth-inning Pittsburgh rally to win Game 1, didn't put away Game 2 until a three-run eighth of their own, and won the series on a walk-off wild pitch in Game 4. So yah, it was a sweep, the only fitting result for a team that good. But the Pirates gave the Yankees as good a fight as any team could have been expected to.

Defining Game
Game 4. When Ruth hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead, it's possible the Yankee fans started celebrating their impending World Championship (I don't know. I wasn't there. It was 1927 - my grandpa was born in 1927). The Yankees might have gotten ahead of themselves, too, thinking about the champagne shower ahead of them, just 12 outs away. You have to get those outs, though, and the Yankees made things interesting with two eighth-inning errors that let the Pirates tie the game.

Then came the bottom of the ninth. The first two Yankees got on base, bringing up Ruth. What a perfect way to cap off the great season, the great Ruth getting the World Series-winning hit ... but a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third. Ruth was, of course, walked from there. Gehrig then had his chance, but he struck out. So did Bob Meusel. What was happening here? Why couldn't the greatest team ever finish the job? Up came Lazzeri, and he didn't get the series-winning hit, either; however, he was smart enough to lay off the pitch in the dirt that bounced to the backstop, allowing the series-ending run to come home.

MVP
Unofficially, Ruth. He hit the only two home runs of the series, batted .400, and even stole a base. Plus, he supposedly intimidated the Pirates beyond repair with his batting-practice home runs before Game 1. And when it was all over, he probably threw a hell of a party.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

New York	5	6	8	4
Pittsburgh	4	2	1	3

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

92. 1927 - New York (A) def. Pittsburgh (N) 4-0
93. 2004 - Boston (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
94. 1932 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
95. 1908 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-1
96. 1999 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-0
97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

2004 World Series: And so it ends

2012-02-07T19:39:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: Boston Red Sox (98-64) - Tenth World Series (won in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918)
National League: St. Louis Cardinals (105-57) - 16th World Series (won in 1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967, 1982)

What Happened
Everything that mattered for the Red Sox in 2004 happened in the ALCS. That's just the simple truth. They famously went down 3 games to 0 to the Yankees, and then Dave Roberts stole second, turning the series on its ear. David Ortiz got a couple of clutch hits, Curt Schilling's foot started bleeding, and the Red Sox exorcised their demons by beating the Yankees in seven games.

After the drama of the ALCS, the World Series was pretty anticlimactic. People expecting the Curse of the Bambino to rear its ugly head must have been disappointed. Boston committed eight errors combined in the first two games, yet left Boston with a 2-0 series lead because of an offense that kept scoring runs in bunches. (Schilling's foot started started bleeding into his sock again in Game 2, but for the record, the true Bloody Sock Game was Game 6 of the ALCS. So there).

Armed with a 2-0 lead in the World Series, the Red Sox did what they had been waiting to do since 1998 - they gave the ball to Pedro Martinez in a World Series game. He completely controlled the Cardinals from the first pitch, giving up only four hits to put Boston on the brink. Game 4 was nothing more than a nine-inning-long party, as Red Sox fans were finally able to celebrate after 86 years of pain.

Perhaps more impressive than ending the curse, though, was the ease in which they did it. St. Louis was a legitimately good team in 2004, probably the best team of Tony LaRussa's tenure as manager, and they were relegated to nothing more than a footnote to history.

Defining Game
Game 1. Boston scored four runs in the first and three in the third, but kept letting St. Louis back into the game because of poor pitching and poor fielding. Boston finally got the lead for good after a two-run 8th inning home run by Mark Bellhorn. With the Cardinals finally beaten back, the Red Sox could relax the rest of the series.

MVP
Manny Ramirez. It really could have been anybody. Schilling, Martinez, and Derek Lowe all got through their starts without giving up a run. Four different hitters batted above .300 for the series, and five hitters had more than one extra base hit. The voters settled on Ramirez, despite the fact that he only had one extra-base hit for the series. But really, it didn't matter. In the aftermath of Game 4, very few people were paying attention to who the MVP was.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

St. Louis	9	2	1	0
Boston	11	6	4	3

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

93. 2004 - Boston (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
94. 1932 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
95. 1908 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-1
96. 1999 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-0
97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

1932 World Series: Called Shot

2012-02-01T05:41:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (107-47) - Seventh World Series (Won in 1923, 1927, 1928)
National League: Chicago Cubs (90-64) - Seventh World Series (Won in 1907, 1908)

What Happened
Virtually every player on every team made fun of Babe Ruth. Such was the height of his fame - and of his opponents' jealousy. Ever the showman, Ruth thrived on it, often shouting insults right back at his taunters, laughing as he rounded the bases after another moon shot of a home run.

Sometimes, though, things got downright vicious. In the 1932 World Series, the Chicago Cubs were especially ruthless to Ruth. He gladly took his insults and gave them right back, often calling the Cubs cheapskates for giving former Yankee Mark Koenig only a half-share of the World Series money.

Things took a turn in Game 3, though. Despite two relatively easy Yankee wins in the first two games of the series, the Cubs didn't stop with the bench jockeying. They called Ruth fat. They called him a gorilla. They made fun of his wife. Somewhere along the line, Ruth stopped taking it lightheartedly and started taking it personally. His shouts toward the Cubs bench were joined by gestures and finger pointing. The fans were getting into it. Things were getting ugly.

It was the top of the fifth. Ruth had already hit a three-run home run in the first inning, but the Cubs had come back to tie the game at 4. With one out, Ruth came to the plate, with the Cubs' taunting as loud as it had been all series. Cubs pitcher Charlie Root threw a first-pitch strike. The fans howled. Ruth pointed toward the Cubs dugout and held up one finger. After two balls out of the zone, Root threw another strike. Again, Ruth pointed toward the dugout, holding up two fingers.

Here is where fiction blurs into reality, where legend grows into fact. At this point in the at bat, Ruth pointed in the general direction of Root. A film of the at bat shows this indisputably. But what isn't known is exactly where Ruth was pointing. Was he pointing at Root? At the deep center field bleachers? Or just at the Cubs dugout?

The legend, of course, says that Ruth was pointing to center field, telling the Cubs exactly where the next pitch was going to end up. He was supposedly calling his shot. Naturally, he hit the next pitch exactly where he was pointing, the longest home run ever hit at Wrigley Field. The crowd was silenced, Ruth ran around the bases laughing and pointing at the Cubs. And a legendary career had its iconic moment.

Ruth himself was inconsistent in saying whether he called his shot or not. At first he was non-committal, but later, perhaps realizing what a good story it made, he went along with the legend. And why not? At this point, it's impossible to disprove. For all intents and purposes, Ruth called his shot. Who's going to say otherwise?

Ruth's shot essentially clinched the series. The Cubs were silenced, their spirit broken. The Yankees, already up 2 games to 0, would go on to sweep, their third straight World Series sweep. Ruth entered into immortality, and went out on a high note. His "called shot" was the last World Series home run of his career.

MVP
Lou Gehrig (unofficially). Seriously. This series was a microcosm of Gehrig's career. Ruth got all the attention, what with his called shot and all, but Gehrig was quietly much, much better. Ruth hit two home runs in the series, but Gehrig hit three, including one on the next pitch after Ruth's called shot. Ruth batted .333, but Gehrig batted .529. He was, by far, the best player on the field. Not that anybody noticed.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Chicago	6	2	5	6
New York	12	5	7	13

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

94. 1932 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
95. 1908 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-1
96. 1999 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-0
97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

1908 World Series: Dry Spell

2012-01-31T05:02:00.000-08:00

The Teams
National League: Chicago Cubs (99-55) - Third World Series (Won in 1907)
American League: Detroit Tigers (90-63) - Second World Series

What Happened
1908 featured the first rematch in World Series history, as the Cubs and Tigers met for the second year in a row. Since the Cubs had just finished picking the bits of Tiger out of their teeth after the previous year's annihilation, there was little reason to believe that this year's series would be any different.

Thing were a little different in 1908, though. A year older and wiser, the Tigers used the previous year's humiliating experience as inspiration. They came from behind to take a lead into the ninth inning in Game 1 before the Cubs put the game away with six straight singles. Game 2 was scoreless until the bottom of the eighth, when the Cubs hit for the cycle in a six-run rally to take a 2-0 series lead. Still, the Tigers didn't give in and finally got their first win in a World Series game with an 8-3 win in Game 3.

Instead of turning the momentum, though, the Tigers' Game 3 win just made the Cubs mad. Specifically, it made their pitchers mad. The Tigers only got seven hits the rest of the series as the Cubs closed out the series with 18 consecutive scoreless innings. For the second straight year, the Cubs celebrated a championship. With two straight titles and three straight National League pennants, the Cubs were officially a dynasty. With their nearly untouchable pitching staff, it seemed like several more titles were foregone conclusions.

Of course, that didn't happen. The Cubs fell behind Pittsburgh in 1909, lost the World Series in 1910, and then saw their window of greatness close. Their great pitchers got old, their hitters stopped hitting, and their dynasty fell apart. They haven't won the World Series since. Their 103-year title drought is the longest in the history of North American professional sports.

Defining Game
Game 1 featured two things that had been missing from most of the World Series games to that point - wild swings in momentum and lots of runs. After the Tigers took a 1-0 lead on a single by Ty Cobb, the Cubs used four hits and two Tiger errors in the third to make it 4-1. After another Chicago run Detroit cut it to 5-4 in the seventh before a two-run single in the eighth gave them the lead entering the ninth. Three outs from taking the series lead, the Tigers instead fell apart, giving up six straight Chicago singles - with a double steal thrown in. The Cubs won 10-6, the second time in 25 all time World Series games that a team got to double figures in runs.

MVP
Orval Overall (unofficial). Aside from having the coolest name in the series (barely beating out Three-Finger Brown), Overall got complete-game victories in games 2 and 5, giving up only 7 hits and 1 run in the two games. His performance in Game 2 was especially meaningful, as the Cubs needed eight innings to get on the scoreboard against Detroit.

Random Fact
When Joe Tinker hit a home run in the eighth inning of Game 2, it was more than just the game-clinching blast. It was the first home run hit by any team in any World Series game featuring the Cubs. Considering that was the 13th World Series game in Cubs history, that's the perfect way to put the Deadball Era into context.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Detroit	6	1	8	0	0
Chicago	10	6	3	3	2

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

95. 1908 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-1
96. 1999 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-0
97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

1999 World Series: The Team of the 90s

2012-01-30T05:43:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (98-64) - 37th World Series (won 24 previous times)
National League: Atlanta Braves (103-59) - Fifth World Series (Won in 1995)

What Happened
Fresh off a dominating season and World Series the previous season, the Yankees were almost as strong again in 1999. Sure, they didn't win as many games, but they still had the same core of players from their 114-game winners the previous season. The Braves were just as strong. After missing the World Series despite winning 106 games in 1998, the Braves won 103 in 1999 and, more importantly, survived the National League playoffs to set up a long-awaited rematch of the 1996 Series.

Like always, the Braves were known for their phenomenal pitching, and the Braves' great starters did a pretty good job of keeping the Yankees' big bats under control. The problem was that their own hitters did next to nothing against the Yankees' arms.

The series might have been decided in the late stages of Game 1. Despite the fact that Orlando Hernandez had given up only two hits, the Yankees were trailing Greg Maddux 1-0 entering the eighth inning. The Braves brought in Brian Hunter as a defensive replacement at first base that inning, and he promptly committed two errors that led to a four-run outburst by New York.

The rest of the series drove home the point that Atlanta was very good, but the Yankees were just better. They had more pop in their offense, and when they got a lead, they had the ultimate weapon in Mariano Rivera waiting in the bullpen to close things out. Rivera got the save in Game 1, then got the victory in an extra-inning win in Game 3. He closed out the series with a save in Game 4, the win that gave the Yankees their second straight sweep and established them as the Team of the 90s.

Defining Game
Game 3. Falling behind likely Hall of Famer Tom Glavine 5-1 in the fifth, the Yankees brought out the big bats. Home runs in the fifth, seventh, and eighth innings helped the Yankees tie the game, and Chad Curtis' walkoff home run in the 10th - his second of the game - put New York on the brink of a championship.

MVP
Rivera. He could have won the award the previous year, too. The Yankees' star closer was unhittable in the 1999 series. He pitched in three of the four games, giving up only three hits. Though he pitched only 4 2/3 innings, his mental dominance was just as big a factor in the voting as his on-field performance.

Random Fact
The sweep gave the Yankees 12 consecutive wins in World Series games, with their last loss coming in Game 2 of the 1996 series. The streak tied their own record for most consecutive World Series games won, set during sweeps in 1927, 28, and 32. The Yankees would win the first two games of the 2000 Series to extend the record to 14 before finally losing.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

New York	4	7	6 (10)	4
Atlanta	1	2	5	1

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

96. 1999 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-0
97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

1963 World Series: The Dodgers as America's Team

2012-01-26T18:45:00.000-08:00

The Teams
National League: Los Angeles Dodgers (99-63) - Second World Series (Won in 1959)
American League: New York Yankees (104-57) - 28th World Series (Won 20 previous times)

What Happened
By 1963, everybody was sick of the Yankees. After all, the Bronx Bombers had been to 14 of the previous 16 World Series and everybody was getting sick of their act. Therefore, a lot of fans backed the Dodgers for the 1963 series.

They picked a good team to follow. After losing in a three-game playoff the previous year, they bounced back to win the N.L. pennant in 1963, riding the strong pitching of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Johnny Podres. They didn't have much offense, but with their pitching staff, they could hang with anybody.

Meanwhile, it seemed like the Yankees should have struggled. Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Yogi Berra missed a combined 267 games. They were back for the World Series, but they didn't have much of a chance against the Dodgers' lethal arms.

Koufax got the series started in a big way, striking out 15 in a complete-game victory in Game 1. It was Podres' turn in Game 2, and while the Dodgers had to actually use the bullpen for two outs, it was still an easy win. With two road wins, the Dodgers in complete control of the series. Drysdale threw a shutout in Game 3, and Koufax came back to give up only 1 run in Game 4.

The Dodgers had won their second title in four seasons, after needing more than 60 years to win their first championship in Brooklyn. More importantly, they earned the thanks of a nation. Not only did they beat the Yankees, but they swept them, the first team to do so in a World Series.

Defining Game
Game 4 was very indicative of the Dodgers of the 60s. Koufax was brilliant - a complete game with 8 strikeouts and only six hits allowed. One of those hits was a home run by Mantle, and that was almost enough. But the Dodgers weak offense did just enough: they got a solo home run in the fifth and scored a run without getting a hit in the seventh. They only scored two runs, but when your pitcher was Sandy Koufax, two runs was usually all you needed.

MVP
Koufax. Have you been paying attention? Two complete game victories, including 23 strikeouts in 18 innings. So, yah. He was a deserving MVP.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Los Angeles	5	4	1	2
New York	2	1	0	1

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

2010 World Series: A Giant win

2012-01-25T18:12:00.000-08:00

The Teams
National League: San Francisco Giants (92-70) - Third World Series
American League: Texas Rangers (90-72) - First World Series

What Happened
Quick, say something that happened in the 2010 World Series. QUICK! It was only two years ago, after all. It should be easy.

I watched almost every pitch of that World Series, and the only two things I remember were Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee running off the mound in the seventh inning of Game 7 and Giants closer Brian Wilson screaming and crossing his arms after the last out of the series. That's it. It was just two years ago, and that's all I can remember. So what happened?

What happened is the Rangers didn't show up. Their vaunted offense hit only .190 for the series, and their pitchers had a collective ERA of almost 6.00. Lee, their ace, was brought in specifically for this series, to help give the Rangers a championship. He was pounded like a piñata in Game 1, getting knocked out in the fifth. After an 11-7 win in Game 1 - a game that wasn't even that close - the Giants scored seven runs in the 8th inning of a 9-0 Game 2 win.

The Rangers came home to Texas battered and beaten, but they looked like they had shifted the momentum with a 4-2 win in Game 3. But Madison Baumgarner, the Giants fourth starter, threw a three-hit shutout in Game 4, and Tim Lincecum beat Lee in a battle of the aces in Game 5. The Giants were World Champions for the first time since relocating to San Francisco.

Defining Game
Game 5. The final game of the series turned became the pitching duel that everybody hoped Game 1 would be, with aces Lee and Lincecum trading zeroes for most of the game. Entering the seventh, there had only been five hits in the game, but Edgar Rentaria's two-out three-run home run made it 3-0 Giants. Nelson Cruz hit a solo shot in reply for the Rangers in the seventh, but it wasn't enough, and the 3-1 win gave the Giants their championship.

MVP
Renteria. His Game 5 home run that clinched the series was his second of the series. It was also the second time in his career he had the game-winning RBI in the clinching game of the World Series. He also batted .417 for the Giants. For his heroic efforts, the Giants rewarded him by not re-signing him that offseason. Thanks, I guess.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Texas	7	0	4	0	1
San Francisco	11	9	2	4	3

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

Purple Pain

2012-01-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

My brother is a Steelers fan (I know, right? I don't know why, either). Two weekends ago, the Steelers played the Broncos in the playoffs on his birthday. Should have been an easy win, right? Well, we know what happened.

Afterward, my brother said he didn't want to talk about the game, because he was tired of his team always breaking his heart. Excuse me? His team has won six Super Bowls. More importantly, they've won twice in recent history, so that he can remember where he was when it happened. I think the rule is that you can't complain about your team's heartbreaking losses if you have a memory of your team winning a championship.

You want pain? Be a Vikings fan. I can point to more than one devastating Vikings loss. In fact, I can think of 10 pretty quickly. They didn't all happen in my lifetime, of course, but they've all happened, permanently scarring people like my dad for life. So here they are: The 10 most painful losses in Vikings history. This is what true heartbreak looks like.

10. 2000 NFC Championship Game - 41-donut
Well, it was a quick kill. Quick, as in the Vikings were down 14-0 before they ever got the ball. They never had a chance. At halftime of this game, I went out to shovel the driveway to try to forget what was happening. It hadn't snowed that day. It wasn't a great Giants team that the Vikings played that day, but they still somehow eked by 41-0. I can't imagine there's ever been a team more ill-prepared or uninspired for a championship game.

Numbers 9 through 6: The Super Bowls
Long-time Viking fans (hint: my dad) might not agree with putting the Super Bowls way down on the list. It's the Super Bowl! And they lost! FOUR TIMES! But my reasoning is simple: all four Super Bowl losses happened before I was born, so I don't have a specific painful memory related to a Super Bowl. Another key fact: my dad has never mentioned a Super Bowl as a bad memory. Maybe he's blocked them out of his mind and just doesn't want to talk about them, but the fact remains he's far more bothered by another game later in this countdown.

Besides, it's not like the Super Bowls they lost were ever close. Not only have the Vikings never won a Super Bowl, but they've never even had the lead. For the most part, it was over with quickly. Like Super Bowl VIII against Miami. The Dolphins had completed their historic perfect season in 1972, and most historians believe Miami was even better in 1973; that they lost two games is simply a matter of having a much tougher schedule in 1973. They cruised 24-7.

Same with Super Bowl IV. The Vikings were heavy favorites in that one because the AFL was still considered highly inferior, despite the Jets' upset win the year before. But the Chiefs took a 16-0 halftime lead on the Vikings, and since Joe Kapp was Minnesota's quarterback then, they had no chance of coming back. The final was 23-7.

Super Bowl XI against Oakland wasn't close either, but I have that one ranked as more painful than the other two because it was the fourth loss, the frustration finally boiling over. In truth, the Raiders were just too good, probably the best Raiders team ever. They gained a Super Bowl record 429 yards against the Vikings, winning 32-14. The only highlight for the Vikings was that they became the first team to block a Ray Guy punt; he would only have three punts blocked his entire career.

The only Super Bowl that was close was Super Bowl IX against Pittsburgh. This one matched the Purple People Eaters against the Steel Curtain, and the defenses dominated the entire game. At halftime, Pittsburgh lead 2-0. That's right. They extended the lead to 9-0 before the Vikings fell on a blocked punt in the end zone. But don't worry, they missed the extra point. It was 9-6 entering the fourth quarter before the Steelers added one more touchdown to clinch the title. So that one is the most painful of the losses. If the Vikings offense had been able to do anything - hell, even one connection on a long pass play - they could have won that game.

5. 1987 NFC Championship Game
The 1987 season was all thrown off by the players strike. After two weeks of regular games and one cancelled game, each NFL team played three games with replacement players who crossed the picket lines. When the strike was settled, the regular players came back and the season continued like nothing had happened. As it was, the replacement Vikings went 0-3, putting them in a hole. But they persevered, finishing 8-7 to earn the last playoff spot. After crushing the Saints and shocking the 49ers, the Vikings were on a roll entering the NFC Championship Game against Washington. It was a tight game throughout, the defenses dominating, and it was 17-10 as the Vikings embarked on their final drive. They made it inside the 10-yard-line, fourth and 4 with less than a minute to play. Then Wade Wilson threw a pass for Darrin Nelson...

4. Final game of 2003 Regular Season - The Force-Out
It was kind of a slow death. After starting the season 6-0, the Vikings started losing and losing. Picture holding on to the edge of a cliff by your fingernails. Among those losses were games lost to all four teams that finished that season 4-12. And yet, the Vikings entered the final week of the season needing only a win against Arizona to win the NFC North.

McCown down to win the division. Even after he drove the Cardinals down for a fourth-quarter touchdown, things should have been safe. When the Cardinals failed on the two-point conversion, I actually got more worried; it meant that a field goal wouldn't help them, so that Arizona would have to try for a touchdown.

They drove down, the clocked ticked down. Desperate measures as Vikings fans screamed at the defensive players to make a stop, yelled at the clock to turn faster. It all came down to one final fourth down play from the 28-line-yard. McCown dropped back, then stepped up and rolled to his right. He fired to the end zone toward Nate Poole, who was double-teamed. Poole caught the ball, got one foot in, then was pushed to the ground.

Of course, that "pushed" was the key. See, in 2003, the force-out rule was still in effect. The touchdown was good. The Vikings season was over. They were out, and the Packers were in. And on the radio, Paul Allen screamed "No!"

Naturally, the NFL changed the rules after that season, taking the force-out rule out of the books. Had that play happened in 2004, Poole's catch would have been no good. It's the merely the first time a tragic Vikings loss seemed to be the catalyst for a rule change.

After that game, my dad turned off the TV and stormed upstairs, oblivious to the fact that I was still watching. When I got upstairs, he was sitting and calmly reading a book, like that's all he had been doing all afternoon. Then I figured out how he put up with it all those years: denial.

(Fun fact: This game took place 28 years to the day after game #2 on this list. Happy Anniversary!)

3. 2009 NFC Championship Game - 12 Men
The Vikings sold their soul in 2009. Believing they were just one piece of the puzzle away from competing for a title, Brad Childress worked behind the scenes to get Brett Favre to postpone his retirement to come play for the Vikings.

Selling their souls to get Favre got the Vikings a 10-1 start. They stumbled down the stretch, losing three straight road games to finish 12-4, losing out on home field advantage. Enter the NFC Championship Game, at New Orleans. Despite five turnovers, the Vikings were still in the game, tied 14-14 at halftime and tied 28-28 late in the fourth quarter. Getting the ball back just before the two-minute warning, they drove. A beautiful mix of passes and runs, they got as far as the New Orleans 33. They faced a third down with 25 seconds left. Already in range for a field goal, albeit a long one, all they really had to do was hope to gain a couple of yards, run the clock down to nothing, and kick their way into the Super Bowl.

But then fullback Naufahu Tahi ran into the huddle, and nobody ran out. The 12-men-in-the-huddle penalty pushed them out of field goal range, so they had to get the five yards back. Favre rolled right, and had Berrian deep along the sideline, at about the 15. Instead, he threw across his body toward Sidney Rice, and it was intercepted, and the game went to overtime.

And of course. The coin flip. Saints win. Saints drive. Two first downs given to them by Vikings penalties, another one on a fourth-down measurement that was oh-so-close. They kick the field goal. The Vikings never get the ball.

It's the second instance where a Vikings loss led to a rule change. Now, in the playoffs, if a team kicks a field goal on its first possession of overtime, the other team gets a chance. That rule came one year to late for the 2009 Vikings.

