MLB Week in Review (October 7-13)
The MLB is a league that loves a story and there are no better stories than the streaks and curses that rule the league and make the history of the league come alive.
There was the Curse of the Bambino that haunted the Red Sox for years after they traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919.
It led to one of the longest World Series droughts in the history of the league that wasn’t broken until 2004.
The Curse of the Black Sox was another long drought after the Chicago White Sox were caught betting on baseball in 1919.
The White Sox broke that curse in 2005 when they finally took the World Series.
This year the other Chicago team looks to break the longest curse in baseball as they pursue their first championship in over 100 years.
They made it one step further to breaking the Curse of the Billy Goat after they moved into the NL Championship Series.
To do that they had to break one of the most interesting streaks in baseball over the last six years.
The Cubs have been the best team in the league throughout the entire regular season rising to the top of the standings.
They went into the postseason as the favourites but they would need to get by a team that has gotten used to winning in big games.
The San Francisco Giants have been one of the best teams in the league over the last few years but they had created a pattern in that time.
They themselves broke a long streak of coming up short in the postseason until 2010 when they finally took home the World Series title.
The next year the championship winning team wasn’t able to make the postseason at all and what looked the start of something turned out to be nothing.
They struggled in the year following their championship but it wasn’t the end of their run at the top of the league.
Despite the thought that they might have just been a one-and-done team in 2012 they came back to take another title. It turned out that they might just be the team that many thought and that 2011 was an off-year.
Then the pattern really formed as 2013 resulted in another year outside of the postseason in a very off year for the team.
That was then followed up by another World Series title in 2014 only to lead to another year out of the postseason in 2015.
It was one of the strangest patterns to form in the MLB as every even year the Giants were a team to be feared as they made the postseason and never gave up.
They were perfect in elimination games since 2010 but mainly because in the odd years they never had an elimination game.
That is why when the 2016 season started many were looking at the Giants to see just what they could do in another even year.
Although they didn’t have the best record and they barely squeaked into the postseason they had their chance to prove that the even year pattern was real.
That was until they ran into a very motivated and very good Cubs team who were able to eliminate the Giants in four games and end the streak.
The MLB loves these patterns and the curses because they all add stories to the postseason that make everything more interesting.
The pattern is now broken though as the Giants are out of they postseason earlier than many thought they might be at the start of the year.
Meanwhile, the Cubs are still in the running to break their streak as they move on to the NLCS and come within four wins of making the World Series.
There is still time for that curse to make itself known in the next series but for now, the Cubs have gotten through one of the toughest postseason teams in the league and are looking to continue their strong season all the way to their first World Series title in over 100 years.
Extra Innings
(More on this week in baseball)
Taking a Stand
As the Toronto Blue Jays are about to face-off with the Cleveland Indians the Toronto radio announced, Jerry Howarth, continues a stand that he took years ago in refusing to say “Indians” during the broadcast
Feelings Known
In an era where more players are letting their emotions out during games the baseball world is freaking out but not the commissioner of baseball as Rob Manfred stated that he thinks it is good for the game
Beer Can Ban
After an unfortunate incident in Toronto where a fan threw a beer can on the field, the Blue Jays have decided to make a change in the stands banning beer cans from their games for the remainder of the postseason
The Sport Addiction 