King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Baseball playoff preview: Media rejoices as both Red Sox and Cubs qualify. Stay tuned for wails of anguish over an Angels-Diamondbacks World Series.
Read more: Sports, Baseball, Major League Baseball, King Kaufman, Baseball Playoffs, Sports Daily, MLB
Oct. 3, 2007 | The dark ages are over. For the first time since 2003, both the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs, which begin Wednesday. They're dancing in the aisles over in accounting at sundry media outlets.
The last time baseball's two beautiful losers shared a postseason was an orgy of page views, huge rack sales and smokin' ratings numbers. The Worldwide Leader was so heartbroken over both of them being eliminated in the League Championship Series that it provided daily coverage of an imaginary Cubs-Red Sox World Series on ESPN.com.
It was the most shameless page-view whoring in the history of online sports coverage other than this column's occasional mentions of Beyoncé topless. We like to remind readers from time to time that we don't go for that sort of cheap, or even free, hot pix business around here.
And yes, the Red Sox: beautiful losers. Still, yes. They did win a World Series in 2004, but they're a few years of massive payrolls and habitual winning from shedding their romantic, literary aura.
The Cubs made it back to the playoffs as National League Central Division champs in their first year under manager Lou Piniella and after an offseason in which they threw about $300 million at the problem of being lousy.
It worked. They got excellent seasons from the two big imports, outfielder Alfonso Soriano and pitcher Ted Lilly, as well as fine years from third baseman Aramis Ramirez and pitcher Carlos Zambrano, who both got contract extensions. Even vastly overpaid newcomer Jason Marquis provided solid stretches of non-wretchitude for his $9 million.
The Red Sox ended their one-year postseason drought by becoming the first team to win the American League East while not wearing New York Yankees rompers since 1997, when Baltimore won it. While the Yankees were winning nine straight division titles, the Red Sox finished second to them eight times.
This year, that was reversed. Wow, it's like the whole world's upside down! Unless you live in Baltimore, Toronto or Tampa Bay, the latter strongly suggesting that you're a fish. There might be more fish who can read in Tampa Bay than there are Devil Rays fans in all of Florida, but we seem to have drifted off the topic.
The Yankees have made the playoffs for the 13th year in a row, though for the first time since '97, they're the wild card. But they've been on a serious roll since the start of June, so don't get the idea the Bombers are limping into the playoffs.