We have spent a lot of time demonstrating the illicit methods used to win World Series by both the Boston Red Sox and the San Francisco Giants. Sadly, these two cities also are linked in the world of NFL football by their respective dishonesty, but right now, today, we focus on baseball. The two teams met in Oracle Park this weekend for a three-game series, and to no one’s surprise, each game was extremely close.

After all, cheaters strive to find every little edge they can, and all three games were one-run affairs—with the home team winning twice, appropriately. We suspect if the series had been held in Boston, the outcome would have been just the opposite. We don’t know what the Red Sox are up to these days, and honestly, we don’t care now. We know what the Giants are up to, still, as we delineated here last month around the break.

The Giants ($187M) and the Red Sox ($181M) have a combined payroll that is somewhat embarrassing, considering neither team is in first place right now. Both are around the same win percentage and handful of games above .500 overall. You’d think all that money and deception would breed better results, but as we have explained and demonstrated, cheating in baseball is not a perfect science. We just know the obvious.

Both teams would be considerably worse without cheating: from 1919-2003, the Red Sox didn’t win a World Series, and from 1955-2009, neither did the Giants. But suddenly, once known cheaters started gracing their rosters, the two teams combined to win 7 World Series from 2004-2018. That can hardly be called a coincidence. Considering neither team ever had a significant suspension of any serious cheaters …

Thanks, Bud Selig: We really should call future series between these two franchises the “Selig Shit Series.”