The New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners came into the 2000 ALCS with very different histories. The Yankees were the most decorated franchise in all of professional sports, and the two-time defending World Series champions to boots. The Mariners were a team whose very existence was still less than 25 years old. They had never […]
In the latter part of the 1980s, the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals were archrivals in the NL East. The realignment of 1994 put the Cardinals into the NL Central, but the rivalry was renewed in the 2000 National League Championship Series. New York was looking for its first pennant since 1986, St. […]
When the 2000 National League Division Series began, the Atlanta Braves were the defending NL pennant winners and back again as a division champ. The San Francisco Giants were the team who had the National League’s best record in 2000. But neither team would make it out of this best-of-five round. It was the New […]
The 2000 ALDS Series had some new cast members. The Chicago White Sox were in the postseason for the first time in seven years. The Seattle Mariners were here after a five-year absence. And the Oakland A’s were in the playoffs for the first time since The Bash Brothers era came to an end eight […]
Tony LaRussa’s arrival in St. Louis in 1996 had paid immediate dividends. A proud Cardinal franchise that had been on the outs for several years got to within one game of the World Series. But that progress was not sustained. Over the next three seasons, St. Louis finished under .500 twice and topped out at […]
Bobby Valentine came to Queens in 1997 to manage a team that had been underwater since 1990. Valentine immediately won 88 games each of his first two seasons. In 1999, the Mets got back into the playoffs and reached the National League Championship Series. The 2000 New York Mets kept the momentum going and took […]
Baseball in Seattle had been mostly moribund, from the birth of the Mariners in 1977 up until the arrival of Lou Piniella in 1993. Piniella inherited a team that had just one winning season in its history and immediately finished over .500. Two years later, in 1995, they won the AL West. In 1997, they […]
When the 2000 Baltimore Ravens broke through they went all the way—not just to the playoffs, not even just to a Super Bowl title, but with one of the great defenses in modern NFL history.
Legendary head coach Bobby Bowden was at the peak of his power when the 2000 season began. His Florida State program was on an amazing run of 13 consecutive seasons finishing in the national top five. They had won or shared the ACC title every year since joining the league in 1992. What’s more, Bowden […]
The 2000 New York Yankees were gearing up for another title run. The franchise had won World Series titles in both 1998 and 1999, marking them just the second team since the Big Red Machine of 1975-76 to win consecutive World Series titles. Now they were aiming to be the first team since the Oakland A’s of 1972-74 to win three in a row
The University of Miami had become known as simply “The U” thanks to their dominance in the 1980s and the early 1990s. They won four national titles, and narrowly missed several others. They played with a swagger that made them a national brand. But the mid-1990s saw the ‘Canes slip, even to the point of […]
In 1999, Virginia Tech had produced its greatest football season ever. A program that had been gaining steam for several years–a major bowl victory in 1995 and another appearance in a marquee bowl a year later—had gone to the next level when dynamic freshman quarterback Michael Vick arrived on campus. Vick got the Hokies to […]