It is a smorgasbord for sports fans as the calendar flips to October. The NFL is underway, collegiate D-1 teams begin their conference seasons, the NBA and NHL open up later this month, the high school football season enters its second half and the 162-game marathon MLB season has given way to a 13-win sprint to determine which of its 12 playoff teams will claim the World Series crown.
While October baseball has once again eluded the Pittsburgh Pirates and the free-spending New York Mets concluded a disastrous season, area fans of the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies are hoping the pin-striped breatharians have what it takes to still be standing in November.
While the precise playoff matchups for the race to the Fall Classic were not determined at press time, four division winners had already tasted the clinching champagne. The Braves, Brewers and Dodgers in the National League and the Rays in the American League. Cleveland and Chicago went down to the wire in the AL Central, while Houston and Texas did the same in the AL West.
Fans of the other eighteen MLB teams were left to utter the four words often repeated by fans of the old Brooklyn Dodgers: “wait till next year.” Sportswriter Jack Mahn has been cited as repeatedly using the term while covering the Dodgers between 1941 and 1953.
The Dodgers — nicknamed “the Bums” with genuine affection — were one of baseball’s most beloved and most tortured teams. From the late 1930s to the mid 1950s, they were consistently good. They had Hall of Fame players. They had enthusiastic fans who packed Ebbets Field, making it one of the loudest, most electric ball parks in the country. They reached the World Series five times between 1941 and 1953, only to lose to the Yankees all five times.
‘Next year’ finally arrived for the Dodgers in 1955 when the ‘Bums’ beat the Yankees in a seven-game World Series 2-0. It marked the first time in World Series history a Most Valuable Player was selected. The honors went to Dodgers left-handed pitcher Johnny Podres, the winning pitcher in games 3 & 7.
The four-word phrase is still alive and well for fans of the Seattle Mariners, the only MLB team to have never appeared in a World Series. The Mariners had high expectations this year after losing a heartbreaking Game 7 in last year’s ALCS to Toronto. The Mariners also dropped a 7-3 decision to the Mets at Bowman Field last year in the MLB/Little League Classic game.
While Seattle stands alone in missing World Series play, four other MLB teams have never claimed a World Series crown. They include three teams making this year’s playoff field, the Brewers, Padres and Rays.
Founded in 1970, the Brewers, then a member of the American League, lost to the Cardinals in a seven-game 1982 Series. They nearly made it back in 2018, taking the Dodgers to Game 7 of the NL Championship Series. Last year they were swept by LA in the NLCS. This year marked the fourth consecutive National League Central Division title for the team as they and the Dodgers went to the wire seeking to claim baseball’s best regular season record.
San Diego, one of baseball’s hottest teams during the September stretch, has reached the World Series two times since their founding in 1969, but have managed to win just one game. They lost to Detroit four games to one in 1984 and were swept by the Yankees in 1998.
Tampa Bay, MLB’s perennial ‘little engine that could,’ won its fifth AL East crown this year. They have appeared in two World Series since joining the league in 1988. They lost to the Phillies in five games in 2008 and to the Dodgers in six games in 2020.
Colorado is the other team without a World Series winless, being swept by the Red Sox in 2007. This season marked the fourth consecutive 100-game losing season for the Rockies, who began play in 1993. They also have the third-longest playoff drought among MLB season, missing the postseason since 2018. Only the Pirates, 11 years, and the Angels, 12 years, have been futile longer.
Since 1969, the longest postseason droughts in MLB have been: Washington Nationals (Montreal Expos) – 29 years – 1982-2011; Kansas City Royals – 27 years – 1986-2013; Texas Rangers – 26 years – 1969-1995; Cleveland Indians – 25 years – 1969-1993; Milwaukee Brewers – 24 years – 1983-2007.
Regardless, if your favorite baseball team is not a part of this year’s playoffs, enjoy the games – winter’s coming.
Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame outfielder Dave Parker once said, “When the leaves turn brown, I’ll be wearing the batting crown.” Should this year’s World Series reach a November conclusion in Milwaukee, Boston, or Chicago, the battle cry for fans attending might be ‘if you want to go, let’s shovel snow!’