2. 1975 NFC Divisional Playoff Game - Hail Mary
Fourth down, 24 seconds left. Ball at midfield, trailing 14-10. Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach called the play in the huddle, then closed his eyes and said a Hail Mary. He took the snap, looked around for a few seconds, then threw deep down the left sideline. Near the goal line, Cowboys receiver Drew Pearson pushed down Vikings cornerback Nate Wright, then pinned the ball against his hip. Instead of letting the ball fall to the ground, he kept it pinned and crossed the goal line. As he did, a flash of orange flew across the field at his feet; for a fleeting moment, Vikings fans thought it was the rightful flag for offensive pass interference. But it wasn't. It was an orange. As in, the fruit. The score stood, and the term "Hail Mary" became a part of the football dictionary forever.

Soon after fans realized that the play was going to stand, the greatest throw in the history of Metropolitan Stadium happened. From somewhere deep in the stands, a bottle of Corby's whiskey flew through the December air and hit official Armen Terzian square in the head, an absolutely perfect throw. He left the field with a bloody head. Most Vikings fans probably felt just like him. To this day, the only thing that makes my dad upset is if someone mentions the name Drew Pearson in his presence.

Watch this for Pearson's blatant push-off

1. 1998 NFC Championship Game - Wide Left
See, everybody always blames Gary Anderson. And really, he's a convenient target. I mean, how poetic is it? The kicker who hadn't missed a kick all year misses the biggest kick of the biggest game of the year, causing his nearly unbeatable team to lose. At home.

It shouldn't fall just on Anderson's shoulders, though. There were many reasons why the greatest Vikings team of the all never even made it to the Super Bowl. In order:

1. In the 1995 season, Robert Smith suffered a knee injury on a running play, getting hurt while tip-toeing along the sideline trying to gain a few extra yards. After that injury, he promised himself that he wouldn't keep fighting for a few extra yards on similar sideline plays, reasoning that his team needed him in the lineup more than they needed those extra two yards. This will make sense in a few paragraphs.

2. Back to 1998. Leading 20-7 late in the first half, the Vikings went for the kill. As Randall Cunningham dropped back to pass, he was stripped of the ball. Atlanta scored a quick touchdown to make it 20-14. Aside from the shift in momentum, this will make more sense in a few paragraphs.

3. Still leading 27-20, the Vikings embarked on one final, hopefully clock-killing drive. Three times on that drive, Smith ran out of bounds untouched (see item no. 1). If he stayed in bounds even once, the game would have probably turned out very differently.

4. The miss. Yah, he missed. But, the Vikings were still up 27-20, and there was only 2:07 left in the game. The Vikings should have been able to stop the Falcons from scoring.

5. The Falcons scored. Tie game. Vikings got the ball back with 30 seconds left. In a moment that drives Vikings fans crazy, the best offense in NFL history took a knee. But, look back at moment 2). Dennis Green had terrible flashbacks of the end of the first half. So they took overtime.

6. The Vikings win the toss in overtime. See, everybody forgets this. The greatest offense in NFL history got the ball first in overtime that game. And they didn't score. Of course, the Falcons did.

So there it was. A series of events that kept the greatest Vikings team of them all from the Super Bowl. The single most painful loss in team history.

.......

So that, certain Steelers fan, is heartbreak.

And now the question: Why put up with it? Why keep cheering for a team that will always let you down? The answer is simple. Because of the hope that one day, they won't let us down. One day, everything will come together perfectly, and they'll take fans on a magical ride that won't end until there's purple and gold confetti fluttering down onto some field somewhere. And it will seem extra sweet because of all the past heartbreak. And everybody who was along for the entire ride will scream and shout and cry and hug and will be able to tell each other "that's why we put up with it." And it will have all been worth it.

1937 World Series: The Battle of the Harlem, Part V

2012-01-19T05:28:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (102-52) - Ninth World Series (Won in 1923, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936)
National League: New York Giants (95-57) - 12th World Series (Won in 1905, 1921, 1922, 1933)

What Happened
I've written before how the Yankees of the mid-1930s were loaded. The only real difference between the 1937 Yankees and the 1938 version was that future Hall-of-Famer Tony Lazzeri played second base in '37, while future Hall-of-Famer Joe Gordon was the second baseman in '38. In other words, it was an embarrassment of riches.

The Giants, meanwhile, had Mel Ott in the outfield and Carl Hubbell in the starting rotation. Both were very good players, sure, but that was pretty much it for the Giants. Talent-wise, the fifth World Series matchup between the New York rivals was a huge mismatch.

As if to drive the talent disparity home, the Yankees touched up Hubbell for seven runs in bottom of the sixth of Game 1, all while holding Ott hitless. It was almost like they were taunting the Giants: "Ok, what else ya got?" The answer: Not much. After a second straight 8-1 Yankee victory, the teams crossed the Harlem River for Game 3 in the Polo Grounds.

Despite playing at home, the Giants didn't play any better. They committed four errors in a Game 3 loss, then committed three more in Game 4. Though Hubbell salvaged a win in Game 4 to help the Giants avoid a sweep, he was merely delaying the inevitable. Ott finally homered in Game 5 - his only extra-base hit of the series - but the Yankees won anyway, taking home the title for the second straight season. With a team full of young future legends, the Yankee dynasty was just getting started.

Defining Game
Game 1. The Yankees annihilated the Giants, humiliating their best players in the process. The seven-run sixth inning basically ended the series.

MVP
Lefty Gomez (unofficial). In a series where no Yankee hitter really stood out, Gomez took control, with complete-game victories in games 1 and 5. In 18 innings, he gave up only 3 runs on 16 hits.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

N.Y. Giants	1	1	1	7	2
N.Y. Yankees	8	8	5	3	4

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

1976 World Series: The Machine

2012-01-18T05:23:00.001-08:00

The Teams
National League: Cincinnati Reds (102-60) - Eighth World Series (Won in 1919, 1940, 1975)
American League: New York Yankees (97-62) - 30th World Series (Won 20 previous times)

What Happened
The Reds had spent most of the 1970s compiling the pieces that would become the Big Red Machine. After a series of postseason near-misses, the pieces all came together in 1975, as the Reds won the World Series in seven classic games against the Red Sox. They came back just as strong in 1976, looking for a chance to establish themselves as a dynasty.

Waiting for the Reds in the World Series were the Yankees, who ended a 12-year postseason drought in 1976, the longest drought the franchise had gone through since purchasing Babe Ruth. Their fans were desperate for a World Series championship, and they thought they had the team that could take down the Reds.

It wasn't even close. The most notable part of the 1976 series was that the Reds became the first team to not use a bench player. Because the DH was used in all four games, the Reds had no use for a pinch hitter, and they used only nine hitters all series long. They were truly a machine.

As good as the Reds were, the Yankees showed some fight, keeping a couple of the games close. The Reds won Game 2 on an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth, and Game 4 was a one-run game until a Cincinnati explosion in the top of the ninth. But unlike the incredible series the previous season, this series was lacking any real drama. The Reds were simply too good.

Defining Game
Game 4. The heart and soul of those Reds teams was Johnny Bench. Widely considered the best defensive catcher of all time, Bench was also a power threat with no peer at his position. He flashed his brilliance in Game 4, picking off a runner at second base and hitting a two-run home run in the fourth that gave the Reds a lead they wouldn't relinquish. But it was his three-run home run in the top of the ninth that put the game - and the series - away. It was the final argument in Cincinnati's claim to the title of best team in National League history.

MVP
Bench. His Game 4 performance was just the icing on the cake. He batted .533 for the series, and the Yankees didn't even try to steal a base off him until the final game.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

New York	1	3	2	2
Cincinnati	5	4	6	7

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

100. 1976 - Cincinnati (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
101. 1907 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-0 (1 tie)
102. 2007 - Boston (A) def. Colorado (N) 4-0
103. 1938 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
104. 1998 - New York (A) def. San Diego (N) 4-0
105. 1989 - Oakland (A) def. San Francisco (N) 4-0
106. 1928 - New York (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
107. 1919 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

1907 World Series: Cubs cruise

2012-01-16T05:09:00.000-08:00

The Teams
National League: Chicago Cubs (107-45) - second World Series
American League: Detroit Tigers (92-58) - first World Series

What Happened
Still stinging from their upset loss in the previous year's World Series, the Cubs took out their frustrations on the rest of the National League in 1907. While they didn't get to 116 wins like they had the year before, the 107 wins they had in 1907 established themselves as one of the great teams in baseball history.

All the Cubs were missing was a World Championship. After the previous year's disappointment, they changed their approach in 1907. With the pennant wrapped up early, the Cubs rested their star pitchers down the stretch, forgoing their chance at equalling their wins record to make sure they finished the job in 1907.

What helped the Cubs was the tense pennant race in the American League that year. The Tigers held off Philadelphia down the stretch to win their first pennant, and they entered the World Series with tired pitchers to go up against Chicago's staff full of aces.

The series started sloppy for both teams. Detroit catcher Boss Schmidt committed two throwing errors and allowed seven stolen bases in Game 1, probably the worst defensive game ever played by a catcher in the World Series. Yet the Tigers took a 3-1 lead into the ninth inning, getting three runs in the eighth in part because of Cubs pitcher Orval Overall botching a rundown.

Schmidt wasn't done destroying his team's hopes, though. He dropped the third strike of what would have been the final out of the ninth, allowing the tying run to score. After three more scoreless innings, the game was called because of darkness, becoming the first of three tie games in World Series history.

The series was all Cubs from there on out. Detroit's fielding woes spread from Schmidt to the rest of the team, and their offense couldn't figure out Chicago's sublime pitching. Even Ty Cobb, the 20-year-old phenom who had already established himself as the best player in the American League, wasn't immune, batting only .200 for the series. After scoring three runs in the first game, the Tigers only scored three the rest of the series as the Cubs swept their way to their first World Series title.

Defining Game
Game 3. The Tigers committed two errors, leading to three unearned runs for Chicago. Meanwhile, the Tigers could only manage five hits of Chicago pitchers. Really, all the games followed the same formula. It wasn't so much a dominating performance by Chicago as it was a miserable one by Detroit.

MVP
Unofficially, Harry Steinfeldt. The Cubs third baseman - and the only member of the Cubs infield not in the Hall of Fame - batted .471 in the series, impressive for an era where hits were hard to come by. Probably more impressive was his 16 chances in the field with only one error.

The Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Detroit	3	1	1	1	0
Chicago	3	3	5	6	2

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

101. 1907 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-0 (1 tie)
102. 2007 - Boston (A) def. Colorado (N) 4-0
103. 1938 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
104. 1998 - New York (A) def. San Diego (N) 4-0
105. 1989 - Oakland (A) def. San Francisco (N) 4-0
106. 1928 - New York (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
107. 1917 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

2007 World Series: Idle Time

2012-01-12T05:18:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: Boston Red Sox (96-66) - 11th World Series (won in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004)
National League: Colorado Rockies (90-73) - first World Series

What Happened
It's a Tom Petty song: "The Waiting." See, you probably thought that song was called The Waiting is the Hardest Part, because that's the chorus that everybody knows. It was even included in a Simpsons episode. So everybody knows it.

There's a chance that some Colorado Rockies players were singing that, at least to themselves, in mid-October of 2007. See, the Rockies had finished the season winning 14 of their final 15 games, forcing a one-game playoff for the Wild Card, which they also won. Then they went out and swept the Division Series and the NLCS, seven more wins. They were on a 21-1 run, and they were ready to go for the World Series, ready to have the series start right then and there.

Instead, they waited. And waited. And waited. While the Red Sox and Indians slugged their way through a grueling seven-game ALCS, the Rockies were sitting back in Colorado, just waiting for their chance to play again. It was a nine-day layoff, one that was impossibly long. And it killed all the momentum Colorado had.

The length of the ALCS had no bearing on the layoff, of course. By virtue of their pair of sweeps, the Rockies would have had nine days off regardless of the number of games the ALCS went that year. And while logic would dictate that the Red Sox should have entered the World Series exhausted, nine days off is too many for a baseball team used to only one day off every 10, especially one that was on a 21-1 stretch.

And the fact of the matter is the layoff might not have mattered, anyway. The Red Sox were a great team, having taken care of the business of ending their curse three years earlier and now able to focus solely on building a dynasty. The Rockies were merely a good team, a team that had gotten hot at the right time and snuck into the playoffs by the skin of their teeth.

Once the series started, it was over quick. Boston scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning of Game 1 and had put 13 on the board by the bottom of the fifth. It was just one game, but it was obvious that Colorado's hot streak was over.

The second game looked closer, as the Red Sox won 2-1, but it was an illusion. The Rockies rarely threatened against Curt Schilling - Matt Holliday got four of Colorado's five hits. If the writing wasn't already on the wall when the teams traveled to Denver with Boston up 2-0, everything became crystal clear when Boston put up a six-spot in the third inning of Game 3. When the Rockies dared to make a game of it by cutting it to 6-5, Boston scored four runs in the last two innings to pull away. Game 4 was just confirming the inevitable, as three late Colorado runs wasn't enough to ward off the sweep.

Despite Boston's domination - or maybe because of it - the 2007 postseason is best remembered for what happened before the World Series. Colorado's 21-1 run, including the classic 13-inning win in the Wild Card tiebreaker, was the game of the year, and Boston's stunning comeback against Cleveland in the ALCS was the stuff of legends. Those two events easily overshadowed a pretty anticlimactic World Series.

Defining Game
Game 1. Three runs in the first, one in the second, two in the fourth, seven in the fifth. It was an endless parade of hits and runs for Boston, all coming with former World Series MVP Josh Beckett on the mound. In that game, the Red Sox announced that A) They didn't care about Colorado's 21-1 stretch and B) Now that the Curse was over, they deserved to be viewed as a dynasty. They expressed both messages loud and clear.

MVP
Any one of Boston's hitters could have been named MVP without much argument. As it was, third baseman Mike Lowell got the honors, probably because the voters wanted someone other than David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez to get some of the credit for once.

The Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Colorado	1	1	5	3
Boston	13	2	10	4

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

102. 2007 - Boston (A) def. Colorado (N) 4-0
103. 1938 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
104. 1998 - New York (A) def. San Diego (N) 4-0
105. 1989 - Oakland (A) def. San Francisco (N) 4-0
106. 1928 - New York (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
107. 1917 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

1938 World Series: The first three-peat

2012-01-10T06:32:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (99-53); 10th World Series (won in 1923, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937)
National League: Chicago Cubs (89-63); Ninth World Series (won in 1907, 1908)

What happened
In 1937, the New York Yankees became the seventh team to win a second straight World Series. They entered the 1938 season trying do the one thing those previous six teams had failed to do: win a third straight title. With six future Hall of Famers in their clubhouse, getting back to the World Series would be no problem.

Standing between the Yankees and their date with destiny was the Chicago Cubs, who won their fourth National League championship in nine seasons. While they had four future Hall of Famers of their own, a couple of their stars were at the end of their careers. It didn't look like much of a matchup.

The Yankees' Hall of Famers took control of the series and never let the Cubs into it. In Game 1, catcher Bill Dickey's 4-for-4 day backed up Red Ruffing's complete game for a 3-1 win. In Game 2, Joe DiMaggio's ninth-inning home run clinched the victory for Lefty Gomez. In Game 3, it was Joe Gordon, the future Hall of Fame no. 8 hitter, who hit the go-ahead home run for New York in the fifth. In the last game, every Yankee got a hit, including starting pitcher Ruffing, as they completed the sweep to become baseball's first back-to-back-to-back World Series champs.

It was a domination in every way. The Yankees used only four pitchers the entire series. Nine Yankees drove in a run in the series, and five different players homered. The Yankees won easily despite a pedestrian effort from their star of stars, the great Lou Gehrig.

Gehrig had only four singles in the series for New York, the first World Series of his career without an extra-base hit. This after finishing a season where he hit below .300 for the first time since his rookie year. At first, Gehrig's struggles were dismissed as those of somebody who had played every game for 12 years and might finally be wearing down. Knowing what we know now, it is instead likely that Gehrig started suffering the earliest effects of ALS during the 1938 season. Gehrig played only eight games in 1939 before retiring, meaning the 1938 World Series was his last appearance in the postseason.

Defining Game
Game 4. The Yankees took a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning, happy to take that lead home and celebrate a third straight title. But then the Cubs cut it to 4-3 with a home run by Ken O'Dea in the top of the eighth. That just made the Yankees angry. They used four hits, two walks, two wild pitches and a stolen base to add four more runs. It was their last half-inning at bat in 1938, and it was the fitting cap to a dominating season.

MVP
There was no official MVP of this series, and it would have been hard to pick one. The best choices would have been either Gordon - who batted .400 with a team-high six RBI from the no. 8 spot - or Ruffing, who gave up only three runs in two complete-game victories. Or, you could have picked a Yankee name out of a hat and picked a legitimate MVP.

The Scores
(Home team in Bold)

New York	3	6	5	8
Chicago	1	3	2	3

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

103. 1938 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
104. 1998 - New York (A) def. San Diego (N) 4-0
105. 1989 - Oakland (A) def. San Francisco (N) 4-0
106. 1928 - New York (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
107. 1917 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

1998 World Series: 114 wins

2012-01-09T06:10:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (114-48); 35th World Series (won 23 previous times)
National League: San Diego Padres (98-64); second World Series

What happened
In 97 American League seasons, only one other team had won 114 games. In 1998, the Yankees joined the '54 Indians in reaching that incredible milestone; while the Indians were shockingly swept in the World Series that year, nobody expected a similar fate to befall the Yankees. The main reason for that was their opponent.

The Padres were a legitimately good team, winning 98 games in '98. However, like the Yankees, their win total was inflated with the expansion that occurred that year. In truth, the Padres were likely the third-best team in the National League that year, but they had the hottest pitcher. One year after almost single-handedly pitching the Marlins to the World Series, Kevin Brown did the same for San Diego, leading the Padres to playoff wins over Houston and Atlanta.

The World Series looked to be starting well for San Diego, as they rode two home runs from Greg Vaughn and one from Tony Gwynn to a 5-2 lead entering the seventh inning of Game 1. With Brown still on the mound, they looked primed to take a 1-0 series lead. But then the Yankees struck. One of the many things that made the Yankees so good in 1998 was their depth. Scott Brosius, their typical no. 9 hitter, batted .300 and drove in 98 runs.

That deep lineup meant that when the Yankees offense started to get going, it was hard to get them to stop, and the Padres learned that first-hand in the bottom of the seventh of Game 1. First, a three-run home run from leadoff hitter Chuck Knoblauch tied the game. Then, four batters later, Tino Martinez hit a grand slam to make it 9-5.

After that, the Yankees got out their other major weapon by putting Mariano Rivera on the mound. The other thing that had made them so good in 1998 had been the presence of Rivera in the bullpen. With him ready to go, the Yankees could essentially turn each game into a seven-inning affair, knowing Rivera would shut things down from there. And that's what happened in Game 1, setting the tone for the series.

The Yankees didn't need Rivera in a 9-3 Game 2 win, but he pitched the final two innings of both Games 3 and 4, helping the Yankees get the sweep and establish themselves as the Team of the 90s.

Defining Game
Game 1. The Padres gave the Yankees everything they had in the opening game, used up all their ammo, and it still wasn't enough. That game showed them, and the rest of the sports world, just how good this Yankees team really was.

MVP
The voters went with Brosius, who hit .471 and led the Yankees with two home runs and six runs batted in, but they could have just as easily named Rivera for how effortlessly he closed down three of the four games.

The Scores
(Home team in Bold)

San Diego	6	3	4	0
New York	9	9	5	3

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

104. 1998 - New York (A) def. San Diego (N) 4-0
105. 1989 - Oakland (A) def. San Francisco (N) 4-0
106. 1928 - New York (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
107. 1917 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

1989 World Series: The Earthquake

2012-01-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: Oakland Athletics (99-63); fifth World Series (won in 1972, 1973, 1974)
National League: San Francisco Giants (92-70); second World Series

What Happened
The 1989 World Series will always be remembered for the earthquake that occurred moments before Game 3. More than 3,700 people were injured and 63 people were killed in the quake, and the World Series was postponed for 10 days while the region. Strangely, the excitement of a World Series featured the two Bay Area teams likely kept the number of casualties down; because of the large number of people who either left work early to watch the game or stayed late to join special viewing parties, the normally busy freeways were unusually quiet when the earthquake hit. Since the vast majority of the deaths occurred when a section of freeway collapsed, it's easy to say that the World Series saved hundreds of lives that day.

This series is always remembered for the earthquake, almost exclusively so. That's because the action on the field was largely forgettable. The Giants were a ho-hum team that year, making the World Series only because they played the Cubs in the playoffs; you know, because everybody beats the Cubs. The A's, meanwhile, were a great team, in the second year of what would turn into three straight American League titles.

After losing to the Dodgers the previous year, the A's added future hall-of-famer Rickey Henderson in a midseason trade in 1989, turning an already great lineup into the stuff of legends. With Henderson at the top of the lineup, and the ~~Steroid~~ Bash Brothers of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire ready to drive him in, the A's were nearly unstoppable. San Francisco had no chance. Oakland hit nine home runs in the four games, never trailed in the series, and laid down a thrashing that was forgotten as soon as it was over.

Defining Game
Game 3. When your pregame report is interrupted by an earthquake that's televised live across the nation, it's pretty safe to say that's your defining moment of the series.

MVP
Henderson batted .474 with five extra-base hits in his first World Series; Carney Lansford hit .438; Terry Steinbach drove in nine runs. Any one of Oakland's hitting stars could have been the MVP. Pitcher Dave Stewart was the official winner, and it's hard to argue with that choice. He threw a complete-game shutout in Game 1, then gave up only three runs in 8 innings in Game 3 after the break. In between, he spent time on the streets helping Oakland begin the recovery from the earthquake. A very deserving MVP.

The Scores
(Home team in Bold)

San Francisco	0	1	7	6
Oakland	5	5	13	9

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

105. 1989 - Oakland (A) def. San Francisco (N) 4-0
106. 1928 - New York (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
107. 1917 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

1928 World Series: Sweep, repeat

2012-01-05T05:16:00.000-08:00

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (101-53); fifth World Series (won in 1923, 1927)
National League: St. Louis Cardinals (95-59); second World Series (won in 1926)

What Happened
It's the 1927 Yankees that are almost universally known as the greatest team in Major League history, but it was the 1928 version that put in the most dominating performance in World Series history. The main reason for that is the quality of the opposition - the 1927 Pirates were a genuinely good team, one that would have had a very good chance to win the Series in any other year. The 1928 Cardinals were good, but they were no match for the Yankees.

It's true the Yankees took a step back in 1928. Their pitchers fell back a little bit, the hitters that weren't name Ruth and Gehrig had lesser seasons, Ruth had the audacity to not hit 60 home runs, and so on. But they were still Murderer's Row, a lineup of stars that gave opposing pitchers no breaks.

The 1928 series was a clinic in efficiency. The Yankees scored in the first inning of the first game -with Gehrig driving in Ruth - and they never looked back. They trailed for only six of the 36 innings in the series, and they often put the games away early. The Cardinals only managed three hits in a 4-1 Game 1 loss, and that was the closest game of the series. It was a sweep, the Yankees' second straight, and it established this Yankees team as one of the true juggernauts in the game's history.

Defining Game
Game 4 - Babe Ruth did a lot of things on a baseball field that nobody before him had ever done. The latest was his performance in Game 4, when he became the first man to hit three home runs in a World Series game. Ruth went deep in the fourth, seventh, and eighth innings, all of them to deep right, to put the series away. It was a fitting exclamation point to the Yankees' two years of dominance.

MVP
Ruth and Gehrig. Pick a name out of a hat. Or, pick both of them. To wit:

Ruth's stats: .625 average, 10 hits, 9 runs, 3 doubles, and of course the three Game 4 home runs.

Gehrig's stats: .545 average, 4 home runs, 9 runs batted in (as many RBI as the entire Cardinals team).

Can you imagine what pitchers of that era felt when they were about to face the Yankees and knew they'd have to face those two batters back-to-back? Frightening.

The Scores
(Home team in Bold)

St. Louis	1	3	3	3
New York	4	9	7	7

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

106. 1928 - New York (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
107. 1917 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

1919 World Series: Stained Black

2012-01-04T06:52:00.001-08:00

The Teams
National League: Cincinnati Reds (96-44); first World Series
American League: Chicago White Sox (88-52); third World Series (won in 1906, 1917)

What happened
The story is well-known by now. Frustrated by the penny-pinching ways of owner Charles Comiskey, eight members of the White Sox accepted money from gamblers to throw the series. Among those involved in the conspiracy were the great Shoeless Joe Jackson, ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte, and six others. When Cicotte hit Cincinnati's Morrie Rath with the first pitch of the bottom of the first, that was the sign to gamblers that the fix was on.

