Friday, October 23, 2009

What LAA Is Up Against (With Stats You'll Like)

OK, the LA Angels forced the ALCS back to New York, and are now down 3-2 in the series. (Alright, I HAVE been paying attention, so sue me. But I watched none of it last night, just followed it on my cell phone while watching an old friend of mine's jazz trio in Manhattan.)

Only three teams have come back from 3-1 in a League Championship Series and won the last two on the road to take the series: the 1985 Kansas City Royals, the 2003 Florida Marlins and yes, your 2004 Boston Red Sox (who as we all know, came from even further back than that). All three teams went on to win the World Series.

And only one team in MLB history has come back three times in a postseason series from 3-1 down to win the series. Yes, once again, your Boston Red Sox. In addition to 2004, they turned the trick in the ALCS in 1986 and 2007.

I never get tired when the "comeback" stats appear on the screen when a team falls behind 3-1 in a seven-game series (and of course when they are behind 3-0 especially) not just in baseball, but in basketball and hockey. And the Year of Our Lord 2004 makes yet another appearance.

Just another additional benefit of what occurred five years ago. I look forward to hearing those stats for the rest of my life.

God bless The 25 from 2004.

And also, Matthews the Moron strikes again. Wallace Matthews actually wrote in Newsday that if the Yankees cough up the ALCS to the Angels this year, it would be worse than what happened five years ago against the Red Sox. Is he kidding? Try getting the average Yankee fan to believe that losing an ALCS to the Angels would be worse than losing to the "dreaded" Red Sox.

I'm still amazed that someone actually pays this idiot to write such nonsense.

With thanks to Allan at The Joy of Sox for the link.

5 comments:

Suldog said...

So, you didn't see it? I swear, Mike Scosia (I know the spelling is wrong, but I don't care) is the luckiest manager on God's green earth. He NEVER should have taken Lackey out (not just hindsight - I said it while it was happening) and he deserved to lose. Later on, he has a lead-off double, Mathis batting, and he has him bunting. Mathis has only had SIX STRAIGHT HITS so of course you want to not give him a chance to actually drive a run in but you'd rather have him give up an out to get a guy to third. The whole game was one boner in managerial strategy after another, but his team bailed him out.

BklynSoxFan said...

Scioscia is getting hammered from all sides for that move last night and rightly so, Suldog. It could well be that the less dumber manager will end up victorious.

You have to believe the memories of 2004 is in the minds of many Yankee fans, Tom. The Angels still have a long way to go, but we've seen the "impossible" happen before, right?

Rick said...

Oh yes - I sense definite fear. Never really understood why people were so head over heels over AJ Burnett this offseason and even now. By age 32 aren't you no longer a prospect?

Jere said...

Hey Quinn, I wrote about the "Tom" commentor above on my blog--he's not real. Well, he is, but he's going around to blogs pretending to be a fan of that team just to sell the Steiner stuff. I mean, he literally goes to Yankee blogs and says stuff like "Let's get #27!!!" and he's also a Celts, Lakers, Mets, and Tigers fan. Goes by Tom, Tommy P, tmpalomino, Tom Palomino, etc. I'm gonna do a post fully exposing him soon. Just Google "my client, Steiner Sports" in quotes to see all his comments.

BklynSoxFan said...

Thanks so much, Jere. I deleted his post. Great article you wrote, my friend.