This year's baseball Divisional Series, in which four best-of-five contests took only a total of thirteen games to complete, was the shortest such set since they introduced the concept. But it was more than just a statistic, to this baseball fan.
The fact that no series went the distance, and more, that all but one of them were sweeps, has served to diminish some of my enthusiasm for the playoffs. There just wasn't a whole lot of suspense or drama to the opening round in 2007. That's not to say that I couldn't be revved back up again by a good League Championship Series or two, but usually I go into the LCS pre-jazzed... sigh.
So, I'm definitely more intrigued by the Rockies/D'backs matchup than the Indians/Bosox one, but that wouldn't be true if Boston hadn't already ended their own 80+ year drought. It's hard to believe that anyone will be able to stop the boys from Colorado, but the prospect of potentially seeing them go up against the powerhouse Red Sox holds some definite appeal. In the 90s, the Indians made it to the World Series twice, but each time lost to a team that had never won a championship before (Atlanta in 1995, and Florida in 1997). So I have trouble considering them a viable threat, for all that they did look great against the Yankees in the ALDS. (Maybe they'll face, and lose to, the Rockies this time around?) And back in 2001, I didn't give the Diamondbacks a chance of winning it all, especially when they drew the three-time defending champs from New York, and yet they proved me wrong, in one of the best World Series I've ever seen.
Yeah, OK, I guess maybe I'm just a little jazzed after all!
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