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There Are Champions and There are Champions

© Harold Friend

The New York Yankees have now been American League Eastern Division Champions for the last eight baseball seasons. Now, doesn't that sound impressive? Yes it does, but it doesn't sound as impressive as stating that the Atlanta Braves have been division champions the last fourteen times there have been division champions, but it still sounds impressive, until one examines what has happened a little more critically.

First, let's get the Braves out of the way, as other playoff teams usually do quite quickly. The Braves won the National League's Western Division title in 1991, 1992, and 1993. Both National League divisions consisted of six teams from 1969, when the divisions were created, until 1993, when the expansion Marlins joined the Eastern Division and the expansion Rockies became the seventh team in the Western Division.

But having seven teams in each division meant there were too many losers. In 1994, each league created a third division, the Central Division, and realignment occurred. The Braves moved to the Eastern Division, a division that now consisted of five, not seven teams. The Braves did NOT win the Eastern Division title in 1994 because there was a strike. There were no playoffs. There was no World Series. Beginning with the 1995 season, the Braves have been Eastern Division Champions every season.

Since 1995, there have been three division champions in each league, and to create even more winners, a "wild card" in each league qualifies for the playoffs. Things were no longer simple. The division winners had to play two playoff rounds to win the pennant, but winning the division for the Yankees or Braves meant beating four other teams. The American League West consists of only four teams so the division winner had to beat only three other teams.

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, the New York Yankees won five consecutive titles. They were not division titles because this was when there were no divisions. No, there were only leagues. There was the American League, and there was the National League, and each league had eight teams. The Yankees beat out seven teams to win the American League pennant five straight times from 1949-1953. Then they beat the National League champion each time for a record five consecutive World Championships.

Now, which is more difficult, being the best among five teams or being the best among eight teams? Of course one must account for the fact that it is possible that the seven American League teams from 1949-1953 were all weak teams and the Yankees' four American League Eastern Division rivals from 1998-2005 were all strong teams, but that is not the case.