The 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates won a third consecutive division title. They overachieved and worked through considerable adversity to get it done. The lingering legacy of this team is an epic heartbreak at the end, but their road back to the National League Championship Series was anything but easy. The Pirates had lost rightfielder Bobby Bonilla […]
In 1991, the Braves shocked the baseball world. They went from worst-to-first, won their first division title in nearly a decade and came within a run of winning the World Series. The 1992 Atlanta Braves carried the burden of expectations and met them, but again with a tinge of disappointment. Atlanta would again reach the […]
The Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland A’s were old hands at postseason baseball by the time they met in the 1992 ALCS. The two teams faced each other in 1989, when Oakland rolled to a pennant and later a World Series title. The A’s had also been here in 1988 and 1990. The Blue Jays […]
The Oakland A’s were baseball’s dominant team from 1988-90. They finished with the best record in the majors and won the American League pennant all three years. They won the World Series in 1989. Upset losses in 1988 and 1990 dimmed their legacy, but there was no questioning their excellence. After a brief slip in […]
The 1992 Toronto Blue Jays carried the burden of the organization’s past October failures with them. The Blue Jays had lost the ALCS in 1985, 1989 and 1991. In 1987, they’d collapsed in the final week of the regular season. Nothing short of at least reaching the World Series was good enough now. Toronto went […]
The 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers were all about defense, with coordinator Dick Lebeau overseeing an aggressive 3-4 scheme led by linebackers James Harrison and James Farrior, and strong safety Troy Polamulu. These three players were just the focal point of a unit that included linebacker Lamarr Woodley and would end the season as the best in the NFL.
Without the benefit of hindsight, this was the same old Spurs. A good team to be sure, and nothing to complain about. But from 1990-96, they had won three division titles at a time when the league was only split into two divisions per conference. There had been three more second place finishes. But only once had the Spurs gotten past the second round of the playoffs. 1998 was no different.
The 2008 college football season was ultimately remembered for Florida’s victory over Oklahoma for the national championship and Alabama’s return to prominence under Nick Saban. But the midmajor team that captured America’s sympathies deserves a little love themselves. The 2008 Utah football team did everything they realistically could to make their case for #1, including a memorable Sugar Bowl takedown of one of the big boys.
Sparky Anderson was one of the great managers in baseball history. He won three World Series titles—1975 and 1976 in Cincinnati, then again in 1984 with Detroit. The 1993 Detroit Tigers were the last winning team the Hall of Fame skipper ever managed. The ‘93 Tigers won games by outslugging opponents. They were first in […]
The Yankees battered the Red Sox from pillar to post, winning 19-8.
No one would have guessed that the Sox had just lost for the last time in 2004—and if they had, they might have noted the score bore an eerily similar look to “1918”. Boston now had to win four games in four days
It’s hard to imagine the New York Yankees playing anything but winning baseball. But from 1989-92, they were a sub-.500 team all four years, the completion of a gradual descent from relevance that took place throughout the 1980s. Under second-year manager Buck Showalter, the 1993 New York Yankees got back on the winning side of […]
The 1988 World Series was supposed to be a coronation for the 104-win Oakland Athletics. It ended up being a stunning upset for the Los Angeles Dodgers, as an iconic baseball moment started the series and the dominance of LA ace Orel Hershiser took over from there.