Baseball Playoffs 2008: From 0 To 100... And Beyond

There are lots of great stories in this year's baseball playoffs, which of course has to start with the fact that the Cubs have gone 100 years without a World Series championships. At the other end of the spectrum are the Red Sox, who technically haven't yet gone even a full year without one, on account of being the 2007 winners. You've also got the Milwaukee Brewers, playing in their first postseason since 1982 and still looking for their first championship, along with the Tampa Bay Rays, playing in their first ever postseason (and thus, also looking for their first title).

The Rays are the odd men out in the American League, as the other three teams duking it out this October are all recent champs: Boston (2004 and 2007), Chicago (2005) and LA Angels (2002) have each added World Series banners to their stadiums in this young 21st century.

It's much more of a mixed bag in the National League, with the Dodgers winning it all twice in the 80s (1981 and 1988) and the Phillies once in that decade (1980 - their only World Series win), but nothing more recent than that among the four contestants. As irrelevant as it may be a century later, the Cubs were actually quite the powerhouse 100 years ago, as shown by their back-to-back (and only) championships in 1907 and 1908!

Also fascinating to me are quirky facts like how, going into today's Cubs/Dodgers Game 1, the two franchises had played 2,024 times with each team winning 1,012 games! Now that's parity!

There's no clear cut favourite this year, although the Red Sox may be the closest, despite being the AL Wildcard team. I'll be rooting for the Cubs in the NL and possibly the White Sox in the AL (I'd love to see Ken Griffey, Jr finally get a long postseason run after all his years languishing on bad teams in Seattle and Cincinnati). If we got the all-Chicago match-up for The Big Show, I guess I'd be with the Northsiders and cheer for another "great oh-eight" for the Cubbies! Regardless of who wins and who loses, though, it should be a great month of October!