The Pecan Park Eagle

A “Subway” Series” was never a possibility this year, much to the marketing chagrin of the now famous sandwich chain, but we had a brief shot at a “Freeway Series” until the Royals knocked that one out of the park too.

The American League chose the neat and non-competitive route in their 2014 AL Division Series pairings. The Baltimore Orioles quickly rolled over the Detroit Tigers, 3 games to zip, and then, last night, the Kansas City Royals finished feeding on their three game slices of the team now best thought of at the drop of a hat as “The Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim.”

Other victims beyond the teams from Motown and Greater LA So Cal included all the potentially classic World Series match ups that would have been still on the table had the Tigers growled louder and the Angels soared higher on their roads to The Show.

Gone are the possibilities of another classic meeting between Detroit and St. Louis in the World Series. The Cardinal previously had beaten the Tigers the Gashouse Gang and Dizzy Dean in 1934 and then behind Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols in 2006, but Detroit had prevailed behind Mickey Lolich over Bob Gibson and St. Louis in the 1968 thriller.

Also now missing are the possibilities for the Angels of a return to St. Louis with former Cardinals Tony Pujols and David Freese in a match up with the redbirds and former Angels pitcher John Lackey. It’s hard to imagine the warm reception that would have been in store for Mr. Pujols in Busch Stadium III.

Neither the Tigers nor the Angels have any World Series history with the NL’s Washington Nationals (ne: Montreal Expos) since that franchise has no World Series history (period). But, of course, the loss of the Angels denies us of the potential for a potential “freeway traffic jam” pairing between the two clubs sharing the Greater Los Angeles area as their common home. It’s neat to note, nevertheless, that the NL entry in this city hs never been known as either the “Brooklyn Dodgers at Los Angeles” or the ” Los Angeles Dodgers not-at-Anaheim.”

One more – and it’s an important one. The Giants would have relished a chance for revenge against the Angels, who once beat them for the latter’s only World Series appearance and victory back in 2002.

Take heart! – With the two NLDS series between the Dodgers and Cardinals knotted at 1-1 and the Giants holding a 2-0 lead and a home field advantage over the Nationals, a handful of great classic match ups are still out there as possible.

The most banal of these, but still interesting, would be a pairing of the Dodgers and Royals. The clubs have never met in a World Series before, but they both wear white home uniforms and grey road gear with royal blue lettering. Only the script on the jerseys and the attitudes of the players on each team are different. The Kansas City boys display the fire of that classic Midwestern underdog club that won’t stop biting, even if their chances for winning should somewhere die. The Dodgers possess a little more of that laid back West Coast sense of fame, entitlement, and latte-requirement from someplace better than Starbucks.

We also have the Cardinals-Orioles still on the table of possibility. That would be interesting to some of us who used to be Browns fans. Remember – the Oriole used to be the St. Louis Browns until they moved to Baltimore in 1954 and were reborn as the Orioles. Cardinals-Orioles would be the second World Series meeting of these two franchise since the “St. Louis Street Car City Series of 1944” in which the Cardinals defeated the St. Louis Browns, 4 games to 2.

The Orioles versus the Dodgers is another live wire still possible as our connection. The Baltimore Orioles and the Robinson boys (Frank & Brooks) took the Los Angeles Dodgers of Walter Alston in a 1966 sweep.

Those are all that occur to us. Beyond the Cardinals, the Tigers never met any of the three other  surviving NL playoff clubs in a World Series. If you can think of any we’ve forgotten or overlooked, please feel free to add them below in the column comment section. Our goal here is always the eventual completion of truth – and not self-aggrandizing perfection on the first rattle out of the box.

Have a great week, everybody.