An upstart champion, a dramatic pennant race and the derailment of a potential dynasty were all a part of an exciting 1987 baseball season that included the following highlights…
*How the Minnesota Twins used a potent lineup and a top-heavy pitching staff, led by Frank Viola and Bert Blyleven, to navigate their way to a division title and ultimately to October glory.
*The sizzling AL East race put on by the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays. Seven head-to-head games in the final week and a half. An epic collapse and one of the most consequential trade deadline deals in baseball history were all a part of this race.
*What happened to the New York Mets, who were supposed to be ready to build a dynastic run off their 1986 World Series title. No one accounted for the pesky St. Louis Cardinals rising up and beating out the Mets in another exciting division race, replete with a dramatic home run.
*How the San Francisco Giants won their first division title since 1971, thanks to some bold in-season trades and then catching fire after the All-Star break.
*How the ALCS, that was supposed to be a cakewalk for Detroit, got turned on its head with a Minnesota runaway.
*The outstanding seven-game NLCS battle between St. Louis and San Francisco, with Cardinal pitching finally taking over at the decisive moment.
*And a World Series that was all about location. The home team wins each game in the Minnesota-St. Louis matchup and sets off a celebration in the Twin Cities.
The articles below—one on each of the six teams noted above and then a game-by-game narrative of each postseason series, tell the story of the 1987 baseball season through the eyes of its best teams. Start reading today and wake up the echoes in all their glorious detail.
The Minnesota Twins were an 85-win team, one of the worst to ever reach the League Championship Series round in 1987. The Detroit Tigers had the best record in baseball and were fresh off winning an epic divisional race against the second-best team, the Toronto Blue Jays. It’s natural that the Minnesota-Detroit matchup in the 1987 ALCS was seen as one-sided and destined for a quick ending. That’s what happened, but not in a way anyone anticipated.
You can read more about the paths each team took to its respective division title at the links below. This article will focus exclusively on the games of the 1987 ALCS.
Doyle Alexander’s acquisition by Detroit was essential to their survival in the AL East. Alexander had been dominant down the stretch and he would start Game 1. Minnesota, in spite of their flaws, had the advantage of a terrific top-of-the-rotation arm in lefty Frank Viola. As a further aid to the Twins, homefield advantage was set on a rotation basis rather than merit and it was the year for the AL West (where the Twins resided from 1969-93) to host.
Minnesota third baseman Gary Gaetti launched the first blow of the series with a dead-center home run off Alexander in the bottom of the second. Detroit catcher Mike Heath did exactly the same thing in the third inning and the game went to the bottom of the fifth still tied 1-1.
Gaetti led off the inning and did it again, homering to right center. Randy Bush and Tom Brunansky followed with extra base hits and the Twins were up 3-1. After a sac bunt from second baseman Steve Lombardozzi moved Brunansky to third, Alexander struck out catcher Tim Laudner. The Tiger pitcher was poised to escape without further damage before left fielder Dan Gladden lined a two-out single to right.
Viola again let the Tigers answer right back, when Kirk Gibson hit a two-out solo blast and Detroit kept grinding away in the top of the seventh. Larry Herndon, Chet Lemon and Darrell Evans hit consecutive singles to start the inning and the bases were loaded with none out. After a strikeout, Heath lined a single to center. The lead was cut to 4-3 and the bases were still loaded.
Minnesota manager Tom Kelly stuck with Viola, who pulled an escape act. He got Lou Whitaker to hit a grounder to Kent Hrbek at first base, who got the forceout at home. Viola got Bill Madlock to end the inning with the lead intact.
It didn’t stay intact for long though. Viola came back out for the eighth and this proved to be a bridge to far. He walked Gibson and allowed a double to shortstop Alan Trammell. With runners on second and third, Kelly summoned closer Jeff Reardon. He didn’t allow a hit, but consecutive sac flies from Dave Bergman and Lemon put Detroit up 5-4.
