Saturday, October 23, 2004
Lessons of History...
I was a history major in college, which was what you studied when you had no math or science skills. History may be a subject that bores the non-liberal arts crowd, but there is truth to aphorism (spoken by Oliver Wendell Holmes, I think) that a page of history is worth a volume of logic. Students in law school befuddled by property law, for example, would understand the subject better if they learned about William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066. Foreign policy thinkers have argued that the key to understanding modern-day unrest in the Middle East is to read about the origins of Islamic thought and the ancient world.
Tonight's World Series needs to be put in its proper context, historically. So, with an eye to what the past can tell us about the present, I looked at Baseball Almanac.com to read a little more about the Red Sox history in the World Series in anticipation of tonight’s first game. A few interesting bits:
This is the Red Sox tenth appearance in the World Series, and the Cardinals sixteenth. Their records:
Red Sox: 5-4
Cardinals: 9-6
Both teams lost their last World Series appearance in seven games: the Cards to the Twins in ’87, the Red Sox to the Mets in ’86.
For all of their difficulty in winning the World Series over the last eighty-six years, the Red Sox were arguably the most successful franchise in baseball history in the beginning: not only did they win the first World Series in 1903, five games to three over the Pittsburgh Pirates [I attended last year’s Turn-Back-The-Clock game at PNC Park that commemorated the centennial of the series], but they actually won five of the first fifteen World Series: 1903 [when they were known as the Americans], 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918.
The Cardinals, in contrast didn’t make their first World Series appearance until 1926, when they upset the New York Yankees 4-3.
Half of the Cards sixteen World Series have been against the Yankees (5) or Red Sox (3).
The Cardinals and Red Sox have met twice in the World Series, both times resulting in victories for the Cards:
Tonight's World Series needs to be put in its proper context, historically. So, with an eye to what the past can tell us about the present, I looked at Baseball Almanac.com to read a little more about the Red Sox history in the World Series in anticipation of tonight’s first game. A few interesting bits:
This is the Red Sox tenth appearance in the World Series, and the Cardinals sixteenth. Their records:
Red Sox: 5-4
Cardinals: 9-6
Both teams lost their last World Series appearance in seven games: the Cards to the Twins in ’87, the Red Sox to the Mets in ’86.
For all of their difficulty in winning the World Series over the last eighty-six years, the Red Sox were arguably the most successful franchise in baseball history in the beginning: not only did they win the first World Series in 1903, five games to three over the Pittsburgh Pirates [I attended last year’s Turn-Back-The-Clock game at PNC Park that commemorated the centennial of the series], but they actually won five of the first fifteen World Series: 1903 [when they were known as the Americans], 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918.
The Cardinals, in contrast didn’t make their first World Series appearance until 1926, when they upset the New York Yankees 4-3.
Half of the Cards sixteen World Series have been against the Yankees (5) or Red Sox (3).
The Cardinals and Red Sox have met twice in the World Series, both times resulting in victories for the Cards:
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