Reverse Crapshoot.

 

Just to riff on a point made by Scottish Yankee Fan, who for all his modesty is far from a baseball novice.

In their 55 seasons from 1917-1961, the Cleveland Indians finished in the first division, 46 times. They won all of 3 pennants and 2 World Series.

In their 17 seasons from 1957-1973, the Detroit Tigers finished in the top half of the American League or their division, 15 times—though they only won 1 World Series and 1 other division title.

In the 17 years from 1951-1967, the Chicago White Sox finished in the first division every year—and won exactly 1 pennant.

In the 25 seasons from 1934-1958, the Boston Red Sox finished in the first division 20 times—and won all of 1 pennant. No one said it was "a crapshoot." They called it a curse.

The "first division," of course, meant the top half of the league. There was even a small but significant monetary reward attached for finishing there, much appreciated in those pre-free agency days. Just enough to keep the boys playing hard.

The point is, that with 40 percent of the major leagues, including 6 division winners, now making the playoffs, making it into October is barely any better than finishing in that top 50 percent. Which is to say, pretty good. But not good enough.

Brian Cashman likes to pretend that, because baseball now plays all sorts of "postseason" series, that it's a whole new ballgame.

It is not.

Back in the day, everyone knew that there were certain key series, every year, which your team had better win, or it wasn't going anywhere. Why the time of year—usually August or September then, instead of early October—makes this much different, eludes me.

The team that usually won those key series, year in and year out, for almost 45 remarkable years, was the New York Yankees.  

Now, it is not. 

Cashman and his apologists can pretend all they want to that the game is unrecognizable today. It is not.

The teams he has built, and continues to build, are almost continuously outplayed, outmanaged, and out-thought by their playoff opponents—just as your New York Yankees used to outplay, outmanage, and out-think all those Red Sox, White Sox, Tiger, and Indian teams, when everything was on the line.

It is no different today.

Scotland forever!