World Series: Growing Disparity?
A quick look at the average number of games played in each World Series, on average.
The decades used start with the 1930’s, the first decade to exclusively feature seven game series. Also of note, the decade of 1990 featured only nine series due to the 1994 strike and the current decade features all eight series. We’ve figured this into the averages. Obviously, a series will always have a baseline minimum of four games and a maximum of seven.
As one can see, the average number of games played in a world series has dropped in each of the past three decades, hitting an all-time low of 5.25 games in the 2000’s.
Now the fun part. Why is this happening? One definitive answer isn’t going to do the trick on this one. A multitude of hypothesis could exist. The advent of free agency, the shift in style of play pertaining to the use of starting pitching and the bullpens, stronger teams being eliminated prior to the world series, etc.
I personally don’t know if I could argue for or against any one of these theories. Perhaps a mixture of these and other ideas would yield a more conclusive answer. Does any answer exist? At a minimum, it’s food for thought, that’s for sure.
The AL is the big boy league and has been for some time.
To be fair though, the difference between 5.25 and 6.1 games per WS over a 10 year span is not that much in my opinion.
On a percentage basis in a scale that can only go from 4 – 7, that is a pretty big discrepancy
Maybe a better way to show the number is just to subtract 4 from the total to create an average wins by the losing team stat. In the past, the losing team would on average win 2 games and push a series to 6. Nowdays, teams win 1.25 and squeak into the 5th game of a series.
Looks like 40’s to 70’s might be the aberration?
Its possible, although one could feel that the competitive balance (at least between world series clubs) was closer in the past than in the present.
I would make a hypothesis that other rounds of playoffs would show even more discrepancy between the victors and the vanquished. I agree with calmin on this one as well, a quater game between the 90s and 2000s is not ground shattering (like the As sweep of the 89 Gigantes) . WhoooHoooo.