It didn't go smoothly, of course. Nothing did. Many people around the Series sensed something fishy was up, so much so that the betting line swung heavily in favor of the Reds in the days leading up to the series. With their paydays smaller than anticipated, the gamblers were late in some of their payments to the White Sox players, leading the players to reconsider the deal. A well-timed threat or two turned that around and the White Sox finished the job, losing 5 games to 3 (it was one of four series to be a best-of-nine)

Since the White Sox threw the series, the details of the games are mainly irrelevant. It's hard to know exactly when one of the eight players were trying or not, hard to say when they were grounding out on purpose or were genuinely beaten by the pitcher. Even the stats don't paint the full picture. Jackson apologists point out how he hit .375 in the series with the only home run; how many times did he go all-out in less important at bats, only to give less than his best in key situations? How many balls just barely fell in front of him in left that weren't marked an error?

Looking at the stats, it's easy to see many of the other conspirators. Shortstop Swede Risberg batted .080; pitcher Lefty Williams went 0-3 with a 6.61 ERA in the height of the dead ball era, while Cicotte lost his first two starts (he won his third, when the team was apparently trying). Center fielder Happy Felsch was the worst - he batted .192 for the series, and key Cincinnati rallies in Games 1, 2, and 5 all revolved around Cincinnati hits to center field.

Now it's believed that many individual World Series games had been fixed up until that time, including a few involving the Red Sox. But it's believed this is the only time an entire series was lost on purpose. It almost destroyed the game; the eight players were banned for life, and it took the power of Babe Ruth to restore faith in the game. For that reason, for the fact that this was the only truly non-competitive World Series, this one gets the vote for the worst World Series of all time.

MVP
There were no official MVPs of the Series back then. Due to what happened in this one, you could say the gamblers of the time could be named MVP. It's hard to pick out a Reds player as MVP, as it's easy to think that they succeeded because the White Sox let them. But I should pick somebody, so I'll pick Reds pitcher Dutch Reuther; he had a 2.57 era in two starts and went 4-for-6 at the plate with two triples.

The Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Chicago	1	2	3	0	0	5	4	5
Cincinnati	9	4	0	2	5	4 (10)	1	10

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

107. 1919 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

Again with the countdowns

2012-01-03T18:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've just finished two baseball-related countdowns. It's a new year. That gives me two reasons to start something new with the blog, take it in a different direction. But I'm not going to. I'm going to start another countdown, and when that one's done, I'm going to start another one. And the reason for that is simple: it keeps me writing.

I tried having this blog be about me simply watching and reacting to sports events of the day, but after submitting five posts in four months, I knew I needed to change things. Countdowns might not be the most entertaining things on earth, but at least they give me a built-in topic to write about at all times. So I'll keep going with them.

BUT! I am going to make a concerted effort to write about more relevant, timely topics, mixed in with my countdown posts. I want to write more, so I figure this forum would be a good place to. I'll probably set up a format where posts about current sports events post on the weekend, while countdown-related posts occur during the week. We'll see.

So now to the countdown. I'm going to stick with baseball, since my last two countdowns were baseball-related. I did early-playoff elimination games, then LCS elimination games, so the natural move would be to do World Series Game 7s. Naturally, I'm not going to. Well, not exactly. I'm going to count down every World Series, from worst to best. It's quite a task - the World Series has been played every year but two since 1903, so you do the math. (Seriously. Do the math. I can't figure out how many that is). I have already ranked the World Series Game 7s, so I'll include those within the series, where relevant. Hopefully it will make sense when the posts start appearing.

The plan is to get this done just before the start of the actual World Series in October. That means I have to keep a pace of ... hold on ... math ... about 2.5 a week. I think that's ambitious enough. Then I'll switch my countdown to football. Promise.

As for my World Series countdown, I used a highly scientific method to determine where to rank each one. I just took a bunch of factors like number of games, number of close games, number of extra-inning games, and so on, and added them together. Simple. Much simpler than trying to come up with a subjective way of ranking them.

So there. I'll start tomorrow. Or Thursday. One of the two.

1992 NLCS: A dynasty dies; a dynasty begins

2011-12-31T06:57:00.000-08:00

How They Got Here
The rivalry was born the year before, when the Braves and Pirates played seven tight games in the NLCS before Atlanta finally prevailed. As the Braves were celebrating and the Pirates were moping, there was little doubt they would meet again.

After losing to the Twins in one of the greatest World Series ever played in 1991, the Braves came back even better in 1992, perfectly set up to repeat as National League champions. The Pirates were a different story. Everybody knew that they couldn't keep their team around for much longer. They won their third straight NL East title in 1992, and their talent base had already taken a hit. But they still had Barry Bonds, so they still had a chance in any series they played.

Things didn't look optimistic for Pittsburgh in the early part of the 1992 NLCS, as they fell behind Atlanta 3 games to 1. But they fought back, winning the next two, including Game 6 in Atlanta, to set up Game 7. Just like in the previous year, the Pirates would have to deal with John Smoltz in Game 7. This time, though, they had their ace ready in Doug Drabek.

The Game
Bases loaded. Two outs in the ninth. Game 7. Trailing by one. The ultimate dream scenario. At the plate was somebody called Francisco Cabrera, who even Braves fans might have forgotten was on the roster. So of course he singled to left. The tying run scored. Bonds came up with the ball and fired home, hoping to throw out Sid Bream, only the slowest player on either team. The throw came toward home...

... It's possible that Barry Bonds' ninth-inning throw in Game 7 changed baseball throughout the 90s. If that throw had connected, maybe Atlanta's budding rivalry gets snuffed out before it had a chance to get started. Maybe Pittsburgh wins that game in extra innings and goes on to win the World Series, finally getting something out of all those postseason close calls. Maybe with the win, Bonds thinks twice about leaving for greener - and richer - pastures, or maybe Pittsburgh decides it can afford to shell out money to the player who just got them a World Championship.

But the throw didn't connect. It was up the first-base line, giving Bream just enough time to slide in safely, allowing the Braves to complete their three-run comeback in the bottom of the ninth and advance to their second straight World Series.

Between first and second base, Francisco Cabrera jumped up and down. He had just lived the ultimate baseball dream, the two-out ninth-inning single to win Game 7, and he became quite possibly the most unlikely hero in baseball history. Each team had 25 players on their postseason roster; it was likely that Cabrera was the 50th best player on the field. Yet it was him jumping up and down between first and second, the unlikely hero. At first, the Braves piled on Bream, ignoring their third-string catcher. Then they came to their senses and mobbed him, celebrating the birth of a dynasty. The Pirates walked off the field with heads hung as a dynasty died.

Aftermath
It was the second straight World Series for the Braves, the second straight instant classic. Though not remembered as fondly as the 1991 edition - most likely because it only went six games instead of seven - the 1992 World Series was just as tense. And the Braves lost again. But the team of the 90s was born, and they appeared in the next 12 postseasons.

The Pirates, of course, never recovered. After three straight division titles, Bonds and Drabek were gone after the season. Pittsburgh hasn't had a winning season since.

What I did.

The final list:
1. 1992 NLCS: Atlanta 3, Pittsburgh 2
2. 2003 ALCS: New York 6, Boston 5
3. 1980 NLCS: Philadelphia 8, Houston 7
4. 2006 NLCS: St. Louis 3, New York 1
5. 1976 ALCS: New York 7, Kansas City 6
6. 1977 ALCS: New York 5, Kansas City 3
7. 1972 NLCS: Cincinnati 4, Pittsburgh 3
8. 1981 NLCS: Los Angeles 2, Montreal 1
9. 1982 ALCS: Milwaukee 4, California 3
10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

2003 ALCS: Destiny

2011-12-30T12:15:00.000-08:00

How They Got Here
They were destined to meet in this series. They had built up their teams and traded verbal potshots over the past several years possibility built up over several years, the two longtime rivals circling each other from a distance, waiting for their turn to battle.

The New York Yankees started the 2003 season 18-3. That was it as far as the division race was concerned, with their sixth straight AL East title a mere formality at that point.

The Boston Red Sox started the season 14-7. Not 18-3, sure, but good enough to serve notice that while the Yankees may have been the class of the American League, the Red Sox were a close second. They cruised to their sixth straight second-place finish, only this time that second place finish was good enough for the AL Wild Card berth, their first since 1999.

The series essentially started in Game 3, when the Yankees' Roger Clemens and Boston's Pedro Martinez - the two dominant pitchers of their generation - matched up in a highly anticipated duel. Clemens and the Yankees edged Martinez and the Red Sox to take a 2-1 series lead. But again, it didn't matter. This series was the end-all, the peak of the Curse of the Bambino. There was no reason to believe this series would end anytime before Game 7. And after Boston scored three runs in the seventh inning for a comeback win in Game 6, that's exactly where the series would end up. The pitching matchup for Game 7 - Clemens against Martinez.

The Game
In retrospect, it's kind of a ridiculous argument. Eight years after this game, Red Sox fans still get outraged when thinking about how manager Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in the game to pitch the bottom of the eighth of Game 7. How crazy is that? It was Pedro Martinez! The pitcher of the 90s! The man who completely dominated the steroid era despite being built like a telephone pole. I would think there wasn't anybody the Red Sox fans wanted on the mound more in a Game 7 than Pedro Martinez.

And yet he was out there, still pitching with the Red Sox holding a 5-2 lead. Boston had knocked Clemens out of the game in the fourth while taking a 4-0 lead, then added an insurance run in the eighth after the Yankees cut it to 4-2. Then came the bottom of the eighth, and what happened next depends on where you stand on curses and hexes and other such supernatural things.

For those who believe in a logical, scientific answer to things, what happened was a lack of communication. Pitching coach Dave Wallace went to the mound to talk to Martinez with two outs and two on in the seventh, imploring him to "just get this guy." Martinez then struck out Alfonso Soriano to end the inning, walked off the mound, pointed to the sky, and went into the dugout, thinking his night was done. Instead, he went out for the bottom of the eighth, possibly thinking that he would only pitch to Nick Johnson, maybe Derek Jeter, before coming out. He got Johnson, then gave up a hit to Jeter, and still he stayed in. Then Bernie Williams singled, then Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada hit back-to-back doubles. At that point, Little finally went to take Martinez out, and at that point, the game was tied and Yankee Stadium was rocking.

For those who believe in the supernatural, the bottom of the eighth was simply the latest, greatest, and final act of the Curse of the Bambino. After tormenting the Red Sox for a generation, the Curse woke up one more time to wreck havoc on Boston's season, making sure that they not only blew a lead, but blew it to the Yankees, with their best pitcher on the mound. That was the only possible explanation.

Whatever reason you prefer, the winner of this game seemed preordained. It took three innings to do, but the Yankees finally put Boston away when Aaron Boone hit a home run deep into the left field bleachers in the bottom of the 11th, the fifth time a postseason series had ended on a home run.

Aftermath
After the ALCS was over, the Curse went away. That's the only explanation. The best way to make this loss especially painful for the Red Sox would have been if the Yankees had won the World Series, but they did not, losing to the Marlins of all teams. It was as if the Curse had woken up for one final roar then, seeing its work was done, quietly left the stage. To further prove the point, the Red Sox and Yankees met in the 2004 ALCS, with Boston overcoming a 3 games to 0 deficit to beat the Yankees on their way to their first title since 1918.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:
2. 2003 ALCS: New York 6, Boston 5
3. 1980 NLCS: Philadelphia 8, Houston 7
4. 2006 NLCS: St. Louis 3, New York 1
5. 1976 ALCS: New York 7, Kansas City 6
6. 1977 ALCS: New York 5, Kansas City 3
7. 1972 NLCS: Cincinnati 4, Pittsburgh 3
8. 1981 NLCS: Los Angeles 2, Montreal 1
9. 1982 ALCS: Milwaukee 4, California 3
10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh

1980 NLCS: Rose vs. Ryan

2011-12-27T19:29:00.000-08:00

How they got here
The Phillies had been here before. Multiple times, in fact; so often that they had to wonder if it would ever be their year. After three straight NL East titles from 1976-78, the Phillies took a step back in 1979 before returning to the top of the NL East in 1980. They weren't exactly a juggernaut. On offense, they had Mike Schmidt in the prime of his Hall-of-Fame career, but not much else. They brought in former Red Pete Rose for veteran leadership, but he was clearly on the tail end of his career. Their pitching wasn't much better. Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw were both good, of course, and were postseason veterans, but their primes had come in the late 60s. They had a little bit left, but not much.

Houston hadn't been here before. The division title the Astros won in 1980 was their first, and that was hard-earned. The Astros lost four straight games to the Dodgers to close the season before beating Los Angeles in a one-game playoff for the division title. The Astros got here by finally discovering the formula they would have to use playing in the cavernous Astrodome: good pitching, clutch hitting, and stolen bases instead of home runs.

Game 1 went to the Phillies, as Carlton and McGraw combined for a 3-1 win. The Astros stole a road win with a four-run 10th inning to win Game 2. They won Game 3 as well, getting an 11th-inning sacrifice fly to win that one 1-0, but the Phillies scored two 10th-inning runs to win Game 4 and avoid elimination. It had already been a great series, with three extra-inning games among the first four, so expectations were high for the deciding Game 5.

The Game
In retrospect, it's a fascinating scenario. The man who would eventually become baseball's all-time hits leader batting against the man who would eventually become the all-time strike out king. And while it wasn't the at bat that decided the series, it's the one that got the game-winning rally going.

After Pete Rose drew a bases-loaded walk after a seven-pitch at bat against Nolan Ryan, the Astros still had a 5-3 lead in the 8th. But the Phillies still had the bases loaded with nobody, and Rose's walk knocked the Houston ace out of the game. And things were just getting started.

In reality, the plot of the game could be picked up in the bottom of the seventh. With the game tied 2-2, Houston used small ball to scrape together the go-ahead run, only to follow that up with a wild pitch and a triple to make it 5-2.

Then came the top of the eighth. With Ryan still in the game in his second start of the series for Houston, the Phillies loaded the bases with nobody out, bringing up the veteran Rose. He drew the walk, Ryan hit the showers, and the floodgates opened. Four runs later, the Phillies had the 7-5 lead and were six outs from the World Series. But the way this series had gone, it wasn't over. Houston had a chance to answer, and they did, getting four hits off McGraw to tie the game.

After a scoreless ninth, it was extra innings, a stunning fourth straight game to go to extras in this five-game series. In the top of the 10th, Garry Maddox hit a two-out double to drive in the go-ahead run. This time, Houston didn't have an answer, and the Phillies finally broke through to the World Series.

Aftermath
After finally breaking through to the World Series, the Phillies faced the Royals, who exorcised similar demons in 1980. Like the Phillies, the Royals had lost in the League Championship Series in 1976, 77, and 78 before finally breaking through in 1980. Only one team could win, though, and that team was the Phillies, beating the Royals in six to win the first championship in the franchise's 97-year history.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:
3. 1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
4. 2006 NLCS: St. Louis 3, New York 1
5. 1976 ALCS: New York 7, Kansas City 6
6. 1977 ALCS: New York 5, Kansas City 3
7. 1972 NLCS: Cincinnati 4, Pittsburgh 3
8. 1981 NLCS: Los Angeles 2, Montreal 1
9. 1982 ALCS: Milwaukee 4, California 3
10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York

2006 NLCS: Mighty Carlos Strikes Out

2011-12-26T14:23:00.000-08:00

How they got here
The records of the teams in the 2006 NLCS were a little bit deceiving. The Mets belonged in the series, winning a League-high 97 games and winning the NL East by 12 games, ending Atlanta's 14-year stranglehold on the division in the meantime. Boasting a lineup full of all-stars and a pitching staff full of veterans with postseason experience, the Mets seemed perfectly built for postseason success.

The St. Louis Cardinals, on the other hand, seemed like a fluke. With Albert Pujols their only true hitting star and Chris Carpenter their only reliable starter, the Cardinals squeaked into the postseason despite winning only 83 games that year. That's where the records can be deceiving, though, as St. Louis had a good record most of the season and had the NL Central pretty much wrapped up before a late-season collapse made their final record look pedestrian.

If anybody had any doubt as to whether the Cardinals belonged in the playoffs, St. Louis erased them by easily beating the Padres in the NLDS. After the Mets swept the Dodgers in the other first-round series, the two former East Division rivals squared off for the National League title.

In Game 1, the Mets' pitching experience paid off; while Carlos Beltran's two-run home run was their only offense, former Braves standout Tom Glavine made it hold up by pitching a shutout. In Game 2, unheralded outfielder So Taguchi hit a home run off Mets closer Billy Wagner to give the Cardinals the win. A Game 3 shutout by little-known Jeff Suppan gave the Cardinals the series lead, while the Mets' two Carlos's - Beltran and Delgado - combined for three home runs in a Game 4 win. The teams traded 4-2 wins in the next two games to set up Game 7 in Shea Stadium in Queens.

The Game
There are three defining moments from Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, two of which looked exactly the same. It's the three moments that were replayed over and over, the three moments that were remembered more fondly than the World Series that followed.

The first big moment came in the top of the sixth, with the Cardinals hoping to break a 1-1 tie. With a runner on first, Scott Rolen lifted the first pitch of the at bat from starter Oliver Perez to deep left field. Endy Chavez slowly drifted back, reached out for the wall as he hit the warning track, jumped as high as he could and, timing the jump perfectly, came down with the ball. While the fans were realizing about a second later he had caught the ball, Chavez fired back to the infield, where the Mets were able to double off Jim Edmonds to end the inning still tied.

The catch made Chavez an instant hero in New York. It was one of the greatest catches ever made in a postseason game, one that was sure to make him a baseball legend, if only the Mets could pull it out.

Top of the ninth now. Still tied 1-1. Both starters gone, the teams turning to their strong bullpens. Rolen works a nine-pitch at bat before hitting a one-out single. Up comes Yadier Molina. Like his two brothers, Molina was a great defensive catcher and a relatively poor hitter. But like his brothers, he was capable of hitting one out if he got a hold of one. And he got a hold of one, hitting it deep and high to left field. Endy Chavez slowly drifted back, reached out for the wall as he hit the warning track, jumped as high as he could and, timing the jump just slightly short of perfectly, came down with air. He couldn't believe it. Mets fans couldn't believe it. And, perhaps most telling, Molina couldn't believe it. Of all the candidates to hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning of Game 7, Molina would have probably ranked 10th among his own teammates. And yet he had done it, and created his own moment.

To the bottom of the ninth, and another potential Great Moment in Baseball History. See, the Mets managed to load the bases with two outs, and up to bat came Carlos Beltran. He was their best hitter, their team leader, and had been red-hot this entire series. The first two pitches of the at bat were strikes. This was something straight out of "Casey at the Bat," only Casey was Carlos, and Mudville was Flushing, Queens, New York. And in his famous poem, Casey swung and missed at strike three, while in real life Carlos left the bat on his shoulder, watching a curveball drop into the strike zone and leaving the bases loaded. There was no joy in Queens as mighty Carlos struck out.

Aftermath
The 2006 Cardinals may have been the second-worst team to ever make it to the World Series, but they sure looked like the better team against the Tigers. It was really no contest, with the Cardinals winning in five games in a series I have absolutely no memory of, in the process becoming the worst team - at least record-wise - to ever win a World Series.

Despite the heartbreaking loss in the NLCS, the Mets entered the offseason with a lot of promise, hoping they had finally found the right combination to win a World Series. Instead, their veteran pitchers became merely old, with nobody good ready to replace them, and their young offensive stars became injured stars. The Mets haven't been to the playoffs since that loss, and now their owner is broke - thanks to Bernie Madoff - and their franchise is directionless. What might have changed if only Mighty Carlos hadn't struck out?

What I'm doing.

The list so far:
4. 2006 NLCS: St. Louis 3, New York 1
5. 1976 ALCS: New York 7, Kansas City 6
6. 1977 ALCS: New York 5, Kansas City 3
7. 1972 NLCS: Cincinnati 4, Pittsburgh 3
8. 1981 NLCS: Los Angeles 2, Montreal 1
9. 1982 ALCS: Milwaukee 4, California 3
10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York

1976 ALCS: Chambliss in the crowd

2011-12-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

How they got here
The Oakland A's had won the AL West five years in a row in the 1970s. But 1976 was the dawning of free agency in baseball, and Oakland couldn't afford to keep its big stars. With the good players leaving Oakland, the Kansas City Royals stepped up.

Though the Royals had virtually no power in their lineup - their number 3 hitter was batting champion George Brett, who had only 7 home runs and 67 rbi on the season - they used their great team speed to burst out to the front of the pack in the West, leading the division by as many as 10 games. They struggled down the stretch a bit, but still won the division by 2.5 games, making the playoffs in just their seventh year of existence.

Meanwhile, there was a changing of the tides in the AL East as well. While the A's couldn't afford their stars in free agency, the New York Yankees could. The Yankees happily signed former Oakland ace Catfish Hunter and, behind his leadership, vaulted to the top of the AL East in 1976. Their postseason appearance was their first since 1964, the longest drought the Yankees had endured since trading for Babe Ruth.

So the ALCS was the old dynasty against the newcomers. The Yankees did the expected in starting Catfish Hunter in Game 1; the Royals did the unexpected by giving the ball to reliever Larry Gura, who only started two games all season long. To many peoples' surprise, though, Gura pitched into the ninth, but Hunter was better as the Yankees won.

Five Yankee errors led to a Kansas City win in Game 2, while the Yankee took their turn to come from behind to win Game 3. Game 4 was a rematch between Hunter and Gura; this time both starters were gone by the 4th, while the Royals won to send the series to a deciding Game 5.

The Game
So far, the stars of the series had been Brett for the Royals and the triumvirate of Mickey Rivers, Thurman Munson, and Chris Chambliss for the Yankees. By the time Game 5 was over, all four had made their impact on the game.

First, the Yankees trio struck. After Kansas City scored two in the first, Rivers, Munson, and Chambliss combined to produce two runs to tie the game, knocking out Kansas City starter Dennis Leonard in the process. After the Royals took the lead in the second, Rivers, Munson, and Chambliss worked together to make it 4-3 Yankees.

Holding the lead, the Yankees kept going for the jugular, loading the bases in both the fourth and the fifth but failing to score both times. Finally in the sixth, Rivers, Munson, and Chambliss again struck, giving the Yankees two more runs to make it 6-3.

Then, it was Brett's turn, as he greeted reliever Grant Jackson with a three-run home run in the 8th to tie the game. At this point, it seemed like anybody's game, especially after Kansas City closer Jim Littel got Rivers and Munson in a 1-2-3 eighth inning. He still had to get past Chambliss, but that would have to wait until the ninth. And after Kansas City failed to score in the top of the ninth, Chambliss had his chance leading off the bottom of the inning.

And then...

Aftermath
After beating the Royals, the Yankees went on to the World Series, where they got swept by the Big Red Machine in Cincinnati. But that result wasn't as important as was the start of a rivalry between the Yankees and the Royals; the two teams would meet in the ALCS again in 1977, 1978, and 1980, and would throw in mutual involvement in the Pine Tar Game for good measure. The five games in 1976 were the start of a true baseball rivalry.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:
5. 1976 ALCS: New York 7, Kansas City 6
6. 1977 ALCS: New York 5, Kansas City 3
7. 1972 NLCS: Cincinnati 4, Pittsburgh 3
8. 1981 NLCS: Los Angeles 2, Montreal 1
9. 1982 ALCS: Milwaukee 4, California 3
10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis

1977 ALCS: Yankees Encore

2011-12-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

How they got here
The story of the 1977 ALCS began with the final images of the 1976 one. As Chris Chambliss was rounding the bases, fighting through the New York crowd to find home plate, the Royals were already thinking "wait 'til next year."

Next year was another good one. Led by the great George Brett, who added power to his already sweet swing and turned into a defensive force, the Royals turned a tight AL West race into a laugher by going 35-4 between August 17 and September 25. They were peaking at just the right time, and they were ready and waiting to get revenge on the Yankees.

The Yankees, meanwhile, did what the Yankees do. After getting their asses kicked by Cincinnati in the 1976 World Series, the Yankees acquired Cincinnati's best pitcher, Don Gullett, to shore up their staff. As if that wasn't enough, they grabbed former MVP Reggie Jackson to round out their lineup.

It was no surprise that it was a rematch in the ALCS. The Yankees and Royals were the only two 100-game winners in the American League in 1977, and while neither led the league in any major category, they were both in the top 5 in virtually everything. They were solid, well-balanced teams.

