JAR (Just Another Rant)

Wow, I knew it had been a long time since I wrote something, but I didn’t realize it’s been over a month. I guess I haven’t had nothing to vent about lately… Except the Yankees not winning the World Series.* Well, contrary to popular belief, the Yankees do not win (or buy as some are apt to say. I’m looking at you Ken) the World Series every year. Let me lay down some knowledge on you.

Looking from the beginning of Y2K (haven’t heard that term in a while) we’ve had 12 World Series. The stats breakdown like this:

• # of different participants – 15
  • Angels, Astros, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Giants, Marlins, Mets, Phillies, Rangers, Rays, Red Sox, Rockies, Tigers, White Sox, Yankees.
• # of multiple participants – 6
  • Cardinals, Giants, Phillies, Rangers, Red Sox, Yankees.
• # of multiple champions – 3
  • Cardinals, Red Sox, Yankees.

So, that means that in the last 12 years, any baseball fan has had a 50% chance of seeing their team in the World Series. Out of those 15 teams, less than 40% appeared more than once. To top it off, only 20% or World Series participants won more than one championship.

Let’s compare…

NFL

• # of different participants – 16
  • Bears, Buccaneers, Cardinals, Colts, Eagles, Giants, Packers, Panthers, Patriots, Raiders, Rams, Ravens, Saints, Seahawks, Steelers, Titans.
• # of multiple participants – 5
  • Colts, Giants, Patriots, Rams, Steelers.
• # of multiple champions – 2
  • Patriots, Steelers.

So, the football fans had the same chance of seeing their team in the Super Bowl as baseball fans did, 50%. Of those 16 teams, 31% went more than once and 13% won more than one championship.

NBA

• # of different participants – 11
  • 76ers, Cavaliers, Celtics, Heat, Lakers, Magic, Maverick, Nets, Pacers, Pistons, Spurs.
• # of multiple participants – 7
  • Celtics, Heat, Lakers, Mavericks, Nets, Pistons, Spurs.
• # of multiple champions – 2
  • Lakers, Spurs.

Basketball fans only had a 36% chance of seeing their team in the championship game.** From there, 63% of those are repeat teams and 18% won multiple championships. I feel sorry for Western Conference fans. The Lakers, Spurs and Mavs have totally dominated that side of the NBA. But then again, those three teams probably have 90% of Western Conference fans anyway.

NHL

• # of different participants – 15
  • Avalanche, Blackhawks, Bruins, Canucks, Devils, Ducks, Flames, Flyers, Hurricanes, Lightning, Oilers, Penguins, Red Wings, Senators, Stars.
• # of multiple participants – 5
  • Devils, Ducks, Hurricanes, Penguins, Red Wings
• # of multiple champions – 2
  • Devils, Red Wings.

Hockey fans also have a 50% chance of seeing their team in the Stanley Cup. On par with MLB and NFL, 33% were multiple participants with 13% being multiple winners.

Tell you what, let’s put it on a table to make it easier to read…

League	# of teams in league	# of Champ participants	%	Participants w/ multiple appearance	%	Participants w/ multiple champs	%
MLB	30	15	50%	6	40%	3	20%
NFL	32	16	50%	5	31%	2	13%
NBA	30	11	36%	7	63%	2	18%
NHL	30	15	50%	5	33%	2	13%

So what does all this prove? Honestly, I totally forgot the whole point of this. I just started looking at numbers and… oh yeah! I remember now.

So, what does all this prove? This proves is that, unless you are a NBA fan, your team has 1 in 2 chance of making it to the respective leagues championship game. Once there, they have a pretty good chance of winning it all, 60% or higher. Also, unless you are a NBA fan, if your team made it to the finals, they have a 34% +/- chance of going back to the championship game within a few years. And, if it wasn’t for the Cardinals, multiple championship winners would be the same in all sports except, you guessed it, basketball.***

Money doesn’t buy championships as many Yankee haters would have you believe. I believe there is parity in all major sports except the NBA. Yeah, I know the Yankees have more Championships than any other professional sports team, but that’s only because they’ve been around for over 100 years. Let’s take a look at basketball. There have been 62 championship games, in which more than half have been dominated by two teams, the Lakers and Celtics. Heck, the Celtics went on a run from 1957 to 1969 in which they won 11 of 13 and an amazing 8-in-a-row win streak. Not even the Yankees could manage that.

Yeah, I just convinced myself (again) that baseball is the greatest of all professional sports. Baseball is a true team sport where strategy is involved, it takes the entire team to win (unlike football where a QB, RB, WRs and half decent offensive line are all you need), one person can’t carry a team (What are the Bulls of the 90s without Jordan?), and the rules are easy to understand (blue line, red line… I’ll never understand hockey).

Show me one person that can name every single person on a 45 man (ok, maybe just half) football roster, and I can show half a dozen that can name everyone on a 25 man for multiple years. How about rattling off basketball stats? Maybe give me a dozen hockey players that are household name? Yeah, not happening to often is it?

I’m not hating on other sports. I enjoy watching football, basketball and hockey. All exciting games, but I’ll always be a baseball nut.

I miss baseball…

Spring training can’t get here soon enough…

Late,

JV

_____

*Yeah, you might say they didn’t even make it to the World Series and I say Semantics. The fact is, 29 other teams didn’t win the World Series. So there.

** Couldn’t the NBA think tank come up with something more than just NBA Championship Game? MLB has the World Series, NFL has the Super Bowl, and NHL has the Stanly Cup. NBA Championship Game is so… blah. Just saying.

*** True, the Cards won just as many as the Yankees and the BoSox (2) but who else am I going to blame? There is no way I’m laying any blame on the Yankees and if I start to blame the BoSox then I’ll be accused of being a biased Yankee fan with no respect for the BoSox. Fact is that the Cards have a higher World Series winning percentage (75%) than the Yankees (50%) since 2000.

Dodger Dogs... Baseballs got 'em! 'Nuff Said!