There was every reason to think Minnesota was essentially done. They had blown a lead at home with their best pitcher on the mound in a series where they already needed every break. Instead, they came fighting back against Alexander. Gladden singled to left and centerfielder Kirby Puckett quickly doubled him home. It was 5-all and Alexander was pulled for Mike Henneman.
The Twins kept coming. Two walks, one of them intentional, loaded up the bases. Detroit manager Sparky Anderson called for his closer, Willie Hernandez. Like Kelly, Anderson waited too long. Minnesota had acquired Don Baylor for the stretch drive precisely for at-bats like this. He was a veteran that could handle pressure and he was right-handed bat that could handle a lefty like Hernandez. Baylor singled and put the Twins up 6-5.
Brunansky immediately followed with a big insurance double that gave Minnesota an 8-5 lead. It proved important when Detroit put two on with one out in the ninth. Reardon struck out Madlock and Gibson and the Twins had taken Game 1.
There weren’t many pitchers more reliable in a big game in this era than Jack Morris. Minnesota fans found that out firsthand four years later when Morris pitched them to a World Series title. But in 1987, Morris was a Tiger and entrusted with the ball for Game 2.
If Morris did the job, Detroit would have calmed the waters, gotten a split and have three straight home games ahead of them. Minnesota had a tough veteran of their own to counter with in Bert Blyleven. With an ERA a bit over 4, Blyleven wasn’t great, but he was still a future Hall of Famer.
The Tigers got Blyleven in the second. Matt Nokes started the inning with a single and Lemon homered. Pat Sheridan singled, stole second and was bunted to third. There was still only one out and Heath came to the plate. He couldn’t duplicate his success of the previous night and failed to pick up the run and the game stayed 2-0.
Gaetti got the Twins started in the second with a one-out double. Brunansky doubled with two outs to cut the lead in half. Shortstop Greg Gagne drew a walk and the third double of the inning—this one from Laudner down the left field line—scored both runs and the Metrodome crowd was rocking again with their team up 3-2.
Minnesota kept coming in the fourth, again doing the most damage with two outs. After Laudner struck out in a bases-loaded/one-out situation, Morris was in position to escape. Instead, Gladden again delivered a clutch hit, a two-run single to left that extended the lead to 5-2. One inning later, Hrbek homered to make it 6-2. Blyleven stayed in command until allowing a solo homer to Whitaker in the eighth, but there was no real late drama in a 6-3 final.
After a travel day, play resumed on Saturday afternoon in Detroit with the Tigers unexpectedly having their back to the wall. The good news for Detroit was that Minnesota’s key weakness was a lack of depth in the rotation. And the Tiger bats were able to get after Game 3 starter Lee Straker.
Straker flirted with danger in the first when he walked Whitaker and Evans, but nothing came of it. The Twins’ starter wasn’t as fortunate in the bottom of the third. Detroit loaded the bases with a Sheridan double, a Whitaker single and a Gibson walk. With nobody out a groundball force play at second brought in the game’s first run. After a stolen base, Straker balked in a run and Trammell singled in another.
It was 3-0 and after another walk, Straker was gone. Dan Schatzeder came in, but Herndon got him for a two-run double and Detroit was rolling with a 5-0 lead.
Minnesota signaled they wouldn’t go quietly when the light-hitting Gagne homered to begin the top of the fourth. Hrbek worked a one-out walk and eventually scored on base hits by Gaetti and Bush. With the lead cut to 5-2 and runners on the corners with one out, Tiger starter Walt Terrell got Brunansky on a pop up and escape without further damage.
Brunanasky redeemed himself in the top of the sixth with a two-out, two-run blast that made it 5-4. The Twins kept coming in the top of the seventh. Sal Butera and Dan Gladden opened the inning with singles, putting runners on first and third and ending Terrell’s day. Mike Henneman came on in relief. Gagne hit a ground ball to third and pinch-runner Mark Davidson tried to score the tying run. He was cut down at the plate and Detroit hung on to its lead. Puckett fouled out to first, but it was a deep enough pop-out that the runners were able to tag and get to second and third.
