Upsets?!? Not in the World Series!

The last 8 champions of baseball’s World Series were the best team in baseball.

Write that down; cement it.
Gasp.

The Red Sox just won the World Series.

Holy Crap.

The Marlins just won the World Series.

Oh my Bejezus.

The Angels just won the World Series.

I heard or read or thought all of these statements. But now I will recant them all. None of these should have been said. None of these make sense if you think about it.

The last 8 champions of baseball’s World Series were the best team in baseball.

Write that down; cement it.

The 1997 and 2003 Florida Marlins, the 1998-2000 New York Yankees, the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, the 2002 Anaheim Angels, and the 2004 Boston Red Sox were all the best teams in baseball in their respective years, and four of those were Wild Cards.

But it is true. It is fact.

Now some may argue that I have no definite way of determining the “best” team in baseball and you would be right. I am not using stats to back up my claims. I am just saying which team was better. If baseball were played on paper, half of these champions would have lost. But it is not.

1997: The Florida Marlins buying the championship

So what if they were a Wild Card? They were a great team. They had Kevin Brown and Al Leiter and Alex Fernandez and Livan Hernandez in their primes. They had Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla, Moises Alou, Charles Johnson, the clutch Craig Counsell, Edgar Renteria, and Darren Daulton. What a lineup.

They went against a good Indians team, but not nearly as good.

If the Indians had gotten that final out in the bottom of the ninth in game seven before the Marlins scored the tying run, the best team would have lost.

I am not saying the Marlins should have won, but they were the best team in 1997.

1998: The Yankees do it again, 125 times over

Need I defend the 1998 choice? The Yankees swept the Padres in the series only after they managed to struggle out a regular season with an unprecedented record of 114-48.

I’m going out on a limb to declare the Yankees the best team in 1998.

1999: Repeat is so bliss, and let’s sweep again

The Yankees swept the Braves to repeat and win their third title in four years.

They were basically the same juggernaut that won the 1998 crown and they did not want to surrender it.

2000: 3-15 down the stretch does not deter three-peat

So what if the Yankees collapsed in the final three weeks of the regular season? They STILL managed to dominate the postseason, culminating in a 4-1 dismantling of their Subway rivals the New York Mets.

The core of their last 2 teams remained as they won their third title in a row.

Yes, their were doubts at the beginning of the postseason as to whether the Yankees were the best team in baseball, but they silenced the critics and proved they were only playing meaningless games down the stretch.

2001: It was not only a Schilling night for the Yankees in the Desert

The dynasty ended on that November night as the Yankees went down to the Arizona Diamondbacks in only the third World Series to be swept by the home team (1987 and 1991 were the other two).

The Diamondbacks came back in the bottom of the ninth after blowing games three and four and five in Yankee Stadium and winning game six back at home.

And the Diamondbacks were the best team in baseball. The Yankees were not the same team they had been and the Diamondbacks were led by Schilling and Johnson, along with the offense they lack today.

Arizona was the best team. They put up the numbers all year and had the better pitching other than at the closer position and put it together in this classic series.

Yes, Seattle managed to win 116 games. Yet when the playoffs started, they were not even the favorites to win the title. They played in a division with cellar-dwellers Anaheim and Texas, which they played about a combined 40 times during the season.

Were they good? Yes. But they were not the best team. They had a good run, but there were teams who were truly better than they were.

But yet again the best team won.

2002: Disney one-ups competition as Angels actually win the series

You can blame “Angels in the Outfield” for this one, but it happened.

The Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels won the World Series after disposing of the Yankees in the ALDS and later the Giants in game 7 of the World Series after the Rally Monkey provided one last comeback in game 6 to keep the Angels alive.

But yet again, the Angels were the best team in baseball.

They slumped to an 8-16 start, but they pulled it together, dominating the rest of the way. They nearly won the AL West, but that did not matter. They defeated the Yankees in 4 and then the Minnesota Twins in the ALCS.

The Angels definitely had the weakest pitching staff of any of the past dozen champions, but it was good enough. They had timely hitting with Eckstein and others pounding out clutch hit after clutch hit. They were better than every other team in 2002 and they proved it in the playoffs.

Also, the Giants were not that good anyways.

Bonds may have been a dominating presence on the field, but they were overly dependent on Bonds. They lacked depth all over the mound, especially at pitching. And with the uncertainty of the manager’s job, they seemed to be more tense and having less fun.

Anaheim was the best team in baseball in 2003.

2003: Expansion team Wild Card does it again

The 1997 team had been completely disposed of and their replacements had been nearly completely disposed of, but the 2003 team had raw talent on the mound and at the plate and after a bad start, they pulled it together, putting together the best record in baseball after May 25th, one half game better than their World Series counterparts, the New York Yankees.

The Marlins lost game one in the NLDS to the Giants and miraculously came back in the final half-inning of Game 3 after their Game 2 win. Then they nearly blew Game 4, but Pudge Rodriguez make a great tag at the plate after a great throw by Juan Encarnacion to win the NLDS.

Then they game back from 3-1 down in the NLDS and later 3-2 down and 5 outs away in game six from being eliminated. THEN they beat the Yankees in the World Series.

But the records speak for themselves. They had the best record since May in baseball. That’s pretty darn good. They played as a team, unlike the Yankees and other payroll monsters.

They cared about winning and playing their best and they did that.

Yes, the Yankees were the best team on paper. But you cannot judge a team fully based on what’s on paper.

They were the best team again.

2004: Reverse the curse but keeping alive the streak

The Red Sox just won the series and were the favorite among the media to win it in the preseason.

They came on in the later months to prove their worth and then pulled off the miraculous comeback against the Yankees and then swept the Cardinals.

But look at all the teams. Look them over. The Red Sox were the best team in 2004 and played like it for most of the season. Schilling and Martinez are as good a 1-2 as you can get and their lineup was 1927 Yankees potent.

They could hit, pitch, and run with the best of them and their defense was not too shabby.

Yet again the best team won. It is a trend, or a curse for teams that are not the best. But that is how it should be. The best deserves to win.

We may not always know whom the best is come October, but the best team has recently always gotten it done. At least until next year.