It was time for the Detroit Tigers. After three years of playing winning baseball, the Tigers made a real run at the playoffs in 1981. They made some big moves in the offseason and those moves proved to be good ones. It was time to return this franchise to the postseason for the first time […]
The mid-1970s through the mid-1980s were a great time to be a baseball fan in Kansas City. The Royals were a perennial contender. They won division titles in 1976, 1977 and 1978. They ran second in 1979 and won the American League pennant in 1980. Even though 1981 saw them slip, the strange dynamics of […]
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 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 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.