http://www.sbnation.comhttp://www.sbnation.com/users/Carnival%20Matleuse Posts made by Carnival Matleuse on SB Nation http://www.bucsdugout.com/2007/10/29/164522/53 Carnival Matleuse Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:45:22 -0000 <p>At first I thought my indifferent reaction to this year's postseason was the result of being a (you may think unjustly, but screw you) bitter Yankees fan. <i>(Obviously, this is a diary.</i> I<i>'m not a stinking Yankees fan - Charlie.)</i> But honestly, these playoffs had little to no drama in them, not just in terms of mostly media-fabricated "storylines", but in terms of actual competition. In the wild-card era there are seven postseason series' played. This year fully five of those were sweeps, and two of THOSE sweeps were by one-of-if-not-the-worst-team in the playoffs. Out of a possible 17 games the losing teams can win combined, this year's losing teams won four. Four!</p><p>I went to baseballreference.com to check the numbers on postseasons like this one. Here's what I found, the first column being the year, the second column being number of sweeps and the third column being number of games the eventual losing teams won, combined. On the surface, a lower number in the second column and a higher number in the third column would mean a more exciting playoffs.</p> <ol> <li value="2007">5 4</li> <li value="2006">3 6</li> <li value="2005">3 6</li> <li value="2004">2 10</li> <li value="2003">0 14</li> <li value="2002">1 10</li> <li value="2001">1 11</li> <li value="2000">2 7</li> <li value="1999">2 7</li> <li value="1998">3 6</li> <li value="1997">2 10</li> <li value="1996">2 8</li> <li value="1995">3 7</li> </ol> Using this system (which of course does not account for ACTUAL game-play, but I think you all understand what I'm getting at), this year's postseason was indeed the most boring since the new format began in 1994er...5. <p>It's also kind of interesting to see that more drawn-out postseasons tend to flock together... we have the dominance of the Yankees which squelched competition from 98-2000, the "wild cards winning world series'" era that offered much more uncertainty from 01-04, and finally our most recent, boring era. Any hypotheses on why the last few years have been like this? I'd make some but I have to go to class.</p><p>And how about 2003! No sweeps, and four out of seven series' going the distance, including both championship series', one of which ended on one of the most dramatic game-winning home runs in history (which remains this sports fan's most exhilarating moment of fan-dom ever, even though the Yanks ended up being Beckettized), the other of which being defined by perhaps the most famous boner of 21st-century sports.</p><p>Anyway, hopefully things will be better next year.</p> <fieldset class="poll-box"> <legend>Poll</legend> <h5 class="poll-title">Better postseason?</h5> <div id="poll_container_13127_195494580" class="poll_container"> <div class="poll_option clearfix"> <div class="poll_option_percentage" style="display:none">33%</div> <div class="poll_option_result"> <h5>2003</h5> <div class="poll_option_bar"><span class="vote_count">2</span> votes</div> </div> </div> <div class="poll_option clearfix"> <div class="poll_option_percentage" style="display:none">66%</div> <div class="poll_option_result"> <h5>1991</h5> <div class="poll_option_bar"><span class="vote_count">4</span> votes</div> </div> </div> <p class="poll-total-votes"><strong>6</strong> votes | <span class="poll-has-closed">Poll has closed</span> </p> </div> <script> FastInit.addOnLoad(function(){ new SBN.Poll('poll_container_13127_195494580').animateResults({renderImmediately:true}); }); </script> </fieldset>