I've been predicting Sheff's demise because of age every year for the past few, and I've been wrong every year so far.

But I'll keep predicting it, and i figure one year I'll finally be right.

Don't get crazy yet, IM.

I'm not saying that the yanks were the better team in those years....all I'm saying is that given the positions they were in, the loses were flukes.

They were up 3-0 vs. Boston - that does not mean they were the better team.

It just means that they happened to be 3-0 in their last three games against them, which in itself was somewhat flukey, given how evenly matched I thought the teams were.

I mean, suppose the Yankees were so much better than Boston that year that they could be expected to win a very healthy 55% of the the games between the two two teams.

Given that, the chances of the yankees winning three in a row were about 16.6%; certainly a bit flukey.

Every six sets of three games, the Yanks would sweep once.

And if Boston could be expected to win 45% of the time, the chances of them winning four in a row were only about 4.1% - very flukey.

Every 25 sets of four games, the Red Sox could be expected to sweep once.

We think of the Yanks-red Sox series as flukey because of the way it went down: Yanks win three in a row, then lose four in a row.

But had the Yanks split the first two at home, lost two out of three in Boston, won the 6th game at home, and lost the 7th, nobody would've said anything.

Let's not forget that it was a fluke that the Yanks were up 3-0 in the first, which gave Boston the chance to come back and win four in a row.