October 22, 2004 [LINK]
Red birds vs. Red Sox
Thanks in large part to that amazing diving catch by Jim Edmunds in the 2nd inning, which saved (at least) two runs, the Cards managed to beat Roger Clemens and the Astros last night. So this year's World Series will be a rematch of the 1967 and 1946 contests between two of the "reddest" teams in baseball. Had Houston won (they led until the 6th inning), it would have been the second all-wild-card World Series in three years. If Boston had held onto their 5-run lead in last year's ALCS Game 7, both teams in last year's World Series would have been wild card teams as well. Rewarding grit and spunk is all well and good, but the emerging pattern suggests that there ought to more of an advantage for teams that do better during the regular season. (Am I beating a dead horse here?) The problem is that playing at home doesn't yield as much of an advantage as one might think. Excepting this series, 12 out of the 23 other postseason games this year were won by the visiting team. This was only the fourth seven-game postseason series in MLB history in which the home team won all of the games. (The previous times were the 1987, 1991, and 2001 World Series.)
(revised, that is) Baseball in D.C., with a photo and map of the new stadium site, a chronology (not yet complete), Web links, etc.