The Narrative Of The 1988 MLB Season

The 1988 baseball season is remembered for an incredible home run in the first game of the World Series, one that capped a season-long run that seemed straight off the Hollywood set. But there was a whole lot of context that set the stage for that October moment, including the following…

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*The Los Angeles Dodgers had been on uncharacteristic downward spiral for two years with no sign of pulling out of it. The acquisition of Kirk Gibson and a historic pitching run by Orel Hershiser enabled the Dodgers to not only win a surprising NL West title, but do it with even more surprising ease. If those results were surprising, what happened in October—consecutive upsets of the New York Mets and Oakland A’s—were simply breathtaking.

*Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire have had their reputations tarnished because of admitted PED use, but in the summer of 1988 they were simply “The Bash Brothers” and they led a great Oakland team that overran the rest of the American League. Even with the defending World Series champion Minnesota Twins actually getting better in the AL West, the A’s still coasted home by a comfortable margin.

*The Mets were still loaded with the talent that seemed to promise a dynasty when they won it all in 1986. New York got a surprise challenge from the Pittsburgh Pirates through July, but pulled away in the NL East and looked primed for a showdown with Oakland until they ran into the Dodgers.

*The Boston Red Sox were the weakest of the four postseason teams, but that meant their regular season path to win the AL East was the most interesting. The only division race that stayed compelling all year, the Red Sox used two big midseason changes—one on the pitching staff and the other in the dugout—to trigger some summer magic and then hold off the Milwaukee Brewers in the final week.

*The Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds didn’t advance to the playoffs, but each had seasons of historical note. Sparky Anderson, a Hall of Fame manager who led both teams during his career, had his last real contender with Detroit. This was also the realistic swan song for Reds’ manager Pete Rose– by the following summer the gambling problems that would lead to his banishment from the sport had engulfed him and the organization.

And we haven’t even gotten to October…

*The Mets-Dodgers NLCS had so many plot turns that it clearly came straight out of Hollywood

*The A’s kept beating the Red Sox back at the key moments in every game of the ALCS.

*And nothing could match what was in store for the opener of the World Series, as Los Angeles set an improbable tone for an improbable upset that capped an improbable year.

The eleven articles below–one on each of the eight teams mentioned and three others on each postseason series–tell the story of the 1988 MLB season through the eyes of its best teams.