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Part 6 of 7 Phillies Championship Advantages

Professional sports teams have been known to win championships without it. 

Sometimes sheer talent and fortuitous circumstance converge together to achieve a successful outcome. 

Sometimes a team simply catches fire and makes an unlikely championship run. 

In an era of baseball that has been controlled by the big market teams, this year’s playoff landscape is certainly different from past seasons.

All right, maybe it isn’t completely different—the crop is still led by the usual suspects from New York and Philadelphia.

Still, the familiar names of the St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels will not be heard in playoff baseball this year.

Patience is a virtue, everything happens for a reason, good things come to those who wait, Rome wasn't built in a day, and you have to look before you leap.

Cliches aside, the Mets (and us fans) will have to be patient in finding out who will be running the show next year and hopefully beyond.

Whether you want to see it or not, it's lingering: the possibility of having a rematch in the World Series is highly likely.  

Going into the playoffs the Philadelphia Phillies are the hottest team, winning 22 of their last 29 games.  The Yankees on the other hand, in a bold move decided to leave A.J. Burnett out of the rotation against the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS. 

Speed kills.

Ask the Yankees circa 2004 when a stolen base by Dave Roberts in the bottom of the ninth kept the Red Sox—down 3-0 in the American League Championship Series and 4-3 in Game 4—alive and propelled them forward to the greatest comeback in baseball history.

Or maybe you could just look at the 1982 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers.

I was watching ESPN's "30 for 30" on the 2004 Boston Red Sox miracle comeback against the New York Yankees in the ALCS earlier tonight, and I realized something about our San Francisco Giants and their overpaid, but ironically worthless pitcher Barry Zito.

First off, let me say that I'm a die-hard Yankees fan and I have been since I was six years old.  I'll be pulling for them to win number 28, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

This isn't the same team that won it all last year.

While they can pull it off, I think I've come up with five good reasons why they may have to wait until next year for 28.

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Finally. With the completion of Sunday's Major League Baseball regular season schedule, we now know who's in, who's out, and which matchups to look forward to when playoff action commences Wednesday.

Perhaps the most evenly matched series will start in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Let’s take a look at the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers series at a glance…

Schedule

For almost three years now, I have had to listen to Braves fans complain over and over again about Mark Teixeira and what his trade in 2007 did to Atlanta’s future. When one looks at what Atlanta gave up to acquire Tex for two half seasons of non-playoff baseball, it’s kind of hard not to be upset if you are a Braves fan.