Have the Cubs get hot at the right time. Don’t make errors in the field, run the bases well, have pitchers with good control, and only swing at quality hitter’s pitches at the plate. Good luck in postseason play with umpires’ calls helps, too.

They managed to leg it out against other teams that also smelled a bit funny, including that National League one in Chicago. All the man perfume you could pour over each steaming pile would and could not eliminate that stench.

There’s no way the 2008 Cubs should EVER have played like they did last October. Not with the stats, the momentum and the sheer swagger they had. But we know the dates of Infamy .. and how they turned out. They stank too.

I think it’s just the way the old ball game goes. This year , the Central’s teams seemed a lot more distracted because it really was, until mid August, anyone’s race .. because everyone played so unevenly. Watching the interdivision games was an exercise in blown chances and flashes of greatness. In the end, it’s just the way the game went.

The greatest teams you can point to are all human and the element of chance always figures in (see Game 2, ALDS New York Versus Minnesota, page 8 for reference). The juggernaut Yankees should have lost Friday night. They didn’t because of a bad call and the lower half of the Twinkies’ order choking. It’s one two three strikes yer out at the old ball game.

Just take a look at the offensive numbers the Phillies are putting up. 7 of their 8 starters have scored close to 100 runs each! that is an amazing stat! They don’t rely on just one or two big offensive threats to carry them in the playoffs.

That is why they succeed and the Central Division does not.

…from nine games over three years. If anything, this year’s division series (in both leagues) reinforce how much power random chance and heat-of-the-moment mistakes have in a five-game set.