2014 MLB Playoffs: A Unique Tale of Four Cities

By Jordan Wevers @JordanWevers on October 10, 2014

If you draw a straight line from San Francisco to Baltimore on a map, your pencil trail would come alarmingly close to crossing right through Kansas City and St. Louis. Geographical idiosyncrasies aside, the 2014 MLB World Series title will have to pass through one of these four American cities in this year’s playoffs.

Two could not be further apart. One, a port city on the east coast in Maryland. The other, a technological hub of the west coast in California. Both orange and black, their uniform colors demonstrate perfectly a major theme in the month of October.

The two other cities could not be more familiar with one another. Both staples of the Midwest lying just west of the Mississippi River, each one’s respective ballpark resting upon Missourian soil. Only 241 miles of asphalt along the I-70 separate the mobs wearing royal blue from the mobs sporting cardinal red.

The two National League clubs are perennial participants in baseball’s greatest spectacle as of late. The San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals have separately played in seven of the last 14 World Series since the start of the new millennia, winning it a combined four times.

On the American League side of things, underdog status has become an appropriate label. The Kansas City Royals snuck in as a wild card after having last made the postseason in 1985. The Baltimore Orioles, meanwhile, dominated the AL East division, but their last pennant came in 1983.

A Baltimore/San Francisco final would be eerie if it went to Game 7 on October 29, only two days before Halloween. However, a Kansas City/St. Louis final would be a spirited one, with a large contingent of both fans cheering for their respective team at Kauffman or Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals, established in 1882, have been in existence the longest. The Giants, formerly of New York, have been around the second longest having been established in 1883. Following them are the Orioles, whose roots can be traced back to 1894 and having been associated with the cities of Milwaukee and St. Louis until formally landing in Baltimore in 1954. The Royals are the pups of the bunch, forming as an expansion franchise in 1969 after the Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland before the start of the 1968 season.

Since the inception of the first official World Series in 1903 — and given the illustrious history attached to four of the three franchises — only twice has any combination of the four clubs met in the World Series. That happened first in 1944 when the Cardinals downed the St. Louis Browns four games to two, and again in 1985 when the Royals defeated the Cardinals in seven games.

Whichever team comes out on top in 2014, all are equally deserving of being crowned World Series champions. A 162-game regular season is a marathon to endure. Just having the privilege of playing baseball in October should not be taken for granted. Neither should being a fan of the game and living in one of these four storied cities and getting to experience a postseason baseball atmosphere at ground zero.

Jordan Wevers is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JordanWevers, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.