When the League Championship round began, I expected that the result would be a replay of the 1973 World Series. I may have guessed wrong when I tabbed the A's and Mets, but I may have been correct with the '73 Series replay.

In 1973, the Mets with an 82-79 record beat the 99-win Big Red Machine to face and lose to the A's, who owed a 94-68 record and beat the 97-win O's. The two worst teams that made the playoffs in 1973—and this was without the aid of the wild card—got to World Series. This is largely forgotten given how bad the Mets were that year and given that the A's were in the midst of their dynasty.

This year the Tigers won 95 and were the fourth seed in the AL playoffs, but they would be heavy favorites over the 83-78 Cards. I wouldn't even predict a four-game sweep. I think the Series would be mercifully called after three. Carpenter will again face AL batters, Yadier Molina will go back to hitting like his brothers, and if the Pujols injury worsens, it could get really ugly.

Can we get the old nineteenth-century 21-run rule put back in effect? That was the one that stipulated that a game would be euthanized after one team got a 21-run lead. I think they still use it in little league games. It's called the Buttermaker codicil.

If the Cardinals win, it will be the fifth greatest upset in playoff history (based on winning percentages). The differences between the Mets' and Cards' winning percentages (.599 and .516) would be more than two and half standard deviations from the norm for a postseason series (std dev= 0.0328).

The greatest upset using this method was the no-hit 1906 Whie Sox World Series win over the crosstown Cubbies. Here are the biggest upsets in playoff history:

But before we label the Tigers and Cardinals potential World Series matchup as the biggest mismatch in postseason history, keep in mind that the winning percentage differential (0.071) would be the 43rd biggest mismatch in playoff history, just fractions of percentage points ahead of the '73 A's/Mets Series matchup. And if the Tigers cream the Cards, it wouldn't come close to the biggest non-upset in playoff history

Below are the biggest non-upsets—that is, the biggest mismatches in which the "better" team won—in baseball history. It's dominated by the '98 Yanks and 2001 M's historically good teams: