MLB Playoffs: Anything Can Happen

It is October and the magic that is the Major League Baseball Playoffs is underway. The MLB playoffs are exciting because it seems as though any team has a chance to win. This is evidenced by the fact that since 2002, six of the ten World Series participants have been wildcard teams. Of those teams, three of the six have gone on to win the World Series. So far the playoffs this year have been no exception to this underdog-phenomenon. The National League Championship Series, which will begin on Thursday, October 11, 2007, features one wildcard team and one scrappy-playing team that has managed to pull together wins this season. The teams I am talking about are the Colorado Rockies (pictured right) and the Arizona Diamondbacks, respectively.

In the preseason rankings, Sports Illustrated had the Diamondbacks finishing second in the National League West, and the Rockies finishing fourth. However, here we are, the 2007 MLB baseball season is over, the playoffs have begun, and both the Diamondbacks and the Rockies are indeed in the National League Championship Series. If there is one thing that is constant in this game of baseball, especially when October comes around, it is that one should always expect the unexpected.

Last year at this time, both the Diamondbacks and the Rockies were already on vacation. Both the Diamondbacks and the Rockies had a record last year of 76 wins and 86 losses. That record put the two teams twelve games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers who won the National League West in 2006. Being twelve games back indicates that both teams were not even close to making the playoffs last season.

If you go back even further to 2005, the Rockies had a record of 66 wins and 95 losses, and the Diamondbacks had 77 wins and 84 losses. The last times the Rockies had a winning season was in 2000 when they went 82-80, and the last time they made the playoffs was in 1995. On the other hand, in 2001 the Diamondbacks won the World Series (pictured left) and in 2002 they made the playoffs but lost in the National League Division Series. However, their last winning season was in 2003 when they went 84-78. By looking at these stats and given the way both teams have been playing the past few years, it is rather evident that these teams were not ones that people would have expected to have winning seasons, let alone make the playoffs.

If these teams can teach us one thing, it is that nothing in sports is predicable. In his article on ESPN.com, Jayson Stark puts it best by saying that “They’re a reminder to all of us that there are no magical formulas to play this game.” Both of these teams play hard-nosed baseball. They are not a collection of past-their-prime, over-paid superstars like some other teams who are in the playoffs. Instead, they are teams of young, team-first guys who win the battles on the field.

Five of the eight position players who started in the National League Division Series for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Chicago Cubs were under the age of twenty-five. The youth of this team was one of the reasons why in April everyone thought that this was going to be a re-building year for the Diamondbacks. Veteran first-baseman Tony Clark (pictured right) stated, “The conventional wisdom was that this was going to take a year, it was going to take two years, its going to take three years, till these guys [the young players] get around in the league…But this group, from a Baseball 101, a baseball IQ standpoint, is very high. And they have been able to take the information they have been given, make the adjustments they need to make and learn the league along the way.”

During the regular season, the Diamondbacks did not lead the league in any categories, neither offensively nor defensively, yet, they found ways to get wins. They remind us that the true meaning of a team is that the whole must work together to win. It is not about the stats or the one big superstar player. Any given day, the most important thing is the end result. If a team is being successful on the field and getting wins, it does not matter if they have a superstar player or not.

The Rockies have built their team similar to the Diamondbacks, by drafting excellent, young players, and grooming them in the minor leagues. Rockies manager Clint Hurdle stated, “It speaks of good old-fashioned values of baseball: scouting and player development and building from within and being patient and taking chances and things working out.” They have been patient and have relied on their strong minor league system to produce good, young players that today are helping these teams to win.

Both the Diamondbacks and the Rockies may not be the best teams on paper. They do not have the big superstar or the largest payroll, but they find ways to win. They work together as a team. As Arizona leftfielder Eric Byrnes (pictured left) puts it, “You have twenty-five guys pulling for each other. I have not heard one guy complain all year. We have guys who are ready to win. We have already exceeded expectations so far and we are going to continue to do so.” In today’s world of sports, where so much emphasis is often put on the acquisition of the superstar or the blockbuster trade, it is refreshing to see two true teams, which everyone counted out early in the season, having success in the playoffs.