Coming into the 2010 baseball season, there were a handful of teams that looked like legitimate contenders to be in the World Series. It was no coincidence that a few of those teams also had the highest payrolls.
The Yankees, Red Sox and Rays from the American League, along with the long shot Seattle Mariners who made some bold off season moves. Well, the Mariners never got out of the gate and since only two of the three AL East teams could move on to the post-season it seemed likely the Yankees, who made it to the ALCS would represent the AL in the World Series. It turns out the Texas Rangers, who made the mid-season move to acquire pitching ace Cliff Lee when it looked like they had a shot at making the playoffs, are going to represent the AL this year.
In the National League, there was only one thought from the outset – Philadelphia Phillies. They replaced the aforementioned Cliff Lee with Roy Halladay, kept there power in place with Jayson Werth, Ryan Howard and Clint Utley and although they started the season slow, kept winning games while the rest of the division faded. Then to ensure their dominance, they acquired Roy Oswalt to solidify their pitching staff. Many said that no team has ever rolled out a top three starting pitching staff in the playoffs like the Phillies. Unfortunately for the Phils, the Giants didn’t listen. From clinching a playoff spot on the last day of the season, to some great pitching from their ace Tim Lincecum the Giants, San Francisco will represent the senior circuit and try to win their first World Series since moving to the Bay Area.
So the World Series that everyone wanted to see (Yankees vs. Phillies) didn’t happen and we get the series that no one thought we would get (Rangers vs. Giants) and that most people think might be one of the lowest rated in history.
This World Series reminds me of two World Series that when you think back at, you try to remember who exactly played in that series, who won, and who was the MVP. First was the 1997 series between the Florida Marlins and the Cleveland Indians. This one could be remembered as the first championship for the Marlins and the Indians at the time were trying to win there first title since 1948. Still the amount of anonymity in that series is off the charts. The other series was a Los Angeles based series that the rest of America tuned out. It was the 2002 series between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the SF Giants. You may remember this one as the “rally monkey” series, but after that the memories are very fuzzy.
Ten years from now, I think we’ll think of this series the same way. It is the Rangers trying to win their first title, similar to the Marlins and the Giants trying to win their first title since 1954 similar to the Indians. We can just thank our lucky stars that there are no rally monkeys this time, just Barry Bonds.
This is absolutely a bad series. I had the Phillies going to the World Series, and I'm still not convinced that the Giants are not that good. I think the Phillies slumped at the worst time and the Giants, to their credit, played well. However, from about game 60 this year I had a strong feeling the Rangers were going to win the whole thing, not just make it to the World Series. They have a very deep, very complete team, and if their hitters are going they're very, very hard to beat. They're miles ahead of the Giants so unless something goes wrong, I expect this series to be over in 5 games tops
ReplyDeleteWith the way they both dominated the LCS, I can't make a call on who will will. I think the smartest decision either team could make is don't start your ace against the other teams ace. If Lincecum starts game 2 vs. CJ Wilson instead of Game 1 vs. Lee is that better? Not really sure...
ReplyDeleteThe only reason it will be low rated is because fans are used to having the Red Sox or Yankees crammed down our throat. Therefore they don't know much outside a select few teams.
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