Baseball's Historic Tiebreakers
The Playoffs Before There Were Playoffs
Before 1969, the regular season of 154, and later 162, games usually ended up with a champion in each of the two major leagues. The expansion of that and subsequent years necessitated divisions and elimination playoffs.
But prior to expansion, the National League had to break end-of-season ties four times and the American League once. While some of those games have been long forgotten, at least two are highlights of baseball history.
The American League
In the last week of the 1948 season, the defending champion New York Yankees were locked in a three-way tie with the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox. In a head-to-head confrontation on the final weekend, the Sox eliminated the Yanks, but they finished the year with the same won-loss record as the Indians. American League rules called for a one-game playoff, and a coin toss placed the game in Boston's famed Fenway Park.
A powerful Sox batting order included batting champion Ted Williams and the pitching was led by 18-game winner Jack Kramer. Joe McCarthy, managing Boston for the first time, had earlier won a record seven world championships with the Yankees. Cleveland's leader was player-manager Lou Boudreau, enjoying a career year with a .355 batting average. Their pitching staff included immortal Bob Feller, 20-game winner Bob Lemon, and a rookie 19-game winner, Gene Bearden.
With no well-rested arms at the conclusion of the stretch run, McCarthy felt forced to start a mediocre pitcher, Denny Galehouse, while Boudreau took a chance with the rookie Bearden. The latter vindicated his manager's confidence with a winning performance for his 20th victory while Boudreau capped a Most Valuable Player season with two home runs. The Indians went on to beat the Boston Braves in sxix games in the World Series.
The National League
The St. Louis Cardinals, narrowly denied a fourth straight pennant in 1945, came into the '46 season eager to resume their league dominance. With superstar Stan Musial leading the offense, shortstop Marty Marion sparkling on defense, and Howie Pollett topping NL pitchers, they played superbly but were unable to shake the pursuit of the scrappy Brooklyn Dodgers. The Brooklyn team was a mix of capable veterans like outfielder Dixie Walker and shortstop PeeWee Reese, and rookies like Carl Furillo.
NL rules provided for a best two-of-three playoff, and the Cardinals swept the first two to earn a World Series berth against the Red Sox. The Cards won that in seven games.
An almost unbelievable comeback from a 13-and-a-half game deficit in early August put the New York Giants in a first-place tie with the Dodgers at the end of the 1951 season. They split the first two games, and the Dodgers took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning of the third game at the Giants' home field, the Polo Grounds. An equally incredible Giant rally was climaxed by "The Home Run Heard 'Round the World" by Bobby Thomson and a 5-4 victory for the New Yorkers. The World Series, lost to the Yankees, was an anticlimax.
The Dodgers, now in Los Angeles, finished the 1959 season tied with the Braves, now in Milwaukee. The Braves featured the league batting and home run champions in Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews, respectively, and boasted two 21-game winners, Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette. But the Dodgers, helped by extraordinary relief pitching by Larry Sherry, were not to be denied this time, winning two straight. With Sherry as the hero again, they won the World Series from the Chicago White Sox.
The last playoff of the pre-expansion era matched the Dodgers, a participant in each of them, against the now San Francisco Giants in 1962. As in 1951, they split the first two games, and again the Dodgers took a lead into the ninth inning, this time 4-2. In a final touch of irony, it was October 3, the anniversary of Bobby Thomson's home run, and the Giants again rallied to win. And again they lost to the Yankees in the World Series, but this time in a 1-0 seventh game thriller.
Source: Baseball-Almanac.com
Baseball-Reference.com
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