Hrbek was intentionally walked to set up Henneman-vs-Gaetti. From the classic righty-lefty standpoint, this was the textbook move, with Henneman a right-handed pitcher while Hrbek batted lefty and Gaetti from the right side. But given how hot Gaetti was in this series, it was a questionable situational move from a future Hall of Fame manager in Anderson. And it didn’t work, with Gaetti singling to right.
The Twins had come all the way back to lead 6-5 and got to within six outs of putting a stranglehold on the series. But in the bottom of the eighth, Herndon led off with a single. Detroit’s desperation was underlined by the fact that Morris, a fast runner, came in to run. It turned out not to matter—after a failed sac bunt attempt, Pat Sheridan homered. The Tigers were back up 7-6 and this time Henneman held the lead.
It was a series again, but even in victory nothing was coming easy for Detroit. They sent veteran lefty Frank Tanana to the mound on Sunday night for Game 4, while Minnesota brought back Viola on three days’ rest.
The Tigers got a soft run out of the gate. Whitaker led off the bottom of the first with a walk and came around on an infield hit from Trammell and an error by Gagne. The Twins got something going in the top of the second when Baylor led off with a single and Brunansky walked, but nothing came of it.
Minnesota muscled up in the next two innings, with Puckett homering to tie it in the third and Gagne’s solo blast in the fourth giving them a 2-1 lead. Puckett then got the top of the fifth started with a single that turned into a three bases after being misplayed by Herndon in the outfield. Gaetti picked up Puckett with a sac fly.
Whitaker got another Detroit rally started with a two-out walk in the bottom of the fifth and then scored on consecutive singles from Jim Morrison and Gibson. Herndon, looking to redeem himself, hit the ball hard…but right at Gaetti and the Twins’ 3-2 lead was preserved heading into the sixth.
Gagne and Gene Larkin chased Tanana with doubles to get the run back and make it 4-2. In the bottom of the inning, singles by Lemon and Darrell Evans ended Viola’s night. Another single, this one from Dave Bergmann cut the lead to 4-3 and left runners on first and second, still with nobody out. Heath bunted the runners up.
Evans, a 40-year-old vet, then made a a huge baserunning mistake. He drifted too far off third and an alert Laudner picked him off. Minnesota clung to its lead and got some insurance in the eighth when an error and wild pitch set up a two-out RBI single from Lombardozzi. Reardon came in on the ninth and after a leadoff single, got Whitaker, then struck out Nokes and Gibson to seal the game.
Minnesota not only held a 3-1 series lead, but they had grabbed a road win and had two more home games in the bank. They also had Blyleven on the mound for Game 5. Detroit went back to Alexander for their final home game on Monday afternoon.
Alexander’s magic from the stretch drive was gone. In the top of the second, Gaetti singled, Bush walked and Brunansky doubled both runs in. He was thrown out trying for third, but the Twins weren’t done. Lombardozzi singled, moved to second on a productive out and scored on a base hit from Gladden. Alexander hit a batter, then gave up another RBI single to Puckett. It was 4-0 and Anderson was forced into his bullpen, bringing in young Eric King with the season on the line.
King did an admirable job in stopping the bleeding and the Tigers got back in the game in the fourth. After a Gibson double and Trammell single, Nokes homered to cut the lead to 4-3.
It stayed that way until the top of the seventh. A one-out single, hit batsman and wild pitch set up a sacrifice fly from Hrbek and Minnesota had some modest breathing room at 5-3. They expanded that in the eighth, now facing Hennenman. Gladden doubled with one out and Gagne drew a walk. Puckett hit a bouncer back to Henneman. He got the force at second, but Gladden went to third where he scored on a fielder’s choice.
