With August coming to a close and September upon us, it’s time to start thinking about the pennant races and start that September tradition; scoreboard watching. That’s right, if you are in one of the four to eight cities that actually have a shot at making the playoffs this season, you get to see what the team ahead of you, or chasing you is doing. There are a few good ones this year (NL West, AL West, AL Central and AL East) but what I’ve done is picked the Top 5 pennant races since 1976 (because that’s where my knowledge begins). I was going to do the Wild Card races too, but those races are already decided as of this year; so it's divisions only.5)1995 AL West division race between the California Angels and the Seattle Mariners
The season after arguably the biggest blunder in sports history (the 1994 MLB strike and subsequent cancelling of the ’94 World Series thus robbing the Montreal Expos of their only legit chance at a title) saw not only one of the greatest pennant races ever, but one of the greatest collapses ever as well. This race was all but over in early August with the Angels holding an 11 game lead over the Mariners on August 9th; that race is over right? Guess again. Griffey Jr., the Big Unit and the Mariners made a charge in August and September like Tiger on the back 9 at Augusta (wow, that reference is just not correct anymore is it?) After August 9th, the Angels went 12-27 in their final 39 games with 2 separate 9 game losing streaks in there. Needless to say, the Mariners capitalized and even took over the division lead with 9 games to play in the season. But then the Angels turned it around after falling a full 3 games back with 5 to play, the Halos went on a 5 game tear to tie the division up at the end of the season which led to a one game playoff for the division. It has to be one of the most anticipated and fun things to watch; a one game playoff for the whole enchilada. It’s like a Game 7, only more interesting because it’s not set up like a game 7. This is season long drama, not two week’s worth of drama. It was the Angels enduring a horrendous final month of the season, but showing the grittiness to not mail it in after the Mariners had passed them in late September and it’s the Mariners possibly having a lack of confidence after choking away a 3 game lead with 5 to play; remember this was a franchise that had yet to see postseason action. Anyway, all that build up was for nothing; Randy Johnson made it clear very early that this was not going to be the Angels day. The Unit, pitching in front of the Kingdome crowd, put up 12K’s while only yielding 4 base runners in a complete game 9-1 victory. This anti-climactic one game playoff is what put this game in the 5 slot instead of the 2 or 3 slot. It was a great race that went back and forth in the final month. It was the type of September race you hear about.
4) 2009 AL Central division race between the Tigers and Twins This was another one of those tremendous “from out of nowhere” scenarios. Nobody saw the Twins coming until it was too late. The Tigers had stood in first place from early May until the final day of the regular season, while the Twins just lurked in second place waiting to make its move. Their move came four days before the end of the regular season when the Tigers were hosting the Twinkies with a chance to clinch the division with a victory on their home field. After taking the first 2 from the Twins, it seemed that a sweep and another division title were in the cards for the Tigers; they were blown out 8-3. The Tigers then went on to lose 2 of their last 3 with their ace Justin Verlander saving their skin on the final day of the season and forcing a one-game playoff. What makes this race better than the ’95 Angels-Mariners was the playoff game; this playoff game was a classic back and forth affair. The Tigers had a 3-2 lead going into the 7th inning at the Metrodome when the Twins finally broke ahead of the Tigers with 2 runs in that inning. It had been 164 days, and 7 innings since the Tigers had to look up and catch someone, and to their credit the Tigers acted like champions by answering right back. They tied it up almost immediately in the Top of the 8th setting up a classic finish. Into the 10th inning they went at the Metrodome when the Tigers put up a run in the top half and silenced a raucous Metrodome crowd. I remember watching this game and getting the feeling that the Minnesota dream had come to an end. Boy was I wrong; the Twins answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the 10th and prolonged the drama even further. Into the 12th they went where the Tigers had Bobby Keppel and the Twins on the ropes with the bases loaded and one out. A force out at home and a strikeout later and the Twins went into the bottom of the 12th with renewed life. They turned that momentum into a victory with Alexi Casilla driving in Delmon Young with a one out dribbler through the infield to FINALLY remove the Tigers from the first place seat in the AL Central in 2009.
3) 1987 AL East
First things first, any division that has three or more teams battling it out for the top spot is an exciting division to be a part of. The second thing is when a division comes down to the wire and is decided on the last weekend of the season, it’s a good thing. And thirdly, when 4 teams hold the top spot in the division for a period of 10 games or more during the course of one season, and have 89 wins or more; it’s a classic. When all 3 of these things come together within one summer of baseball, you have yourself one hell of a pennant race. It was the New York Yankees, Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays butting heads for the entire summer for AL East supremacy. You have a Brewers team who had won a World Series five seasons ago, the Tigers who won a World Series two seasons ago, a powerhouse Blue Jay squad trying to give Canada a voice in this American game and of course, the Yankees who had been in large part irrelevant on the field for nearly eight seasons (which is unprecedented in the Bronx). Three of these four franchises have strong winning traditions and knew how to win these things; but who was the front runner for the majority of the season? The Jays. The Blue Jays had never fallen more than 6 games back at any time during the season, and bounced in and out of first place for the whole season. They seemed to have finally opened up an insurmountable three and a half game lead over the Tigers with seven games to play, but the thing was the Tigers had 4 of those final games with the Jays to make up that deficit. The Jays beat the Tigers in the first two games of a three game set at home to open up this three and a half game lead and looked to put their foot on the Tigers neck with a home sweep of Detroit. The Tigers were down to their last out in game #156 staring down the barrel of a 1-0 game deficit and a four and a half game standing deficit with Kirk Gibson coming up. The 1985 World Series MVP delivered not only the tie, but what now seems like the division title. The Tigers went on to win that game in 13 innings, and the Blue Jays didn’t win again in 1987. They went on to lose the final seven games of the season, including a three game sweep at the hands of the eventual division champs, the Tigers, in Detroit on the final weekend of the season.
