MAY BEST TEAM WIN --- OR LOSE.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Our 1998 baseball postseason coverage begins with a correction: Recent reports, on the Texas Rangers' gut-check victory against the Angels in the American League West The American League West is one of three divisions in Major League Baseball's American League. The division currently has four teams, but it has had as many as seven teams before the 1994 realignment. and the Chicago Cubs' gasping win over the San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California that currently play in the National League West Division. New York Giants history Early days and the John McGraw era in the National League wild-card tie-breaker, might have left the mistaken impression those teams are in the playoffs. They are not in the playoffs. For the record, neither are the Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From to the present, the Braves have played in Turner Field. , Houston Astros “Astros” redirects here. For other uses, see Astros (disambiguation). The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The team is in the Central Division of the National League. , San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. Padres, Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Red Sox are a member and currently champions of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball’s American League. From to the present, the Red Sox have played in Fenway Park. or Cleveland Indians  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. . There really is only one team in the playoffs this year: the New York Yankees Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. . And there really are only two possible outcomes: Yankees win the World Series or Yankees lose. The last order of business in this heavenly baseball season is to determine if the Yankees are everything they appeared to be in winning an AL-record 114 games. They did it not with long home runs, grandiose personalities and loud talk, but one Bernie Williams line drive, one David Cone curveball and one Scott Brosius surprise at a time. Any other team is just a potential spoiler spoiler: see airplane. 1. spoiler - A remark which reveals important plot elements from books or movies, thus denying the reader (of the article) the proper suspense when reading the book or watching the movie. 2. . Yankees win, and they're one of the great Yankees teams of all time, which means they're one of the great teams of all time, period. Yankees lose, and they're one of the great flops of all time. How plush is the historical context in which they squirm? The New York Post The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and the oldest to have been published continually as a daily.[3] Since 1976, it has been owned by Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and is one of the 10 has been printing game stories, columns, box scores and stats on a computer-simulated World Series matching the 1998 Yankees and the 1939 Yankees of Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing. The '39 Yankees won the first three games, but the '98 Yankees rallied to win the series when Paul O'Neill singled home Chuck Knoblauch in the eighth inning of Game 7. Oh, and Darryl Strawberry outhomered DiMaggio 4-3. Now, how about real life? Yankees win, and with two World Series in three years, they're a Yankees dynasty for a new generation, for the fans brought to baseball by cable, the trading-cards boom and Cal Ripken Jr. Yankees lose, and they're the Braves, Oakland A's and Pittsburgh Pirates - the '90s' other big regular-season winners and postseason failures. ``If you win the World Series, you'll have something to talk about,'' Bob Feller of the 1954 Indians - 111-game winners and World Series losers - was quoted saying of the Yankees. Yankees win, and they're the first team since the '89 A's to have the best regular-season record in the major leagues and the World Series trophy The Commissioner's Trophy is awarded each year by Major League Baseball to the team winning the World Series. Recent trophy designs consist of 30 flags representing the 30 teams in North America's two top leagues, the National League and the American League. , too. Yankees lose, and it's time to ask if there's something wrong with a playoff system that serves only to swiftly overturn the results of 2,429 regular-season games. Cone was quoted saying that failing to win the World Series would take the ``luster'' off the Yankees' regular-season achievement, as if the regular season is the real measure of a team. And when you think about it, after six months of games, we do have a pretty good idea who's best. And while an occasional upset is nice . . . isn't eight upsets in a row a bit much? Not even winning 100 games, supposedly the hallmark of greatness, guarantees a World Series victory. Starting with the '54 Indians, of the 27 first-place teams that won 100 or more games, 18 lost in the playoffs or World Series. It would be convenient to blame the three-division alignment, the wild-card playoff spot and the best-of-five first-round series, and say baseball presents potentially great teams with too many hoops to jump through. But the new system has been in effect for only three years, and in that time, only one of the ``best record'' teams was tripped up short of a league pennant, the '97 Braves. No, if the Yankees come up short, the trouble will lie not in their format but in themselves. So: Is it all right to root for them? They're still the Yankees, and even in politically correct politically correct Politically sensitive adjective Referring to language reflecting awareness and sensitivity to another person's physical, mental, cultural, or other disadvantages or deviations from a norm; a person is not mentally retarded, but Los Angeles, hatred of pinstripes is one hatred that's still allowed. The old saying, ``Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel,'' had meaning when you read in Sports Business Journal that industry experts say George Steinbrenner could get $1 billion for the team. By analogy, the Dodgers ($350 million) are the local junkyard. Still, here's hoping they go all the way. For once, it'll be nice to see the best team win. If nothing else, they'll give a new generation of baseball fans someone to hate. CAPTION(S): 3 Photos PHOTO INSIDE PITCH A closer look at the pitching lines of Tuesday's winners: (1--Color) KEVIN BROWN, San Diego Padres 8IP2H 0ER 16K (2--Color) DAVID WELLS, New York Yankees 8IP 5H 0ER 9K (3--Color) PEDRO MARTINEZ, Boston Red Sox 7IP 6H 3ER 8K |
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