The Twins could surely taste the champagne when Berenguer got the first two outs in the eighth. Lemon homered to cut it to 6-4, bringing on Reardon, who ended the inning.
Minnesota delivered the final blow in the top of the ninth. Brunansky homered to make it 7-4. Lombardozzi singled and with two outs, Gladden and Gagne hit back-to-back doubles. It was 9-4 and all but over. Detroit got a run in the ninth, but when Nokes bounced back to Reardon for a 1-3 putout, it was over. The Twins had completed an upset stunning not only in that they won, but had done so in a swift five-game series and won twice in Tiger Stadium.
Gaetti was an easy choice for 1987 ALCS MVP. He went 6-for-20, a solid .300 batting average, but that doesn’t tell the impact of those hits. He homered twice, drove in five runs, scored five more and always seemed to be in the middle of Minnesota’s crucial rallies.
Another notable performances came from Gagne and Brunansky, who each homered twice. On the Detroit side, Lemon was the best in defeat. He went 5-for-18 and hit a pair of home runs. Evans had productive numbers, 5-for-17 and he drew five walks, but getting picked off third in Game 4 was one of the big turning points of the series. And perhaps nothing was more important to Minnesota’s ultimate victory than their pitching holding Whitaker and Trammell, the fine 1-2 punch at the top of the order, to a combined 7-for-37.
For Minnesota, the magic was just starting. They went on to face the St. Louis Cardinalsin the 1987 World Series and rode dome-field advantage all the way to a title, taking a seven-game Series where each game was won by the home team. It was the first two World Series championships in a five-year span.
The Twins’ championship runs are well-remembered, especially for their dominance at home. Less remembered, but just as worthy as a place in the history books, is their improbable upset in the 1987 ALCS.
The 1987 Detroit Tigers were the last postseason team in the Hall of Fame career of manager Sparky Anderson. They produced the best record in baseball, won the AL East for the second time in four years and did with a dramatic final week push when they appeared all but dead.
After winning the World Series in 1984, the Tigers slipped to being an above-average team, finishing third in 1985-86, in a division that then had seven teams. Muscle on offense was the key to revival in Detroit.
The Tigers led the league in both slugging percentage and home runs. They were also patient, drawing more walks than any team in the American League. No one was better than shortstop Alan Trammell, who finished with an on-base percentage of .402, a slugging percentage of .551, hit 28 home runs, drove in 105 runs, scored 109 runs and finished second in the MVP voting. Did I miss anything? Only that he deserved to win the MVP rather than settle for runner-up status.
Kirk Gibson posted numbers of .372 OBP/.489 slugging percentage and hit 24 home runs. Centerfielder Chet Lemon joined Gibson in the outfield and finished at .376/.481 with 20 home runs. Second baseman Lou Whitaker didn’t have a vintage year, but was still solid at .341/.427.
Two players at opposite ends of the career spectrum were pleasant surprises. Rookie catcher Matt Nokes was a revelation, hitting 32 home runs with an OBP of .345. And 40-year-old first baseman Darrell Evans turned back the clock with 34 home runs, 99 RBI and an OBP of .379.
All this made Detroit a potent offensive attack, but they did more to augment the attack. The bench was strong, as Larry Herndon finished at .378/.520 in part-time duty and Dave Bergman posted a stat line of .379/.453. And in the early summer, the front office went and got a veteran hitter in Bill Madlock to handle the DH duties. Madlock, a former batting champion put up a .351/.460 run in his time in a Tiger uniform.
It wasn’t all about the offense in Motown. The pitching staff had the third-best ERA in the American League and it all started with Jack Morris. The 32-year-old with a deserved reputation as a big-game pitcher, won 18 games with a 3.38 ERA and worked 266 innings. Walt Terrell and Frank Tanana were both respectable, combining for 32 wins, with ERAs between 3.90 and 4.10.
