Baseball came to Toronto in 1977. The rules for expansion franchises in those days were considerably more rigorous than is the case today and it took some time for the Blue Jays to build. But with general manager Pat Gillick as the architect, the organization gradually put young pieces in place. By 1982, they were […]
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, the football fans of New England knew nothing of names like Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. A mid-to-late 1980s run that included a trip to the Super Bowl in 1985 and an AFC East title in 1986 constituted a veritable golden age for Patriots fans. […]
It was time for the Detroit Tigers. After three years of playing winning baseball, the Tigers made a real run at the playoffs in 1981. They made some big moves in the offseason and those moves proved to be good ones. It was time to return this franchise to the postseason for the first time […]
After three years of playing winning baseball, but not seriously contending in a rigorous AL East, the 1981 Detroit Tigers made a real run at the postseason. They came up just short, but it continued the growth trajectory for the emerging core of young players and manager Sparky Anderson. Detroit’s pitching made significant strides after […]
The Tigers had spent two seasons putting a foundation in place for success. They called up Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris and Lance Parrish in 1978. They hired Sparky Anderson in 1979. In both cases, rebuilding didn’t mean compromising success, as they won 86 games both years. The 1980 Detroit Tigers, playing in a […]
Baseball in Detroit entered a new era in 1978 with the rookie seasons of Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris and Lance Parrish. The 1979 Detroit Tigers continued the transition. Veteran manager Ralph Houk retired after ’78 and an outreach was made to Sparky Anderson, recently dismissed in Cincinnati. It took until midseason for the […]
The 1978 Detroit Tigers were in need of some rejuvenation. The six years since the franchise won the AL East in 1972 seemed like a lifetime ago. The Tigers were on four straight losing seasons. The organization called up four players who not only laid the groundwork for winning, but ultimately transformed the entire baseball […]
1993 marked the end of an era in major league baseball. It marked the end of a 25-year run where each league was split into just two divisions and only the first-place finisher qualified for the postseason. Starting next season, there would be three divisions and a wild-card playoff qualifier. That meant ’93 was the […]
It had been a dry ten years for baseball in Philadelphia. Since a great eight-year run from 1976-83 that saw the Phillies win five NL East titles, two National League pennants and the World Series in 1980, the Phils had fallen off the radar. Over the next decade they had just one winning season and […]
In the bottom of the ninth, Henderson got aboard to start the inning. With one out, Molitor ripped a line drive single to center…Carter came to the plate against erratic Phillies’ closer Mitch Williams
After winning their fourth NBA championship with Tim Duncan in 2007, the Spurs had been—at least by their standards—in a bit of a dry spell. 2009 and 2010 had each seen the final regular season win total in the low 50s and a playoff exit prior to the conference finals. Good basketball to be sure, […]
One of the big surprises with this team is that they never made it back to October with the current group, though they did lead the AL Central one year later when the strike that wiped out the rest of the season hit. The playoffs wouldn’t return to the South Side until 2000 and not until 2005 would they finally win the World Series, by which time Guillen was in the dugout rather than at short. But no one knew this in October of 1993 and the future looked brigh