If there was a difference in teams, it was at the end of games. While the Royals went to a closer by committee after Mark Littel's unfortunate ninth inning in 1976, the Yankees had the reliable and often-dominant Sparky Lyle to finish things off.

However, there were no save opportunities available in any of the first four games. Well, there would have been for the Yankees in Game 4, but Lyle had been in the game since the fourth, and he earned the win in for his six innings of work rather than a save.

It all came down to a deciding Game 5, like it was always destined to. The Royals starter would be Paul Splittorff, who won Game 1 easily, while the Yankees countered with Ron Guidry.

The Game
Brett opened things up right away for Kansas City with a first-inning rbi triple, then scored on a groundout. It was 2-0 Kansas City, but it didn't matter. After last year's heartbreaker, it didn't matter what happened until the ninth.

The teams acted like they knew that, too, trading runs in the eighth, then kind of biding their time until the real fun began.

In the 8th, things started to move. Jackson broke out of his series-long slumber, driving in his first run of the LCS to make it 3-2. Steve Mingori got Graig Nettles and Chris Chambliss to end the threat, with Chambliss walking back to the dugout sporting a .059 average for the series. At least he wouldn't beat the Royals this year.

The Royals went down in the eighth, and so came the ninth. To underscore their lack of a closer, they sent 20-game winner Dennis Leonard to the mound. I suppose you could say you wanted the Royals wanted their best pitcher on the mound to decide the series. But Leonard was no closer, wasn't used to coming into situations like this. And after letting the first two runners get on base, he was gone.

Next in line was Larry Gura, one of the Royals' three closers. He gave up a single, and the game was tied 3-3. Gura out, Littel in. And it came full circle. The previous year, the Royals season ended with Littel on the mound. This year, he gave up another deciding fly ball. This one stayed in the park, but it was deep enough to bring home the go-ahead run. One out later, an error by the normally sure-handed Brett made it 5-3. It had happened again.

Granted, it wasn't exactly the same. As the home team, the Royals were allowed a final chance to hit. But it didn't matter. Lyle was used to pitching in the ninth with the game on the line, and he set them down easily. For the second straight year, the Royals had lost to the Yankees in the final inning of the final game.

Aftermath
After getting past the Royals, the Yankees met the Dodgers in the World Series. There, Jackson further awoke from his slumber, hitting three home runs in the clinching game to forever earn the nickname Mr. October.

In 1978, it all happened again. The Yankees beat the Royals in the ALCS and beat the Dodgers in the World Series. The Royals didn't beat the Yankees in the playoffs until 1980, and it took until 1985 until they won the championship.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:
6. 1977 ALCS: New York 5, Kansas City 3
7. 1972 NLCS: Cincinnati 4, Pittsburgh 3
8. 1981 NLCS: Los Angeles 2, Montreal 1
9. 1982 ALCS: Milwaukee 4, California 3
10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis

1972 NLCS: A truly wild ending

2011-12-12T05:21:00.000-08:00

How they got here
Two truly great teams climbed to the top of the National League in 1972. Ignoring the league-wide offensive shortage, the defending World Champion Pirates barely had to sweat in winning the NL East by 11 games. It's no wonder, too; their .274 team batting average was the only mark in the league above .260, and they finished third in the National League in runs scored and runs allowed. They had skill, they had championship experience, and they entered the postseason on a high, with right fielder Roberto Clemente getting his 3,000th career hit in his final regular-season at bat that year.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati had compiled most of the pieces that would make them known as the Big Red Machine later that decade. After getting to the World Series in 1970, the Reds fell below .500 in 1971 before bouncing back in '72 to win the West by 10.5 games. Their offense was well-balanced, a mix of power, patience, and speed, while manager Sparky "Captain Hook" used the bullpen to perfection.

It had the potential to be a great NLCS, and the teams lived up to that potential. After splitting the first two games in Pittsburgh, the Pirates came back to win Game 3 in Cincinnati. Facing elimination, the Reds cruised to a win in Game 4, setting up a deciding Game 5. The game featured a rematch of the Game 1 starters. Pittsburgh sent 1971 World Series hero Blass to the mound, while Cincinnati countered with 21-year-old Don Gullett.

The Game
Pittsburgh hardly had time to dream about a second straight World Series. It changed that quickly. Holding a 3-2 lead entering the bottom of the ninth, the Pirates sent reliable closer Dave Giusti to the mound to try to get the save. The first batter he faced was Johnny Bench, who quite quickly tied the game with a home run to right.

Bench's home run finally erased the lead the Pirates had held since the second inning, when three straight hits had put them up 2-0. Pete Rose answered with an rbi double in the 3rd for Cincinnati, but Pittsburgh bounced right back with a run in the fourth, knocking Gullett out of the game in the process. After a home run by Cesar Geronimo made it 3-2, Blass was in control before coming out in the eighth.

But then Bench homered of Giusti, and the game changed completely. Two more Cincinnati hits knocked Pittsburgh's closer out of the game, and Bob Moose was brought in to try to fight his way out of a deep hole. He got the first two batters he was asked to face before Cincinnati sent Hal McRae up to pinch hit with two outs. McRae then became a footnote to history, as a wild pitch brought George Foster home from third with the series-winning run.

Aftermath

For Pittsburgh, the loss in the 1972 NLCS led to heartache. After pitching so brilliantly for Pittsburgh for seven years, Blass suddenly and inexplicably lost the strike zone in 1973. He never recovered, his wildness forcing him to retire; to this day, a pitcher suddenly losing the ability to throw strikes is said to have come down with Steve Blass Disease.

But that wasn't the worst. After getting his 3,000th his last at bat of the season, putting an exclamation mark on a career of brilliant play, Clemente struggled a bit in the NLCS, batting only .235. In his final plate appearance, he was intentionally walked in the 8th inning of Game 5. 81 days later, on New Years Eve, the plane he was on carrying supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua crashed into the Caribbean Sea. Pittsburgh, and all of baseball for that matter, mourned the loss of their star.

As for the Reds, they advanced to their second World Series in three years. Facing an upstart Oakland team, the two played a truly classic World Series, with Oakland prevailing in seven games after six of the games were decided by one run. The loss merely inspired the Reds, and after two more years of falling short, they won consecutive titles in 1975 and 1976, laying claim to being the best team in National League history.

The best part of this clip is a super-young Al Michaels making the excited call of Bench's home run
What I'm doing.

The list so far:

7. 1972 NLCS: Cincinnati 4, Pittsburgh 3
8. 1981 NLCS: Los Angeles 2, Montreal 1
9. 1982 ALCS: Milwaukee 4, California 3
10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis

1981 NLCS: Rewrite

2011-12-08T19:06:00.000-08:00

Next on the countdown of League Championship Series Game 7s (or Game 5s) is the 1981 NLCS between Los Angeles and Montreal. I wrote about this game at length earlier, so I didn't feel the need to do it again. Go here to read this description.

(As an aside, the deciding runs in this and all the rest of the games on this particular countdown were scored in the ninth inning or later. It's surprising how many LCS's have been decided by classic games.)

What I'm doing.

The list so far:

8. 1981 NLCS: Los Angeles 2, Montreal 1
9. 1982 ALCS: Milwaukee 4, California 3
10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis

1982 ALCS: Brewer breakthrough

2011-12-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

How they got here
The 1982 ALCS featured two teams who had never won a playoff series before. The Brewers made their first playoff appearance in the strike-shortened 1981 season, losing in five games to the Yankees.

With the majority of their team returning in 1982, they were expected to replace the Yankees atop the AL East. Instead, though, they struggled at the start of the season, leading to Harvey Kuenn taking over as manager. With a new manager, the Brewers became Harvey's Wallbangers, crushing the ball all over the park. They ended up leading the league in home runs and runs scored and finished with the second-highest batting average. It almost wasn't enough, though, as the Brewers let a four-game lead slip away in the final week before winning game 163 against the Orioles.

Joining them in the playoffs were the California Angels; after making their first playoff appearance in 1979, the Angels had two bad seasons before returning to prominence in 1982. They spent most of the season in a tight battle with Kansas City for the AL West lead, finally pulling away with a three-game sweep of the Royals in late September.

With Reggie Jackson and Rod Carew playing for the Angels and Paul Molitor and Robin Yount leading the Brewers, four future hall of famers were playing in this series; if Brewers closer Rollie Fingers hadn't been injured, it would have been five. However, it was Don Baylor and Fred Lynn, two other who have received Hall of Fame votes, who led the Angels in the first two games. Baylor had five runs batted in, while Lynn had a home run among his three hits to lead to an 8-2 win for the Angels in Game 1. Jackson's home run sparked California in Game 2, and the Angels went to Milwaukee one win away from the World Series.

Yount and Molitor sparked the Brewers the next two games, as Milwaukee evened the series, overcoming a Baylor grand slam in Game 4. The deciding Game 5 would be a rematch of the Game 2 pitching matchup between AL Cy Young winner Pete Vuckovich and World Series veteran Bruce Kison.

The Game
You'd think Luis Sanchez would have known enough not to relax, but you couldn't blame him if he had, if only for a moment. Facing Robin Yount with two outs and two on in the seventh, the Angel reliever had thrown eight tense pitches to Yount before walking him. It wasn't the preferred outcome, of course, but considering what Yount was capable of, a walk was almost like a win for the Angels.

Plus, following Yount was Cecil Cooper, normally a reliable hitter but one who had struggled terribly in the ALCS. Cooper had somehow only driven in two runs in the series at that point despite having Molitor and Yount batting directly in front of him. Now, he was given one more chance, batting with the bases loaded and the Brewers trailing 3-2.

The Angels had gotten there with a lot of help from Lynn. The former Boston star continued his red-hot series with a run batted in in the first and third. The Brewers had fought back, and the score had been 3-2 since the bottom of the fourth. By the time Cooper came to the plate in the seventh, both starters had been knocked out of the game.

Sanchez had been reliable for the Angels in these situations during the year, but he couldn't work out of the mess he created for himself on this day. Cooper drilled a single to left to score two, and the Brewers had a 4-3 lead.

Normally in this situation, the Brewers would turn to the dominant Fingers to shut the door, but Fingers was out for the season with an injury. Instead, they went first to Bob McClure, who was normally a starter, and then to Pete Ladd, who had thrown only 18 innings all season. Between the two of them, the Brewers got it done, advancing to their first World Series.

Aftermath
After getting past the Angels, the Brewers faced the Cardinals in the all-beer World Series, losing in seven games. Despite the power in their lineup, Milwaukee didn't get back into the playoffs until long after Yount and Molitor had retired and been enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

For the Angels, it was the start of heartache. After losing three straight elimination games to the Brewers, California lost three more in 1986. They didn't win their first playoff series until winning the World Series in 2002.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:
9. 1982 ALCS: Milwaukee 4, California 3
10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis

An uneducated look at this season's bowl games

2011-12-05T07:52:00.000-08:00

I like the college football bowl season. I always have. I've never even been that upset about a lack of a playoff because of the bowls. They're just fun. I like sitting back on New Year's Day (or January 2 this year) and watching all the pageantry and games.

Of course, it's been ruined lately by the sheer number of games. I know it's all about money, and more bowl games equals more paydays for college teams, but this is ridiculous. There are 35 bowl games this year, which means 70 teams made a bowl game, which is more than half of the FBS teams. Read that again. More than half of the eligible teams made a bowl game. Going to a bowl game used to be a reward for a good season; now it's a reward for avoiding a catastrophic season.

I think 20 would be the perfect number of bowl games. That's 40 bowl teams, which is exactly 1/3 of the FBS teams. That way you can be assured that it's only good teams that make a bowl game. It's a true reward for a truly good season.

That argument aside, I still like seeing all the bowl matchups. I also like trying to predict all the games when I watched a total of about 27.5 college games this year. Fun times! So, without further ado, my picks for each game:

BCS GAMES

National Championship Game: LSU vs. Alabama
OK, here's the thing. The actual point of the BCS is to make sure that the two best teams meet in the National Championship Game. That's it. All the other games are just filler designed to get as much money to the schools as possible. So in that regard, the BCS succeeded; LSU and Alabama were very clearly the best two teams in college football this year.

That being said, the second-most cited reason that there's no playoff in the highest level of college football - after, of course, money - is the argument that every game counts. Well, this blows that theory completely out of the water. Alabama had its chance at LSU, and they didn't get it done, losing a 9-6 overtime snoozer. But, they get a second chance at it. And it doesn't feel right. I can't imagine many people outside of the Gulf Coast are excited about this matchup.

This has happened before, you know. In 1996, Florida State finished the season as the undefeated number 1 team. Number 2 was undefeated Arizona State, but they were still contractually obligated to the Rose Bowl at that time so, lacking any other options, the powers that be gave Florida State a rematch against Florida, who the Seminoles beat during the regular season. And then Arizona State lost to Ohio State in one of the best Rose Bowls ever played, and then Florida beat Florida State, and Florida was named the national champion, and nobody really felt very good about that.

I mention all that as a long-winded way of saying that while LSU-Alabama might have been technically the correct matchup for the title game, the heads of the BCS would have been better off finding another team for LSU to play. And how satisfied will college football fans be if Alabama wins this game? I don't think they will, but I will cheer for Alabama if it somehow means a change to how things are done. Prediction: LSU 5, Alabama 2 (OT) ACTUAL: Alabama 21, LSU 0 (There's no doubt Alabama was a great team. I still would've loved to have seen their defense against a team with a real offense, like Oklahoma State)

Rose Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Oregon
There's only one college football game I go out of my way to watch every year. I absolutely love the Rose Bowl, and I'm glad that through all the BCS changes, it has survived to retain its Big Ten-Pac 10 12 matchup. I love seeing the the historic stadium divided exactly in half with the two schools' colors (which will look especially festive with the red and green mixing this year) and I love how the stadium looks as the sun starts to set in Pasadena. It's my favorite college game of the year, and this single game is the primary reason I don't yell too loudly for a playoff in college. Yes, I'm an old-fashioned sap. Get over it. Prediction: Wisconsin 42, Oregon 39. ACTUAL: Oregon 45, Wisconsin 38 (I had no idea Oregon hadn't won the Rose Bowl since 1917. So I say good for them.)

Orange Bowl: West Virginia vs. Clemson
I'm having a hard time believing that this is a BCS matchup. I had to remind myself that Clemson somehow beat Virginia Tech twice this year to win the ACC, and West Virginia didn't win the Big East as much as they avoided losing it. Not exactly an inspirational matchup. Prediction: Clemson 31, West Virginia 17. ACTUAL: West Virginia 70, Clemson 33 (The Clemson basketball team has held its opponents under 70 points in 11 of its 14 games this year.)

Fiesta Bowl: Stanford vs. Oklahoma State
Damn Iowa State. Their upset of Oklahoma State kept the Cowboys out of a matchup with LSU. It's too bad, because it would have been cool to see if Oklahoma State's all-world offense could have scored on LSU's impossibly good defense (or if their porous defense could have held LSU under 28 points). Instead, the Cowboys get a matchup against a very good Stanford team that lost to only Oregon this year. There's been a lot of attention given to Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, the likely No. 1 pick in next year's NFL draft. Oregon exposed Luck a quite a bit when they beat Stanford, but Oklahoma State doesn't have the horses to do the same. But can Stanford stop the Cowboys? Prediction: Oklahoma State 45, Stanford 31. ACTUAL: Oklahoma State 41, Stanford 38, OT (You know what's overrated? Defense in major bowl games)

Sugar Bowl: Michigan vs. Virginia Tech
No conference champions in this BCS game. Instead, it's two teams that got an at-large bid. And mildly surprising choices at that. For Michigan, it's a good story that they're back to prominence, but if you're going to pick a second Big Ten team, Michigan State played in the Big Ten title game, only lost that game by 3, and beat Michigan. But, the maize and blue travel much better than Sparty, so they were picked. In other words, money wins again. For Virginia Tech, this was their spot to lose entering the ACC title game. Then they lost the ACC title game. Oops. Yet, they still got a BCS berth over somebody like TCU, Boise State, Arkansas, or Kansas State, all of whom would probably beat Virginia Tech. But the Hokies will probably draw more fans, so they got picked. Whatever. Prediction: Michigan 28, Virginia Tech 10. ACTUAL: Michigan 23, Virginia Tech 20, OT (Like all classic games, it featured a fake field goal where the center caught a pass on a deflection.

OTHER GAMES

(Listed in the order they appear. And I refuse to mention the title sponsor of bowls, which is why some of these names might get confusing. Bear with me here.)

New Mexico Bowl: Temple vs. Wyoming
I think New Mexico is the most random place to ever host a bowl game, with the possible exception of Toronto or Shreveport, La. When I hear the schools "Temple" and "Wyoming" mentioned in the same sentence, I think that they're the two most random football teams I can think of. So really, it's a match made in heaven. Prediction: Wyoming 20, Temple 10. ACTUAL: Temple 37, Wyoming 15 (the lesson: don't underestimate Owls)

Potato Bowl: Ohio vs. Utah State
The fact that there's actually a game called the Potato Bowl is either the greatest or the most depressing thing I've heard this year. There's really no in-between. As for the game, it'd be a lot better if it were Ohio State vs. Utah. But such is life. I've heard Utah State was really good at blowing leads this year. Prediction: Ohio 31, Utah State 30. ACTUAL: Ohio 24, Utah State 23 (Do I get bonus points for that?)

New Orleans Bowl: San Diego State vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
These two schools can close their eyes and dream that they're actually meeting in the Sugar Bowl. Then they'll open their eyes and see they're playing in a quarter-full Superdome. This game is played in the Superdome, right? Anyway, last I checked, Louisiana-Lafayette is in Louisiana, as is New Orleans, so let's go that way. Prediction: La-La 27, San Diego State 14. ACTUAL: La-La 32, San Diego State 30 (As always, don't bet against Louisiana in Louisiana)

St. Petersburg Bowl: Florida International vs. Marshall
Sheesh, another team with home state advantage. Is Florida International the one that got in a brawl with Miami (Fla) a few years back? Or was that Florida Atlantic? Anyway, I think Randy Moss still has a year of eligibility left at Marshall, and he's not doing anything right now, so maybe they should sneak him onto the field. Prediction: FIU 35, Marshall 10. ACTUAL: Marshall 20, FIU 10 (Wait, so Randy Moss did come back? No? I'm confused)

Poinsettia Bowl: Texas Christian vs. Louisiana Tech
Congratulations, TCU! You beat Boise State in Boise to win your conference. You finished in the top 15 in the nation! You're moving to a much, much better conference next year! Your reward is a bowl game in San Diego! Oh, but it's not even the most prestigious bowl game played in San Diego. We save that one for teams from major conferences that you would probably beat by 30. But no hard feelings, right? Prediction: TCU 56, Louisiana Tech 9. ACTUAL: TCU 34, Louisiana Tech 27 (I forgot to factor in the possibility of TCU not caring about this game and sleep-walking through three quarters. At least they won.)

Las Vegas Bowl: Arizona State vs. Boise State
Christ, another travesty. Boise State's a top-10 team, and they get stuck in this wretch of a game against a team that has already fired their coach? Wow. I think Kellen Moore will throw with his off hand for sport in this game. Boise needs to get into a real conference quickly so that a single final-second, one-point loss doesn't keep derailing their season. Prediction: Boise State 56, Arizona State 9. ACTUAL: Boise State 56, Arizona State 24 (I think they let them have the 24 to make it more of a challenge)

Hawaii Bowl: Nevada vs. Southern Mississippi
Does anybody in Conference USA like Southern Miss right now? First, by beating Houston and knocking the Cougars out of a BCS bowl, they cost the conference something like $10 million. Then, they get rewarded with a Christmas-season trip to Hawaii. They better be careful, or else the other conference teams might not let them back in. Oh, and as is required, I must mention that Brett Favre went to Southern Miss, so BRETT FAVRE BRETT FAVRE BRETT FAVRE. Thanks. Prediction: Southern Miss 24, Nevada 3. ACTUAL: Southern Miss 24, Nevada 17 (If there's one thing I know, it's how many points non-BCS schools will score in minor bowl games)

Independence Bowl: Missouri vs. North Carolina
Finally, a bowl game I've heard of against football schools that are relevant. It's been a while. A lot of pressure's on Missouri because this will be the last bowl game they ever play in after they move to the SEC next year. Might as well go out with a bang. As for North Carolina, they had a good win against Wisconsin the other day. Of course I'm talking about basketball. Who talks about North Carolina's football team? Prediction: Missouri 31, North Carolina 21. ACTUAL: Missouri 41, North Carolina 24 (I'm starting to look like I know what I'm doing here)

Game played in Charlotte named after a department store chain I've never heard of: Louisville vs. North Carolina State
I'm pretty sure Louisville tied for the Big East championship this year. It's not a good sign for the conference that a co-champion is relegated to playing what is essentially a road game in a generic no-name bowl. The Big East should just give up football and focus on basketball. It'd be a lot less embarrassing. As for NC State, I thought they finished like 11th in the ACC this year. Apparently not. Prediction: Louisville 17, NC State 13. ACTUAL: NC State 31, Louisville 24 (So, uh, ACC > Big East, huh?)

Game formerly known as the Motor City Bowl but now named after pizza: Western Michigan vs. Purdue
I don't care. Prediction: WMU 30, Purdue 8. ACTUAL: Purdue 37, WMU 31 (Whatever)

Military Bowl: Toledo vs. Air Force
Toledo is called the Rockets. Air Force is a military academy. Synergy, people! Air Force won the Commander in Chief Trophy this year, which is really the only trophy they care about. I bet they'll be handed a trophy if they win this one, too. I think Toledo's gonna win, but wouldn't it piss off the military if the military lost the Military Bowl? Prediction: Toledo 24, Air Force 17. ACTUAL: Toledo 42, Air Force 41 (If an air strike suddenly flattens Toledo's stadium tomorrow, now you know why)

Holiday Bowl: California vs. Texas
Once upon a time, a national championship was decided in the Holiday Bowl. That will never happen again. The Holiday Bowl also used to be known as the most unpredictable, highest scoring of the bowl games. Now it's just the third best team in the Pac-12 against the fifth best in the Big 12. It used to be the best of the December bowl games. Now it's just lost in the shuffle. Prediction: Cal 35, Texas 24. ACTUAL: Texas 21, California 10 (It's because Texas is bigger, isn't it)

Game played in Orlando named after a sports apparel shop: Florida State vs. Notre Dame
This would have been an awesome game in 1993. Now, I'm just surprised that Florida State wasn't banned from a bowl game this year. I predict a lot of gold helmets in this one. Prediction: Notre Dame 31, Florida State 24. ACTUAL: Florida State 18, Notre Dame 14 (The revenge of Charlie Ward?)

Alamo Bowl: Washington vs. Baylor
I liked this better when it was Big Ten vs. Big 12. Oh well. Baylor's pretty good - they beat Oklahoma, right? That says something. Washington beat ... Washington State? I think? But they play in Seattle, which must be really nice. Baylor plays in Waco, which is still mostly known for David Koresh. Prediction: Baylor 42, Washington 28. ACTUAL: Baylor 67, Washington 56 (No, wait ... sorry, that was a basketball score. What? It wasn't? Wow.)

Armed Forces Bowl: BYU vs. Tulsa
Wait, so there's a Military Bowl and an Armed Forces Bowl? And they're different games? And Army and Navy aren't playing in this one? I'm confused. And that's before you mention that Tulsa calls its sports teams the Golden Hurricane despite being 500 miles from the Gulf Coast. Too many questions for me. And don't ask me where this game takes place, because I couldn't even begin to tell you. Prediction: BYU 30, Tulsa 21. ACTUAL: BYU 24, Tulsa 21 (Huh. I'm actually doing pretty well with these so far. Oh, and I literally just finished watching this game and I still don't know where it took place)

Pinstripe Bowl: Rutgers vs. Iowa State
Blame Iowa (State). If they don't beat Oklahoma State, we don't have that rematch in the National Championship Game. However, that win got them here, in a game in ~~historic~~ new Yankee Stadium. I'm pretty sure Rutgers was not one of the teams that tied for the Big East title, but they'll probably win it next year, considering they'll basically be the only team left in the league. Prediction: Iowa State 27, Rutgers 21. ACTUAL: Rutgers 27, Iowa State 13 (This left Iowa State with a losing record. But they're a bowl team! HAPPY!

