The Oakland A’s were the defending champions and looking to repeat. The New York Mets had a recent title themselves, from 1969, but had also been in last place as recently as August. These two teams, taking different routes to get here, played an exciting Fall Classic. The A’s ultimately prevailed in seven games. You […]
The 1973 Pittsburgh Pirates came into the season looking for a fourth straight division title and to win their second World Series title in that same time period. The Pirates did indeed contend in ’73. But it took a mediocre division to keep them in the race, and in the end, they still came up […]
Baltimore was the American League’s dominant team from 1969 through 1971. Each year, they blew away the AL East and swept through the American League Championship Series. In 1970, they won the World Series. By those lofty standards, 1972 was a disappointment. The Orioles failed to win the AL East, even in a year when […]
The 1973 Cincinnati Reds were looking to take that final step. In both 1970 and 1972 they had reached the World Series, only to come up short—by a single run in ’72. In 1973, the Reds won a hot race to return to the postseason, before again just missing out on October glory. This era […]
The 1972 postseason had already given baseball fans plenty of drama. Both League Championship Series rounds had gone the distance and were marked by individual games that were tensely fought. The 1972 World Series was more of the same. The Oakland A’s and Cincinnati Reds took the full seven games, with six decided by one […]
The early years of the American League Championship Series had been somewhat anticlimactic. A playoff round that was founded in 1969 as a best-of-five series, the first three editions had seen the Baltimore Orioles blow through with sweeps each time. The 1972 ALCS was different. The Oakland A’s and Detroit Tigers provided heart-stopping excitement throughout, […]
The battles between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates defined the National League Championship Series in the 1970s, especially in the decade’s early part. Four times, these teams played for the pennant. And their battles were never better than in the 1972 NLCS, a series that was decided on its final pitch, with the Reds […]
The 1972 Cincinnati Reds came into the season looking for a comeback. When the Reds won the National League pennant in 1970, with a core group of talented young players, they appeared poised to dominate for years to come. But a surprise collapse to a sub-.500 finish in 1971 had tempered those hopes. As it […]
The Pirates were riding high, having won a dramatic World Series in 1971. Pittsburgh had won the NL East each of the last two years. Even with a managerial change—Bill Virdon took over for Danny Murtaugh, who retired upstairs to the front office–the 1972 Pittsburgh Pirates were more of the same. They ran away with […]
After winning the World Series in 1968, the Tigers had slipped under .500 by 1970. A year later, they hired Billy Martin. With the feisty Martin in the dugout, Detroit rose to 91 wins and a second-place finish in 1971. And the 1972 Detroit Tigers took the next step, captured the old AL East and […]
Earl Weaver’s Orioles had dominated the American League for three consecutive seasons. From 1969 through 1971, they won an average of 106 games each year. They swept through the best-of-five ALCS with a combined 9-0 record to win the pennant each year. In 1970, they won the World Series. But some big names were getting […]
Pepper Rodgers was in his third year as the head coach in Westwood. By this point, the football program was clearly working in the shadows of John Wooden’s legendary basketball program, who were merely fresh off their seventh straight NCAA title the previous March. The football Bruins were no slouch, but were after their first […]