* Does not include Game 7s of a Best-of-9 series.

1900s: 1 (1909)

1910s: 1 (1912)

1920s: 3 (1924, 1925, 1926)

1930s: 2 (1931, 1934)

1940s: 4 (1940, 1945, 1946, 1947)

1950s: 5 (1952, 1955 1956, 1957, 1958)

1960s: 6 (1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968)

1970s: 5 (1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1979)

1980s: 4 (1982, 1985, 1986, 1987)

1990s: 2 (1991, 1997)

2000s: 2 (2001, 2002)

It's almost perfectly balanced, isn't it? Does this mean we'll only get one Game 7 this decade, one the next, and then bye-bye World Series in about 2027?

I've been thinking about this a little more than ususal (I usually wait until October) because I picked up Barry Levenson's book, “The Seventh Game: The 35 World Series That Have Gone the Distance,” at Powell's Bookstore in Portland, earlier this month. Published in 2004, the book is still up-to-date since we haven't had a whiff of a Game 7 since. If you do the math, 35 Game 7s since 1903 give us an average of one every three years. Since 1924, the longest gap we've had between Game 7s has been six years (both 1934-40 and 1991-97). Except for now. We're now on 8 years and counting.

Where have you gone, Bob Gibson?

I didn't know I was growing up in a Golden Age ...