There are a lot of interesting angles to take on this year’s Astros-Nationals World Series. From the potential all-time pitching matchups between Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Zack Greinke, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Patrick Corbin; to the David-and-Goliath angle of the MLB-leading Astros finishing 14 games ahead of the Wild Card Nationals; to the novelty of the two sharing a Spring Training complex.
But to me, one of the more interesting quirks of this match is that both the Nationals and the Astros are expansion teams. It might not seem that notable, given that this describes about half of the league for the past twenty seasons, but in fact this is only the second time in history that it’s ever happened; the first was in just 2015, when the Royals took their second-ever title against the Mets.