Last division series to see two blue-hat teams locking horns

Whoever the winners are, the 2015 MLB Postseason will be a war of blue hats.

As of Wednesday, the Division Series are almost over with one more team to be chosen for the National League Championship, and either the New York Mets or the LA Dodgers will win the slot. Since both teams wear blue hats, the championship for the National League will be fought by two teams with blue caps. As it happens, the rest of three teams from both leagues who have already advanced to the championship series all wear blue hats.

Two Texas teams were eliminated from the 2015 MLB Postseason on Wednesday. Korean major leaguer Choo Shin-soo and his team Texas Rangers lost to the Toronto Blue Jays 3-6, while the Houston Astros suffered a come-from-behind attack by the Kansas City Royals by 2-7. In the third inning, Choo hit his second homerun (single) for the postseason, but it was overshadowed by the bitter loss. On the other hand, Blue Jays won three consecutive games after losing the first two against Houston, pulling off the third reverse sweep in the history of the Division Series. The last time Toronto made it to the championship series was 23 years ago.

This year, the American League Championship Series will see Toronto and defending champions Kansas City go head to head. Experts are betting on Blue Jays. According to the "Fivethirtyeight.com (www.fivethirtyeight.com)," an online stats provider run by ESPN, it was Toronto whose performance was the strongest among all competitors from both leagues. While in Korean baseball, all teams are playing with each team 16 times throughout the season, in the major league baseball, the number of games to play and the teams to compete with is different depending on the division. In other words, the Toronto Blue Jays were assessed to be the strongest with all such variables taken into account. Their morale is also high thanks to the dramatic victory against the Texas Rangers.

On the front of national league, experts view that the Chicago Cubs will likely prevail regardless of the prospective opponents. The stats website ranked Chicago at third, which is higher than the Los Angeles Dodgers (sixth) or the New York Mets (eighth). If Chicago wins the World Series, it will be their first championship since the year of 1908. As it happens, the movie "Back to the future," which was released in 1989, predicts the Chicago Cubs’ winning the championship in 2015.

The roundness and the small size of a baseball speak volumes for the predictable nature of the sports. Of course, one thing remains certain; a blue hat will beat another blue hat and rise to the championship.

kini@donga.com