So the Los Angeles Angels, the team with the best record in Major League baseball over 162 games, are out of the post-season in three games straight, defeated by a team that won nine fewer games during the regular season and didnt clinch a playoff spot until the final weekend of the season. The Washington Nationals, the team with the best record in the National League this season, are a game away from being knocked out in three games straight by a San Francisco team that won eight fewer games during the regular season and, like Kansas City, qualified via the wild card. But should we really be surprised? The playoffs in baseball are a crapshoot, a combination of who gets hot at the right time, who comes through in the clutch and whose pitching rises to the occasion. And there seems to be no way to predict how and why this happens. But it sure seems as though what wins over the course of 162 games in baseball, when teams are playing with five-man rotations and stretching out their bullpens to last over the course of six months, doesnt translate very well to the post-season. Consider that over the past 34 years of post-season baseball, the team with the best record in the Major Leagues has won the World Series exactly six times, most recently when Boston Red Sox did it one year ago. In fact, last years World Series was a complete anomaly a€“ not just because it featured two teams that tied for the overall best record in baseball over the course of the season but also because it was a rare matchup between the team with the best record in the American League against that with the best record in the National League. Which almost never happens. It would be easy to blame the fact that the team with the best record in baseball rarely wins the World Series on baseballs expanded playoff pool which has gone from allowing four of 28 teams in the post-season in 1993 to allowing 10 of 30 today. And yet from 1980 to 1993, the team with the best record in baseball won the World Series exactly twice over 14 seasons before baseball decided to expand its playoff pool. Since then, its happened four times over 19 years. Baseball is a sport that measures excellence over six months, during which great teams can look horrible in stretches and bad teams can look like world beaters over the course of a week or two. The point here is not to diminish the significance of winning the World Series, but just to understand what it means; that it is not so much symbolic of being the best team in baseball but more of being the one that can seize the moments and etch itself into a place in history. Clinton Portis Jersey . Indeed, must be among the greatest challenges in all of sports. The pressure he applies, from set to set, game to game, point to point, shot to shot. DaRon Payne Womens Jersey .Airport spokeswoman Heather Lissner said that all departing flights were back on schedule. However, arriving flights were still trying to catch up.Super Bowl Sunday got off to an inconvenient start for hundreds of passengers trying to get to Phoenix for the game. http://www.redskinsrookiestore.com/Redsk...eismann-Jersey/. -- Two nights after losing to the Eastern Conferences worst team, the Phoenix Coyotes handled the best. Sean Taylor Jersey . Strasburg (1-1) got 14 consecutive outs in one stretch and allowed only three hits, including Marcell Ozunas homer in the seventh. The right-handers lone walk was to the last batter he faced. Washingtons starter Wednesday, Jordan Zimmermann, left after a career-low 1 2-3 innings, leaving the bullpen "taxed," as manager Matt Williams put it. Montez Sweat Youth Jersey . Amare Stoudemire had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Carmelo Anthony scored 21 and the New York Knicks won their eighth straight game, 93-92 over Philadelphia on Friday night, sending the Sixers to their 23rd straight loss.The San Jose Sharks signed defenceman Justin Braun to a five-year, $19 million contract extension on Wednesday. The deal begins with the 2015-16 season and pays $3.8 million in each of the five seasons. The 27-year-old averaged nearly 21 minutes of ice time per night for San Jose last season and had four goals and 13 assists in 82 games. "Justin has emerged as one of our most well-rounded and dependable defensemen," said Sharks general manager Doug Wilson iin a statement.dddddddddddd. "Hes an excellent skater who excels in matching up against the opponents top players on a nightly basis and fits in well with our core group of younger players. We feel Justin has just scratched the surface of his talent and we are excited to have him under contract for the next six seasons." Braun was San Joses seventh-round pick in the 2007 Draft. He has eight goals and 38 assists in 217 NHL contests, all with the Sharks. ' ' '