The strike year of 1981 hadn’t gone well in Pittsburgh After a decade of contending teams, including a recent World Series title in 1979, the Pirates were looking to get back in the hunt. For the most part, they did. But an August fade set a tone that the 1980s would not be as positive […]
The 1982 baseball season has some hidden gems in MLB history. The final day of the regular season produced an epic head-to-head battle. Game 5 of the American League Championship Series—then the decisive game, in this era of best-of-five LCS play—produced a similar dramatic ending. A future Hall of Fame manager made his first appearance on the October stage. And none of the teams involved in any of the above ultimately won the World Series. Here’s the rundown…
The St. Louis Cardinals have become a regular in the National League Championship Series, advancing to this round nine times from 2000-14. The Atlanta Braves would also become an NLCS regular with nine trips of their own between 1991-2001. But at the 1982 NLCS these two future powers were relative newcomers to a playoff round […]
The centennial season of the Giants franchise was one to remember. It wasn’t a championship team or even a pennant winner, like they’d enjoyed in the New York days. It wasn’t a dynasty like they would later experience in San Francisco. But the 1982 San Francisco Giants nearly put on one a stretch drive to […]
The 1982 Los Angeles Dodgers were the latest in a string of excellent teams put out by manager Tom Lasorda. Since taking over in 1977, the manager had won three National League pennants, gone to a one-game playoff another time and won his first World Series title the year before in 1981. The ’82 edition […]
Earl Weaver had become a legend in Baltimore since he became the manager of the Orioles in 1968. The ensuing fourteen years had seen five 100-win seasons, six AL East titles, four American League pennants and a World Series title. The 1982 Baltimore Orioles were his last real ride. They were an excellent team who […]
The Braves had known only brief moments of success since moving to Atlanta for the 1966 season. They won the old NL West in 1969, but then fell off the radar. 1974 was a bright spot—the team won 88 games and Henry Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record. But that was the exception, rather than the rule, as losing season followed losing season. The 1982 Atlanta Braves got back to October—and they did with a then-unproven manager named Joe Torre.
The 1982 California Angels did a lot of wheeling and dealing to get ready for the season. After winning the AL West in 1979, the team fell off the radar the next two years. Owner Gene Autry was hungry to get to his first World Series, so his front office went all-in, and it paid off with another division title.
No team had ever lost the first two games of a League Championship Series and then rallied to win what was then a best-of-five round. The Milwaukee Brewers dug just such a hole against the California Angels in the 1982 ALCS. The Brewers made history, with three consecutive wins at home.
It was the “Suds Series”, as the 1982 World Series brought together two of the great brewing cities in America, with the St. Louis Cardinals meeting the Milwaukee Brewers. And the Suds Series produced seven games, complete with good back-and-forth battles, as each team trailed the Series by a game at one point before rallying to take the lead. It was St. Louis who traded their beer for champagne in the end.
The 1982 St. Louis Cardinals inherited the legacy of the National League’s proudest franchise, but one that was—relatively speaking—a dry spell. After going to consecutive World Series in 1967-68 and winning one, this great baseball city had been quiet in October. Baseball expanded in 1969, the leagues split into two divisions each, but St. Louis didn’t win the new NL East.
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