The bullpen was a problem, with Mike Henneman being the only consistent pitcher and Willie Hernandez a long way removed from his 1984 career high when he won both the MVP and Cy Young Award. The back end of the rotation was also weak, with Dan Petry and Jeff Robinson struggling to seasons with 5-plus ERAs. But before the year was over, Detroit would pull the trigger on another deal, one of the most consequential trade deadline moves in MLB history.
Nothing about the way the 1987 baseball season started suggested a special year in Detroit. They lost five of six to the New York Yankees in April and by Memorial Day were 20-21, in fifth place and seven back of AL East-leading New York.
A weekend in early June was a key threshold moment in the season. The Tigers made the deal for Madlock. They were also in Boston, where the defending AL East champion Red Sox were also looking to get untracked. It was Detroit who unleashed. They won three of four, scored 18 runs in the finale, and when the Red Sox made a return trip to Tiger Stadium, Detroit swept three straight. They took two of three in Toronto, part of a long road trip where the Tigers went 9-5.
By the time the All-Star break arrived, Detroit was 48-37 and back in the mix. They were in third place, five games back of the first-place Yankees, with the Blue Jays in second.
In early August, the Tigers won 10 of 13 against AL West opponents (the AL Central did not exist prior to 1994). Against their own division rivals, Detroit won three of four from New York, scoring double-digit runs in two of the games and starting an 11-3 run. But as good as that was, it wasn’t the biggest thing that happened in Detroit in the first part of August.
Needing starting pitching, the Tigers dealt a top prospect to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for veteran Doyle Alexander. How did it work out in the short-term? Alexander made 11 starts for the Tigers and went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA. In an era where a division title meant direct advancement to the League Championship Series, they would not have done it without Alexander.
How did the move work out in the long-term? The prospect was future Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz. Who won this trade, or whether Detroit would make it again if they had known just how great Smoltz would be, is a great debate. Or we could just take the political approach and say both teams got what they wanted. Which is probably the view that’s accurate.
By Labor Day, the Yankees were fading and had fallen to third place, five off the pace. The Tigers and Blue Jays were running neck and neck. The two teams would finish with the best regular season records in all of baseball and in the era before the wild-card, that meant a long fight to the finish.
Detroit and Toronto traded blows and tracked each other from afar until they reached the final week and a half of the regular season with the Tigers a half-game back. There would be four games in Toronto on the penultimate weekend of the season. After a series in the middle, they would reunite in Detroit for three games to end it. And it would take all of those games to settle the winner.
Morris got the ball on a Thursday night that started the final push. He went the distance, but one bad inning—a four-run third for the Jays—did him in, as Detroit lost 4-3. Tanana was brilliant on Friday night, pitching seven shutout innings and handing a 2-0 lead to the bullpen. Hernandez coughed it up in a 3-2 loss.
Saturday brought even more heartbreak. Detroit grabbed a quick 3-zip lead, but Terrell was shelled. Even so, the Tigers still led 7-3 and then 9-7 in the ninth. This time it was Henneman that blew the lead and Juan Berenguer finished it off by walking in the winning run. The Tigers were 3 ½ games out and even with the four head-to-head games still remaining, this race was looking over.
Enter Doyle Alexander. He pitched eleven innings in the Sunday afternoon finale. Trailing 1-0 in the ninth, Detroit got a run to tie it. Evans homered in the top of the eleventh. Anderson, perhaps spooked by his bullpen performance and managing in an era where it wasn’t unthinkable to leave a starter in (though admittedly it was still rare), sent Alexander back out and he gave up the tying run. Gibson finally won the game in the 13th with an RBI single. The Tigers were still in trouble, 2 ½ back with a week to go. But they had a pulse.
Detroit split four games at home with mediocre Baltimore and in a lot of circumstances that might have ended the AL East race. Instead, with Toronto getting swept by Milwaukee, it actually tightened it. The final weekend began with the Tigers back to within a game of first.
