Parity can be a popular topic in Major League Baseball. Former commissioner Bud Selig touted the league’s competitive balance as one of the main components of his legacy. While that claim can certainly be debated, it’s fair to say that a high-priced roster does not always translate into postseason success.
Two of the clubs to clinch playoff berths this season (the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros) ranked in the bottom third of the league in terms of payroll. The Kansas City Royals and New York Mets, this year’s World Series opponents, are smack dab in the middle at fourteenth and fifteenth, respectively.
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But the 2015 Fall Classic is more than just a face-off between two teams with middling financial muscle. It represents potential salvation to two franchises with extensive championship droughts.
In the minds of Mets fans, two years stand out. 1969 and 1986. They are hoping that in about a week’s time 2015 can be added to the list.
The Metropolitans arrived on the scene in 1962 to fill the National League vacancy left in New York several years earlier by the Dodgers and Giants. They proceeded to put together one of the worst campaigns in baseball history, finishing with a tremendously lopsided 40-120 record.
But in eight years the hapless Mets would transform into the “Miracle Mets,” besting Earl Weaver‘s formidable Orioles in five games to pull off one of the most notable World Series upsets of all time.
Nearly twenty seasons later, they would scale the league’s highest mountain once again. The 1986 version of the club battled with the Boston Red Sox for seven games, clawing back from a 2-0 deficit to take the World Series crown, thanks in no small part to a legendary blunder by Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner in Game 6.
What do those two previous Mets squads have in common with the current one? Great pitching. Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling all set a very high standard, one that Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz are doing a fine job following.
The Royals’ lone title came in 1985, one year prior to the Mets’ most recent one. They also capped off their World Series victory in a decisive Game 7, topping their intrastate rivals the Cardinals in an 11-0 blowout. George Brett hit .370 during the series, and 21-year-old Bret Saberhagen took home MVP honors after winning two games, allowing just one run over eighteen total innings. He would add a Cy Young Award to his mantle that year as well.
This World Series matchup may not have been the one many were expecting, but it has quite a rich legacy to live up to. The Royals and Mets are not the most decorated franchises, but each will get the chance to write a triumphant new chapter in their history on baseball’s brightest stage. That’s what October is all about.
You can thank league parity, competitive balance, or perhaps just a pair of well-built clubs that are executing at the right time. Whatever the driving force, one set of long-suffering fans is about to witness the end of a very lengthy wait.