Baseball came to Toronto in 1977. The rules for expansion franchises in those days were considerably more rigorous than is the case today and it took some time for the Blue Jays to build. But with general manager Pat Gillick as the architect, the organization gradually put young pieces in place. By 1982, they were […]
The 1983 Detroit Tigers were building momentum in pursuit of their first division title since 1972 and their first World Series championship since 1968. After a string of losing seasons, the Tigers had started playing winning baseball again in 1978 and were consistently over .500 for the next five years. Sparky Anderson arrived in 1980 […]
The ten-year period from 1976-85 was a great one for the baseball fans in Kansas City. The Royals won the old AL West six times, the American League pennant twice and the World Series in 1985. The 1983 Kansas City Royals were the outlier in this otherwise outstanding era, finishing under .500 and unable to […]
The Pirates came into 1983 just four years removed from a memorable World Series championship run. In two of the previous three years they had been in first place as late as September before coming up short. The 1983 Pittsburgh Pirates continued that pattern. They were competitive and they gave fans hope, but they came […]
The 1983 Milwaukee Brewers were a team looking to finish the job, after coming one game short of a World Series title in 1982. For five solid months they made a run at it, but a September fade portended a finishing of a different kind—the completion of the greatest era in franchise history. GREAT 1980s […]
The National League Championship Series was becoming old hat for the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers. They had already played in 1977 and 1978. The Phillies had been here in 1976 and 1980, with the Dodgers also playing this round in 1981. The two best National League teams of their era hooked up again […]
The 1983 Atlanta Braves followed up a surprise NL West title with another strong season where they contended to the final weekend. But a disappointing ending augured a premature end to the era where Joe Torre managed the team and pointed to darker days ahead. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS Start reading today. Atlanta won by crushing […]
The 1983 Los Angeles Dodgers were just one more off the assembly line of contending teams that manager Tom Lasorda rolled out from 1977-88. Over the previous six years, the Dodgers had already won three National League pennants, the 1981 World Series and contended the final day two other occasions. In 1983, they won an […]
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
This is part of a series of sports history articles aimed at preserving the best moments of the modern sports era, from 1976 to the present. The focus is team sports—college & pro basketball and football, major league baseball and hockey. This article offers a snapshot of 1983 sports, a year highlighted by two epic upsets in college football and college basketball, and two dynasties crossing in the night in the Stanley Cup Finals.