A British colleague of mine in the newsroom at The National made an interesting observation the other day.

“What is happening in the World Series,” he said, “could never happen in English football.”

He was referring to the San Francisco Giants vs. the Texas Rangers. An out-of-left-field matchup that just wouldn’t fly in the English Premier League.

Here’s why:

In the past 15 seasons, only three teams have won the Premier League. Which, admittedly, is a season-long affair, with no playoffs. Which takes out the element of “sneak into the playoffs, get hot for a month, win a World Series” dynamic which can be in play in baseball.

At the same time, English soccer has fossilized into a handful of powers, dreary in their predictability, a few more clubs on the periphery, trying to get into the top four, and Everyone Else who has no chance, who knows it, and whose aspirations do not extend beyond the likes of the Carling Cup or a flukey FA Cup or maybe an appearance in the Europa League (for clubs that finish sixth and seventh in a 20-team league).

Since 1996, Manchester United has won “the Premiership” (as the Brits like to call it)  nine times. Arsenal has won it three times, as has Chelsea. And that is it.

Liverpool hung around the top of the table (aka, “standings”)  for most of that time. Aston Villa peeked in the door now and again. Now Manchester City is threatening to be a player, but only after spending hundreds of millions on a wild player-buying spree.

The point my colleague was making was that two middle-of-the-pack franchises like the Giants and Rangers …  well, in England, they don’t actually aspire to a championship. T

The last time a club that is not one of the Big Three won a title was … Blackburn, in 1995.

Meanwhile, in baseball, since 1995, no fewer than 17 of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams have played in the World Series. And at least 10 different teams will have won MLB’s championship, when this World Series is over. That spreads out the success and gives hope to even the downtrodden. Like, say, the Rangers and Giants, who between them have more than a century of “zero championships.”

We may tend to think that baseball is dominated by the big-spending teams, and we do have the Yankees deep in the postseason quite often, and the Red Sox and Braves out there, too. But baseball allows for lesser teams to have an up cycle and get into the playoffs, and to win them. Which makes the sport far more interesting, in terms of potential outcome, than the Premier League, which fancies itself the most successful pro sports group in the world. But which only three or four teams can aspire to win at any given time.

Interesting concept. And one brought home to me by a Briton. Who said, “this would be like Burnley and Blackpool playing for the Premier League championship … and that will never happen.”