Must-see Series

As I (briefly) opined yesterday, a non-Yankees World Series is a beautiful thing. ESPN.com's Jayson Stark (one of the few ESPN baseball columnists you can still read for free) gives us 10 reasons why this Series will be an enjoyable experience, TV ratings be damned. Here's a sample:

6. The 'This sure beats the NFL' factor

Another refreshing result of having the Yankees not go to the World Series every single year is that it provides the opportunity for baseball to brag about stuff like this:

Over the last four World Series, eight different teams have shown up (Astros, White Sox, Red Sox, Cardinals, Marlins, Yankees, Angels, Giants).

So how long has it been since that paragon of competitive balance -- the NFL -- managed to put eight different teams into four consecutive Super Bowls?

How about 1985-88? (Please rush some smelling salts to Paul Tagliabue's office.)

Since then (starting with '88), only nine different franchises have won a Super Bowl. But we're guaranteed that, once this World Series is over, 11 different franchises will have won a World Series in the same time frame.

So which sport has the competitive-balance problem again?

Click here for the whole thing.