By Pat Howard
Cardinal Staff
The 2008 Major League Baseball season kept fans at the edge of their seats from April to October. It may become known as the year of the unexpected.
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Retirement, trades and up-and-coming players made for a busy off season. Before the first pitch of the 2008 season was thrown, it was already hard to predict what teams seemed to be playoff-bound. Despite cloudy details, many experts picked the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series. After attaining big new acquisitions like Miguel Cabrera, keeping a solid pitching rotation and the confidence of a successful 2007 season, it only made sense to pick the Tigers to go far. In no time at all, this season flipped completely around and left many baseball fans scratching their heads.
For starters, 2008 broke the New York Yankees’ streak of 13-straight playoff appearances as they finished third in the American League East Division. Finishing ahead of the Yankees were the Boston Red Sox and perhaps the most unsuspecting team in the league, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays finished first in their division after ending their 2007 season in last place. This year they made their first playoff appearance in franchise history, while winning the American League pennant, but fell to the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
In the 2005 MLB playoffs, FOX came out with the phrase, “You can’t script October.” The 2008 playoffs could not have come up with a more suiting slogan. It seemed as though the cursed Chicago Cubs were finally going to be able to win the World Series, as they finished with the best overall record in the National League. The Los Angeles Angels showed signs of promise throughout the season by finishing with the best record in all of baseball.
Nevertheless, 2008 proved itself as the year of the unexpected when both Chicago and Los Angeles departed the playoffs after the first round and left the World Series to the Cinderella-story Rays and the 2008 champion Philadelphia Phillies.
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