2)1993 NL West Division race between the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants
When you have a division that takes 104 victories to win on the final day of the season, you’re talking about a classic for sure. When you have a pennant race that involved names like Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz on one side and Bonds, Williams, and Clark on the other; it’s another indication of a classic battle. The games best pitchers vs. the games best hitters. Four sure Hall of Famers and 2 borderline Hall of Famers, and those were the stars. There were also MVP’s, cy young award winners and the game’s best managers all rolled into this one epic pennant race. This ranks as #2 only because that’s the next number after 3, best in reality, it would be a 1a, 1b situation. On July 22nd, this race looked over with the Giants racing out to a 10 game lead after the All-Star break, but then it seems the wheels came off; well as bad as a team that wins 103 games can be I guess. I think that’s what makes this race so much more remarkable was the level of play that was going on night to night. It’s not like any of these other collapses or comebacks where the teams battling it out were 85 and 86 win teams, these were 100+ win teams. The Giants held no less than an eight and a half game lead until August 11th when the Braves went on a 23-5 tear and made up all the ground they needed to make up. The Braves and the Giants stood at a deadlock on September 10th, and then the real race began. From that point on, the Braves led but never got more than a 4 game lead on the Giants. Meanwhile the Gigantes could have just folded after the Braves stormed back to take the division lead from them. It’s not like they tanked it, they played .500 ball, going 13-13 over that same stretch; nine out of ten times that would be good enough to hold a 9 game lead. After an 8 game losing streak that saw the Giants fall behind the Braves 4 full games, the Giants righted the ship and went on their own 11-1 tear to eliminate that four game deficit. This pennant race was every bit a heavyweight title bout, and a Triple Crown Horse Race; there were no other teams that mattered at this point. You have the burgeoning dynasty in Atlanta taking on the NL West powerhouse of the late 80’s/early 90’s in the Giants; wanting one more shot at the postseason before Will Clark and Matt Williams ride off into the sunset. Now to give the Giants credit here, they were really up against it over the final four games of the season when they had to travel to their hated rivals, the Dodgers, and have to deal with that rivalry while trying to win the pennant; that is a large task. They won 3 out of 4 from the hated Dodgers, but they lost the last game which was the one they needed most. The Braves had the luxury of playing their final three at home against the Rockies who were significantly weaker away from Coors Field; and the Bravos took care of business as they so often did in the 90’s by sweeping the Rockies and winning the division by one game on the final day of the season. As for the Giants, not only did they lose the division, but they lost it at the hands of their most hated rival, the Dodgers, and they did it in spectacular fashion; they were blown out 12-1. Here’s the good news, I believe that it was this pennant race that was the reason the Wild Card was created in Major League Baseball. To have a team win 103 games, and not get a shot at the postseason when the other division leader won only 97 games; as a matter of fact, the Giants were the 2nd best team in baseball in 1993 by 6 full games and they did not get to play in the playoffs. Next time you wonder why Major League baseball went to the Wild Card system, you could definitely point to this 1993 San Francisco Giants squad.
1) 1978 AL East race between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees
This might be the most storied pennant race in the history of the game, and I think the fact that it’s the Yanks and the Sawx is what makes this race so intriguing. This race had all the bells and whistles; a big comeback, another big comeback, Hall of Famers and a dramatic one game playoff. The Yanks stood 14 games behind the Red Sox who were a powerhouse at this stage of the 70’s with a World Series appearance three years prior, future Hall of Famers Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Luis Tiant and Carl Yastrzemski, AND a 14 game lead on the Yanks; things could not get better for the Boston faithful. That is until the Yankees did it to them AGAIN. On July 19th, the Sox were 14 games up on the Yanks and even though it was as early as July, 14 games is damn near impossible to make up; especially when you’re chasing a quality squad like the Red Sox had that season. So the Sox did what most teams with that big of a lead would do; coast. They played .500 ball over a 50 game period; should be enough to deliver a division crown with a 14 game lead, right? WRONG! The Yanks went 38-15 over that stretch and caught the Sox with 3 weeks to go in the season. The Yanks tried to pull away from the Sox by going 13-7 over the final three weeks, but the Sox responded with their own 13-7 mark over the final 3 weeks, with an eight game winning streak to close out the regular season. That brings us to one of the best moments in sports, the one game playoff for the division crown, and back then it was monumental because it was win or go home; there was no wild card to fall back on. The fact that it was Red Sox- Yankees, in Boston, for the division title makes this game a classic before they even hit the field. The Yankees were coming to Boston to essentially defend their World Series title from the year prior, and they were sending their ace to the hill, the 25-3 Ron Guidry; needless to say the Fenway faithful were anxious. But heading into the 7th, the BoSox were up 2-0, and Mike Torrez was cruising, but then the wheels came off; sort of. In hindsight, this game played out like a microcosm of the 1978 season. The Sox were up for two-thirds of the season, and two-thirds of this game; the Yanks came back in the division and took the lead late in the season, as they did in this game with a 4 spot in the 7th inning. This is where the “Bucky f@#king Dent” homer comes into play with two-on, two-out, tied at 2-2, and Dent, not known for his home run power, blasts one over the Green Monster to give the Yanks a 4-2 lead. Jackson added what would be the eventual game winning homer in the top of the 8th to give the Yanks a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the inning. The Sawx made it a go by putting up a 2 spot in the 8th, but Goose Gossage shut the door on the Red Sox in the 9th, and ended what might be the most monumental collapse in baseball history; until the Mets came along in 2008, and ’09…but that’s a different story for a different day.
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