1987 World Series: Minnesota Wins With Dome-Field Advantage
The 1987 World Series brought together two teams from the Midwest, and for the third straight year, the Fall Classic went seven games…
baseball history
A Dramatic AL East Race Highlights The 1987 Baseball Season
The AL East didn’t produce a World Series winner in the 1987 baseball season, but the division produced one of the best playoff races of the decade, as the Detroit Tigers went toe-to-toe with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Milwaukee Brewers played a key complementary role as the third team.
The 1984 Baseball Season: The Playoff Teams & October Battles
The Detroit Tigers made mincemeat of the league in the 1984 baseball season. The Tigers had a young middle infield of Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammel, a rising star in right with Kirk Gibson, a 19-game winner atop the rotation in Jack Morris and a great year by closer Willie Hernandez, who won both the Cy Young and MVP.
Giving The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers Their Rightful Place In The History Books
The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers got their first and only American League pennant, and came within one win of the World Series, and it came with a lot of drama along the way. In particular, the ending to the regular season and the ensuing American League Championship Series deserve more attention in the history books than they have recei
1989 San Francisco Giants: The First Pennant In 27 Years
The 1989 San Francisco Giants lineup was anchored by first baseman Will Clark and leftfielder Kevin Mitchell. Clark was one the really good pure hitters of this time, able to hit for contact without compromising his power stroke. His productive years ended prematurely, as his upper body wasn’t built to last, and there’s no evidence he used steroids at the time everyone else was trying out the new fad. Mitchell had been a part of the Mets’ 1986 championship team and was one of the game’s top power hitters, as his 47 home runs, .635 slugging percentage and NL MVP award in ’89 would attest.
How The 1986 New York Mets Ran Away With The NL East
…finally, at long last, the Mets had survived 8-5. It had been a road that was extraordinarily easy in the regular season and extraordinarily difficult in October. But they were champions.
1978 Boston Red Sox: Another Race Ends Badly In Boston
The season was a noble effort, one that marked the Red Sox the second-best team in baseball (their 99 wins exceeded that of every other division winner and the Yanks went on to win the World Series) and the Sox had no quit in them. That’s a thin reed to hold onto when the best team is your archrival, when you had a 14-game lead after the All-Star break and you have to watch them celebrate on your home field.
1976 Cincinnati Reds: Running On All Cylinders
The 1976 Cincinnati Reds came to spring training having found redemption the previous October. After World Series losses in 1970 and 1972 and an upset loss in the 1973 National League Championship Series, the Reds had gotten over the top in an epic seven-game World Series against the Boston Red Sox, a Series that ranks high on the list of the best ever. The offensive juggernaut known as the Big Red Machine was looking to build on a championship legacy securely established
1998 Boston Red Sox: Laying The Foundation For Great Things
The Boston Red Sox have become one of baseball’s model franchises in the early part of the 21st century, with three World Series titles (2004, 2007, 2013) and being a regular in the postseason. It was the end of the 1990s that saw the groundwork laid for that success and the 1998 Boston Red Sox were where the foundation was put in place.
1976 Philadelphia Phillies: The Spark That Lit A New Era
The Phils were a proud franchise, but they were on hard times. They had not seen the World Series since 1950. Even a winning season had been elusive since 1967. Danny Ozark took the managerial reins in 1973, and by ’75, the Phils finally won more than they lost. Now the question was if they could overtake the Pittsburgh Pirates, the traditional power in what used to be the National League Eas
MLB Coverage: How Much Does Week 1 Matter?
While every team is different, the nature of every loss and win with its own nuance, we can at least look back on recent years to see how much the first week told us. In today’s MLB coverage, TheSportsNotebook reviews the last five years (2008-12) to help us determine how much weight to assign this week’s results.
1976 Kansas City Royals: A Division Dynasty Takes Root
This post is part of a series of sports history articles commemorating under-the-radar teams and moments in a given year. This article about the 1976 Kansas City Royals celebrates a team that won the American League West title, ended the Oakland A’s Dynasty and started the greatest ten-year run in Royals’ franchise history.