Go Yankees?

From what little baseball playoff talk I have heard this year, most people agree that they want someone other than the Yankees to hoist the trophy once this seemingly endless playoff end. In the three sports where playoffs are best of 7 series, I am getting increasingly disgusted by how games are spread out in an attempt to maximize tv ratings usually at the expense of the quality and integrity of the games.

As I posted last year, since there is no personal team that made the playoffs, I am rooting for the Yankees to win the title since they were the best team in the better league for the 2009 season and because I picked the Yankees to beat the Phillies for the title after picking all six division winners correctly. (Yes, even St. Louis. I got a lot of flack stating in March that the Cubs were only going to win 85 games and not make the playoffs.)

I had in the past rooted for the underdog in the playoffs but for a while it got to the point in baseball where the lesser teams would win playoff series and titles as explained in the chart:



I used the 20 games above .500 barrier to determine whether or not a division winner is in my opinion worthy of a title. When looking at past regular season records, I confirmed that from 2000-2006 five of the seven champions either failed to win a division title or 91 games.

Also from 2000-2008, only 2001 had two league champions that won 91 games and its division and in two of those years, 2002 and 2006, neither team had won 91 games or its division title.

I am very pleased that 2009 marked the first season since the current format was established in 1995 that the two wild card teams and the one division champion that did not win 91 games, St. Louis, all lost in the first round.