The 1978 Kansas City Royals are part of a franchise run that saw the team win four AL West titles in five seasons. The ’78 Royals are the last in the line of three straight KC teams that lost heartbreaking ALCS battles to the New York Yankees. But the 1978 edition was the weakest of those teams, as it took then a long time to close out what was a weak division.
The 1978 Philadelphia Phillies won the franchise’s third straight NL East title, but it didn’t come easy, as they held off a final push by the Pittsburgh Pirates before clinching and moving on to the National League Championship Series.
The 1978 NLCS was a rematch between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Just as they had the year before, the Dodgers won the pennant in four games (of what was then a best-of-five round), jumping on Philadelphia quickly and then winning good Game 4 to clinch.
The New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals had waged epic battles in the American League Championship Series of 1976 and 1977, with the Yankees winning each in the ninth inning of the deciding fifth game (this round was best-of-five from 1969-84). The Yankees and Royals met for a third straight year in the 1978 ALCS. This one didn’t go down to the final inning—or even the final game. But it still had memorable games and a familiar result as the Yankees again advanced to the World Series.
Tom Lasorda had made a big splash in his first year as manager in Los Angeles, winning the pennant in 1977. The 1978 Los Angeles Dodgers made the new skipper 2-for-2, pulling away to win the NL West on the strength of a dynamite September.
The 1985 Boston Red Sox showed the flashes of hope that would ultimately manifest themselves into a pennant a year later, but the ’85 team was done in by an August collapse
The first half of the 1980s are generally not seen as a high point in the history of the Boston Red Sox, and that characterization is, for the most part, fair. There were no division titles, nor even a noteworthy near-miss. But there were examples of some overachievement and teams that deserve to be remembered well. The 1984 Boston Red Sox were just such a team.
It was 1961 that a kid from Long Island who played basketball at Notre Dame made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox. That kid was Carl Yastrzemski and the next 22 years saw become a hero across New England. “Yaz” led the Red Sox to the Impossible Dream pennant of 1967, to another pennant in 1975, won the Triple Crown in 1967 and stayed a productive player into his 40s. Finally, at age 43, he called it quits on what would be a first-ballot Hall of Fame career. The 1983 Boston Red Sox season was Yaz’s last
The late 1970s had been a time of unfulfilled hope for the Boston Red Sox. After reaching Game 7 of the 1975 World Series, the Red Sox seemed to be a rising dynasty in the making. But that was followed with underachievement in 1976, a close pennant race loss in 1977, a devastating loss in 1978, and modest slipback in 1979. The 1980 Boston Red Sox completed the decline, falling to mediocrity and ending a short era in franchise history.
When the Boston Red Sox reached Game 7 of the 1975 World Series with a core of young players, there was the expectation that great things were underway. Those expectations took a big step back in a disappointment-filled 1976 season. The 1977 Boston Red Sox were able to rekindle the hope, with a strong run at the AL East title, but like so many pre-2004 Red Sox teams, managed to come up just a little bit short.
The 1982 Boston Red Sox represented not only an overachieving high point in the first half of the decade, but laid the groundwork for the success that would come in the 1980s latter half.
The 1975 Boston Red Sox scratched the seven-year itch, won the pennant and nearly ended the franchise’s now 57-year drought on winning the whole thing.