Music City Bowl: Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest
I had to look at this game three times before finally convincing myself these two teams aren't in the same conference. I don't know why I always get Wake Forest and Vanderbilt mixed up, but I do. Fun fact: Minnesota beat Alabama in the 2004 Music City Bowl. Records since then: Minnesota, 33-57; Alabama, 70-21. Yee gods. Prediction: Wake Forest 21, Miss St. 7. ACTUAL: Mississippi State 23, Wake Forest 17 (Two straight losses. Are my powers slipping?)

Game formerly known as the Copper Bowl: Iowa vs. Oklahoma
It feels like this matchup should be in a more prominent bowl, because didn't Oklahoma have a pretty good year? Iowa was typical Iowa, of course, beating Michigan but losing to Minnesota, basically showing absolutely nothing resembling consistency. This will be the kind of game where a Big Ten team gets slaughtered and everybody talks about how the conference is overrated. Prediction: Oklahoma 33, Iowa 17. ACTUAL: Oklahoma 31, Iowa 14 (See? I know my Copper)

Texas Bowl: Texas A&M vs. Northwestern
Another team under a lot of pressure to win this bowl game as, like Missouri, this will be Texas A&M's last one for many, many years. And I can't think of a better way to celebrate moving to the SEC than firing your accomplished former NFL head coach. Good move, Aggies. As for Northwestern, they're just happy to be here, as they are with any postseason appearance in any sport. Prediction: Northwestern 38, Texas A&M 35. ACTUAL: Texas A&M 33, Northwestern 22 (Duh. Texas in the Texas Bowl. I should have known)

Sun Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Utah
When did the Big Ten stop having an automatic tie-in to this bowl? I always liked this one because unlike the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten could use the Pac-10 as its whipping boy in this game. I don't know much about Utah's team this season except it was their first in the Pac-12. Georgia Tech stubbornly runs a high school offense because they think they're a military academy or something. Prediction: Georgia Tech 30, Utah 20. ACTUAL: Utah 30, Georgia Tech 27, OT (The lesson: When given a month to prepare, teams can stop the option)

Liberty Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Vanderbilt
Did you know Cincinnati and Nashville, where Vanderbilt is located, are only 275 miles apart? That seems so much closer than logic should dictate. They need to make the eastern states bigger. Prediction: Cincinnati 31, Vanderbilt 7. ACTUAL: Cincinnati 31, Vanderbilt 24 (No, see, I meant a seven-point spread. Not seven total points. Really.)

Fight Hunger Bowl: Illinois vs. UCLA
Seriously? Seriously!? How is this game supposed to fight hunger? They're going to have trouble selling enough tickets to cover the teams' appearance fees, much less have money left over to give to the hungry. And while I'd technically rather watch this game than starve to death, it's a closer call than it really should be, because yuck. Both teams fired their coaches already. UCLA played in the Pac-12 championship game, but only because the USC team that beat them 50-0 was ineligible; they're the first under .500 team to play in a bowl game. Meanwhile, Illinois lost its final six games of the season, including the last one to Minnesota, which should in itself make you ineligible for a bowl. And somehow, these are bowl teams, and people are going to pay money to watch them play in a bowl game. This game right here is living proof that there are too many bowl games. Prediction: Tie, because neither team deserves to be called a bowl winner. ACTUAL: I refuse to look up to see if this game actually took place.

Game formerly known as the Peach Bowl: Virginia vs. Auburn
When this was called the Peach Bowl, this was exactly the type of matchup I expected to see in the game. Now it's named after a chicken restaurant that uses cows in its advertisements. I don't know what else to say right now. Prediction: Virginia 21, Auburn 20. ACTUAL: Auburn 43, Virginia 24 (Ooof).

Game currently played in the Cotton Bowl but is not nor hasn't ever been called the Cotton Bowl: Houston vs. Penn State
Houston was so close. So painfully close. They could have played in one of the big bowls, had the national stage to themselves. Then they crapped the bed in the conference title game. Playing Penn State is a decent consolation prize. Playing in this weird bowl with no tradition is not. I'm not even going to hint at any jokes about Penn State. Houston 31, Penn State 21. ACTUAL: Houston 30, Penn State 14 (Breaking news: Case Keenum just threw for 75 more yards while you were reading this)

Outback Bowl: Michigan State vs. Georgia
OK, I know I said I wouldn't list corporate sponsors in this section, but I always thought this was a natural name for this game. Maybe it gives me the idea of the Outback, which fits perfectly with my image of Texas, even if the Outback is technically in Australia. Even still, as I wrote that sentence, I remembered that this game is played in Florida, so now I feel like an ass. Anyway, Michigan State and Georgia are essentially the same team: Three losses, one of them in the conference title game, capable of beating good teams if they play perfectly, but not quite good enough to worry about for the national title. They're a good matchup for each other. Prediction: Georgia 28, Michigan State 24. ACTUAL: Michigan State 33, Georgia 30, 3OT (Georgia only scored three points combined in the three OTs. Yuck)

Game formerly known as the Florida Citrus Bowl Nebraska vs. South Carolina
It's a testament to the Big Ten's move that it seems perfectly natural that Nebraska is part of the conference. It's like they've been here the whole time. Also, it's strange to think that South Carolina hasn't always been in the SEC, but it's only been since 1992 for them. Odd, that. Prediction: Nebraska 31, South Carolina 24. ACTUAL: South Carolina 30, Nebraska 13 (Remind me again why I picked a team with a quarterback who can't throw to win a bowl game)

Gator Bowl: Ohio State vs. Florida
Remember that one national title game where Florida kept running the same play - Tim Tebow throwing a swing pass to Percy Harvin - over and over and over again, and kept they marching down the field because Ohio State kept playing its base 4-3 soft zone and refused to alter their game plan? Yah, that won't happen here, partially because Tebow and Harvin played against each other in the NFL this weekend, and partially because Jim Tressel is no longer the coach at Ohio State after being forced out because some of his players got free tattoos. (Read that again. After all that's going on with college sports, doesn't that seem trivial at this point?) Prediction: Ohio State 20, Florida 3. ACTUAL: Florida 24, Ohio State 17 (Remind me again why I picked the Gators to lose the Gator Bowl)

Cotton Bowl: Kansas State vs. Arkansas
Both teams lost only two games. Both teams losses came to top-15 teams. So, like MSU-Georgia, these are essentially the same team. Nice. Prediction: Arkansas 34, KSU 31 ACTUAL: Arkansas 29, Kansas State 16 (That game didn't really feel like it was that close).

Game named after a financial holding company: Southern Methodist vs. Pittsburgh
I don't have the energy any more. Prediction: SMU 21, Pitt 14 ACTUAL: SMU 28, Pitt 6 (Yah. Didn't watch it. Not even a second of it).

Game named after the web site that keeps putting Danica Patrick in a bikini: Arkansas State vs. Northern Illinois
The conference champions of the two most irrelevant conferences in America. Hence their berth in a worthless, pointless bowl game. Bonus points if you can tell me where this game is being played. Prediction: Arkansas State 31, NIU 16 ACTUAL: Northern Illinois 38, Arkansas State 20 (See the previous entry).

2008 ALCS: Ray of Light

2011-12-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

How they got here
There were two things that could always be counted on starting in 1998. The Yankees would always win the AL East, and Tampa Bay would always be bad. Since entering the league in 1998, the Devil Rays had never been good. In fact, they had never even won more than 70 games in a season. Their losing was as reliable as the Yankees winning.

Things changed in 2008. Tampa Bay dropped the Devil from their name, restarted their franchise for the third or fourth time, and started winning. Behind a pitching staff featuring five starters younger than 26, Tampa found themselves fighting for a division title for the first time in franchise history. On June 29, the Rays lept into first place, and they stayed there for all but two days the rest of the year. What made that even more surprising was that it wasn't the Yankees who they passed, but Boston. As the Rays won a tight division race by two games, it was the Red Sox who claimed the runner up spot and grabbed the AL Wild Card, with the Yankees staying home from the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.

It shouldn't have been a surprise that Boston was there in the end. They were the defending World Series champions, their second title in four seasons, and came out determined not to have a World Series hangover the next year. That they lost the division title was seen as a minor inconvenience; that it was Tampa instead of the Yankees ahead of them was merely a nice story.

Boston eased past Anaheim in four games in the ALDS. Tampa also beat Chicago with relative ease in their first-round series, setting up an ALCS between the two East Division foes.

Boston and Tampa split a pair of close games in Florida before the series shifted to Boston. There, the Tampa Bay bats came alive, with the Rays winning blowouts in games 3 and 4 and taking a 7-0 lead into the seventh inning of Game 5. Then, nine outs from a World Series berth, Tampa's normally dominant bullpen fell apart. J.D. Drew's walkoff single completed Boston's comeback as they forced a return trip to Tropicana Field.

Postseason stalwart Josh Beckett picked up the win in Game 6 for Boston, sending the series to a Game 7. There, it looked Boston had all the momentum. After the previous year's comeback from a 3-games-to-1 deficit in the ALCS - this on the heels of their historic comeback against the Yankees in 2004 - Boston was gaining the reputation as comeback specialists. Tampa, meanwhile, had the pressure of the first elimination game in its franchise's brief history.

The Game
It was an unlikely spot for David Price to be in. When the 2008 season started, he was in his first season in A ball, just 22 years old but full of potential. As the season went on, he kept climbing the Rays' minor league ladder, blowing batters away at every level before finally earning a call up in September. Oh, and all this was in his first professional season.

And now here he was, on the mound with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of Game 7, Rays up two with two outs, needing an out. Just one out. At the plate was J.D. Drew, the silent assassin for the Red Sox, the man who came up so big for Boston the previous season. He had another chance. Price threw his first pitch. Drew was taking all the way. Strike one.

Seven Major League games. That was all the experience Price had at this point. Five regular season games, plus two more in the playoffs, added to the roster just for this series to pitch to Boston's powerful lefthanded batters. He hadn't given up a run yet in the series. The crowd was screaming, their cowbells clanging. He fired. Strike two.

It had been a pretty good game to this point. Boston had scored in the first on a home run by Dustin Pedroia, but then Matt Garza had calmed down for Tampa, not giving up anything else. Tampa had eased back into the game - a run in the 4th, another in the fifth, a home run in the 7th to give them an insurance run. And now, they had to hold it. Price was their fifth pitcher of this eighth inning as manager Joe Maddon tried anything to get through the inning. Price was their last hope. Going for the strike out, he tried to get Drew to chase one. No dice. Ball one.

Maybe it was perfect that it was Price in the game. After all, he hadn't been a part of the losing. He had succeeded all his life, didn't have the losing mentality. He expected to win. So forget about his lack of experience. He was the guy they needed.

The 1-2 pitch. A nasty, driving fastball. Drew started to swing, but then thought "maybe that one's outside." It was too late, though. He tried to hold up, couldn't, and Price had his strike out. He screamed as he jumped off his mound, pumped his fist, yelled into his glove. The biggest strike out in Tampa Bay history.

The Rays closed it out in the ninth. After a walk that was almost a strike out, Price got to more punchouts before a grounder ended the series. The team that had never had a winning record was heading to the World Series.

Aftermath
Tampa Bay couldn't keep its dream season going, losing in five games to a very good Philadelphia team in the World Series. But it didn't matter. Price's strikeout became a turning point for the franchise. That one at bat seemed to make them winners. They changed from perennial doormats to perennial winners. They haven't had a losing record since.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:

10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis

1984 NLCS: Bull and the Billy Goat

2011-11-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

How they got here
There were a couple of surprising entrants into the National League playoffs in 1984. Out of the west came the Padres, who jumped out to a quick lead in the division and cruised to the playoffs, winning the division by 12 games as the only team in the West to finish above .500. Facing them was the Cubs, who started the year scuffling a bit in the East before acquiring Rick Sutcliffe from the Indians. Sutcliffe went a shocking 16-1 for Chicago and the Cubs rode his arm to a division championship.

With the matchup, the Cubs were making the postseason for the first time since 1945 while the Padres were making the playoffs for the first time ever, which was somehow a shorter time. But both teams were well-rested down the stretch and had their aces ready to go to start the series. That meant the Padres had to deal with Sutcliffe, and they didn't do a very good job of that. Sutcliffe threw shutout and hit one of the Cubs' five home runs as they romped to a 13-0 Game 1 win.

The Cubs won Game 2 as well, heading out to the West coast needing just one more win to wrap up the series (this was the last year of the best-of-5 LCS). But these were the Cubs, and nothing ever comes easy for the Cubs. San Diego cruised in Game 3, won Game 4 on a 2-run walkoff home run by Steve Garvey to tie the series. It was coming down to a final game. The Padres were bringing back Eric Show, who had gotten pounded in Game 1, while the Cubs were bringing back Sutcliffe, who hadn't lost since the last week of June. It should have been easy for the Cubs. But, it was the Cubs, and things were never easy with the Cubs.

The Game
That Billy Goat is a bitch, huh? While the goat's curse isn't as old as the Curse of the Bambino, it's just as powerful, just as likely to get blamed by an irrational fan base for everything that's wrong with their franchise.

Leon "Bull" Durham's dance with the Billy Goat was frighteningly similar to that of Steve Bartman. Both happened with his team in the lead, sure, but both happened with plenty of time left for the Cubs to recover. Also, both are a convenient excuse to cover up a complete Cubs collapse.

At first, it looked like Durham would be the man to finally break the Billy Goat Curse, as his two-run home run in the first gave the Cubs the lead. Jody Davis hit another home run in the second, and the Cubs handed the best pitcher in the National League a 3-0 lead in the deciding game of the series.

Sutcliffe was cruising, too, until San Diego loaded the bases on him with nobody out in the sixth. Like all good pitchers, though, he wiggled out of it; the Padres hit two straight sacrifice flies to cut the lead to 3-2, but you couldn't help but think they wanted so much more from the inning.

That's when the Billy Goat woke up.

A man was on second with one out in the bottom of the seventh when it happened. Tim Flannery hit a weak ground ball towards Durham at first, one that could have been an easy out. Instead, it went under his glove, and the tying run scored.

That should have been an easy play for the Cubs to overcome. Sure, the game was tied, but it was only tied, and they had plenty of time to recover. But the Billy Goat doesn't allow for recoveries. When he strikes, he sees to it that the Cubs suffer complete, humiliating collapse. The formerly unhittable Sutcliffe gave up three straight hits after Durham's error, and three more runs came home to make it 6-3 Padres.

The Cubs had six more outs to try to come back, but the writing was on the wall. When Gary Mathews struck out with two men on to end the eighth, it was over. San Diego got the last three outs to advance to the World Series, while the Cubs went home, cursing the Billy Goat for the 39th straight season.

Aftermath
It didn't much matter who won the NLCS - they weren't gonna beat the Tigers. If you had combined the Cubs and Padres, you might have had a team that could have beaten the '84 Tigers, but otherwise, no. The only real surprise of the 1984 World Series was that the Padres managed to win even one game against what was the best AL team of the 1980s.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:

11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

2003 NLCS: Bartman and the Billy Goat

2011-11-29T19:28:00.000-08:00

Pregame
Derek Jeter said something recently about the Major League playoffs in the Wild Card era. I don't know if it was this year or last year or what, but the Yankees capttain said that while the best teams get into the playoffs, the hottest teams win in the playoffs.

Jeter had nothing to do with the 2003 National League playoffs, but they epitomized exactly what he was talking about. The best two teams in the NL in 2003 were the Braves and the Giants, each of whom won more than 100 games and cruised to their division titles. That the Marlins and Cubs joined them in the playoffs was supposed to be trivial, just a stepping stone for the two best teams to get past on their way to an NLCS showdown.

But while the Braves and Giants were the best teams, the Cubs and Marlins were the hottest. The Cubs went 19-8 in September, and they needed every one of those wins as they held off Houston by one game to win the NL Central. The Marlins also finished the season on a roll, going 18-8 in September to win the Wild Card by four games.

As the two hottest teams, the Cubs and Marlins both pulled off shockers in the NLDS. Florida upset defending league champ San Francisco in four, with the series ending as Ivan Rodriguez held on to the ball on a home-plate collision with J.T. Snow. The series win gave the Marlins their fourth postseason series victory in as many tries.

The Cubs had a slightly more difficult time dispatching the Braves, needing Kerry Wood's Game 5 gem to beat Atlanta. While Florida continued its unbeaten postseason run, the Cubs round one victory in 2003 was their first postseason series win since the 1908 World Series.

Aside from the postseason pedigree, the Cubs and Marlins were essentially the same team. They were led by dynamic young pitchers; the Cubs had Wood, Mark Prior, and Carlos Zambrano, all of whom were 26 or younger, while Florida countered with 20-somethings Dontrelle Willis, Josh Beckett, and Carl Pavano. They both had a good balance of power and speed, and were overall fairly strong teams. A close seriers wouldn't have been much of a surprise.

But the Cubs took three of the first four games, putting themselves on the cusp of their first World Series berth since 1945. Beckett threw a two-hit shutout in Game 5 to send the series back to Chicago, but with Prior and Wood lined up to pitch games 6 and 7, the series looked to be Chicago's to lose.

And then....

Well, revisionist history makes it seem like the NLCS ended in the eighth inning of Game 6, when Steve Bartman got in Moises Alou's way on Luis Castillo's foul pop. The way some people tell it, you'd think that the Cubs were about to win the series until that fateful popup, after which they immediately lost. In truth, while Bartman may well have prevented Alou from catching that ball, the Cubs were still up 3-0 with five outs to go; two outs later, they were down 8-3, with another game left to play in the series.

So taking the ball for Chicago for Game 7 was Kerry Wood, hoping to realize the awesome potential he showed as a 20-year-old in 1998 while simultaneously reversing the Curse of the Billy Goat and getting his long-tormented franchise back to the World Series. In other words, no pressure.

The Game
So how painful was that first inning home run by Miguel Cabrera? There are the Cubs, in a Game 7, their phenom on the mound, and he gives up a three-run yard sale in the first inning of the biggest game of his life. Devastating, that. The Curse of the Billy Goat, renamed the Curse of Bartman, is striking again.

But then the Cubs showed some fight. In the second inning, after a run was in, Wood hit a two-run home run to tie the game. Alou hit a two-run home run in the third to make it 5-3. Imagine, then, the possibilities. Wood had the lead, thanks largely to his own bat. If he had finished up that game, sending the Cubs to that World Series, the Cubs might have had him in bronze outside the stadium later that night. Hell, they might have named the stadium after him.

But it wasn't to be. The Marlins scratched together three runs off of Wood in the fifth, reclaiming the lead. To make matters worse, they brought in their trump card, Beckett, out of the bullpen. Sure, he was on short rest. But they didn't need him for many innings. Really, they needed him more for the mental boost.

It worked. The Cubs were done. Wood gave up another run, the bullpen gave up two more, and the Marlins won to advance to their second World Series in seven years. For the Cubs, the dream was dead for the 95th straight year. The Billy Goat lived.

Aftermath
After getting past the Cubs, the Marlins were up against the powerful Yankees in the World Series. The Yankees had the advantage in every area. But the Marlins had Beckett. Beckett started twice in the World Series and only gave up one run, including a five-hit masterpiece to clinch the series in Game 6. While the Cubs were at home as losers for the 95th straight year, the Marlins were celebrating their second championship in seven years. Go Billy Goat.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:

12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

2004 NLCS: Two pitches

2011-11-17T20:50:00.000-08:00

How They Got Here
The NL Central wasn't much of a race in 2004. Led by the all-world Albert Pujols, the St. Louis Cardinals cruised to an NL-high 105 wins in '04, making a mockery of the division race early and spending most of September waiting for the playoffs to start.

The real drama in the National League that year was in the Wild Card race. For most of the summer, it didn't look like the Astros would have anything to do with that race. Despite convincing Roger Clemens to put off his retirement, Houston was 44-44 when manager Jimy Williams was fired, replaced by Phil Garner. But even Garner couldn't fix things right away, and the Astros were 63-62 on August 26. That's when they went on a 12-game winning streak to vault into the Wild Card lead.

The Astros couldn't hold the lead, though, and found themselves 2.5 games back of a playoff berth on September 25 with only seven games to play. Houston won all seven and finished a game clear of the Giants and three ahead of the Cubs to win the Wild Card.

St. Louis dispatched Los Angeles in four games in the NLDS, while the Astros beat longtime nemesis Atlanta in a five, the first postseason series victory in franchise history. Riding high after their first postseason success, Houston had to have confidence entering the NLCS. Sure, the Cardinals had finished 13 games ahead of the Astros in the division, but Houston had actually won the season series with St. Louis 10-8 that year, giving them every reason to believe they could compete.

What they didn't have, though, was Clemens and Roy Oswalt available to pitch in the first two games. With their two aces sidelined after a long first-round series, Houston lost the first two games of the NLCS in St. Louis. With Clemens and Oswalt back on the mound, the Astros won games 3 and 4 to tie the series.

Games 5 and 6 were instant classics. The teams took a double one-hitter into the ninth in Game 5 before Jeff Kent won it with a ninth-inning home run off Jason Isringhausen. Isringhausen gave up another ninth inning as the Astros fought back to tie Game 6 before St. Louis won on a Jim Edmonds home run to tie the series.

For Game 7, the Astros had the man they wanted on the mound in Clemens. St. Louis did not, forced to use fourth starter Jeff Suppan in the season-deciding game.

The Game
It can happen quick, the destruction of seasons. Just a matter of moments sometimes. For Houston, it took two pitches. They gave Clemens an early 2-0 lead in Game 7; Clemens gave one run back on a squeeze bunt by Suppan in the third, but it was 2-1 entering the bottom of the sixth.

After a leadoff single, Clemens got two straight outs. He had a runner on third, first base open, with Pujols at the plate. In most cases, the thought would be to automatically walk Pujols, but the golden rule of baseball is you don't put the go-ahead run on base, so the future Hall of Fame pitcher faced the future Hall of Fame hitter with the season on the line.

Clemens got the count to 1-2 on Pujols, a strike away from escaping trouble. And then the Astros' season was ruined. Pujols ripped a double to left field to tie the game. Cardinals fans barely had time to settle down when Scott Rolen blasted the very next pitch over the fence. 4-2. The Astros had been a strike away from getting out of the inning, up 2-1 with nine outs to go. Two pitches later, they were down 4-2, with nine outs to go.

There were still three innings to play, but that was it for Houston. They had signed Clemens for this moment, had given him the ball with the lead in a Game 7, and now they were trailing. Their loss was just a matter of time now. St. Louis added a run off a relieving Oswalt to make the final 5-2 and send the Astros home wondering what else they could do.

Aftermath
Fresh off their exciting win over Houston, St. Louis got annihilated by Boston in the World Series. In all honesty, though, they were just fodder, an inconsequential footnote to the Red Sox incredible journey.

Houston reloaded for 2005, bolstering their pitching staff by adding Clemens' good friend Andy Pettitte. They again barely eked out a Wild Card berth and again finished more than 10 games behind the Cardinals in the Central. And again, the Cardinals and Astros met in the NLCS. But this time Houston won to advance to the World Series, where it was their turn to get swept by a team named after socks.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:

13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

1972 ALCS: Stealing runs

2011-11-11T06:36:00.000-08:00

How they got here
For the first time, a players strike cancelled Major League games in 1972, as the first 13 days of the season - and 86 games - were lost because of a labor dispute. When the players returned, their bats didn't, as run scoring dropped and team batting averages hovered around the .240 mark.

With runs so hard to come by, the Oakland A's rode a great pitching staff and just-good-enough offense to their second straight AL West title. The A's only scored 3.9 runs a game, but that total was good for second in the league in 1972 (for comparison, the 2011 A's also scored 3.9 runs per game - and finished 12th in that category. And remember, 2011 was considered a good year for pitcher). But the A's had pitching, and a lot of it. So much, in fact, that starters Vida Blue and Dave Hamilton, each of whom had an ERA in the 2.80 range, were relegated to the bullpen for the playoffs because they were the odd men out.

The A's opponents were the Detroit Tigers, four years removed from a World Series title in 1968. Like that previous year of the pitcher, the Tigers rode to the top of the standings, but they had a little luck in 1972. With the cancelled games that were never made up, not all teams played the same number of games. The Tigers won the AL East by a half-game, because they played one more game than division rival Boston.

Like Oakland, Detroit's primary offensive weapon was the home run, as they both finished in the top three in the league. That was really all Detroit could do, as they stole a stunningly low 17 stolen bases all year, the third-worst team total in Major League history.

