A World Series fact I bet you didn't know

I was driving the other day doing what i do best... thinking about random baseball stuff.

And in my wandering mind I stumbled across a little factoid that surprised me.

Two expansion franchises have never met each other in the World Series.

In every World Series there has been at least one franchise that existed back in 1903 (the year of the first series.)

Think about it for a second...

Since 1961 there have been 14 new franchises added to Major League Baseball.

1961 gave us the Angels (whether they are from Los Angeles, California, Anaheim or Los Angeles of Anaheim) and the new Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers.)

1962 gave us the Houston Colt .45s (now the Astros) and the Mets.

1969 was the beginning of the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Pilots (now the Milwaukee Brewers.) Also that year was the debut of the San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals.)

1977 marked the debut of the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners.

1993 the NL expanded to form the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies.

And the last expansion was 1998 with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Now the Rangers, the Nationals and the Mariners have never played in a World Series.

The first ever expansion team to win a pennant was the 1969 Mets and they played the Orioles... who began as the Milwaukee Brewers and became the St. Louis Browns.

In 1973 the Mets played the A's... who were in Oakland but were a team in 1903.

The other two Mets pennants (1986 and 2000) were against the Red Sox and Yankees.

The next expansion franchise to win a pennant was the Royals. They played the Phillies in 1980 and the Cardinals in 1985.

The Brewers (formerly the Pilots) played the Cardinals in 1982.

The Padres played the Tigers in 1984 and the Yankees in 1998.

The Blue Jays played the Braves in 1992 and the Phillies in 1993.

The Marlins beat the Indians in 1997 and the Yankees in 2003.

The Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in 2001.

The Angels beat the Giants (San Francisco by way of New York) in 2002.

The Astros lone pennant was a loss to the White Sox in 2005.

The Rockies played the Red Sox in 2007.

The Rays played the Phillies in 2008.

There it is... no two expansion teams have ever faced off.

Oh there have been close calls.

The 1980 Astros had the pennant winning run in scoring position in the NLCS which would have clinched a Houston/Kansas City World Series.

The 1986 Angels were one strike away, a sacrifice fly away and a Gary Pettis near home run away from meeting the Mets in the World Series.

What does this mean?

What is the significance? 

Well if the Angels play the Rockies in the World Series... it will be unique. (Not that it will get good ratings.)

And if I am forced to have this little nugget in my head... then by God you will have it too!

1982 World Series animated opening... did we just have longer attention spans back then?

I stumbled across this on YouTube.
I love watching some of the cold opens and graphics of baseball telecasts. And ALL baseball fans should download old ballgames on iTunes.

But for the love of Roone Arledge how long is this opening sequence?

It opens well enough with the World Series trophy super imposed over Busch Stadium and Dick Enberg's great pipes introducing the game.

After that, it turns into a nightmare of 1980s graphics and disco music.
Now I first learned how to shoot and cut video in the 1980s and I remember when graphics, titles and images became easily accessible.

And there was the temptation to use graphics and images all the time.
But as Jeff Goldblum warned in Jurassic Park, they spent all the time wondering if they could use the technology but not enough thought if they SHOULD!

There's...

The light show around NBC Sports. (10 Seconds.)
Yes, we know it's NBC Sports. We've already tuned in. Start the game already.

The busts of great baseball players molded evidently in Butterscotch. (20 Seconds.)

You've got a random collection with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb (who never won a World Series), someone who was either Joe DiMaggio or Fred MacMurray, Ted Williams (who flopped in his only World Series), Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial (the lone Cardinal in the montage), Willie Mays and Hank Aaron (who of course starred in Milwaukee and finished with the Brewers.)

Of course none were shown in action... just their heads moving... very... slowly. 

Computer Baseball flies across the screen showing the 1982 World Series logo. (10 Seconds.)

45 seconds into this opening and we've established the event, the network and NONE of the players.

Meanwhile the words "World Series 1982" are evidently radioactive.

The Leagues swoosh across the screen along with the team names. (10 Seconds)

At least we are establishing who is playing... except that all of the info was effectively conveyed 10 seconds into this sequence. 

The credits. THE CREDITS! (13 seconds.)

You know most of the time now they don't even run credits at the end of the show. But NBC Sports decided to have a longer opening credit sequence than Superman the Movie.

And while we are finally treated to clips of past World Series... they are scrunched and distorted into a tiny diamond in the middle of the screen... all to make sure that Harry Coyle and company get their names read.

I'm sure Harry did a great job... I just hope it wasn't Harry's decision to spend more time on the laser light show than showing clips of past World Series!

FLYING BASEBALL CARDS! (25 seconds.)

Finally we get to see the participants of the World Series about 1 minute and 22 seconds into this opening... and we get a bunch of baseball card flying across the stargate from the end of 2001. 

No close ups and I think NBC can pull off some trades because there are some doubles in there!

And not only are the Brewers and Cardinals introduced with baseball cards that are too small to make out who the players are... they are using the 1982 Fleer series, which I have already declared as being one of the worst in baseball card history.

BACK TO THE LOGOS! (10 seconds.)

The ending is kind of appropriate. It is as if the graphics designer said "Yup, I just wasted 1 minute and 35 seconds of network air... and THIS IS THE NETWORK that I basically just F'ed around on."

And NOW a word from our sponsor? 

Really? It never occurred to you while having baseball cards floating, Willie Mays' catch obscured by Len Stucker's credit and flying logos to maybe have the sponsors mentioned THEN???

By 2 minutes and 7 seconds we FINALLY are getting back to the baseball broadcast.

Were we more patient back then?

Or were we all getting chips?

Oh and nice touch by Dick Enberg at the end.

Enberg is a great announcer... but it is Tony KUBEK...not KO-beck.