As the jubilant Red Sox players, management, and fans celebrate their championship and the dispelling of "The Curse"—hopefully keeping the body count to a minimum—I am left to mull over whether or not this train wreck of a World Series was the worst in my lifetime or not.

Was it 1990 when Eric Davis dived for a ball in game four and put himself in an Oakland hospital? The Reds won so quickly that he was still there when the Series was done, and charitable then-owner Marge Schott left him there to pay his own return airfare.

Was it 1976 when the Big Red Machine at its height stormed through the NLCS and World Series without a loss, sweeping the pre-Reggie Yanks?

Those are good, but my vote goes to 1989. That's when the Series was interrupted by an earthquake postponing game three for ten days. For a time, it wasn't certain if the World Series would resume or if the Bay Area had the inclination or the wherewithal to continue. Candlestick Park sustained some minor damage. When they resumed the A's led game three 13-3 going into the bottom of the ninth after winning the first games by a combined 10-1 score. In game four San Fran starter Don Robinson lasting 1-2/3 innings and the A's led 8-0 in the middle of the sixth. It did end up being the closest game of the series though (9-6). Things were so bad for the Giants that seldom used Billy Bathe was one of four San Francisco players to homer. Aside from Dave Stewart's and Dave Henderson's performances, there wasn't much to recommend it. Maybe we should have taken the earthquake as a hint.

However, this was arguable one of the worst World Series ever from an aesthetic stand point. The Red Sox outscored the Cards by 12 runs in four games. There are only 12 Series sweeps that are that lopsided or worse:

The Cardinals never owned a lead—they tied for one and two-thirds innings in game one.

The meat of the Cardinal order was historically bad. Scott Rolen was 0-for-15 with one walk and one pointless sac fly that scored one of only two Cardinal runs in game two but helped kill an eighth-inning rally (first and third with one out, trailing 6-1). Rolen's poor plate at the plate followed an 0-for-12 in the Dodgers series and a seeming rebirth towards the end of the NLCS, that turned out to be short-lived.

Here are the men who have collected at least 10 at-bats in a World Series without a hit. Rolen's is tied for the eleventh most ABs without a hit:

The only ones with more hitless at-bats in recent memory were Rafael Belliard who replaced an (I believe) injured Jeff Blauser late in the NLCS in 1995. The other was Mike Epstein who led the Series-winning A's with 26 home runs (really) and had an OPS 67% better than the park-adjusted league average but went hitless in the World Series. He was no longer an A in 1973 and was out of the game within a year.

Meanwhile, Jim Edmonds and Reggie Sanders, the number five and six hitters, were the strikeout kings. Edmonds K'ed 6 times in 15 at-bats or 40% of the time. His batting average was .067 for the series. He's one of 36 players to strike out that many times and have 40% of his at-bats consist of Ks.

Sanders sat out most of game four but still managed to strike out five times in nine at-bats (plus four walks and one stolen base, the only Cardinal SB for the series). He's one of 30 players to strike at least 50% of the time in the Series

Here are the worst strikeout offenders in the Fall Classic (>60%):

Basically, David Justice and a bunch of pitchers. Others in recent memory (last 40 years):

The Cards batted .190 as a team. That ties them for the 16th worst all-time. They also had a .261 on-base percentage and slugged.302 for a meager .563 OPS:

By the way, the Sox .283 team batting average was good for 22nd best (.404 OBP, .478 SLUG, and .882 OPS). Here are the top ones:

The Cardinals pitchers registered a 6.09 ERA struck out only 20 and walked 24. Their team ERA ties them for eighth worst all-time and the highest since 1993:

Their strikeout-to-walk ratio (.833) is the seventh worst in World Series history and the worst since 1990:

The Red Sox meanwhile registered a 2.50 ERA with 12 walks and 32 strikeouts. That's the 66th best ERA and 32nd best strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.667).

Here are the best:

The one thing that you can criticize the Sox for was their defense. They recorded 8 errors and had just a .946 fielding percentage though they did turn 5 doubleplays. There were 42 teams who erred more often a Series though. Here are the worst:

Here are the last teams to flub at least 8 balls:

The Red Sox errors led to only 2 unearned runs, but that did help keep the team ERA low. Bill Mueller committed three errors all in the drizzle of game two. There have been 24 players who erred more often. The worst offender was shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh for the 1924 Senators with 8 errors. SS Joe Sewell (who replaced ay Chapman on the 1920 Indians), 2B Davey Lopes (1981 Dodgers), and SS Hans Wagner (1903 Pirates) are next with 6. No one since 1982 (Brewers Robin Yount (3) and Jim Gantner(5)) has recorded more than three. The only players with three since then are 1B Jim Lindeman (1987 Cardinals), 2B Alfonso Soriano (2001 Yanks), 3B Aaron Boone (last year's Yankees), and C Joe Oliver (1990 Reds).

Let's measure the disparity between the two teams by looking at some basic stats. The difference between their team ERAs is 3.59, fifth greatest all time:

The Red Sox batting average (sorry, I don't have the other ratios' historical values) was 93 points higher than the Cards'. That's the fourth largest difference between opponents batting average in the history of the World Series:

You'll notice that the 1989 Series is very high on both lists, but so is 2004. It has a very strong argument for Worst Series ever.