Texas Rangers

It all makes sense. There should never have been any doubt in anyone’s mind that in The Year of the Pitcher, some of the better arms in the American League will be fighting for the Pennant beginning with Game One on Friday night.

After watching Cliff Lee dominate my Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS, and dominate, well, everybody, throughout the playoffs last season, people are starting to rank him as one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all time.  The only way to compare them is to put Lee up against the greatest postseason pitcher of all time, Sandy Koufax.

Let's take a quick look at the pitching lines.

The New York Yankees need a fourth starter for the ALCS. But the one they named was wrong. It should not have been A.J. Burnett, but rather Ivan Nova.

Nova, whom the Yankees refused to trade, was a major reason that they didn't get Cliff Lee from the Mariners midseason. He has since justified their retaining him. Except for one very bad start that skewed his respectable 4.50 ERA upward, he has been quite a serviceable pitcher both as a starter and a reliever. And he's only 23, in his first season.

Derek Jeter is a surefire Hall of Fame shortstop, the man who will be forever emblematic of the fifth Yankee dynasty and a career .314/.385/.452 hitter. Dubbed "the Captain" and "Mr. November," he has come through in series after World Series for the New York Yankees.

After winning their first playoff series in franchise history, the Rangers have their eyes on a bigger prize, advancing to their first ever World Series.

Standing in their way are the New York Yankees, a team chasing its 28th World Series title. While the Rangers have home field advantage, many have the Yankees favored to advance to the Series.

However, don't count Cliff Lee and the Rangers out yet. Here are Five keys to the Texas Rangers advancing to the World Series. 

The 2010 baseball season will long be remembered as the year the Rangers made history.  I can only hope that one day someone will see the need to recreate it all on the movie screen.  During a season which will become almost mythical in Texas Rangers lore, two simple yet obscure clubhouse gestures were born.
 

When you go to the casino to play the slots, do you expect to win? Do you go to a casino expecting to win when you put all your money on double zero?

The odds aren’t terrible, but they aren’t in your favour either.

In professional sports, general managers constantly flirt with the odds when they decide to pick up rental players.

After storming out to a 2-0 lead in their ALDS clash with the Tampa Bay Rays, it quickly appeared as if the Texas Rangers had taken firm control of the series and were inevitably headed to their first American League Championship Series appearance in franchise history.

One has 27 World Series titles under its belt. The other has one postseason series victory in its 50 years of existence, which coincidentally came on Tuesday night.

If the Wild Card system in Major League Baseball had any remaining detractors entering this season's Division Series round of postseason play—and it did—the pair of excellent series (San Francisco-Atlanta and Texas-Tampa Bay) may have wooed them all.