Word: playoff
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Honestly, I was surprised by the outcome of the Division Championship Series between the Indians and Red Sox. Given their adherence to history, I was sure the Townies would take the series, for it is an established fact that in years when the Red Sox win a playoff game (1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986), they will advance to the seventh game of the World Series, which they lose...
However, I find this seemingly dismal fate much more preferable than the other alternative for a Red Sox playoff team: getting swept. They are the only team to suffer a four-game sweep in the League Championship Series when it was the only barrier between the regular season and the World Series...
Similarly, this year's playoff results do not approach the woefulness of the sweeps in 1988 and 1990. Note: I regard the 1995 season, in which the Sox were swept in three games by the Tribe, as a sacred, marvelous aberration, a magnificent stardust leap from oblivion to glory. Hence, I will generally refrain from discussing it here...
Funny, I didn't recall the Pirates scrambling for supernatural reasons for their surprising playoff collapses against the Reds and Braves earlier this decade. And the Phillies and Royals shrugged aside their postseason ineptitude in the late seventies. The Brewers, Padres and San Francisco Giants have yet to win the Fall Classic. The Mariners, Angels, Rockies, Expos, Astros, Rangers, and (of course) Diamondbacks and Devil Rays have yet to reach the Fall Classic...
...penned their final entry into the annals of 1998, with Darren Bragg fanning on Mike Jackson's high heat, my anxieties over free agency and our meek playoff exit were quieted by an event overwhelming in its simplicity and grace...