The 1990 San Francisco Giants came into the season as the cream of the NL West crop. The Giants had won the division title in 1987 and the National League pennant in 1989. The tenure of manager Roger Craig (who ironically shared the name of a great 49ers running back of this same era), which […]
The 1977 Pittsburgh Steelers were looking to get back on top of the football world. After Super Bowl victories in 1974 and 1975, the Steelers had “slipped” to losing in the AFC Championship Game in 1976. But that loss had been riddled with injuries and Pittsburgh still had the best defense in the league. There […]
The 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers were looking to make history. In 1974 and 1975, they had joined the Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins as the only teams to win consecutive Super Bowls. With the biggest stage in professional sports then only a decade old, those were also the only three teams to have two championships […]
The 1973 Pittsburgh Steelers came into the season looking to build on a breakthrough year from 1972, when they went to the AFC Championship Game. By that standard, the ’73 Steelers came up short. What this team did do, however, was prove that the breakthrough of 1972 was no fluke, establish themselves as a steady […]
To our generation, the city of Pittsburgh is renowned for good professional football. But it wasn’t always that way. In 1972, Art Rooney’s Steeler franchise had never so much as even played for a championship. They had not enjoyed a winning season since 1963. The hiring of Chuck Noll in 1969 was showing progress, but […]
After a heartbreaking ALCS loss in 1986, the Angels had slipped to irrelevance over the next two seasons, going 75-87 each time. The 1989 California Angels turned into a surprise contender and only the high quality of the AL West and the more stringent postseason standards of the era kept them out of the playoffs. […]
Art Howe has been memorialized in film as the Oakland A’s manager in the movie Moneyball. But Howe’s most notable years as a player and his first gig as a manager were in Houston. The 1989 Houston Astros season was Howe’s first go-around as a skipper and his team played competitive baseball, contending into September. […]
Whitey Herzog arrived in St. Louis in 1981, after a mostly dry decade in a great baseball town. Herzog immediately turned the Cardinals around. He won a World Series in 1982, National League pennants in 1985 and 1987 and solidified his Hall of Fame resume. The 1989 St. Louis Cardinals were Whitey’s last full season […]
Second-place finishes in 1985 and 1986 had been welcome breaths of fresh air in Cincinnati, coming off a run of four bad years. It was looking like Pete Rose was going to be a success in his new gig as a manager. The 1987 Cincinnati Reds came into the season with high hopes. They had […]
After a franchise high point—a run of four contending seasons that included an NLCS trip in 1981—ended in 1982, the Expos drifted off the radar. Over a four-year rebuilding process, they parted ways with great players. When Andre Dawson continued the exodus by leaving via free agency prior to 1987—and then promptly won the MVP […]
Baseball fans in the Bronx experienced a lot of frustration in a short historical period that started in 1983. The Yankees were never bad—indeed, the typical high expectations that come with Pinstripes were in place every spring. But through most of the 1980s, the Yanks were just good enough to tease and then come up […]
Baseball in Oakland had been in a dry spell since the AL West title run in the strike-shortened season of 1981. The A’s promptly dipped under .500 the following year and stayed there. Midway through the 1986 season, the organization tapped Tony LaRussa, who had managed the 1983 Chicago White Sox into the ALCS, to […]