Forget what the schedule says. The World Series does not start on Oct. 28. It starts on Friday when the Angels visit the Bronx to take on the Yankees in the ALCS.

If this sounds dismissive of the National League, it isn't. There will still be a World Series regardless of who wins the ALCS. But if you're looking for the series with the most buzz and the biggest chance of producing the kind of baseball you'll remember forever, it's Yankees-Angels.

Yankee fans could do without such a prospect. Of all the teams in the playoffs in both leagues, it is the Angels they fear the most. There's good reason for that. During the Joe Torre era of Yankee baseball that began in 1996 and included four World Series championships and 12 straight trips to the playoffs, only the Angels held a winning record against New York.

The Angels' edge has continued during the two years of Joe Girardi's reign. Although the Yankees managed to tie this year's season series at 5-5, the Angels still hold a 79-66 edge since 1996. Los Angeles/Anaheim has also twice eliminated New York in the first round of the playoffs, in 2002 and 2005.

It's hard to think of the Yankees as going through a long run of misfortune. They've missed the postseason only once since 1995. But the Yankees count only world championships as successful seasons, and they haven't added a World Series flag to their collection of 26 since 2000. Worse, they haven't made it past the first round of the playoffs since 2004, the year they blew a 3-0 ALCS lead to the Red Sox.