Alexander pitched on Friday night and it looked like his magic might finally end, when he gave up a three-run blast in the second inning. But he settled in, went seven innings and didn’t allow any more. Detroit began coming back. An error and a two-run homer by role player Scott Lusader cut it to 3-2. Trammell homered in the bottom of the third to tie it and Detroit quickly added another run. Hernandez was able to get the last six outs without incident.
The race was tied. It was a de facto best-of-three, allowing for the possibility of a one-game playoff on Monday afternoon.
Saturday afternoon was a taut baseball game that I can still vividly remember being glued to my TV set watching (I was rooting for Toronto and my dad was pulling for Detroit, though neither of us were invested in either team). Two great veterans battled on the mound, Morris for the Tigers and lefty Mike Flanagan for the Jays. It was 2-2 and went extra innings. Morris left after nine, Flanagan left after the 11th. And in the 12th, the Tigers broke through. Madlock singled, Gibson walked and Trammell’s RBI single to left won it.
How fast the race had changed in a week. Now it was Detroit playing with a little bit of cushion on Sunday afternoon. This was an era where baseball could both rival and exceed the NFL in popularity and this was also the first Sunday that the NFL would use replacement players due to a strike. It made Tigers-Jays must-see viewing.
Tanana and fellow lefty Jimmy Key for Toronto made it worth watching. Detroit got on the board in the second when Herndon homered. The game stayed 1-0 with both pitchers locked in. The Blue Jays put two on with two out in both the first and third innings, but couldn’t get the big hit. Tanana made them pay for missing, going the distance with a six-hitter and the 1-0 score stood up.
Detroit had completed an amazing final week to win a great race. There was every reason to feel a second World Series trophy in four years would come to the Motor City. With the 85-win Minnesota Twins as the ALCS opponent, at least another pennant seemed a foregone conclusion.
But the Tigers had finally run out of steam. There was a bit of bad luck—the Twins were much better at home and with homefield advantage determined by rotation rather than merit, Detroit had to begin on the road and quickly lost two games. But in fairness, they also lost two in Tiger Stadium and the series ended in five games.
It was a disappointing and surprise ending, but the 1987 Detroit Tigers won what is one of the more underrated division races in baseball history. That’s how they should be remembered.
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.
Milwaukee came storming out of the gate, starting the season with 13 straight wins and getting a no-hitter by starting pitcher Juan Nieves. The Brewers were nothing if not streaky, and in May, they lost twelve games in a row. Eventually, Milwaukee settled down, won 93 games and saw a 39-game hitting streak from Paul Molitor in the late summer.
Detroit and Toronto weren’t as entertaining, but the two teams won more games than any other team in baseball. The Tigers swung a key trade deadline deal for veteran pitcher Doyle Alexander, and he went 9-0 down the stretch. The cost was a prospect by the name of John Smoltz, and he was highly regarded at the time, but no one in Motown was complaining.
Toronto, led by MVP left fielder George Bell, was still ahead by 2 ½ games entering the final week, but they opened by losing three consecutive games to Milwaukee. Detroit had the lead down to a single game as they and the Jays met for one last series in old Tiger Stadium.
Alexander got the ball for Friday night’s opener, and gave up an early three-run homer to ninth-place hitter Manuel Lee. But Alexander settled back down and Toronto would not score again. The Tigers got their own home run from an unlikely hero, Scott Lusader and had a 4-3 lead by the time the third inning was out, and that score held up.
Both teams were now 96-64, and it set up a de facto two-of-three playoff series, including the provision for a Monday afternoon playoff if necessary. Each of the Saturday and Sunday games were set for national television and both were worthy of the stakes.
Saturday’s game was a pitcher’s duel between warriors. Toronto sent out lefty Mike Flanagan, a key part of the Baltimore Orioles’ 1983 World Series winner, while Detroit turned to Jack Morris, one of the great clutch pitchers of his era. Each was up to the job, and a 2-2 game went into extra innings. In the 12th, Detroit loaded the bases with one out and then got a single to left from shortstop Alan Trammel to win it.