In the ALCS, the home team won each of the first four games, but not without drama. While two of the games were shutouts, each team blew an extra innings lead in one of their road games. The A's blown lead came in Game 4, when they had a 2-run lead with a chance to clinch the series before allowing the Tigers to score three runs without getting an out.

Game 5 replay of Game 2 matchup; Blue Moon Odom beat Woodie Fryman 3-0.

The Game
With nothing decided after four games, Oakland's Blue Moon Odom met Detroit's Woodie Fryman in a rematch of Game 2. While Odom shut out Detroit in their first meeting, the Tigers scored first in Game 5, getting on the board in the first inning on a single, a walk, a passed ball, and a groundout.

It wasn't exactly a thrilling rally, but that's how runs were scored in 1972. Oakland showed that again in the second, when Reggie Jackson led off the inning with a walk, stole second, then moved to third on a flyout. After an unproductive out, Jackson boldly stole home with two outs. Though he pulled his hamstring on the play and had to leave the game, his daring play tied the game at 1.

Move ahead to the fourth, where George Hendrick, who replaced Jackson in center field, reached on an error. After being bunted over to second, Hendrick scored on a Gene Tenace single, the first run-scoring hit of the game.

Leading 2-1, Oakland put it into cruise control. Odom only pitched five innings before being replaced by Blue, but the two Blues held the Tigers to just five hits, all of them singles. Oakland only had four hits themselves, but their two runs were enough, and they won 2-1 to advance to the World Series.

The Aftermath
With such a low-scoring baseball season, it would make sense that the World Series was low-scoring, too. And low-scoring World Series games often mean tense World Series games. The 1972 series between Oakland and Cincinnati was exactly that. Six of the seven games in the '72 series were one-run games, with Oakland prevailing to win their first championship since 1930, when they were based in Philadelphia. In an odd coincidence, both teams batted .209 and slugged .295 in the series.

Oakland's title was their first of three in a row, as they staked their claim to being known as the team of the 70s. Detroit, meanwhile, was already getting old in 1972, and they didn't return to the postseason until 1984.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:

14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

1973 ALCS: Hunter beats the Birds

2011-11-07T05:45:00.000-08:00

How They Got Here
For the third straight season, the Oakland A's were in the playoffs. The defending World Champions didn't have much of a challenge winning the subpar American League West.

Against most teams, the A's pitching staff of Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman and reliever Rollie Fingers would have given them a huge edge in a short series. Not against Baltimore, though. The Orioles didn't make the postseason in 1972 after three straight World Series appearances, but they were back in 1973. And with Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, and Mike Cuellar, they were a rare team that had a pitching edge over Oakland. Plus, the Orioles had won the ALCS over the A's in 1971.

Jim Palmer took control of Game 1, shutting out the A's and Blue in Game 1. Oakland bounced back behind Hunter and Fingers to win Game 2, then won Game 3 in 11, as both Holtzman and Cuellar each threw complete games. In Game 4, the A's jumped on Palmer, knocking him out in the second and taking a 4-0 lead into the seventh inning before the Orioles scored five runs in the last three innings off Blue and Fingers, forcing a deciding Game 5.

The Game
At home for Game 5, the Athletics had Catfish Hunter back on the mound with a chance to give them a shot at the World Series. The Orioles countered not with Game 2 starter McNally but with Doyle Alexander. That didn't turn out well, as Oakland scored once in the third and twice in the fourth to knock Alexander out of the game. In his place was Palmer, still fresh after pitching only one inning the previous game.

But it didn't matter. Hunter had three runs to work with, and he was in control. He only struck out one Oriole batter all game, but Baltimore never got more than one runner on base in a single inning. None of those runners came across to score. Hunter had himself a complete game and the A's had themselves a second straight American League championship.

Aftermath
After dispatching the Orioles, the A's were supposed to have an easier time against the sub-par Mets. But the Mets put up a surprisingly tough fight, pushing the A's to seven games before Oakland finally prevailed for their second straight championship.

What I'm doing.

The list so far:

15. 1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

Elimination games in 2011

2011-11-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

Carlos Gomez flying around third and sliding into home. Chris Carpenter completely shutting down the heavily favored Phillies. Detroit being completely unimpressed by Yankee mystique. The 2011 postseason was, from start to finish, one of the best in many years. What helped that was that three of the four first-round series went the full five games.

I recently finished a countdown of the best early playoff elimination games, and I feel a divine obligation to add this year's three ALDS Game 5s to the list. Specifically, Milwaukee over Arizona, Detroit over New York, and St. Louis over Philadelphia. The problem is, where? How do I shoehorn three games into a list that's already 31 games long?

First, I ranked the three teams against each other, which was pretty easy to do. Milwaukee beating Arizona was a great game, easily the best of the three. Carpenter's masterpiece over Philadelphia was pretty easy to rank ahead of Detroit's win over the Yankees. So there's the ranking:

1. Milwaukee 3, Arizona 2
2. St. Louis 1, Philadelphia 0
3. Detroit 3, New York 2

Now, where to put them in the list? I decided to answer this question by simply comparing the Milwaukee game against all the top games, in order, until I found a spot where it fit.

Like, the number 1 game, the Shot Heard Round the World. Since Milwaukee's win over Arizona was not the single most memorable game in Major League history, it has to rank below that one. Minnesota-Detroit game 163? Nope, sorry. They both ended the same way - with Gomez flying around third to score the winning run in extra innings - but that Twins game featured so many twists and turns and changes in momentum that the Milwaukee game just doesn't compare.

The Brewers win doesn't quite add up to the Seattle-New York game of '95 or the Colorado-San Diego game of '07, either, again because of the changing fortunes part of it. Sure, there was a blown save in the ninth, but when Arizona didn't take the
lead that inning, it felt - at least to a neutral observer - that it was only a matter of time before Milwaukee finished it off.

But then? I think we found our spot for the Brewers. Sure, Bucky Dent's home run was a famous moment in baseball history, the fact that it happened in the seventh inning gives the Brewers their opening here. The Red Sox had three innings to recover from that disaster, and they almost did. But since the '78 game didn't have the added drama of a sudden death, it wasn't as good as the Brewers win. So the Brewers get ranked fifth. Not too shabby.

So next, Carpenter's 1-0 victory over his good buddy Roy Halladay. On the surface, it looks like it should have been a great game, as 1-0 games have the potential to be. But ... it wasn't. Rafael Furcal led off the game with a triple, scored one batter later, and that was it. The Phillies only challenged once, when Raul Ibanez flew out to deep right with two on in the 4th. After that, nothing. It's telling that if you look at the Win Probability Chart for that game, the biggest play of the game was Furcal's hit. When the game's biggest momentum shift comes on the fourth pitch thrown, you kind of have a dud.

But still, it was 1-0, so those always have a bit of tension. So I decided to rank this one right behind another 1-0 game, the White Sox-Twins Game 163 of 2008. That one actually had big plays that occurred after the first inning, allowing it to stay just barely ahead of the Carpenter-Halladay duel.

So then came the Detroit-Yankees game. After the Tigers took a 3-0 lead, the drama became about whether the Yankees would have enough time to get those runs back. There was plenty of drama in this one, with the Yankees leading the bases loaded twice, including in the seventh when they had cut the score to 3-2.

But, the Yankees never took the lead. In fact, there was never a lead change in this game, as Detroit took the lead in the top of the first. That fact hurts it in these rankings. I decided to rank it 12th, nestled between the Arizona-St. Louis game of 2001 and the Merkle's Boner Cubs-Giants game of 1908.

So, the final list (at least until next year):

1. N.Y. Giants 5, Brooklyn 4 (1951 National League playoff)
2. Minnesota 6, Detroit 5 (2009 AL Central tiebreaker)
3. Seattle 6, N.Y. Yankees 5 (1995 ALDS)
4. Colorado 9, San Diego 8 (2007 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
5. Milwaukee 3, Arizona 2 (2011 NLDS)
6. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 4 (1978 AL East tiebreaker)
7. San Francisco 6, Los Angeles 4 (1962 National League playoff)
8. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
9. St. Louis 1, Philadelphia 0 (2011 NLDS)
10. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
11. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
12. Detroit 3, New York 2 (2011 ALDS)
13. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
14. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
15. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
16. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
17. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
18. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
19. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
20. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
21. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
22. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
23. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
24. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
26. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
27. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
28. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
29. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
30. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
31. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
32. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
33. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 American League tiebreaker)
34. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)

One strike away

2011-10-31T18:44:00.000-07:00

Imagine, then, being a Texas Rangers fan right now. You took the magic carpet ride all the way to the World Series, the second straight year you got there, you end up one strike away from the championship, and then, that line drive off the right field wall.

But no worries. The next inning, you have your franchise's very own Kirk Gibson moment when Josh Hamilton and his injured groin gave your team the lead again in the top of the 10th. Again, you find your team one strike from a championship. Again, the sinking feeling of a hit to the outfield. Only this time, there's no coming back.

Sure, that was only Game 6 of the World Series, but nobody expected the Rangers to bounce back to win Game 7. Teams suffering that kind of tragedy don't just bounce back easily. Look at the '86 Angels. Even though Dave Henderson's home run came in Game 5, that series was done. It took them 16 years to recover from Dave Henderson's home run. Donnie Moore never did. Look also at the team that knocked those Angels out, the '86 Red Sox. Bill Buckner's error happened in Game 6 of the World Series; they had a chance to win in Game 7, but they didn't, and Buckner's error terrorized those fans for 18 years before they finally won it all.

The Rangers have quite a bit in common with those two teams, too. That's not a good thing. Obviously, all three were one strike from ultimate victory before stunningly watching it fall away. But they all also had a chance at immediate redemption; all three took an early lead in the next game after their devastating losses. But their losses seemed preordained, and so it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise that they lost the next day.

So now the challenge begins for the Rangers. Making it to two straight World Series is impressive; two straight shows that you're a good team and not a fluke. But it will be tough from here on out. It might not be tough to return to the big stage. What will be tough is when they're in the clinching game, with the lead, needing three outs to go. That's when the memories of Game 6 will come back. The players will feel it then. And they'll wonder if they'll have what it takes.

It might take a year, or two years, or a decade, or a generation. Some day, the Rangers will get over it. But don't be surprised if it takes a while, when most, if not all, of the players from this year's team are gone, so that there's nobody left who has a memory of what happened that night in St. Louis.

I could be wrong, of course. The Rangers could regroup, bounce back next year and win the whole thing. I kind of hope they do. But I also kind of expect they won't. It's not easy to get over an emotional swing like that. David Freese did more than hit a game-tying triple and a game-winning home run in a World Series game. He might have knocked the Texas Rangers out of commission for a decade.

1985 ALCS: A Good Bad Break

2011-10-24T05:49:00.000-07:00

How they got here
Many people must have felt like 1985 was the last chance for the Royals. Since 1976, the Royals had been competitors, but every year they fell just short. Whether it was losing three straight ALCS to the Yankees or falling in the World Series in 1980, Kansas City was always missing that one final step.

They were older in 1985. With an average age of 30, the Royals were the second-oldest team in the AL that year. Many of their stars from the last half decade were starting to show their age, too, but led by young starter Bret Saberhagen and third base stalwart George Brett, the Royals won the AL West by 1 game to get back into the playoffs one more time.

For the Blue Jays, 1985 was the start of something big. An expansion franchise in 1976, Toronto had finished last five straight times to start their existence before starting a slow climb toward the top of the standings. After a second-place finish in 1984, the Blue Jays finally broke through in 1985, taking the lead in the AL East on May 20 and never relinquishing it.

Toronto won the first two games of the ALCS at home, with Dave Stieb besting Charlie Leibrandt in Game 1 and Dan Quisenberry blowing a 10th-inning save in Game 2. Coming home to Kansas City, the Royals won Game 3 despite a bad start from Saberhagen. Game 4 was another matchup between Stieb and Leibrandt, and this time Leibrandt took a 1-0 lead into the 9th. But he tired and gave up the tying run, then Quisenberry gave up two more, and the Blue Jays had a 3 games to 1 lead.

In all previous seasons, the LCS would have been over. But 1985 was the first year that the series was changed to a best-of-7, so the Royals still had life. They won the next two games to force the first non-World Series Game 7 in Major League history.

The Game
The Blue Jays went back with their ace Stieb for Game 7, while the Royals countered not with the veteran Leibrandt but the youngster Saberhagen. The Royals had a 2-0 lead when it seemed like they got a bad break; in trying to stop a comebacker, Saberhagen injured his pitching hand and had to be taken out after three innings. But that turned into an advantage when the Royals went to Leibrandt out of the bullpen; by bringing in a lefty to replace the right-handed Saberhagen, the Royals were in great position to take advantage of Toronto's lefty-heavy lineup.

Leibrandt gave up one run in the fifth, but then the Royals offense gave him some more breathing room. A two-out, bases-loaded triple by catcher Jim Sundberg gave the Royals a 5-0 lead. After he came home one batter later, it was 6-0.

Leibrandt made it hold up. He gave up one more run in the ninth before giving way to Quisenberry to close things out. The Royals returned to the World Series, becoming the first team to come back from a 3-to-1 deficit to do so.

The Aftermath
The Royals faced in-state rival St. Louis in the '85 series, and just like in the ALCS, the Royals lost the first two games on the road. After a complete game win by a healed Saberhagen in Game 3, the Royals lost Game 4 to once again fall behind 3 games to 1. After a win in Game 5, the Royals got the break of all breaks, winning Game 6 after Don Denkinger's famous blown call gave them new life in the ninth innings. Then came Game 7, and Saberhagen, pitching one day after becoming a father, made it anticlimactic, shutting out the Cardinals 11-0 to give the Royals their long-awaited championship.

The Rundown
What I'm doing.

The list so far:

16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

Some thoughts on the World Series

2011-10-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

So the World Series is starting today. I'm excited about it. Based on the demographic numbers I've seen from the rest of the playoffs, I might be the only person who can say that sentence who A) is under 50 and B) doesn't live in St. Louis or Texas. It's absolutely sad that baseball has seen its ratings drop and its audience get older as the years have passed. In fact, look at it graphically:

OK, I admit, I mostly just wanted to show off my chart-building skills in Excel. Such as they are. Anyway, that chart shows a pretty steady decline for the World Series in share (the red line) and television rating (the yellow line) since 1984. (Why 1984? That's the first year for ratings I found on Wikipedia, and I didn't want to bother looking up the other years.)

So why the drop? A lot of people blamed the strike of 1994, which cancelled the World Series and showed America that the world wouldn't end if the World Series didn't happen. But as you can see, the ratings had started to trend downward slightly before 1994 (which is represented by the awkward gap in the chart). So what else caused it? I like to blame Fox, which started covering the World Series in 2000, but the drop had already started by then, too.

Here's where people give the excuse that modern Americans have more choices than ever, that in 1984 people had 10 channels to choose from, while now they have 210 to choose from, and because of that, it's impossible to expect similar ratings as two decades ago. And sure, that's a legitimate argument. But the Super Bowl hasn't exactly been hurt by that.

(True, true, the Super Bowl is one single game as opposed to anywhere between 4 and 7. But to me, that explains why the Super Bowl has higher ratings than baseball, not why baseball's have dropped so dramatically.)

So that's my long-winded way of asking one question: Why, exactly, are the ratings dropping? How about time of game? I haven't found good numbers to place into a pretty graph like the one above, but a very common complaint is how much longer baseball games are now. A lot of the blame goes to the success of the Yankees and Red Sox, teams that take pitch after pitch after pitch to extend games, but blame can also be placed on a shrinking strike zone.

Any problems with extended games is exacerbated in the postseason, when players start to feel the pressure. A good example was the great final game of the season this year, when Boston was trying to avoid its collapse. Reliever Antonio Aceves came in for Boston after the rain delay in the seventh inning, then hit a batter with his first pitch and gave up a hit on his second. Facing his third batter, he looked for the sign, and shook it off. The shook his head again, and again, and again. He stepped off, then shook off another sign. Then another. It became painfully obvious that he wanted nothing to do with that situation, didn't want to throw ANY pitch.

It's a little unfair of me to single out Aceves like that, but he's a microcosm of how pitchers react to stressful situations in the postseason. Combine that with managers nowadays calling every pitch and pickoff attempt and step-off. It adds up to never ending innings and postseason games that end way past bedtime for all but the most hard core of fans.

It's too bad. Baseball is my favorite sport by far, and I really want to pass on my love to my son. But it will be hard if I have to put him to bed before the end of any World Series game because it's going on until 11:30 at night. It's a problem that baseball needs to solve, and soon.

As far as this year's series, I don't know who is going to win. I could do exhaustive research, but really, the winners the past 10 years or so have been more or less random. It's not the best team that wins, but the luckiest. I hope Texas wins, mostly because they never have before and the Cardinals have won plenty. But what I hope for more than that is a memorable, exciting series, one with crisp, well-played games that draw in more fans for the greatest sport in the world. And I hope for the first seven-game World Series since 2002. I hope that isn't too much to ask.

2007 ALCS: Another Cleveland collapse

2011-10-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

How They Got Here
After a two-year World Series hangover, the Red Sox reloaded for the 2007 season. Curt Schilling was still on the pitching staff, but he was 40, so Boston added former World Series MVP Josh Beckett and Japanese sensation Daisuke Matsuzaka to the rotation. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were still power threats in the order, but they were getting long in tooth, so they added Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew to the order.

The additions got the desired result as Boston won the AL East by two games, the first time since 1997 that a team besides the Yankees won that division. It's not like the Yankees slipped either - New York was the Wild Card team that year. Boston was just that much better.

Another team that made the right moves was Cleveland, though most of their good moves came from drafting and promoting the right players. Led by 19-game winners C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona and a lineup seemingly filled with players who batted .270 and hit 24 home runs, Cleveland won the AL Central by 8 games over Detroit.

After both had fairly stress-free trips through the ALDS, Cleveland took a 3-games-to-1 lead in the ALCS. Not only did they have the lead, but they had Sabathia and Carmona lined up to pitch the next two games of the series. Boston looked sunk.

But Beckett and Boston won Game 5 in Cleveland, using a late offensive spurt to win 7-1. Game 6, back in Boston, also went to the Red Sox in a laugher, with Schilling keying a 12-2 win over Carmona. Their lead blown, Cleveland sent Jake Westbrook to the mound for Game 7, while Boston countered with Matsuzaka.

The Game
Matsuzaka had been an expensive disappointment for the Red Sox, putting up numbers you'd expect from a middle-of-the-rotation pitcher for a Cy Young-caliber salary. They would have preferred Beckett or Schilling in this spot, but they burned those two pitchers just getting to this game. Instead, they focused on scoring early and often on Westbrook.

They did just that, scoring a single run in each of the first three innings. But Cleveland started to chip away at the lead, adding single runs in the fourth and fifth innings and driving up Matsuzaka's pitch count.

It was another Japanese pitcher, Hideki Okajima, who was on the mound for the biggest at bat of the series. With two runners on base and one out, Okajima got Casey Blake to ground into a double play to end the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the inning, Dustin Pedroia hit a one-out home run to make it 5-2.

That home run was the clinching blow, but Boston wasn't done. With Cleveland completely unraveled, the Red Sox piled on with six runs in the bottom of the eighth. The end result was an 11-2 Boston win that wasn't as much of a blowout as the score indicated. Regardless, Boston was back in the World Series for the second time in four seasons.

Aftermath
Heading into the World Series, everybody was quick to point out that Colorado had a huge advantage over the Red Sox. While Boston was playing a grueling seven-game series, Colorado swept Arizona in the NLCS and had time to wait and get healthy. In fact, with their seven straight postseason wins added in to the end of the regular season, the Rockies entered the World Series as winners of 21 of their previous 22 games.

But baseball is not a game designed for long breaks. By the time the World Series started on October 24, Colorado hadn't played a game in 13 days. The delay showed. The rusty Rockies never had a chance, falling to Boston on four anticlimactic games.

The Rundown
What I'm doing.

The list so far:
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1985 ALCS: Kansas City vs. Toronto
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

1991 NLCS: Smoltz with the shutout

2011-10-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

How They Got Here
Pittsburgh's path to the 1991 NLCS began with Game 6 of the 1990 NLCS. As the Pirates watched Cincinnati celebrate its upset victory in the championship series, the Pirates knew how easily it could have been them, knew what mistakes they had made to cost them that series.

The next year, the Pirates were even better. All-world left fielder Barry Bonds took a small step back in 1991 - and really, considering he had one of the best all-around seasons ever in 1990, a small step back was to be expected. Make no mistake, though, he was still brilliant, and in 1991, his teammates around him were better. A well-balanced Pirates team - both at bat and on the mound - cruised to the NL East title by 14 games, spending seemingly the entire month of September figuring out how to make the next step in October.

In retrospect, it's easy to look at the 1990 season as the beginning of Atlanta's incredible dynasty. It was hard to see it that way at the time, though, as they scuffled to a last-place finish. But, while finishing last, the Braves got full seasons from young hitters David Justice and Ron Gant and pitching prospects Tom Glavine, Steve Avery, and John Smoltz.

All that losing just made the stronger, and in 1991, the Braves turned it around. Justice and Gant took a step forward, and were joined by league MVP Terry Pendleton. Meanwhile, Glavine, Avery, and Smoltz got even better. Never was that more apparent than in the final weekend of the season, when the three young aces turned a one-game division deficit into a division championship with three straight victories.

The series was pretty evenly matched on paper, and the teams alternated wins in games 1-4. The Pirates broke the pattern in Game 5, as Zane Smith outpitched Glavine in a 1-0 Pittsburgh win that put the Pirates one game away from the World Series. They were returning home, too, with their two best pitchers going in games 6 and 7.

Game 6 was another brilliantly pitched game. Pittsburgh's Doug Drabek matched Avery inning after scoreless inning, with Atlanta finally breaking through with a run by Gant in the 9th inning. Pittsburgh couldn't answer, and the series went to a Game 7.

The Game
Pittsburgh's 20-game winner, John Smiley, took the mound to start Game 7. He did not take the mound to start the second inning of Game 7, as the Braves struck with three first-inning runs. Brian Hunter's two-out, two-run home run was the big blow, the one that knocked Smiley out of the game in the first inning.

Given a 3-0 lead before he threw a pitch, Smoltz took the ball and immediately faced a threat of his own. With two outs, the Pirates had two runners on base as Bonds came up. Bonds, dropped to fifth in the batting order after a second consecutive miserable postseason, had a chance to even things up again, but instead grounded out meekly to second.

From there, Smoltz put it into cruise control. Atlanta added a run in the fifth, but they needn't have bothered. Pittsburgh didn't threaten again until the eighth, when again they put two runners on base with two outs, and again Bonds stood at the plate. Faced with one more chance to redeem himself and exorcise his postseason demons, Bonds instead flied out to left. Three outs later, the Braves were heading to their first World Series since moving to Atlanta.

Aftermath
The Braves faced another Cinderella story of sorts in the World Series, going up against a fellow worst-to-first team in Minnesota. While home-field advantage meant next to nothing in the NLCS, it was huge in the World Series, as the home team won the first six games. John Smoltz again got the ball for Atlanta in Game 7, and again put up zeros, leaving in the 8th inning with the game still scoreless. The Twins finally broke through, winning the World Series with a run in the bottom of the 10th.

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, went into 1992 knowing they'd only have one more chance before free agency ripped apart their team. Again, they made it to the NLCS, where their opponents were, again, the Braves. Again, the series went to a seventh game. And again, Pittsburgh knew only heartbreak.

The Rundown
What I'm doing.

The list so far:
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1985 ALCS: Kansas City vs. Toronto
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2007 ALCS: Boston vs. Cleveland
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

Forgetting Harvey's Wallbangers

2011-10-10T07:16:00.000-07:00

My bad, folks. My bad. Remember the old countdown I did, where I ranked the best early-postseason elimination games (Division series games, tiebreaker games, regular season-ending games that happened to decide the pennant)? Yah, I missed one.

See, in 1982, the Brewers won the AL East. Good for them, right? They beat the Orioles by 1 game. Thing is, that one game was the last game of the season, at Baltimore. Absolutely fits my definition for this list. And I left it out.

See, what happened was that Milwaukee went into Baltimore for a season-ending four-game series needing only one win to clinch their first division championship. It took them a while to get it, though. The Orioles swept a doubleheader on Friday, then won again on Saturday to tie for the title. The last game was Sunday, and was actually Game 163 for both teams since they had played to a tie earlier in the year. It was Don Sutton for the Brewers against Jim Palmer for the Orioles.

