So in the end, the Yankees were just too stacked. Nobody could beat them; not the Phillies, not Joe Girardi, nobody.

I was really hoping this one would go seven. It feels like a loooong time since a series went seven games. Last time there was a World Series Game Seven, Tim Salmon, Alex Ochoa, Tom Goodwin and Kirk Reuter played in it. Rickey Henderson, Andy Benes, Brady Anderson, Benny Agbayani, Dean Palmer and Ron Coomer were still active players. Pedro Martinez and Barry Zito were the two best pitchers in the American League. The #1 pop song in the country was "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne. Minority Report and The Ring were in theaters. Bryce Harper had just turned 10 years old. In baseball and pop culture terms, that was forever ago.

Is it that long, though, historically? The next Game 7 will be at least eight years from the previous one, which (in case you don't remember, or haven't memorized the discography of Avril Lavigne) was in 2002, the Angels beating the Giants. Before that, it had been just one year since Luis Gonzalez hit the winning blooper off of Mo Rivera. Starting in 2001, then, here's the time, in years, between Game Sevens (or Game Nines in 1903 or 1919-21): 4, 6, 4, 1, 1, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 3, 5, 1, 1, 5, 6, 3, 5, 1, 1, 12, 3, 6.

So...yes. Eight years from one Game 7 to the next is a very, very long time -- the second-longest spread in history, and the longest in 85 years. In 1912 the series actually went eight games, with game 5 being called in a tie due to darkness, and then (thanks in part to the return to the nine-game format in 1919-21) no series went to the limit again until the Senators beat the Giants for their only title in 1924.

Conversely, the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties were absolutely full of seven-game Series. There were four in a row from 1955 to 1958, six out of a possible ten in the sixties, three in a row and four out of five in the seventies (1971-73 and 75) and another three in a row in the eighties (1985-87). But there were only two in the nineties, and of course none since the two in a row in 2001-02.

Could there be a reason for this sort of slowdown? I suppose it's possible that fewer playoff series means you're more likely to get the best team in either league playing each other in the Series, which could make it more balanced...but really, I think in several of the less-than-seven series (certainly in 2008, 2006 and 2003), the less talented team has won it. So, no, I think it's just a bit of randomness. But it sure does feel like we're due for a classic, edge-of-your-seat, seven-game Series.

Maybe next year...

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