Sunday’s finale was a tense pitchers’ duel, but veteran Detroit lefty Frank Tanana threw a complete game six-hitter and outdueled Jimmy Key 1-0. The Tiger comeback and the Blue Jays’ last-week collapse were complete. Detroit would lose the American League Championship Series to the Minnesota Twins, perhaps spent by all it took just to get there.
But the AL East race, from Milwaukee’s streaks, both team and individual, to the great battle waged by Detroit and Toronto, was one of the great highlights of the 1987 baseball season.
Bob Knight, Wayne Gretzky and Magic Johnson had already made their mark on the respective histories of college basketball, the NHL and the NBA. All three were looking for redemption in varying degrees, and in the year of 1987 sports, all three got back on top.
None of the three won a championship in more dramatic fashion than Knight. After coaching the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in 1984, Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers had seen some hard times—missing the NCAA Tournament in 1985 and losing in the first round in 1986. Knight’s infamous, albeit vastly overplayed chair-throw incident took place in ’85.
It was appropriate that the year Knight returned to the top of the college basketball world took place in the same year the movie Hoosiers came out. Like the movie, the real-life version of the story ended up with a last-second shot winning the national championship, as Keith Smart’s jumper near the baseline gave Indiana a 74-73 win over Syracuse and their head coach his third national title.
The 1987 NCAA Tournament also provided a Cinderella, and one with lasting implications for college basketball. Providence made the Final Four. It was the first breakthrough for a young head coach named Rick Pitino. And his best player was Billy Donovan. We’re still hearing plenty from both Pitino and Donovan on the sidelines today. Read more about 1987 Indiana basketball Read more about Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan & 1987 Providence
Magic Johnson already had three championship rings and twice had been named MVP of the Finals. But the 1986 season ended badly for his Los Angeles Lakers, and there was talk that they might be supplanted by the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference.
Instead, Magic upped his game to become a top scorer, without losing his tremendous passing ability and he won his first league MVP award. The Lakers won the NBA title, and their battle with the Boston Celtics in the Finals was a historic benchmark—it was the last time Magic and Boston’s Larry Bird ever competed for a championship.
And on the hockey side, Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers had seen their dynasty interrupted in 1986, after winning consecutive Stanley Cups in 1984-85. Gretzky won another MVP award of his own—making him 8-for-8 in his career, and Edmonton erased the upset loss of 1986 by capturing a third Stanley Cup in four years. Read more about the 1987 NBA Finals Read more about the 1987 Edmonton Oilers
Baseball and college football each provided good regular seasons and interesting finishes. The baseball season was highlighted by a dramatic AL East race, with the Milwaukee Brewers providing any number of streaks, both individual and team, while the Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers ran a great race to the final day of the season.
And baseball’s postseason was marked by a team making full use of the rotation system MLB then used to set homefield advantage for both the League Championship Series and World Series. The Minnesota Twins won their division on the one year in four that they were set to have homefield throughout, and the Twins used it win a surprise World Series.
College football saw the first advent of the four-team playoff that begins in 2014, albeit entirely unintended. But Miami-Florida State and Nebraska-Oklahoma ended up as a de facto national semifinals, with the winners playing for the national title and the losers meeting in the Fiesta Bowl. Miami won the national championship and Florida State ended up #2. Read more about the 1987 World Series Read more about 1987 college football Read more about the 1987 AL East race
The NFL toyed with fans with the second strike in six years. Four weeks of play were missed, but unlike the 1982 strike, the league used replacement players to cover for three of the weeks. The games counted in the standings and were retained even after the regular players returned.
What this strike year had in common with 1982, was that once again it was the Washington Redskins who held together and won the Super Bowl. The Strike-Year ‘Skins still had the magic and their 42-10 rout of the Denver Broncos sealed a title, with Doug Williams becoming the first African-American quarterback to start and win the Super Bowl. Read more about the 1987 Washington Redskins
