As of Wednesday of this week, the division races in four of the six divisions in Major League baseball had been decided, although, mathematically and technically, none of the leading teams had clinched their Division. In the American League, the Cleveland Indians, who had just won 13 in a row, were leading the Central Division by 11 games over the second place Minnesota Twins and the Houston Astros, with the best record in the league, were leading the Los Angeles Angels by 13 1/2 games.  

In the National League, the Washington Nationals were 17 games ahead of the Miami Marlins in the East and the Los Angeles Dodgers, with an unbelievable 92 wins, were 11 1/2 ahead of the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks led by Tory Lovullo, who, for you Red Sox fans’ information, were 81-58, three games better than the Red Sox. (Those Diamondbacks, who finished in fourth place last year with a record of 59-93, were 10-8 against the Dodgers on the year, the only team, beside Washington with a winning record against the Dodgers and Washington only played them three times.)

The Red Sox were just 3 1/2 up on the Yankees in the American League East and the Chicago Cubs were ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers by the same margin in the National League Central. With just 25 days left in the season, the Sox and Cubs looked to be the only leaders who could be in danger.   

If the season had ended that day, the Wild Card teams in the American League, who would have a one game play off to determine who played in the Division Series, would be the Yankees and Angels. However, the Twins and Orioles were both within one game of the Angels. In the National League, the Diamondbacks and Rockies would be the Wild Cards, but the Brewers and Cardinals were 2 1/2 and three games behind the Rockies respectively. 

Looking at the teams’ records, you would have to assume that the Dodgers and Astros would meet in the World Series. The Red Sox and Cubs, the two teams that I picked at the beginning of the season to go all the way, while not guaranteed a division win, were still leading their Divisions. On the surface, based on records, with the Dodgers, Nationals, Astros and Indians running away with their divisions, it would appear that the Sox and Cubs didn’t have much chance of meeting in a classic World Series this year.

Before conceding the World Series to the Dodgers and Astros, and eliminating the Cubs and Red Sox, there are a few things the fans might wish to consider.  

In the last 10 years, the team with the best regular season record in all of baseball has won the World Series only three times and only once in the last six years. Last year’s Cubs were the only team in the last six years to do so and the 2009 Yankees and the 2007 Red Sox were the only others in the last ten years. Four of the teams with the best record in that time did not even get past the Division Series and into the League Championship round.

Prior to 1994, with two divisions in both the National and American Leagues, the path to the World Series was very straight forward. The two Division winning teams in each league played each other in the League Championship Series and the two winners advanced to the World Series.  

In 1993, MLB had added the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins to the National League, giving the National League two, seven game Divisions. In 1994, each league went to a three Division format. In each league, there were two Divisions with five teams and one with four teams.

The three Division format complicated the route to the World Series. Instead of the two division winners competing for the  trip to the Series, there were now three Division Winners in each league. To provide the fourth team for the playoffs, the team in each league with the best record, that did not win a division, would go into the division Series as a Wild Card. The division winner would get to play the theoretically weaker Wild Card in the Division Series. If the Wild Card team was from the same division as the division winner with the best record, the division winner with the second best record would play the Wild Card. 

The winner of each Division Series would go on to play the other winner in the League Championship Series with the winner of each going to the World Series. This new system was to begin in 1994 but the strike eliminated postseason play that year so it did not begin until 1995.

This system was in place from 1995 until 2011. In that 17 year period, nine of those theoretically weaker Wild Card teams, made it to the World Series and five of them won the Series. The Florida Marlins, in 1997, The California Angels, in 2002, the Marlins, again, in 2003, the Boston Red Sox, in 2004, and the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011 were the Wild Card teams that won the World Series.  From 2002 until 2007, there was a Wild Card team in the World Series every year.

In 2012, to increase the number of teams in the post season, a second Wild Card was added to each league, giving the team with the next best record a Wild Card spot. Since then, the two Wild Card teams have met in a one game playoff with the winning team going into the Playoffs. Since 2012, in the five World Series played, the Wild Cards in each league have been eliminated before the World Series all but once. In 2014, however, both Wild Cards, the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals both made it to the Series.

Obviously, the best teams in baseball make it to the Post Season. Once that begins, there are factors that don’t come into play in the regular season that affect the outcome. For example, even the team with the best record, has a losing streak for three, four or even five games during the regular season. Lose three in a row in the Division Series or four in a row in the Championship Series and your best record goes out the window and you go home. Injuries to key players become more important in such short series as do individual players’ streaks and slumps. 

The postseason is a whole different ball game as the record above shows. The only guarantee for the fan is that there will be surprises and excitement as the best teams play for all the marbles. I still think that the Sox and Cubs will be there when the Series opens at Fenway or Wrigley on Oct. 24. The big question to me is “which city will have the parade?”

Don’t count the Red Sox and Cubs out for, as my favorite player of all time, Yogi Berra, once said, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” Those words of wisdom are true of every game but never truer in baseball than in the playoffs.

— Carl Johnson lives in Sanford and writes a weekly baseball column for the Journal Tribune Sunday. Contact him at baseballworldbjt@yahoo.com and check out his blog at baseballworldbjt.com.