For many years, when my Atlanta Braves were winning division titles with 95 to as much as 106 wins, and many times losing in either the NLDS, or NLCS, people used to razz me about how the Braves kept screwing it up in the playoffs. Well, this year's postseason has proven so far how regular season wins mean nothing at all, and how everyone starts the playoffs zero and zero.
Cubs, 97 wins in the regular season, vs Dodgers 84 wins in the regular season. Dodgers sweep in three games, including two blowouts in Chicago.
Angels-100 wins in the regular season, top seed in the entire playoffs by record, one win away from elimination, loses both games to Boston at home.
While it isnt over yet for the Angels, it doesnt look promising. Are we to say that both the Cubs and Angels "Flopped". Sure, we all know about the "curse": of the Cubs, no WS titles for 100 years. More accurately, as Bobby Cox used to say about the Braves when they would fall short in the playoffs, is that in October, a team can run into a hot pitcher, or a hot hitting lineup, and that can determine the series.
There was only one time when I thought the Braves truly "Screwed it up" in the playoffs, and that was in 1996, when they blew the Yankees away two games in New York, and then lost four straight, including three in a row in Atlanta. I felt that year the Braves just blew the World Series. Other times, it happened to them just like it did to the Cubs and Angels this year. They won in the postseason, and then ran into a hot pitcher, or hot hitting lineup in the playoffs.
For all we know, this year's World Champs could well be the 84 win Dodgers, like happened two years ago, when the 83 win Cards won it all.
I dont think that any team screws it up in the playoffs. It is just sometimes the fortune of running into a hot lineup, or hot pitcher. In a short series, anything can happen.
Mitch
Cubs, 97 wins in the regular season, vs Dodgers 84 wins in the regular season. Dodgers sweep in three games, including two blowouts in Chicago.
Angels-100 wins in the regular season, top seed in the entire playoffs by record, one win away from elimination, loses both games to Boston at home.
While it isnt over yet for the Angels, it doesnt look promising. Are we to say that both the Cubs and Angels "Flopped". Sure, we all know about the "curse": of the Cubs, no WS titles for 100 years. More accurately, as Bobby Cox used to say about the Braves when they would fall short in the playoffs, is that in October, a team can run into a hot pitcher, or a hot hitting lineup, and that can determine the series.
There was only one time when I thought the Braves truly "Screwed it up" in the playoffs, and that was in 1996, when they blew the Yankees away two games in New York, and then lost four straight, including three in a row in Atlanta. I felt that year the Braves just blew the World Series. Other times, it happened to them just like it did to the Cubs and Angels this year. They won in the postseason, and then ran into a hot pitcher, or hot hitting lineup in the playoffs.
For all we know, this year's World Champs could well be the 84 win Dodgers, like happened two years ago, when the 83 win Cards won it all.
I dont think that any team screws it up in the playoffs. It is just sometimes the fortune of running into a hot lineup, or hot pitcher. In a short series, anything can happen.
Mitch
