The Triangle

Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Sports

The Colorado Rockies hope to continue their incredible streak by knocking off the AL representative in the 2007 World Series. The Rockies swept the Phillies in three games and the Diamondbacks in four.

October 26, 2000: The New York Yankees wrap up their third straight World Series victory by defeating the New York Mets 4-2 in Game 5 of the 2000 Series. In fact, they only lost one game during this three-peat, Game 3 of the "Subway Series." Since then, the World Series has seemingly been up for grabs. In fact, since that series, baseball has had a different champion each season. The only thing those champions seem to have in common is the fact that most of them came out of nowhere. This trend works in the favor of the Colorado Rockies, who are poised to become the next unlikely MLB Champion.

The 2001 MLB Champion Arizona Diamondbacks became the team to officially end the Yankees' dynasty when they won Game 7 on a Luis Gonzales bases-loaded bloop single off Mariano Rivera, arguably the greatest postseason closer of all-time. The year before that, the Diamondbacks were 12 games behind the San Francisco Giants and missed the playoffs. With only a few changes, and an even older roster, they were able to become baseball's champions.

2002's champions were the Anaheim Angels, who finished 12 games under .500 in 2001. Like the previous year's champions, the Angels didn't make any major changes between 2001 and 2002. Perhaps the biggest addition to the 2002 Angels was the Rally Monkey. They failed to make the playoffs the following season.

May 22, 2003: the Florida Marlins were ten games under .500. They never led their division the entire season. Their opening day manager Jeff Torborg was fired after 38 games. Yet, thanks perhaps to Steve Bartman and a plethora of young arms on their pitching staff, they defeated the Yankees 4-2 in the World Series.

The story of the 2004 Boston Red Sox has been well documented. Down 3-0 to the Yankees in the ALCS, they made the greatest comeback in sports history. After taking four in a row from the Yankees, they went on to sweep the Cardinals (who had the best record in baseball that year) and win their first World Series in a million years. Well not quite a million years, but it probably seemed like it to their fans.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools