The National League has seen better days. The pitchers are batting, the managers are pulling double switches and double steals and the teams just aren’t winning.
Elite teams no longer exist in the National League. Not since 2005 — when the Cardinals went 100-62 but flamed out in the NLCS that October — has a single team reached triple-digit wins in the senior circuit. Year in and year out, the NL has been represented in the World Series by a 90-something-win wonder that has talent, but at first glance just doesn’t seem cut out for the Fall Classic.
But it’s a seven-game series. It’s a small sample, and in baseball, anything can happen. The NL has won two World Series out of the last five, with Philly taking home the title last season and St. Louis, an 83-win team, winning it all in 2006.
Over the long haul, it’s another story.
The junior circuit has asserted its authority in a big way. Six years running, the AL has bested the NL in interleague play — this year, it was a 137-114 advantage for the teams with the designated hitters. In 2006, the disparity was at its peak: The final interleague tally was AL 154, NL 98.
All-Star Games? Same deal. The American League is unbeaten in the last 13 — and with the exception of that ugly little “tie” fiasco in 2002 (thanks, Bud Selig), the NL has lost every year.
The deck appears stacked against the National League. And with all this evidence piling up, it’s easy to count the Phillies out.
Sure, they have talent. Ryan Howard went deep 45 times this year — but against NL pitching. J.A. Happ put up an astounding 2.93 ERA in his first full season in the big leagues — but that was against NL offenses. The Phillies may have scored 820 runs, more than anyone else in the senior circuit, and won 93 games — but what does that really mean when it’s only a matter of National Leaguers beating up on National Leaguers?
It’s hard to combat a decade of interleague prejudice. This isn’t a disparity that’s likely to go away overnight. There are years of data to prove the AL’s point, and one series can’t change everything in a heartbeat.
But it would certainly be a good start.
The Phillies are playing this series for more than just their first repeat championship in franchise history. They’re playing it for the pride of National Leaguers everywhere — for the Dodgers, for the Cardinals, even for the hated Mets — to prove what their league is made of.
The Yankees, meanwhile, have all the bragging rights. They may not be the defending champions — in fact, they haven’t reached the Fall Classic since 2003 and they haven’t won one since 2000 — but all the hype is going their way. They have the better record in the better league, and their star-studded cast of multimillionaires is getting all the press this week.
It’s not often that David faces down Goliath and David is the defending champion.
