No postseason comes close to matching 2003. List is only in the past 7 years. Here’s my list:
1) 2003
What more could you ask for? Marlins have great division series upset with the Giants (Bonds in his prime) and Boston barely gets by Oakland due to two questionable interference calls. Two of the division series go 5 games and no sweeps. BOTH CS series go 7 games, with Bartman killing the Cubs in one and Boone killing the sox in the other. The Cubs have an absolutely stacked staff, with Wood, Prior, Clement, and Zambrano healthy. You have the Yankee-Red Sox feud boiling over to the point of Manny charging the mound at high strikes and Don Zimmer being violently thrown to the ground. In both series' cases, the Cubs and Red Sox were probably one good pitch away from playing in one of the most epic playoff matchups ever. World Series goes 6 games, with the Marlins pulling a David-Goliath overtaking of the last throes of the Yankee Dynasty.
2) 2001
Three of four division series matchups go 5 games. A very strong Seattle coming off 116 regular season wins takes on the Yankee Dynasty. World Series goes 7 games, with a D-backs team containing many old vets fighting for their first championship rings. Great storylines, great matchups, unexpected ending to World Series, with Luis Gonzalez getting an unlikely walk-off in the classic pressure situation of bottom of the 9th, Game 7, against the future Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera.
3) 2002
Two division series matchups go 5 games. Huge upsets, with Minnesota taking down Oakland, rejuvenating Minnesota into the baseball spirit after their team stunk for the past decade. Bonds absolutely destroys everyone in the postseason and removes his stigma of being an unclutch postseason hitter. World Series goes 7 games, including a legendary meltdown by the Giants late in Game 5 which would have given Bonds his first ring.
4) 2000
Classic matchup of fire and brimstone. True, only one series went the full amount of games. However, it was a classic example of the Yankee Dynasty (and probably the last great baseball dynasty) at its last high point before its eventual demise.
5.) 2004
Great postseason, utterly terrible conclusion. Two Division Series go five games, the Dodgers get back to the playoffs for the first time in 8 years, and both Champ Series go 7 games, with the classic Yankee failure to close out their 3 game lead. However, people remember the end result more than the sum of its parts, and the World Series sweep by the red sox was probably one of the most anticlimatic sporting events in the last 25 years.
6) 2006
Two Division Series go 5 games, one Championship Series matchup goes 7. After being considered an easy target after a lackluster second half, the Tigers suddenly come to life on the Yankees and A's, going 7-1. Oakland, a large underdog, shocks everyone by sweeping the Twins, who had the MVP (Morneau) and Cy Young (Santana). And, of course, the Cards manage to squeak by the Mets with some big hits and contributions from roleplayers (Yadier Molina, Wainwright, Eckstein). The World Series was pretty bad, although it provided some talking points, what with the Tigers committing more errors than David Ortiz with a greased glove.
7) 2005
Two sweeps in the Division Series, including knocking the Yankees and Red Sox out. No Championship Series go 7 games, and the World Series is a relatively uneventful sweep. All of the WS games were close, but it contained non-marquee teams, no bad blood, and other than AJ Pierzinski's semi-strikeout in the ALCS, there were absolutely no controversial moments.
Hopefully this year it’s even better!




Ingrid Vandebosch
Michelle Damon

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