Each year, as the Major League Baseball regular season nears its final month, those teams near the top of the standings vying for a spot in the playoffs begin what is called the pennant race in both the American and National leagues. Prior to 1969, each league crowned just one winner that would represent the league in the World Series. The team that ended up with the best won-loss record won the league pennant.
The Beginning
The first World Series was in 1903 between Boston and Pittsburgh, both of whom easily won their leagues. The first close race to the pennant occurred in 1905, when the Philadelphia Athletics won the AL pennant by two games over Chicago White Sox. In 1908, however, things heated up. The Chicago Cubs and New York Giants finished tied in the National League, so the Cubs won the NL in a one-game playoff. In the AL, the Detroit Tigers finished the season with a record of 90-63 while the Cleveland Indians were 90-64, meaning the Tigers won the pennant by a half a game. In 1908, there was no provision to make up a rained out game, even if it had a bearing on the pennant race. The rule was introduced after the season, but it was too late to help the 1908 Indians.
Magic Numbers
Only in baseball can one team hope to erase a five-game deficit in the standings in a week. When a pennant race is really close, the media and fans will often refer to a team's magic number to figure out how close the front-running team is to clinching the pennant. The number corresponds to the wins needed by the front-running team, losses by the trailing team or combination of the two that would mathematically eliminate the trailing team. Each time the leading team wins, its magic number goes down by one. Each time its nearest competitor loses, the magic number also goes down by one. When a team's magic number reaches zero, it has secured first place.
Wildest Races
In 1951, broadcaster Russ Hodges shouted "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" in reaction to the walk-off home run hit by New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson that handed the Brooklyn Dodgers a 5-4 defeat in their pennant playoff series. The moment was dubbed the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" and capped one of the most exciting pennant races ever. The Dodgers led the NL by 13 1/2 games in August, but the Giants caught them be winning 16 in a row and an astonishing 37 out of their final 44 games. Other notable races include the 1964 Phillies, who led by six and a half games with 12 to play but lost 10 straight to allow the St. Louis Cardinals to pass them. In 1995, the California Angels blew an 11 1/2 game lead in late August, dropping 27 of their final 39 games to allow the Seattle Mariners to make the playoffs for the first time. The 1978 season saw a classic battle between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox go down to the wire. Boston led by seven games with 32 to play, but lost 14 of 17, including a four-game sweep by the Yankees. New York's Bucky Dent hit a game-winning home run on the last day of the season to seal the Yankees' pennant win. The only team to lose a three-game lead with four to play was the 2009 Detroit Tigers. The Tigers were in first place the entire season before the Minnesota Twins caught them.
Playoff Expansion
Starting in 1969, the idea of a pennant race began to dilute. Both the American and National Leagues divided themselves into eastern and western divisions, and the division winners played each other for the league championship and a trip to the World Series, so the pennant race occurred within each division. In 1994, the leagues divided again, adding a central division and a wild card qualifier. Now there are three separate divisional pennant races within each league for four total playoff spots. Many baseball purists, like author Bill James in "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract," believe the wild card concept has "sapped all the drama from the regular season between the best teams, preferring to provide the competition for the proletariat. There's more competition for who finishes second than first."
References
- Baseball Chronology: Shot Heard Round the World
- Baseball Almanac: Year-by-Year Baseball History
- "The Baseball Encyclopedia: The Complete and Definitive Record of Major League Baseball", Macmillan Publishing; 2006
- "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract", Bill James; 2003
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