The World Series That Was

Well, we didn't get the World Series I had hoped for, but at least the fans in Boston have something to celebrate once again (when they're not busy starting cars on fire, that is). This makes the fourth disappointing baseball championship in a row, if you like close ones, with Boston bookending that run:

2004: Boston Red Sox defeat St. Louis 4-0
2005: Chicago White Sox defeat Houston 4-0
2006: St. Louis Cardinals defeat Detroit 4-1
2007: Boston Red Sox defeat Colorado 4-0
(nice time to be a fan of teams with Sox in their names!)

That's a four year period during which only one more game than the minimum was played in the final round. This year reached an historic low across the entire postseason (in terms of games played): of a possible 41 games that can be required across the 4 LDS, 2 LCS and World Series, there were only 28 in 2007, compared to 34, 30, and 30 over the preceding 3 years. 2003 featured an amazing 38 games - with no series sweeps - the highest total since the introduction of the Wildcard (and three rounds of playoffs).

Red Sox fans, after waiting 86 years between championships prior to the 2004 title, had a mere 3 years of patience required this time (or 2, if you consider that only a pair of championships were awarded between their 2004 and 2007 celebrations).

Of the last 10 World Series titles, the Yankees won 3, Boston won 2, and Arizona, Anaheim, Florida, Chicago White Sox and St. Louis all picked up singles. That's a 7-3 advantage to the American League, following a 6-4 advantage over the previous 10 (so the AL has clearly dominated, and not just in All-Star Games recently!)

It should be interesting to see how the Rockies fare next year, since it can be hard to recover from coming up short at the end like that (just look at the Tigers this year).