Historically, you couldn't come up with two more different franchises than the Yankees and Phillies.
The Yankees have been, by far, the winningest team in American League history -- their .568 winning percentage puts them almost 2300 games over .500, and 855.5 games ahead of the second-place Boston Red Sox, if you were keeping an all-time major league standing. Put it another way: say the Red Sox started winning 100 games a year, every year, and the Yankees suddenly got bad and started losing 100 games a year, every year (that would make a 38-game difference between the two teams). It would take 23 consecutive seasons of doing that before the Red Sox could catch them. The Yankees' pennant is their 40th; to date they have won exactly two-thirds of the World Series in which they have appeared, and they have appeared in at least one in each decade since the 1920's.
Meanwhile, the Phillies have, up to very recently, been the sad sack team of the National League. Much was made of the Pirates recently breaking the Phillies' record of 16 consecutive losing seasons from 1933-48. But had the Phillies not won the last game of the 1932 season to finish 78-76, they would have had thirty-one consecutive non-winning seasons from 1918-48; in 12 of those 31 years, they lost 100 or more games. The franchise won two pennants (1915 and 1950) in its first 97 years of existence, and won only one World Series (1980) until last year. The Phillies are the only major league franchise to have lost over 10,000 games (10,167), despite the fact that the Cubs and Braves were around for seven years before the Phillies were created in 1883. The Phillies stand 1129 games under .500 -- put that another way, too: if they started winning 100 games a year, every year, it would take 30 consecutive seasons to put the franchise over .500.
(That ought to also give you a little perspective on Cubs history. Doesn't look quite so bad now, does it?)
History lesson over, I'm picking the Phillies to win in seven. The Phillies can match the Yankees' CC Sabathia with their own Cliff Lee (and Indians fans must be sighing big-time, watching their former pitchers face off tonight), and if Philly wins one of the two games in New York, stealing home field back, that will make for a tight and competitive Series.
Late in the year as it is (the "November Classic"?), it's still the World Series. Even the weather will cooperate, with rain ending before game time and temperatures cool, but not cold, in the lower 50's at game time. Enjoy, because after it's over... no baseball for three months.
Phillies at Yankees, 6:57 pm CDT. TV: Fox. Announcers: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Phillies site The Good Phight and Yankees site Pinstripe Alley.
Discuss amongst yourselves.