The Pirates were coming off a breakout year in 1990. The five-year rebuilding program under manager Jim Leyland bore fruit with an NL East title. The 1991 Pittsburgh Pirates showed it was no fluke, running away with the East and reaching the NLCS for the second time in what would be a three-year run. A […]
Most. Insane. Game. Ever. That was all I could think during and after Game 5 of the World Series, an incredible 13-12 win for the Houston Astros over the Los Angeles Dodgers in extra innings. The momentum swings by themselves were amazing enough. Then you add in just how unlikely it was that this would […]
The Houston Astros are set to make their first appearance in the American League Championship Series on Friday night against the New York Yankees. If the franchise’s history in the National League is any indication, there are some thrills in store. Over the course of their 50-year run as an NL team (1962-2012), the Astros […]
In the days when the National League was split into just East and West divisions with the winners advancing directly to LCS play, the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates enjoyed a lively postseason rivalry. They met four times in the 1970s to settle the NL pennant and the Reds won three of those. The rivalry […]
For the second time in three years, the Oakland A’s met the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. The result of 1990 was the same as 1988—not only did Oakland win, but they did it in four straight. You can read more about the regular season paths of the A’s and Red […]
The 1990 Los Angeles Dodgers just took too long to get started. After digging a deep hole in the NL West race, the Dodgers made a spirited comeback before ultimately coming up short and finishing in second place. Los Angeles had slipped under .500 in 1989, following a strong 12-year run from 1977-88 that saw […]
The 1990 Oakland Athletics were the gold standard of baseball. They had won consecutive American League pennants and the 1989 World Series. They spent all of 1990 looking ready to claim a special place in history before a shocking ending dented the legacy. Oakland is remembered in this era for “The Bash Brothers”, the power-hitting […]
To say the 1990 Cincinnati Reds entered the season with question marks would be an understatement The team endured a tumultuous 1989 surrounding the banishment of then-manager Pete Rose for gambling. Certainly no one expected 1990 would end with Cincinnati’s first World Series title since the Big Red Machine Days of 1975 and 1976. That’s […]
The early 1990s were boom times for baseball in the city of Pittsburgh. They saw three straight division championship teams and the 1990 Pittsburgh Pirates were the team to start the run. Three years earlier Jim Leyland took over the managerial reins of a franchise in a mess that had not been relevant since it’s […]
The five years from 1986-90 were good for baseball fans in New England, at least by pre-2004 standards. The 1990 Boston Red Sox continued a pattern of even-year magic—the franchise won the AL pennant in 1986, took another AL East title in 1988 and grabbed another division crown in 1990. Roger Clemens was the biggest […]
The Baltimore Orioles were coming off a disastrous year in 1988. They opened that season by losing their first 21 games, firing manager Cal Ripken Sr. just six games in (and in the process antagonizing his son, Cal Jr., merely the face of the franchise) and finishing with a record 54-107. The 1989 Baltimore Orioles […]
It was the last gasp of the Davey Johnson era. A highly successful period of Mets history had been marked by a World Series title in 1986, but crushing pennant races in 1985 and 1987 and a grueling NLCS loss in 1988. The Mets took a step back in ‘89 and signaled the end of […]