1984 marked the end of a long run of baseball success in Pittsburgh, as the Pirates had their first losing season in a full 162-game schedule since 1968. The 1985 Pittsburgh Pirates slammed the door on anyone who doubted that an era was over–the franchise suffered its worst season in over thirty years on the […]
The 1985 MLB season was one of the best we’ve seen in TheSportsNotebook’s historical period of 1976 to the present. Three of major league baseball’s four divisions had races that came down the final week and all three were settled with head-to-head series. We of course keep in mind that pre-1994, that was the era when a division race was winner-take-all with no wild-card cushion.
It was a year of change in the MLB postseason structure for 1985. The League Championship Series expanded from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven and it had an immediate impact. The Kansas City Royals lost three of the first four games to the Toronto Blue Jays before rallying to win the 1985 ALCS.
The 1985 Toronto Blue Jays came into the season primed for a big year. The Blue Jays had come into existence in 1977 and after Bobby Cox was hired in 1982, they began to climb towards contender status. The Jays won 89 games in 1983 and then did it again in 1984. When 1985 began, the expectation was that Toronto’s time had come.
… it was a Series that was ready for prime-time as the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals gave America a fun regional rivalry, the Show-Me State Showdown, and a seven-game series, replete with controversy, as the Royals ultimately won their first, and thus far, only title.
They looked ready to fall behind other powers that seemed to be rising in the NL West. Instead, the 1985 Los Angeles Dodgers completely reversed course, had a comeback year and returned won Lasorda’s fifth division title.
…the Cardinals parted ways with closer Bruce Sutter, dealt a package of four players for power-hitting first baseman Jack Clark and traded key outfielder Lonnie Smith in May. Those moves, combined with a very big rookie outbreak and some good pitching put the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals back into the World Series
When Davey Johnson became the manager of the New York Mets they were a franchise at rock bottom. The Mets had finished fifth or sixth in the six-team NL East for seven straight years. Johnson took over in 1984 and immediately won 90 games, finishing in second place. The 1985 New York Mets inched even closer, contending to the season’s penultimate day.
The 1985 California Angels weren’t in a position to be thinking about next year. Their everyday lineup had six players 34-years-old or older. The franchise had come off two non-winning seasons, going 70-92 in 1983 and 81-81 in 1984. They decided to bring back an old hand to manage their older lineup. Gene Mauch, who led the Angels to the 1982 AL West title, returned in 1985 and the result was instant success.
Billy Martin made one of his many famous returns to the 1985 New York Yankees, trying to rediscover the organization’s disappearing championship mojo. Billy led the Yanks on an up-and-down ride through the 1985 season and nearly caught the Toronto Blue Jays, but came up a bit short in the end.
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 1985 sports, a year highlighted by a college basketball shocker, a fabulous baseball season, and more.