American League
New York Yankees (101-61) v Texas Rangers (98-64)
Well, one way or another a long drought is set to be broken.
We are the most recent winners of the four remaining clubs, with that back in 1974. The Yanks won the last of their six Championships in 1951 and are making their first playoff appearance in 15 years, while the Padres and Rangers have only been here once before and each is yet to win it all or even advance past this point.
New York is at full strength, while Texas is a bit banged up with veteran 2B Scott Fletcher the main absentee.
The Rangers start off strongly with a 6-2 win at Yankee Stadium as veteran Oil Can Boyd gives them a fine performance and win a wild one the next day as Gary Sheffield hits for the cycle to head back to Arlington very much in control.
The Yanks break through for their first win in Game 3 with Danny Darwin a big reason and then tie it up with an 8-5 victory in which Tino Martinez goes deep twice and knocks in 7.
Texas finally breaks the trend by taking out Game 5 but the Yanks force a decider with a late score in Game 6, with both finishing 3-1.
Game 7 is a bit of a fizzer, though Yanks fans won’t think so as a Danny Darwin 2-hitter delivers them their first ticket to the Big Dance in nearly 20 years.
New York SS Ozzie Smith is named MVP and whatever happens from here it’ll be great to see him, Donny Baseball and Willie Randolph under the big top for the first time (actually, Willie made it with the Dodgers in ’88) in their careers.
National League
San Diego Padres (101-61) v Pittsburgh Pirates (94-68)
We will once again have to earn our WS berth by getting past a highly-talented squad, undoubtedly the strongest group the Padres have ever fielded. They beat us 8 of 12 this year.
No major injuries for either club.
Walt Terrell and Mike Benjamin are the unlucky ones to miss out for us.
They get some early runs in the opener and then, after we’ve pegged them back, blow out Smiley with a big 6th for an 8-3 final but we bounce back to win Game 2 on the back of a serviceable outing from Burkett and 3 RBI from Bonds.
Runs in each of the first 3 innings are all Doug Drabek needs a couple days later back at TRS as he allows just one on four over 7 and we take it 4-1 and 8 strong innings from Kevin Brown give us a 5-2 Game 4 win and the chance to close it out at home.
Which we duly do despite another shaky start from Burkett as the much-maligned BP stems the bleeding and the bats drag us back from 2-5 and 3-6 to win it 7-6.
Jay Bell takes the MVP although any of our main guys would have been a deserving recipient.