Arrived home from California last night so only caught the last two innings of the Royals win. They've grabbed the brass ring and are not letting go. They have home field also, which doesn't matter to them as half their wins have been on the road.
Although the Os, Angels and Nationals had good seasons, unless you win the pennant and get into the WS, few will remember them, other than their fans who will rue what might have been. In 1988 and 2006 the Mets made it to the NLCS, only to lose. The Mets were probably the best team each of those years but have nothing to show for it and fans remember the 1988 team losing game 4 when they had a lead in the 9th and a 2-1 lead in the series and Bleeping Beltran taking strike 3 from Adam Wainright in game 7 in 2006. Nothing to show. They still haven't recovered from that. At least the Mets won the pennant in 2000.
I'm sure the Os and their fans will be pondering what might have been for years to come, if not forever.
Nothing to show.
This is a great post and it's all 100% true.
The Red Sox lost in the ALCS in 1988 and 1990 to the A's; I don't look back fondly on those seasons, who cares, not to mention they got steamrolled in both, swept by the mighty A's, who then went on to lose to the Dodgers and Reds in the WS.
In 1999 the Red Sox got to the ALCS and lost to the MFY's 4-1, then again in 2003 when they lost in 7 thanks to Aaron @#$%ing Boone, who hit a whopping .176 in that series, blew out his knee in the off season playing basketball and never played for the MFY's again.
I don't have fond memories of any of those seasons, they ended with a loss.
As far as the Orioles; great for them, they won the division as the Sox and Yankees both had down years. I have a feeling both are going to spend like mad this off season, especially the Yankees as they've missed the playoffs for two strait seasons, when was the last time that happened.
They were saying on sports talk radio yesterday the Sox are in on Lester, Shields and Sandoval, are also in discussions with the Phillies regarding Cole Hamels, rumblings are the Yankees are in on Scherzer and maybe Andrew Miller as a bullpen guy.
Imagine a rotation of Lester/Shields/Hamels/Buckholz/Kelly, yikes, talk about all in and yeah, I know, the games are played on the field and not on paper, yada, yada, yada, but that is one stacked rotation.
As Brad said, you've got to take advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves; 31 years since the last time the O's got to the World Series.
That's a lifetime in basball terms.
