Baseball’s League Championship Series, which begin Friday when the New York Yankees face the Texas Rangers in the ALCS, have become the new Fall Classic, replacing the World Series for memorable postseason drama.
The intensity of these series — the second step now in baseball’s postseason, often brings out the best and most dramatic baseball moments, and the World Series is often anti-climatic as a result.
The last postseason series to go seven games was the 2008 American League Championship Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox. Before that, it was the 2007 ALCS between the Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. That World Series ended with Boston’s four-game sweep over the Colorado Rockies.
It’s most likely that when the Yankees face the Rangers on Friday in Game 1 of the ALCS or when the Philadelphia Phillies meet the San Francisco Giants in Game 1 of the NLCS on Saturday, you will see the best baseball of the postseason — probably better than the World Series.
Bobby Cox, who just retired as manager of the Atlanta Braves after his team lost to the Giants in the NL Division Series, managed in 10 LCS in Atlanta and Toronto. He believes it brings out the best in teams.
“You’ve got to win those games to get there,” Cox once told me. “You feel good that you are there at the World Series, but to get there, you’ve got to use all your ammunition, pitch guys when you probably shouldn’t be pitching. You’ve got to shoot every bullet just to get there. Once you are there, you get your team back to normal, and there’s a sigh of relief.
“They just seem more stressful than World Series games,” Cox continued. “Your dream is to win the World Series, but you have to get there to do so. I think some of the very best games are definitely in the League Championship Series.”
The LCS began in 1969, when baseball added four expansion teams — Montreal, San Diego, Kansas City and the Seattle Pilots — and then broke each league up into two divisions, the East and West. The winner of each division would then play each other in a five-game series. It was expanded in 1985 to seven games. In 1994, baseball expanded to three divisions in each league and added a wild-card team, although because of the baseball strike there was no postseason in 1994. Division Series play began the following year.
With the introduction of the Division Series adding another layer to the playoffs, teams put everything they have into the LCS to get to the World Series. At times, teams are too spent to gear up again in the Fall Classic.
Willie Randolph, who played, coached and managed in 13 LCS, once told me that the LCS “can be great theater.”
The show starts Friday night.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN 980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected]
