To repeat as World Series champs, a little luck is needed
What Joe Torre's Yankees did in the postseason from 1996 until the 2001 World Series appears more freakish with every passing year: They played .746 baseball in postseason games (53-18) in winning 14 out of 15 series. They were Wooden's UCLA teams, too good to be beaten by chance. In today's game, without a dominant team, what greater competitive balance means is that there are more teams in the postseason and more teams with a legitimate chance of winning the World Series. Chance rules October more than ever.