A personal World Series review: 11 through 25

I covered 25 World Series from 1981 through 2007. There was the blood bath of the 1994 players strike that wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years, and then I didn't get the World Series assignment in October 2006.

As it turned out, St. Louis and Detroit (Cardinals in five) put on the least-entertaining World Series imaginable, which I took as karma in my favor. I covered the Series again in 2007, and that's pretty much the end of it, unless the Twins were to get there in the next couple of years.

Come on now, admit it: That's funny.

I'm going to rate the World Series I've covered, based on big moments over the length of the tournament, or historic significance. Here's 11 through 25, in reverse order for dramatic effect:

25--1998: The Yankees swept San Diego in a complete mismatch. About all I remember is talking to our expatriate Chuck Knoblauch after he won the Series in his first season in New York.

24--1999: A second straight Yankees sweep, this time vs. Atlanta.

23—1983: The Orioles beat the Phillies 4-1. I got a chance to talk to Eddie Murray's father in the winning clubhouse. Dad told me Eddie called his "mama'' at 8 o'clock in L.A. every Sunday night. Made me feel better about Eddie as a guy.

21—2000: A third straight blowout for the Yanks, this time in five games, but at least it was the Mets, so there was some pre-Series excitement in the big city.

20—1997: It would have been much more satisfying if Florida owner Wayne Huizenga's plan to punish other baseball owners (for failing to achieve a salary cap) by buying a World Series had failed. Instead, his Marlins beat Cleveland in seven games, keeping the Indians' without a World Series title since1948.

19—1995: Another Indians' loss – in six games to the Braves for what remains Atlanta's only World Series title.

18—1990: Cincinnati's Nasty Boys (the forerunners to the back of Kansas City's bullpen this October) swept Oakland in four games. That left those terrific A's rosters with one World Series win in three straight tries.

17—1992: Toronto gave Canada its first World Series championship … in six games against the Braves. Devon White in center field was the second coming of Willie Mays for the Blue Jays.

15—1996: The Braves won the first two in Yankee Stadium, looked invincible, then the first team of Torre/Jeter came back to win four straight.

14-1984: Not much of a Series – Detroit's great club in five over San Diego – but the celebrators outside Tiger Stadium dang near burned the town down, so there was that to remember.

13-2003: The Marlins, with their manager Jack McKeon, the world's oldest smart aleck, earned this World Series in six games against the Yankees. Josh Beckett was fantastic on short rest in Game 6 in the Bronx.

12-2005: The White Sox swept Houston in a mismatch. It was the first World Series victory for a Chicago team since 1917. For some reason, the two-franchise drought in Chicago didn't carry the same nostalgic vibe as did Boston's successful quest one year earlier.

11-1987: I hate to do this, since it was Minnesota's first World Series victory, and great fun locally, but that Cardinals' team the Twins beat in seven games was of damaged goods with Jack Clark out and with Terry Pendleton limited. If those Twins had played vs. the Cardinals as they had in beating Detroit in the ALCS, it would've been a much-shorter Series.