This page is an overview of our coverage of the modern era of Major League Baseball. For our purposes here, we defined the beginning of that era in 1969. That’s the year MLB expanded into divisions, and put playoff rounds ahead of the World Series for the first time.
There are other valid options. One can certainly argue for 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. But full integration didn’t happen overnight. By 1969, all major league clubs had achieved some level of racial integration.
It was then that the creation of an East and West division for each league established the basic competitive shape of modern MLB. It also began the gradual shift toward greater emphasis on the postseason. You still had to finish in first place—wild cards didn’t exist until 1994—but the size of the field you had to beat was reduced from ten teams to six.
The pages below take to you each era that followed, all the way up through 2019. Instead of using arbitrary cutoff points like “the 1970s”, we tried to focus on eras that were unique to MLB itself, not just the calendar.
OUAT Sports submits that the best way to understand Major League Baseball’s modern era is through this lens:
When the Small Markets Ruled the World (1970-76, 1979): Four teams, Oakland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, dominated the sport. For the first six years of this stretch, three of them made the playoffs each year. Each won at least one World Series. The Reds ended the era in 1976 with a repeat World Series crown. This era had a “Bookend,” as it were, in 1979. After a brief absence, everyone except the A’s got together for one last reunion to end the decade.
The Repeating October (1976-78, 1980-81): While the Reds won in’76, three new teams stepped up to make the playoffs—the New York Yankees, Kansas City and Philadelphia. The Yanks, Royals and Phillies continued to win their divisions through ’78. The Los Angeles Dodgers dethroned Cincinnati and did the same. Not only were the playoff participants the same, but the early results ran in rerun—it was Yankees-Dodgers in the World Series, with New York winning. Until Philadelphia broke through in 1980 and L.A. did the same in 1981.
The Age of Parity (1982-87): After two straight eras marked by mostly the same teams getting to the League Championship Series, this six-year stretch was one where anything could happen. Nobody made the postseason two straight years. Even the era’s biggest constant—the St. Louis Cardinals, winners of three National League pennants—underscored the fluidity. The Cardinals were also mixing in losing seasons in this same era and nobody won multiple World Series crowns.
Killer B’s: Bash Brothers, Braves & Blue Jays(1988-93): The “Bash Brothers” of the Oakland A’s, were the first team to start making the postseason in consecutive years, winning three straight American League pennants. The Atlanta Braves began a long run of excellence. But the defining “B” would be the Blue Jays. Toronto had been a consistent contender with multiple playoff trips going back to the mid-1980s. In this short era, they broke through and won consecutive World Series championships.
Yankee Renaissance (1994-2003): After several years out of contention, New York was relevant again in 1994, the American League’s best team before the strike ended the season. But that was just a taste of things to come. They kept winning. By 1996, Joe Torre was in the dugout, Derek Jeter was at shortstop and a core of players that would define the era were in place, from Mariano Rivera to Andy Pettitte and more. The Yankees won four World Series titles and six American League pennants.
The Redemption Era (2004-19): Boston set the tone with a 2004 championship that ended an 86-year drought. Before this era was complete, the Red Sox would hang four championship banners in Fenway. But they weren’t the only franchise to have a long-sought breakthrough. In 2010, San Francisco won their first title since moving to the West Coast and then did it twice more. The Chicago White Sox won their first title since 1917. The Houston Astros grabbed their first. And in 2016, another legendary drought, that endured by the Chicago Cubs, came to an end.
Even the Dodgers’ winning in the strange circumstances of the 2020 COVID-lockdown-shortened year, with its later postseason rounds at neutral-site stadiums that were mostly empty, had a redemptive quality to it, with L.A. ending a stretch of October disappointments.
Whether that 2020 title by Los Angeles belongs to the Redemption Era or marks the beginning of a new one remains to be seen, given the Dodgers’ continued success. OUAT Sports borrows the “five-year wait” rule of the Hall of Fame—let’s first see when an era might be over and then give it five years to settle. I think we are currently in unsettled territory.
But for now, we have 50 years of baseball right here to look back at. You can click the links to read fuller descriptions of each era. Within those fuller descriptions, you will find more detailed overviews of each individual season within the era. We hope you enjoy the ride.