After the Phillies anticlimactic World Series victory, the feeling following the '07 Series returned to this baseball fan. As a result, I updated the following column which originally ran October 28, 2007. While the section on Red Sox fans doesn't apply this go-around, the general theme of the column is valid.

Also, kudos to the readers for bringing up the fact that the 8:30 ET first pitch is ridiculous. That's definitely an oversight from the original post.

It used to be the peak of the fall sports season but for some reason, the Fall Classic has become anything but. Since the 2004 season, the World Series champion has a record of 20-2. In other words, every series has ended in a sweep with the exception of 2006, when it took the Cardinals 5 games to dispose of the Tigers and this season's 5 game Philly in what was a most disgusting display of baseball on Detroit’s end.

In those 17 games, the eventual champs have outscored opposition 116-62 (just for context's sake).

2004: 21-12

2005: 20-14

2006: 22-11

2007: 29-10

2008: 24-15

The bottom line is that the World Series hasn’t been close since the Marlins beat the Yankees in 6 games in ’03 (when Roger Clemens sooo totally retired for the 26th time). Perhaps there’s a concrete reason to explain it, or perhaps it’s just the cycle of the baseball space time continuum. Let’s look to the past to gain some insight.

From 1980-1989, the World Series went 6 or 7 games 6 times. From 1990-1999, the series went 6 or 7 games 6 times, with one less opportunity due to the ’94 players’ strike. During this decade, the series has gone 6+ games just 3 times, the last being the previously mentioned 2003 season, meaning at most 5 World Series will hit the 6+game mark.

Going back even further, the 1950s hosted eight 6+games, there were 6 in the 1960s and 7 in the 1970s. Not since the 1930s have there been only 5 such series, and that’s what we’re looking at this decade (oh my god, no!)

Stats aside, the World Series doesn’t seem to have the flavor and flare it did during the 80s and early 90s. Obviously, that period reflects the time when a summer afternoon for the humans of my generation consisted of eating bomb pops, riding our bikes and running through the sprinkler. We followed baseball all summer long and when the season turned cool, we looked forward to two teams fighting for a World Series title, regardless of what teams were playing. Maybe “growing up” has something to with that feeling.

I don’t think there’s one concrete answer for the question in this column’s namesake, but I’ve come up with a few possibilities for the foul aftertaste the World Series has once again left in our mouths.

Red Sox Fans are Terribly Annoying

Let’s get this one out of the way early. It’s nothing against Terry Francona or any of his players, because they seem like genuinely good people (give or take a Curt Schilling). Hard to root against a guy like Jon Lester (Game 4 winner) or Mike Lowell (Series MVP), both cancer survivors; and anyone who dislikes Manny Ramirez simply doesn’t have a heart for gregarious stoners. That said, Red Sox fans are damn near unbearable – and that’s coming from a resident of St. Louis, a baseball fan base that has morphed into a parody of itself with its incessant “be nice and cheer for everyone” attitude (yes, Cardinals fans are annoying too).

With the ’07 World Championship, the dominance of the Patriots this decade and their ultra-dominance this season, Boston College football, the Garnett/Celtics marriage, and the fact that ESPN and their mainstream followers grope the city’s metropolitan testes every day of the week, the rest of the country is subjected to “WOW! What a great time to be Boston sports fan” stories along with the usual oversaturated coverage of each individual sport. Fair or unfair, the fans are annoying. If we are to be subjected to all of this crap, could we at least take a citizenship test for Red Sox Nation? I’m intrigued by this country, and would like to know what legalized acceptance requires. If it requires 3 packs of Big League Chew in your left cheek like Terry Francona, I might be in.

Oh, and note to all Red Sox fans and idiot media folk: the Red Sox are unequivocally NOT the victim to the New York Yankees’ evil empire. Let’s put that to bed once and for all, okay?

Corporate Takeover

What can be said of the World Series also applies to the Super Bowl. Jason Major alluded to some of it the past two weeks in the Top 7, but it bears repeating: the influx of John Mellencamp, Dane Cook, and the incessant cross-promotion seems worse now than ever before because it is. We as the consumer have more access to all of it 24/7. It’s the double-edged sword of having the Internet, MLB game packages online and on television, etc.

Too Much of a Good Thing

With the addition of the Wild Card to postseason play, the baseball season always nears the 1st of November. It seems to drag on and on because it does. Since the Wild Card component appears to be permanent, the regular season needs to be shortened by 6-10 games. It will never happen, and it would require the postseason to start a week earlier, so it’s out of the question.

But is it possible that having an extra playoff series has something to do with the World Series appearing to be a mismatch? If you want to point to more games raising more opportunities for a team getting really, really hot or really, really cold within the postseason, it’s a mostly grey area. Since 1995 when the Wild Card was implemented, there have been 5 sweeps and two 5-game series, meaning just 6 out of 13 World Series have gone 6 or more games, which falls below the average of the past 6 decades.

There’s also the law of supply and demand. If there are less postseason games to watch, odds are there will be more excitement for said games. I learned that in my college economics textbook penned by Timothy McCarver.

This Time it Counts

How can any rational person take the World Series as serious as he/she once did when home field advantage is decided in an exhibition game? Maybe it seemed like a good idea to Bud after a night of drinking and eating sausage in the Commissioner’s Office, but put into practice This Time it Counts sucks monkey balls.

Chris Berman

Seriously Boomer; you have no business anchoring ESPN World Series post-game coverage, just like you have no business calling the action for the first 2 rounds of the PGA U.S. Open. Let Ravvy have his day. I think I might hate you (as a TV personality - and maybe as a person).

Romanticizing the Past

More than any other sport, the history of baseball has an aura and mystique about it (*bonus points for my literary verbiage*). We’re constantly shown black and white highlights of the Babe and Willie Mays’ over the shoulder catch, and more recent highlights such as Bob Gibson striking out 17, Carlton Fisk waving his home run fair, Kirk Gibson (Bob’s son) rounding the bases in the ‘88 series and to a certain extent, Joe Carter celebrating his series walk-off shot.

There’s something (dare I say it) enchanting about that, something that takes us back to the world of youth. In addition, most of those moments had the classic calls to go with it. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Joe Buck’s call of Kirk Gibson’s pinch hit home run wouldn’t have come close to his father’s. With the state of today’s baseball and media landscape, we’ve replaced those moments with constant coverage of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. We’ve watched players test positive for HGH and steroids. And we’ve watched all of it with an idiot in charge.

Maybe the answer as to what has happened to the World Series is simple: it seems like it has lost its luster because it has. It has become an anticlimactic formality, and that’s a shame.

What Happened to the World Series was written by Pat Imig. He blames Chris Berman for many of the world's problems. Email him at patrick@joesportsfan.com