After blowing a chance to clinch early and rest up, the Brewers didn't feel like blowing the winner-take-all game. Robin Yount homered in the first and third innings, then tripled in the sixth. Milwaukee took a 5-2 lead into the ninth inning, when they scored five more runs to put the game away. They won 10-2, Yount won the MVP award, and all was good in Milwaukee, at least until Game 7 of that year's World Series.

So I'll place this game where I think it ranks in the list below and renumber everything below it. There are three more games from this postseason to add to it, but I won't rank those until the season's over and I've had appropriate time to consider how good they really were. So stay tuned for that.

And now, I'm pretty sure I got them all. Mostly sure. Mildly sure. Maybe I should just double-check...

1. N.Y. Giants 5, Brooklyn 4 (1951 National League playoff)
2. Minnesota 6, Detroit 5 (2009 AL Central tiebreaker)
3. Seattle 6, N.Y. Yankees 5 (1995 ALDS)
4. Colorado 9, San Diego 8 (2007 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
5. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 4 (1978 AL East tiebreaker)
6. San Francisco 6, Los Angeles 4 (1962 National League playoff)
7. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
8. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
9. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. Milwaukee 10, Baltimore 2 (1982 AL East)
26. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
27. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
28. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
29. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
30. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
31. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 American League tiebreaker)
32. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)

On Halladay

2011-10-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

We were sitting in the upper deck of Target Field on October 6, 2010, waiting for the first pitch of the first playoff game between the Twins and Yankees. While I was trying to convince myself that Francisco Liriano could outpitch C.C. Sabathia, the normal pregame banter that shows up on the scoreboard was removed. In its place was the television feed of another playoff game, the one between Philadelphia and Cincinnati. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on: Roy Halladay was one inning away from a no-hitter, and they were putting it up on the big screen so everybody could watch.

Halladay got the first two outs of the ninth on popups while I was trying to figure out how close he was to a perfect game. (The answer: very. A fifth-inning walk was his only blemesh). As Brandon Phillips stepped up to the plate for the Reds, Cincinnati's last hope, everybody was watching, even the Yankees who were supposed to be taking batting practice. Everybody knew this was a moment not to be missed. Not wanting to mess up history, Phillips hit a weak tapper in front of the plate - he could have bunted the ball farther. Carlos Ruiz picked it up and fired to first, and baseball had its second ever postseason no-hitter.

It was a cool moment. It's one thing to be able to watch a no-hitter. It's something completely different to share that experience with a stadium full of fans already buzzing with excitement, to look down and see Major League players applauding one of their own. But as I was reveling in the moment, I ruined my good mood for a moment by being nerdy and thinking about my blog. I wasn't thinking how I would write about this, but rather I was fretting about what day it was. See, that happened on October 6. Exactly one year after this.

Great. I was so excited to be able to include one of the greatest Twins games ever on my countdown of greatest sports moments by day. I loved the synergy that the Twins first playoff game in Target Field came exactly one year after their last, and most incredible, regular season game in the Metrodome. And now stupid Roy Halladay had ruined it by going and throwing a stupid no-hitter in his stupid first career postseason start. It was stupid.

But I shook myself out of my thoughts. I swore I'd enjoy this moment. After all, I had a year to decide whether Halladay's game would actually replace Game 163 on my countdown. I wouldn't have to worry. Instead, I could sit back and enjoy a Twins playoff game.

Well, it's been a year. I've spent some time thinking about this, but I'm paranoid it wasn't enough. I'm still torn. Halladay threw a postseason no-hitter, one of the greatest moments in baseball history. That has to be the best thing that's ever happened in sports on October 6, right? Then again, Twins-Tigers was one of the single greatest games ever played. People were still talking about the entire next season. Hell, people are still talking about it. So why should I bump it off the spot?

Then I got to thinking, well, if I leave that Twins game on there, I'll be accused of being an incurable homer. I want to be seen as a person with legitimate sports opinions, someone who can be trusted to opine on all teams, not just Minnesota ones. I want to be appropriately neutral. So I didn't know what to do.

Then I got to thinking some more. I write a blog. Bloggers are rarely, if ever neutral. Also, I write a blog that, quite frankly, very few people read. Those that do read it know me, and know I'm an unapologetic homer for all Minnesota teams. If anything, they'd expect me to leave Game 163 where it is. So that's what I'm going to do. No apologies.

And besides, that's not really the point. I'm a sports fan because of the memories created, about the moments that stand out over time. I'm a sports fan because of the days you can be watching a random game in the middle of the week and see something that moves you, something you'll never forget.

I'll always remember sitting - or standing, or pacing - in my basement on October 6, 2009, watching Game 163. And I'll always remember sitting in the upper deck on the third base side in Target Field on October 6, 2010, watching Roy Halladay finish off his no-hitter. It doesn't matter game which was better or more memorable. What matters is the memories that were made.

1973 NLCS: Minor Miracle

2011-10-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

How They Got Here
It was the type of season that happens every once in a while, where you take a look around at the playoff teams and ask "are we sure these are the best teams?" The team in question in 1973 was the New York Mets, who somehow snuck into the postseason that year.

On August 5, the Mets were 11.5 games back in the NL East. What's worse, they were 12 games under .500, a mediocre team in a mediocre division. Well, something clicked, and the Mets crawled back to the .500 mark by the end of the year. Most years, this would have been cause for optimism, but in 1973 in the NL East, it made you a contender for the division crown. And so it came to be that, after a win over the Cubs on the final day of the season, the Mets made it to the NLCS with a less-than-stellar record of 82-79.

Meanwhile, the Reds won the West by 3.5 games over the Dodgers. The Reds won 99 games during the regular season, which would have put them 17 games ahead of the Mets had the two teams been in the same division. But they weren't. Instead, they were opponents in the NLCS.

While the Reds had most of the players that would make up the Big Red Machine a few years later, they were a little light in the pitching department. Meanwhile, the Mets had little in the way of hitting, but had a good pitching staff, led by Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, who was on the hill for Game 1. Seaver was brilliant, keeping the Reds off-balance all game long. He threw two bad pitches all game; unfortunately, those bad pitches were to Pete Rose in the 8th and Johnny Bench in the 9th, and both became home runs, leading to a 2-1 Reds victory.

Having seized the advantage, the Reds promptly gave it away, losing two straight games as the Mets got two more complete games from their starters. Now, the heavily favored Reds had to win two straight in New York. They got the first win they needed in Game 4, finally getting to New York's bullpen and winning 2-1 in 12 innings. Game 5 featured the Game 1 starters in Seaver and Jack Billingham.

The Game
Despite their disparate records and the relative skills of the teams, both teams knew anything could happen in a do-or-die game. While the Reds were the better team, they were also a team that had never taken the Next Step, losing the World Series in 1970 and 1972. The Mets, meanwhile, had miraculously won the title in 1969, and while they hadn't reached the postseason since, they still had many players from that championship team.

Both teams had their chances in the first inning, loading the bases with less than two outs. But perhaps betraying their experience levels, the Reds went scoreless in the first, while the Mets got two.

The Reds fought back and had tied the game against Seaver by the fifth inning. Then the Mets struck back. They had one run in with the bases loaded when the ageless Willie Mays came to the plate. Well, maybe ageless isn't the right word, as Mays had looked anything but graceful during his triumphant return to New York. But, 22 years after playing in the World Series for the Giants, he helped put the Mets on a track back to a Series appearance with a run-scoring single. The Mets eventually ended up with four runs in the fifth.

That was enough for Seaver. Another Mets run in the 6th made it 7-2, and Seaver stayed in until the Reds loaded the bases in the ninth with one out. Seaver tapped out and Tug McGraw came in for the final two outs to send the Mets back to the World Series.

Aftermath
After surprising the Reds, the Mets continued their surprising play by taking the defending champion Athletics to seven games in the World Series. New York had the tying run at the plate before Wayne Garrett popped out to end the series. Though they came short of a title, the Mets did establish one record that will be tough to break: they are still the worst team to ever make it to the World Series.

The Rundown
What I'm doing.

The list so far:
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NCLS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1985 ALCS: Kansas City vs. Toronto
1991 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2007 ALCS: Boston vs. Cleveland
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

1987 NLCS: Whiteyball wins

2011-10-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

How They Got Here
The 1987 season is notorious for the power surge that happened all around baseball. Players who had never been home run threats were suddenly becoming power hitters as the game started one of its periodic power swings.

The San Francisco Giants rode that power surge all the way to the playoffs. One of two teams in the National League to hit more than 200 home runs, the Giants had 10 players reach double figures in long balls. After a sleepy start to the season, the Giants stepped on the gas in mid-August and ended up winning the West Division by six games over Cincinnati.

St. Louis never got the memo about 1987 being a home run year. The Cardinals hit groundballs that scooted past outfielders on the quick artificial turf, bunted to their hearts' content, and stole base after base after base. Their style of play was called "Whiteyball" after manager Whitey Herzog, and it gave them their third East Division title in six seasons.

(As an aside, I don't know if you were paying attention, but in the NL, Cincinnati was in the West Division, and St. Louis was in the East. The leaders of the National League would ask that you not look at a map right now, because they sure as hell didn't.)

The NLCS was supposed to be a study in contrasting styles, especially since Jack Clark, the only Cardinal to hit more than 12 home runs, was out for the postseason with an injury. The Giants held up their end of the bargain by hitting three home runs in the first two games, but St. Louis had trouble getting the baserunning going. The Cardinals failed to steal a base and were lucky to escape St. Louis with the series tied 1-1.

The Giants hits six more home runs in the three games in San Francisco, including two more by Jeffrey Leonard, who homered in each of the first four games of the series. The Giants won two of the three games at home and went back to St. Louis one win away from the World Series.

John Tudor made them wait, throwing seven shutout innings in Game 6 as the Cardinals escaped 1-0. Game 7 was a matchup between the Cardinals' Danny Cox and San Francisco's Atlee Hammaker.

The Game
Whiteyball hadn't worked too well in the first six games for St. Louis, but it worked wonders early in Game 7. After a scoreless first, St. Louis opened the second inning with three straight one-out singles to take a 1-0 lead. Up next was Jose Oquendo.

Oquendo was the true definition of the utility player. He only hit 14 home runs his entire career, including just 1 in 1987. He also only had 35 stolen bases his career, so baserunning wasn't his forte. But he drew a ton of walks - rare for the mid-80s - and he could play literally any position on the field. That's why he was on the team. At that point in the game, with the pitcher up next, the Cardinals would have taken a single in that situation and been happy with a 2-0 lead.

What they got was a three-run home run, the most unlikely of home runs, to give them a 4-0 lead. It was only their second home run of the series, compared to nine for the Giants, but it was by far the biggest hit of the season.

Frustrated, the Giants gave the Cardinals two more runs. Reliever Scott Garrelts, the fourth Giants pitcher of the game, walked the bases loaded in the sixth. Tommy Herr showed how you could get 100 run batted in without reaching double-digits in home runs with a two-run single to make it 6-0.

Cox responded to his team's surprising offensive outburst in kind. Though he gave up 8 hits to only 5 strikeouts, he got three double plays behind him, throwing a complete-game shutout to send the Cardinals back to the World Series.

The aftermath
After surviving the Giants big bats, the Cardinals were faced with more of the same in the World Series against the Twins. Not only were the Cardinals facing the Twins' bats, but they were up against the noise and white roof of the Metrodome. St. Louis won every home game in the 1987 World Series; unfortunately, they only played three games in St. Louis. The Twins won all four games at home to take home their first World Championship.

The Rundown
What I'm doing.

The list so far:
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. New York
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NCLS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1985 ALCS: Kansas City vs. Toronto
1991 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2007 ALCS: Boston vs. Cleveland
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

A highly uneducated look at the postseason

2011-09-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Last night. Oh boy, last night. Last night was one of those nights. It happens right about this time every year, the end of September and into October, as the playoffs approach and teams get desperate, or the playoffs start and the nerves set in. It's the time of year when you sit at the edge of your couch instead of leaning back, when you go into work the next morning with an extra large coffee and bags under your eyes and absolutely no regrets. It was perfect.

I was going to write about last night, but plenty of other writers beat me to the punch, writing about the games far better than I could.

I'll just say this: Last night was absolutely exhilarating, and I didn't even have a horse in the race (unless you count the Twins brave attempt to avoid 100 losses, which they did so in dramatic fashion (Note: Exactly 20 years ago, the Twins season also ended with a 1-0 walk off victory. That one was much more dramatic, though (Do you like my triple parentheses there?))).

So instead of trying to rehash last night in a unique way, I'll instead look forward to the postseason. I figured I'd preview each of the first-round series, with the added benefit that I don't really know what I'm talking about. In fact, I know next to nothing about some of these teams. So without further ado, here's my postseason preview.

Texas vs. Tampa Bay
Tamps crawled and fought their way through September, completing one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history last night with a 12-inning victory over the Yankees after Tampa entered the eighth inning trailing 7-0. So you could say they have some momentum going into the playoffs.

What is Tampa's reward for their dramatic victory? A first-round meeting with the defending AL champion Rangers, who beat Tampa in five games in last year's ALDS. The Rangers have had a weird season in that they are the defending American League champions, made offseason moves to make their team better (Adrian Beltre and Mike Napoli, anyone?), yet have been largely ignored this year. Maybe it's because everybody figured they'd win the weak AL West in a walk. Maybe it's East Coast bias. Whatever. This isn't a team that should be ignored.

Tampa's a strange team to figure. I'm looking at their roster right now (Oh, sorry. Here's a visual aid), and I can't really say who their best player is. I guess it could be Evan Longoria, he of the two clutch home runs last night, but he only hit .244 this year. I guess, then, it's picther James Shields, but his career postseason stats are kinda "blah."

Really, Tampa's biggest advantage is their manager Joe Madden, who is well-read and well-spoken (and by this I mean by normal human standards, not by baseball standards, because really, it doesn't take much to be well-spoken by baseball standards). He also makes non-traditional moves like sending guys who hadn't gotten a hit since April up to pinch hit in the biggest - and possibly last - at bat of the season, then watches with a smirk as those moves work to perfection - like Dan Johnson's game-tying home run last night.

So who's gonna win? The problem with Tampa is that Joe Maddon doesn't play. And while the Rays seem to be the charmed team going into this postseason, something tells me that baseball writers will start to regret largely ignoring the Rangers this year.

My pick: Rangers in 4

New York vs. Detroit
Let's face it, the Yankees are a slow-pitch softball team. Yes, C.C. Sabathia is a great pitcher, a legitimate ace. But who are they following him with? Rookie Ivan Nova and Freddie Garcia, who hasn't been good since 2006. With their massive payroll, it's stunning the Yankees can't come up with a better No. 3 starter for the postseason than Garcia.

Meanwhile, the Tigers have the incredible Justin Verlander ready go to for Game 1 and a potential Game 5, and they'll fill their postseason rotation with a pair of 15-game winners and Doug Fister, who has good numbers but a bad win-loss record because he spent half the season pitching for Seattle. The Tigers definitely have the pitching advantage in this series.

In fact, what is normally the Yankees' single biggest advantage - their mystique (just ask the many Twins teams who politely rolled over and played dead when they met the Yankees in the postseason) - doesn't mean much in this series. The Tigers beat the Yankees in the first round in 2006. They've done it before, and they're not afraid to do it again. Plus, they have the chain-smoking Jim Leyland as manager. He truly doesn't give a shit about the Yankees or any other team. The Tigers will follow his lead - with the not giving a shit, not with the chain smoking. I think.

My pick: Tigers in 4

Milwaukee vs. Arizona
I gotta admit, I don't know anything about Arizona except that they swept the Twins in June when the Twins were emotionally compromised from attending Harmon Killebrew's funeral before the series started (at least that's the excuse I'm going with). Oh, and the Diamondbacks have one of the Upton brothers. I think it's the one who had Michael Cuddyer's wife as a high school English teacher. The other brother plays for Tampa Bay. Wouldn't it be cool if they met in the World Series? That, my friends, is hard-hitting analysis.

I know the Brewers a little better. I know that there's a national argument about whether Prince Fielder or Ryan Braun is the team's MVP, even though most Brewers fans will tell you it's obviously Braun. I know they have one of the most powerful offenses in the National League and have a mildly misplaced reputation for subpar defense. And I know that this might be their only chance at the title in a while.

Here's the thing: These two teams are much more even than I think a lot of people imagine. The Brewers are high in the National League in most hitting stats, but the Diamondbacks for the most part finished right behind them. Looking at the numbers, the pitching seems relatively even, which means Arizona should have a slight edge because they have the single best pitcher in this series in Ian Kennedy, who just finished one of the quietest 21-4 seasons a pitcher has ever had.

Brewers fans should be terrified - I repeat, terrified - of a potential Game 4 pitching matchup between Kennedy and Zach Grienke. I know Grienke went unbeaten at home this year, but that one would be on the road. And based on his history of "clutch" starts in his years in Kansas City ... well, just hope that if it gets to Game 4, the Brewers are the ones with a 2-1 lead.

That said, the Brewers didn't take this magic carpet ride just to flame out in the first round. Milwaukee made moves this offseason knowing this was their one chance in a while to make a run. Arizona is likely in "happy to be here" mode after finishing last a year ago. And while you could say that this puts the pressure on the Brewers, their strong finish showed that they aren't going to melt when the heat is on.

My pick: Brewers in 5

Philadelphia vs. St. Louis
Did you know Tony LaRussa is a genius? Really, he is. Just ask any St. Louis baseball beat writer. Or really, any baseball writer who has spent time with LaRussa and wants to continue to have up-close access to him. He's a genius. That's the only explanation for how the Cardinals made their big comeback to win the Wild Card on the final day of the season.

The Cardinals have a decent lineup, what with Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday and ~~PED test case~~ comeback kid Lance Berkman. Up and down the lineup, they're fairly consistently strong. Plus, they have Nick Punto, who will, at some point in this series, slide head-first into first base. With that and the genius of LaRussa, they should have a pretty good chance, right?

But then take a look at the pitching matchups for a minute.

Game 1: Roy "I threw a postseason no-hitter last year" Halladay (PHI) vs. Kyle "I once destroyed Ron Gardenhire's office door with a bat" Lohse (STL)
Game 2: Cliff "I've won 7 postseason games the last two years" Lee (PHI) vs. Edwin "I've been traded four times in four years" Jackson (STL)

In other words, my God. Really, that's the best St. Louis could do? That has "bloodbath" written all over it.

On the other hand, if the Cardinals can somehow steal one of those first two games in Philadelphia, then Game 3 will be:

Game 3: Cole "I was the 2008 World Series MVP" Hamels (PHI) vs. Chris "I've been the unquestioned ace of my team since 2004" Carpenter

Then it gets intriguing. If Philadelphia goes into that game tied 1-1, things could get a little tight around the collar for Mr. Hamels. Things could get interesting there.

On the other hand ... naah.

My pick: Phillies in 3

Second round
I feel weird picking the second round because I know at least one, if not all, of my first-round picks will be wrong. But this is a preview blog post, so I might as well preview the shit out it.

ALCS: Wait, what did I pick, again? Oh yah, Texas vs. Detroit. Gosh the Rangers look good. And I know the Tigers would have Verlander for two, possibly three, games in that series, but still. Texas can beat him. It won't be easy, but they can beat him. And they can surely beat the rest of Detroit's pitchers.

My pick: Rangers in 6

NLCS: Philadelphia vs. Milwaukee
Look, I'll be cheering hard for the Brewers if they get this far. I hate the Packers, but I have no problem with the Brewers. I only want them to lose when they're playing the Twins. But really, honestly, Philadelphia was built for the postseason. They're going to be so, so hard to beat. See, I mentioned their three aces without even mentioning their No. 4 starter, Roy "I was the 2005 NLCS MVP over Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte" Oswalt. Good Lord they're loaded with pitchers. Milwaukee's good, and they have a chance to give Philadelphia a run for their money. But I don't think they're good enough to beat them.

My pick: Phillies in 6

World Series: Philadelphia vs. Texas
This is hard to say. Both these teams lost to San Francisco in the playoffs last year, and both would probably say that they didn't play nearly as well as they were capable. Both went out and got better and seem perfectly set up for a championship. Philadelphia has an obvious advantage in their pitchers, but Texas has the big edge offensively.

The thing is, it's been very difficult to predict the World Series in recent years. It seems like the World Series champions are being decided more by random luck than by any particular skill. So who knows? What looks like a matchup that could make for a great World Series, it's possible one of these teams will be just gassed by the end and thus ineffective.

I'll stop waffling now. I'll say that my back-and-forth means I'm predicting the first 7-game World Series since 2002, and that in the end, it will be Phillies in 7.

Now. Game time. It's time to sit at the edge of my couch, enjoy the drama, and live with the lack of sleep for the rest of the month.

1988 NLCS: Hershiser's Revenge

2011-09-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

How They Got Here
The National League in 1988 belonged to Orel Hershiser. The Dodgers ace, who had pitched them to the playoffs three years before, went on a run unlike any in baseball history in the later stages of the season. Hershiser started throwing shutout after shutout, eventually breaking Don Drysdale's record of 58 consecutive scoreless innings by getting to 59 1/3. What was more impressive was that those were the final 59 1/3 innings Hershiser pitched in 1988, giving the Dodgers the boost they needed to win the NL West.

Their opponents in the NLCS were the Mets. After winning the World Series in 1986, the Mets had a bit of a championship hangover in 1987 before bouncing back in 1988 and cruising to the NL East title. They were widely seen as the superior team to the Dodgers, but everybody knew the Dodgers had Hershiser, the ultimate ace in the hole.

As expected, the Dodgers sent Hershiser out to the mound for Game 1. As expected, he shut down the Mets, throwing 8 shutout innings. But the Mets got to Hershiser in the ninth, scoring one run while he was in the game and two more after he was pulled to steal Game 1 3-2.

Their ace beaten, the Dodgers responded by winning Game 2, then got a break when rain started to fall. By the time the skies cleared, enough time had lapsed that the Dodgers could send Hershiser out again for Game 3. But again, the Mets got to him, this time for three runs in seven innings. Though the Dodgers took the lead in the eighth, five New York runs in the bottom of the innings gave New York the 2-1 series edge.

Again, the Dodgers responded, winning games 4 and 5 to go back home with the lead. And though they lost Game 6, they had their ace back on the mound and ready to go for Game 7.

The Game
The Dodgers had wasted two sterling efforts from Hershiser already this series. They weren't about to do that a third time. After he got through the first, the Dodgers were quick to give Hershiser some support, scoring on a Kirk Gibson sacrifice fly. Hershiser set down the Mets in the second, and then it all happened. Four hits and an error gave the Dodgers three runs in the second, and they managed two more runs that inning without getting any more hits. It was 6-0 after two innings, with Hershiser on the mound. Good night, Mets, and good luck. Hershiser finished off the Mets with a complete-game shutout, capping a LCS in which he had given up only three earned runs in 24 innings, yet had only gotten one win. But the one win was the one that counted, and the Dodgers were off to the World Series against Oakland.

Aftermath
If the Dodgers were underdogs against the Mets, they were even bigger ones against Oakland, who boasted one of the best teams of the 80s. Led by the Bash Brothers of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, they were supposed to roll right over the Dodgers, who were without the injured NL MVP Gibson and would likely only have Hershiser for two games of the series.

But then a funny thing happened. Gibson hit a home run that shook the baseball world, Hershiser pitched a complete-game shutout in Game 2 only three days rest, and the A's went home unexpectedly down 2-0. Oakland bounced back to win Game 3 on a walkoff home run by McGwire, but the Dodgers stole Game 4, then handed the ball to Hershiser for Game 5. Game, set, match. Hershiser finished his remarkable season with another complete game, and the Dodgers won their second championship of the 80s

The Rundown
What I'm doing.

The list so far:
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. New York
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NCLS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1985 ALCS: Kansas City vs. Toronto
1987 NLCS: St. Louis vs. San Francisco
1991 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2007 ALCS: Boston vs. Cleveland
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

2004 ALCS: Destiny Realized

2011-09-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

How They Got Here
So much has been written about the 2004 ALCS that there isn't much point to add to the narrative. The history of the series started, of course, in 1919, when the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Since that time, the Red Sox had been suffering from the curse of the Bambino, which would rear its head at the most inopportune time. The previous year was one of the worst, as Aaron Boone's 11th inning home run beat the Red Sox in Game 7 of the ALCS.

While 2004 was a new year, it looked like the same old story, as the Yankees won the first three games of the ALCS and had the lead entering the ninth inning of Game 4. But then Dave Roberts stole second and David Ortiz homered. Ortiz hit the walkoff single the next night. Curt Schilling won in Game 6. The Red Sox had inexplicably, unbelievably tied the series, becoming the first baseball team to force a Game 7 after being down 3-0.

