BS Review: Real World Series Is Cubs-Angels!

We’re all pumped for tonight’s Game 5 1/2, no? The Phillies only have to outscore the Rays over 3 1/2 innings — the Phils even get one more time at-bat — and they’re World Series champs.

Yes, we are this close to a professional sports title in this town. For years we’ve had to settle for celebrations after minor league hockey and indoor lacrosse wins. We’ve had to settle for indoor soccer titles in a league that no longer exists, though I’m happy to report that not only have the Kixx found a new league that begins play next month but they also helped Kyle Korver set a new world record for longest kickball game ever. We’ve had to settle for a USFL title.

And, so, the Phillies are now just 2 half-innings, a God Bless America/seventh inning stretch combo, and 4 more half-innings away from a World Series title. Natually, then, it’s time for the Broad Street Review to complain about baseball’s current playoff system.

BSR Editor Dan Rottenberg’s writes about the old days of baseball, where there were eight teams in each league and the one with the top record moved on to the World Series. Then the league added some teams in the 60s — such a turbulent era in every aspect of American life! — and eventually split into divisions. And now it’s the two teams with the top record in each league don’t get to meet in the World Series anymore! This means the Phillies’ possible impending World Championship isn’t as awesome as it would have been in, say, 1950, when baseball was real and black players were a newfangled introduction to the sport.

The time this change-over took place? Why, 1969, the first year of divisional play. At the time, Albert Barnes was a 15-year-old building a house or something in the suburbs. More »