The scene outside Edison Field Saturday following the Angels’ first playoff series win in its 42 years of existence was unlike any I’d ever seen.
Watching the playoffs the last two nights, the Prospectus staff sounds off. We pick it up at the end of Angels-Yankees, Game 1.
This is a match-up of opposites in many ways, not the least being the teams’ post-season histories. The Yankees have won the World Series 26 times, including four of the past six years. To achieve a similar level of dominance, the Angels would have had to win 10 championships in their 41 years of existence. Instead, they enter the playoffs with the most meager post-season tradition of any Divisional Series participant, with three first-round exits in as many tries.
People complain that it’s unfair to some teams chasing the wild card. Perhaps, but with “natural rivalries” and bizarre interleague schedules, fairness has already been tossed out the window.
There is no competitive balance problem in baseball, even in the latest period of Yankee pennants. Supposedly, the Yankees play an entirely different game than other teams. If this is true, we should see this in almost any metric we choose, but it’s not there.
New York Yankees