The Game
After a heart pounding comeback, a lot of people might have expected another Game 7 classic, one that rivaled the previous year's game. What they got was a bloodbath. David Ortiz hit a two-run home run in the first, Johnny Damon hit a grand slam in the second, and the Red Sox knocked overmatched starter Kevin Brown out of the box after just an inning and a third. It was over quickly, but really, it was over long before that. In fact, it just might be that the 2004 ALCS was over in Game 4, when Dave Roberts stole second base, or in Game 5, when David Ortiz got a walk-off hit for the second straight game. Whatever. Game 7 was pure anticlimax, one that was not befitting the quality of the series. This rivalry deserved so much more.

Aftermath
After eliminating the Yankees, the Red Sox were faced with story after story about the possibility of ending the streak. The stories were so overwhelming that most people seemed to ignore that the Cardinals, Boston's opponent in that World Series, was actually a very good team. But it didn't matter. Boston ignored talk of the streak and largely ignored the Cardinals, sweeping the National League champions in four to win their first title since 1918.

The Rundown
What I'm doing.

The list so far:
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. New York
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NCLS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1985 ALCS: Kansas City vs. Toronto
1987 NLCS: St. Louis vs. San Francisco
1988 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. New York
1991 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2007 ALCS: Boston vs. Cleveland
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

1986 ALCS: Stomach Punch

2011-09-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

How They Got Here
After both teams won their divisions by five games, the Boston Red Sox and California Angels met in the 1986 ALCS. Those two teams have met in the playoffs three times in the last decade, but 1986 was their first postseason meeting.

The first two games were noteworthy only because of the surprising beat-down the Angels handed Roger Clemens and the Red Sox in Game 1. Boston bounced back with a romp of their own in Game 2, and the series went across the country to Anaheim.

That's where the Angels surprised Boston by winning the next two games, putting them one win away from the first World Series appearance in franchise history.

And then Dave Henderson happened. With the Angels one strike from the World Series in Game 5, Henderson hit a go-ahead home run off Angels closer Donnie Moore. The Angels came back to tie the game in the ninth, but the Red Sox won the game in the 11th to send the series back to Boston. A 10-4 Boston win in Game 6 sent the series to a 7th game.

The Game
While there were two games still to play in the series, for all intents and purposes, the 1986 ALCS ended when Henderson's drive cleared the left field wall in Anaheim. The Angels never recovered from that shot; they were right at the doorstep to the World Series, only to find out that it was the wrong door.

Boston also had Clemens ready to go for Game 7. While he had been battered in Game 1 and gotten a no-decision in Game 4, that didn't give the Angels any extra advantage. In fact, that lack of success just made him angry.

Well, that's deceiving. That makes it sound like Clemens was breathing fire and throwing smoke, striking out Angel after Angel. That didn't happen. What did happen was that the Red Sox scored three unearned runs in the second and four unearned runs in the fourth, and Clemens cruised through seven efficient innings. That he gave up one run in the seventh seemed more like a charity case than anything else. The game was over long before that lone run came in.

Aftermath
After handing the Angels the most devastating loss in franchise history in the ALCS, the Red Sox moved on to the World Series, where they suffered the most agonizing loss in the history of their franchise. Leading the series 3 games to 2, Boston had the lead in the ninth inning in Shea Stadium in Game 6. Then Bill Buckner happened.

Though neither moment was the official end of its postseason series, Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner are as intrinsically tied to the 1986 season as Dave Henderson and Donnie Moore. Both teams took a long time to get over their heartbreak, with the Angels not returning to the postseason until their World Championship season of 2002, and the Red Sox needing to wait until 2004 to end the Curse of the Bambino.

The difference, then, is what happened to the antagonists. Bill Buckner, long reviled in Boston, was finally forgiven when the Red Sox won. Donnie Moore never got that chance, hearing boos every time he took the mound for the Angels in 1987 and eventually taking his own life in 1989. He paid the ultimate price for his failure.

The Rundown
What I'm doing.

The list so far:
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. New York
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NCLS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1985 ALCS: Kansas City vs. Toronto
1987 NLCS: St. Louis vs. San Francisco
1988 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. New York
1991 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2004 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2007 ALCS: Boston vs. Cleveland
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

1996 NLCS: Bravo, Braves

2011-09-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

How they got here
The defending World Series champions, the Atlanta Braves had a cakewalk in 1996. Though they weren't quite as good the previous year, they didn't have to be, needing only to fight off a modest challenge from Montreal to win the NL East. St. Louis, meanwhile, survived a tight battle in the NL Central, pulling away from Houston in the last few weeks of the season.

In the first round, the two NL West teams were no match, with Atlanta sweeping Los Angeles and St. Louis sweeping San Diego. The matchup between Atlanta and St. Louis wasn't expected to be close, with the defending champion Braves not expected to get much of a challenge from a Cardinals team making the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons.

But after a Game 1 win by Atlanta, St. Louis took the next three games, including a pair of one-run games. Needing three straight wins to advance to their second straight World Series, the Braves sent a message in Game 5, winning 14-0 in St. Louis. A 3-1 Atlanta win in Game 6 set up a Game 7.

The Game
In the clinching game of the 1995 World Series, Tom Glavine threw a shutout to give the Braves their first title in Atlanta. The Braves went to Glavine again to try to send them back to the World Series. They needn't have bothered, scoring six runs in the bottom of the first to put the game away.

They weren't done there, either. With Glavine on the mound, the Cardinals didn't have a chance, and they played like it, giving up nine more runs. The Braves got to 15, and the Cardinals ended up with only four hits as the Braves cruised to a 15-0 Game 7 victory.

Aftermath
Trying to defend their title, the Braves faced the Yankees, who hadn't yet established their dynasty. Halfway through Game 4, the Braves had a 2-1 series lead and a 6-0 in the game. Then it all fell apart. The Yankees stormed back to win Game 4 and won the series in six games. The Yankees would go on to win four titles in five years, while the Braves haven't won one since.

The Rundown
What I'm doing.

The list so far:
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. New York
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NCLS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1985 ALCS: Kansas City vs. Toronto
1986 ALCS: Boston vs. California
1987 NLCS: St. Louis vs. San Francisco
1988 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. New York
1991 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2004 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2007 ALCS: Boston vs. Cleveland
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

A new countdown

2011-09-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

So that was fun. I liked my last countdown, even if it wasn't always entirely clear what I was counting down. The next one I'm going to start is a little more straightforward: the best League Championship Series Game 7s.

(Well, not quite straightforward. From 1969 to 1985, the LCS's were best-of-fives, so I'll be including several Game 5s in my list. Still, that's easier to figure out than my list of LDS/playoff/regular season elimination games, right?)

So. The LCS started in each league after the expansion of 1969 split each league into two divisions. As I just mentioned, the series was a best-of-five affair until 1985, when it got changed to best-of-seven. Out of 82 possible series (41 seasons), 24 ended with a winner-take-all game. That's 29 percent, which seems like it's higher than it should be. But I'm no math expert, so we'll pretend that it's high and just move on.

So there it is. I'll start tomorrow with the list. I won't spend as much time on the games lower down on the list so that I can dedicate more time to (hopefully) make the write-ups about the higher ranked games better. We'll see.

Oh, and I'll show my hand a bit and give a list of the games still left to be written about, to encourage people to guess what game will be next. Or something like that.

1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1972 ALCS: Detroit vs. Oakland
1973 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. New York
1973 ALCS: Baltimore vs. Oakland
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NCLS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1984 NLCS: Chicago vs. San Diego
1985 ALCS: Kansas City vs. Toronto
1986 ALCS: Boston vs. California
1987 NLCS: St. Louis vs. San Francisco
1988 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. New York
1991 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
1996 NLCS: Atlanta vs. St. Louis
2003 NLCS: Chicago vs. Florida
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2004 NLCS: Houston vs. St. Louis
2004 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis
2007 ALCS: Boston vs. Cleveland
2008 ALCS: Boston vs. Tampa Bay

1951 National League: The Shot

2011-08-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Pregame
What if Hank Thompson hadn't struggled in 1951? That was one of the biggest disappointments for the New York Giants in the early part of that season. After watching their third baseman Thompson struggle offensive early in the year, the Giants moved outfielder Bobby Thomson in to the hot corner for the first time since his rookie year, opening the door for the Giants to field youngsters Don Mueller and Willie Mays in the outfield along with veteran Monte Irvin. Things would have been so different if Thompson had just hit.

What if the Giants didn't have so many home games in a row in August and September? Really, it shouldn't have mattered. Entering play on August 12 with a 13-game lead over the second place Giants, the Dodgers should have been able to cruise to the National League pennant that year. And they did cruise down the stretch, ending the year with a 27-24 record that should have been good enough. But then there was the matter of the Giants stretch of home games. Starting with a double header on the 12th, the Giants ripped off a 16-game winning streak, with all but three of the wins coming at the Polo Grounds. Still, though, they had some work to do, entering play on September 22 down by 3 games. Unfazed, they won 7 games in a row to close out the season to put the pressure on the Dodgers.

What if the Giants hadn't put that pressure on the Dodgers? Then maybe Dodgers ace Don Newcombe wouldn't have had to throw a complete-game in his September 29 shutout of the Phillies that kept the Dodgers in a tie. Then maybe they wouldn't have needed to go to Newcombe again the next day, summoning him from the bullpen in the 8th inning in a tie game, a one-inning stint that turned into four as the Phillies and Dodgers played deep into the fading light.

What if Jackie Robinson hadn't been, well Jackie Robinson? After all, it was his overall brilliance that won that deciding game for the Dodgers. His triple in the fifth helped jump-start a rally from 6-1 down; his brilliant catch of a bases-loaded line drive saved Newcombe and the Dodgers in the bottom of the 12th; and his home run leading off the 14th won the game and set up the most famous three games in National League history.

Well, check that. The most famous single game. See, for all the excitement and fame of the pennant race and the ultimate final game, the first two games of the Giants-Dodgers playoff have become largely forgotten. In Game 1, New York's Jim Hearn outdueled Brooklyn's Ralph Branca and the Giants won 3-1 behind a home run by Thomson. The Dodger bats responded in Game 2, with Clem Labine throwing a shutout and the Dodgers winning 10-0.

Game 3 was back in the Polo Grounds because the Dodgers, despite winning the coin toss, chose to play two games on the road. Why? Who knows. But the Dodgers had Newcombe on the mound, and regardless of the stadium and his fatigue down the stretch, they felt like they could win with him. The Giants responded with 23-game winner Sal "The Barber" Maglie.

The Game
With their aces on the mound, both teams must have felt like one run would win the pennant. For the Dodgers, that one run came early, thanks to a first-inning single from Jackie Robinson - who else? - but Brooklyn also left two runners on base that inning. For all Newcombe's brilliance, they knew he was running on fumes after his late-season heroics, so they had to be wondering how safe that lead really was.

But for six innings, it was perfectly safe. Maglie was pitching brilliantly, but Newcombe was even better, and the Dodgers still had their 1-0 lead entering the bottom of the seventh. Finally, then, the Dodgers broke through, as Thomson hit a sacrifice fly to tie game. With the Giants still threatening, Newcombe got the rookie Mays to ground into a double play to end the threat.

Having been sitting on a 1-0 lead for so long, the Dodgers responded immediately to the newly tied game, backing up their ace with a three-run 8th inning. So it was 4-1 entering the bottom of the ninth, and then the questions came up again.

What if Newcombe hadn't been over used down the stretch? Then he wouldn't have told Robinson entering the ninth that he was dog tired. Of course, manager Chuck Dressen left in him anyway. Then Dark led off the ninth with a single. Mueller - who wouldn't have had an open spot in the lineup if Thomson hadn't been able to move so seamlessly into third base - followed with another single. After a pop out, Whitey Lockman singled home Dark, with Mueller going to third and spraining his ankle.

While the trainers were tending to Mueller, Dressen was calling down to the bullpen. Branka and Carl Erskine were both warmed up, but Erskine's final warm-up pitch, a curveball, bounced, so Dressen went with Branca. What if that ball hadn't bounced? What would Erskine have done in this clutch situation? As it was, it was a matchup between Branca and Thomson. And remember, Thomson had homered off Branca in Game 1 of the playoff.

Another question to be asked is what if Dressen had ordered Thomson walked to face the rookie Mays? In retrospect, it seems crazy that it was even a possibility that you would intentionally walk somebody ahead of Willie Mays, but it wasn't then. Thomson was the Giants' best hitter, and Mays was a rookie who had at times struggled with the transition to Major League play. But the old adage went that you don't put the winning run on base, and Thomson represented the winning run, so it was him that was facing Branca. But if it had been Mays? Hoo boy. He is already considered one of the top three players in baseball history. If it had been Mays getting the pennant-clinching hit in this game, maybe that would have been the clinching argument that pushed Mays ahead of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb atop baseball's list of immortals.

But it was Thomson. And as the 1-0 pitch sunk into the left-field bleachers, he started leaping as he ran around the bases. The Dodgers slunk off the field - all of them except Robinson, that is, as he stayed to make sure Thomson touched every base.

Postgame
Thomson leaped onto home plate and got engulfed by his teammates, eventually being carried off the field. It was his moment, and his alone. All the things that had happened that summer, all the little plays or decisions that could have turned out differently had led to this. If anything had happened differently between August 12 and October 3, maybe we wouldn't remember Bobby Thomson at all. Maybe he'd just be a footnote in baseball history. As it is, he'll always be remembered as the author of the Shot Heard 'Round the World, the most famous home run in the greatest game in baseball history.

It's surprising how rarely it's mentioned that the Giants lost the subsequent World Series to the Yankees. It's like it doesn't matter, that the ultimate goal was simply the National League pennant. Maybe in this instance it was.

Mays, who missed his chance at immortality by one spot in the batting order, spent the next two seasons in the military, returning for the 1954 season. That year, he led the Giants to another World Series appearance, and he took advantage of his second chance at immortality that year, making The Catch to help jump-start a four-game sweep.

Thomson was with the Braves by 1954, a season in which instead of making history, he became a footnote to history. When Thomson broke his leg in spring training of 1954, it forced the Braves to call up a young outfield prospect by the name of Henry Aaron.

As for the Dodgers, the 1951 season became simply the most painful of their failures to win the World Series. They were even better in 1952 and 1953, but they couldn't get past the Yankees in the World Series. It took until 1955 for them to finally erase the demons of 1951 and win the World Series

The Rundown
What am I doing? Go here to find out. The list:

1. N.Y. Giants 5, Brooklyn 4 (1951 National League playoff)
2. Minnesota 6, Detroit 5 (2009 AL Central tiebreaker)
3. Seattle 6, N.Y. Yankees 5 (1995 ALDS)
4. Colorado 9, San Diego 8 (2007 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
5. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 4 (1978 AL East tiebreaker)
6. San Francisco 6, Los Angeles 4 (1962 National League playoff)
7. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
8. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
9. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
26. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
27. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
28. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
29. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
30. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 American League tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)

2009 AL Central: A Drama in Five Acts

2011-08-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

Pregame
For all intents and purposes, the 2009 AL Central race began on October 1. It was on the morning of the last Thursday of the year when the Minnesota Twins woke up in Detroit to find themselves three games out with four to play. They had lost two of the first three games of this series, and a third loss would be the end of their season.

All season long, the Twins had been chasing the Tigers, never falling more than 7 games behind but seemingly never able to get close than 2 games back. In fact, before this final series against the Tigers began, the Twins had ended the day 2 games back of the Tigers for five straight days. After opening the series with a split in a double header, the streak reached six days, before the Tigers won 7-2 on September 30 to take a three game lead.

Facing elimination, the Twins beat the Tigers 8-3 in the final game of the series, then went home to face the last-place Royals for the final series of the season. Though they had won the game they needed to win in Detroit, they were still in a tough spot, needing to sweep the Royals and have the Tigers lose two of three at home against the White Sox.

The Twins did their part, sweeping the Royals out of the Metrodome, with the final game being a 13-4 thumping that allowed them to celebrate their final regular season game in the Metrodome in style. Meanwhile the Tigers, having lost their first two games against Chicago, found themselves needing to win their final game just to force a playoff. They took a 5-0 lead into the eighth, then almost coughed up the game before getting away with a 5-3 victory.

That meant a one-game tiebreaker for the Central division crown. The previous year, the Twins had lost a one-game playoff to the White Sox. After being forced to play that game on the road after losing a coin flip, the Twins were the beneficiaries of a rule saying tiebreaker games would be played at the team that won the regular season series. This gave them home-field advantage over the Tigers, and gave them one more game at home in the Dome.

The Game

Act I: Prologue
The first six innings of Game 163 were a microcosm of the season as a whole. The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a three-run third inning, forcing the Twins to play catchup. They got their first run in the bottom of the third when Tiger starter Rick Porcello threw a pickoff attempt away, allowing Matt Tolbert to score. They added a second in the sixth with a Jason Kubel home run, a blast that knocked Porcello out of the game. Zach Miner replaced him and promptly loaded the bases, escaping the jam when Tolbert flied out to right.

Entering the seventh, the Twins took out starter Scott Baker who, rough third inning aside, had pitched quite well. They needed three relievers to get through the seventh, but they got through unscathed. The seventh inning stretch came with Detroit leading 3-2.

Act II: The Well-Traveled Shortstop
Orlando Cabrera had a history of showing up at exactly the right moment. In 2004, he was traded at the deadline to Boston, replacing longtime franchise stalwart Nomar Garciaparra. Cabrera ended up sparking the Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years. The next year, he was playing for the Angels, who won more than 100 games on their way to the AL West title. He stayed there until 2008, when he moved to Chicago just in time to join the White Sox on their division title run.

In 2009, Cabrera's luck seemed to run out, as he began the year playing for Oakland, who didn't end up making a postseason run. But he was again traded at the deadline, this time to Minnesota, where he helped solidify the shortstop position and provided a much-needed boost to the no. 2 hole in Minnesota's lineup.

That no. 2 spot in the lineup was due up third in the bottom of the seventh, and after Nick Punto led off the inning with a single, it became a key spot in the order. After a strikeout, Cabrera was up. He likely didn't hear the thousands of Minnesota fans yelling "come on, show us why we traded for you." Instead, he was probably realizing that Detroit didn't want to walk him, what with MVP Joe Mauer batting right behind him. He was thinking he'd get a first-pitch fastball. He got a first-pitch fastball. And he showed Minnesota why they traded for him, crushing the pitch into the left field seats. For the first time, the Twins had the lead.

Act III: Enter Gomez
After Cabrera's home run, the Twins did what they always did when they had the lead late in the game. They went to their strong bullpen, and they shored up their defense. The former was easy: Matt Guerrier, their typical 8th inning guy, was already in the game, so no move needed to be made there. The latter seemed easy, too: Carlos Gomez went into the game as a defensive replacement for Jason Kubel. Defensively, it was a very smart play, as Gomez could run circles around Kubel in the outfield. Offensively ... well, the Twins just had to hope Gomez didn't come up in a key spot. Yah, it was that bad.

It became even worse, too. The first batter Guerrier faced in the 8th was Magglio Ordoñez. Ordoñez had famously ended the 2006 ALCS with a home run, so he was no stranger to clutch hits. If you asked him, he'd probably rank that series-ending home run ahead of the home run he hit off Guerrier to tie Game 163, but it might be close. Wherever it ranked, the game was tied.

Not only was it tied, but the Twins had just taken out their second-best hitter for defensive purposes. Twins fans must have felt sick. Gomez was going to have to bat. It got worse, too. Guerrier got an out, then walked two batters, forcing the Twins to bring in closer Joe Nathan. He got the next two outs. But he was also the Twins best reliever, and he probably had only one more inning in him. Then what?

Enter the top of the ninth. Detroit gets two runners on base after two singles, one a bunt and one a liner to center field. Runners were on first and third, nobody out. So Nathan bared down. He struck out Polanco for the first out. Then came Ordoñez. He couldn't do it again, could he? The soft liner went straight to Cabrera at second. As he caught it, he saw that Curtis Granderson had, for some reason, strayed too far off first. Throw over. Double play. Bottom of the ninth.

Once again, Punto led off the inning by getting on base. Denard Span bunted him over. Cabrera grounded out. Then came Mauer. For a split second, the crowd was racious, until everybody realized that Mauer would be walked. The cheers turned to groans when everybody realized that the man in the on-deck circle was not Kubel, but Gomez. With the season on the line, he hit a weak grounder to short that turned into an easy force play. Of course he did. Extra innings.

Act IV: How Not to Win a Baseball Game
Lesson 1: Run out of relievers.

Nathan was used up, so the Twins had to turn to Jesse Crain for the 10th inning. A hit batter was followed by a two-out double. Detroit had the lead.

Lesson 2: Dive for a ball on a turf field.

Just three outs from a division title, Ryan Raburn made the cardinal sin an outfielder can make. His dive for a sinking line drive turned Cuddyer's leadoff single into a triple. Three batters later, Cuddyer was home with the tying run, and the Twins had runners on first and third.

Lesson 3: Forget how to tag up.

Alexi Casilla was the runner on third base, having entered as a pinch runner. He was a very fast runner, fast enough that it would only take a medium-deep flyball for him to score the division-winning run. Punto hit a medium-deep flyball to left. But when the ball was caught, Casilla hadn't retreated all the way to third. The one extra step he had to take to tag up cost him, as Rayburn gunned him down at the plate.

Intermission
Nothing happened in the 11th. Take a breather.

Act V: Retribution
You play a 162 game season, at least half of them tense games because you're in a pennant race. Those games aren't enough, so you have to play a 163rd game. Nine innings aren't enough, and suddenly you're in do-or-die situation. Everything you played for comes down to one inning. The next time you win (or lose) an inning, the season's over.

And so with the bases loaded for the Tigers and only one out, on the mound stood an unfamiliar face for the Twins. There stood Bobby Keppel, 27 years old and on his third team in three years, a man whose 54 innings pitched that year more than doubled his previous career total. He was without a Major League win or a Major League save, yet there he was, on the mound in a do-or-die inning in a do-or-die game.

And there he was, throwing the pitch that drifted in on Brandon Inge and brushed his jersey. Inge flipped his bat, took a step toward first, then looked back at home plate umpire Randy Marsh, who, bless his heart, said, simply, "ball." He didn't see it. Replays showed it conclusively - it hit Inge's jersey - but Marsh missed it. Inge was still batting.

Then he hit a high chopper over the middle. Punto, the second baseman, cut off the ball before it reached the outfield, then, realizing he had no chance at a double play, spun and threw across his body toward home, just in time to get the out. It was a brilliant play, the play of the season, the kind of play you can't practice. But the Twins weren't out of the woods yet. Gerald Laird worked the count full, and then Keppel threw one in the dirt. But Laird, bless his heart, swung at it.

Keppel pumped his fist, then did so again for good measure. He walked off the mound, never to return. That 3-2 sinker that Laird swung over was the last pitch Keppel threw as a major leaguer.

And then came the bottom of the 12th. Gomez, who had failed when the game was on the line in the 9th, this time came through, sneaking one through the left side. Here was pure speed, the fastest player on either team standing on first base. He moved to second on a ground out, and then an intentional walk brought up Casilla.

Baseball has a funny way of choosing who gets to be the hero. Instead of one of the stars of either team, it was the weak-hitting Casilla at the plate, trying to drive in the inconsistent and underachieving Gomez from second. Casilla who had failed to score on a should-have-been sacrifice fly.

There would be no failure this time. Casilla grounded one through the right side, and Gomez did what Gomez does best: run. He rounded third, slid into home, and set off a manic celebration.

Postgame
The Twins really had no chance against the Yankees. For one thing, they were a far inferior team. For another thing, they had to play in New York the day after their 12-inning marathon, so they were tired and a little hung over for Game 1. But it didn't matter. Their memorable win against Detroit in the final regular-season game in the Dome provided a season's worth of excitement.

The Rundown
What am I doing? Go here to find out. The list so far:

2. Minnesota 6, Detroit 5 (2009 AL Central tiebreaker)
3. Seattle 6, N.Y. Yankees 5 (1995 ALDS)
4. Colorado 9, San Diego 8 (2007 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
5. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 4 (1978 AL East tiebreaker)
6. San Francisco 6, Los Angeles 4 (1962 National League playoff)
7. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
8. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
9. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
26. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
27. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
28. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
29. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
30. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 American League tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)