Flip a coin: It's Game 7!!

Bottom of the 5th, amid the drizzle in New York City, Game 7's tied 1-1. This one's going down to the wire, just like the series itself!

Although the Tigers have been awaiting the start of the World Series for nearly a week now, I'm reminded of the 2003 and 2004 League Championship Series when, in back to back years, we had both LCS's go to 7 games in some of the most thrilling run ups to the World Series I can ever remember. I wrote about the Game 6 (1986, Boston vs New York Mets) last night, but for Cubs (and Marlins) fans, 2003 held its own extremely memorable sixth game. For days afterwards, the name Steve Bartman was known far and wide for his unforgetable gaff of reaching out and grabbing a foul ball that Moises Alou had settled under, robbing the hometown Cubs of an important out while leading 3-0 (and up 3 games to 2) in the 8th inning. What should've been the 2nd out of the inning instead ended up eventually being a walk, and later in the inning the Marlins exploded for 8 runs, winning Game 6 and ultimately Game 7 (and later still, their 2nd World Series title). There was no doubt in anyone's mind what the turning point in the game or the series was, and this fact was reinforced by the death threats Bartman faced for several days afterward. All the more intriguing was the fact that Bartman was a lifelong Cubs fan himself, and so he was left to repeatedly explain that he did what he did, reaching out over the field, on pure instinct and it was only what anyone in his seat would've done.

Sometimes forgotten of that great year (2003) in League Championship Series is the fact that, for a good chunk of the week and a half during which these games were being played, it looked quite like the Cubs and Red Sox were headed to a fateful meeting in the World Series. At that point, the Sox hadn't won it all since 1918, and the Cubs were an even decade hungrier, not having won since 1908! So fans of baseball history were licking their lips at the thought of these two drought-heavy franchises going head-to-head in the Battle to End Frustration! With each series going 7 games, and each team holding a 3-0 lead late in a clinching game (Game 6 for the Cubs, Game 7 for the Sox), it seemed almost inevitable that at least one of them would make it, but Fate had other plans and Florida and the Yankees ended up winning the clinching games.

Back to the present, it's now in the 6th and Endy Chavez just made an incredible catch, robbing St Louis of a homerun and turning a double play in the process! Highlight reel stuff for sure!