World Series
The World Series is the showpiece event in MLB baseball, the crowning moment when a baseball team is rewarded for the blood, sweat and tears of a hard-fought season. When the two Leagues - the American and the National - have turned out their finest, these two then go toe-to-toe to decide who is the best baseball team in the world. There used to be a joke that the World Series really wasn’t the “World” series at all, as it was just American teams competing, but in recent years we have seen a huge influx of foreign talent come into the game of MLB baseball, transforming it while somehow keeping things traditional for “America’s Game”.
The Series has been dubbed the Fall Classic by journalists, and has indeed produced some games worthy of such a title. There have even been some years when the match-up was so close that the series went to a best of 9 rather than a best of 7! You can imagine the sense of tension and hope that must have accompanied these deciding games.
The American League’s New York Yankees are the overall victors of the game, with 39 World Series under their belt. As of 2007, there have been 103 Series. The Yankees have won 26 of those World Series championships, more than any other MLB franchise. In the National League, the LA Dodgers have chalked up 18 appearances, with just 6 actual triumphs. The St. Louis Cardinals have made it 17 times and have won 10 championships.
The Baseball Almanac is a fine source of World Series data and history.
The 2007 World Series was a sweep series, with the Red Sox doing it for the second time in four seasons - the Series, that is, not the sweep.
The Sox played National League champion Colorado Rockies, who were appearing for the first ever time in the World Series, and the Red Sox swept it in four games. sweeping the Rockies to collect their second World Series championship in four seasons and their seventh in history. The Rockies were the first ever National League team to suffer a World Series sweep. nonetheless, Rockies tickets will be selling high this season.
The 2007 MLB World Series was a wild ride for both teams, despite it being a sweep. The Red Sox struck went on an early Series offensive, and really set an unassailable pace that the Rockies struggled to live with. Japanese sensation Dice-K was living up to the hype, which frankly terrified all who approached the plate, while Rookie Jacoby Ellsbury and David Ortiz both performed admirably. Series MVP Mike Lowell was also on hand to deliver some hard swinging action. The Rockies tried to answer this, but every time they closed the gap it was like the Red Sox were in a different world. When Papelbon struck out Colorado’s Seth Smith for thein Game Four, Boston had their seventh all-time Series trophy in the bag.