What ended "Donnie Baseball"'s aspirations for a 1994 World Series?
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1994 New York Yankees season The New York Yankees' 1994 season was the 92nd season for the Yankees. New York was managed by Buck Showalter and played at Yankee Stadium. The team finished with a record of 70-43 finishing 6 ⁄ games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, having the best record in the American League and the second-best record in Major League Baseball. The season was cut short by the infamous 1994 player's strike, which wiped out any postseason aspirations for their first postseason appearance since losing the 1981 World Series and that their star player and captain, Don Mattingly, had. On the day the strike began, the Yankees were on pace to win at least 100 games for the first time since 1980. The Yankees' ace, 33-year-old veteran Jimmy Key, was leading the majors with 17 wins and was on pace to win 24 games. Right fielder Paul O'Neill was also having a career year, as he was leading the league with a .359 batting average.
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Don Mattingly Donald Arthur Mattingly (born April 20, 1961) is an American former professional baseball first baseman, coach and current manager of the Miami Marlins. Nicknamed "The Hit Man" and "Donnie Baseball", he spent his entire 14-year career playing with the New York Yankees and later managed the Los Angeles Dodgers for five years.
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2001 American League Championship Series The 2001 American League Championship Series (ALCS) was a rematch of the 2000 ALCS between the New York Yankees, who had come off a dramatic comeback against the Oakland Athletics in the Division Series after being down two games to zero, and the Seattle Mariners, who had won their Division Series against the Cleveland Indians in five games. The series had additional poignancy, coming immediately after downtown New York City was devastated by the events of September 11, 2001 (the series was played in late October due to Major League Baseball temporarily shutting down in the wake of the attacks).
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List of World Series champions The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) and concludes the MLB postseason. First played in 1903, the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and is a contest between the champions of baseball's National League (NL) and American League (AL). Often referred to as the "Fall Classic", the modern World Series has been played every year since 1903 with two exceptions: in 1904, when the NL champion New York Giants declined to play the AL champion Boston Americans; and in 1994, when the series was canceled due to the players' strike.
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1973 New York Yankees season The 1973 New York Yankees season was the 71st season for the team in New York, and its 73rd season overall. The Yankees finished with a record of 80–82, finishing 17 games behind the Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees were managed by Ralph Houk. The Yankees played at old Yankee Stadium, on the south side of 161st Street. This would be the last year in the "old" Yankee Stadium, which was targeted for major reconstruction in 1974–1975. During this period, the Yankees would share a home field with a National League team for the third time in their history, moving into Shea Stadium for two years.
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Ron Bryant Ronald Raymond Bryant (born November 12, 1947) was a Major League Baseball pitcher from 1967 to 1975 . Bryant's career record was 57 wins and 56 losses with a 4.02 ERA, mostly with the San Francisco Giants. He had 519 strikeouts in 917 career innings pitched. In 1973, Bryant had a 24–12 record with a 3.53 ERA for San Francisco. His 24 wins tied him with Wilbur Wood for most victories that year and made him the National League's only 20-game winner. In 1972, he went 14–7 with a 2.90 ERA. Bryant was injured in a swimming pool accident during spring training in 1974 and he went 3–15 with a 5.61 ERA. His request to be placed on the voluntary retired list was granted by the Giants on April 4, 1975. The primary reason he stated for his decision was a desire to spend more time with his wife and their two children. His contract was dealt by the Giants to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Larry Herndon and minor league pitcher Tony Gonzales on May 9, 1975. Bryant ended his brief retirement once the mandatory 60-day stay on the voluntary list expired on June 6. His major league pitching career ended when he was released by the Cardinals on July 30, 1975 after rejecting a demotion to the Tulsa Oilers.
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The Mustache Gang The Mustache Gang, a term coined for the 1972 Oakland Athletic's baseball team, a team that broke the traditionally conservative baseball views by sporting mustaches. Prior to the 1970s there had only been two baseball players who had facial hair during the regular season: Stanley "Frenchy" Bordagaray of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who was then ordered to shave by his manager, and Wally Schang of the Philadelphia A's. This changed when the A's outfielder, Reggie Jackson, showed up to spring training with a fully grown mustache which would later be thought of as the catalyst that sparked the move away from the conservative baseball era. This move lead to the World Series final to be dubbed "Hairs vs. Squares", as the Oakland A's Mustache Gang faced off with the conservatively clean-shaven Cincinnati Reds.
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Yankees–Red Sox rivalry The Yankees–Red Sox rivalry is a Major League Baseball (MLB) rivalry between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The two teams have competed in MLB's American League (AL) for over 100 seasons and have since developed one of the fiercest rivalries in American sports. In 1919, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold star player Babe Ruth to the Yankees, which was followed by an 86-year period in which the Red Sox did not win a World Series. This led to the popularization of a superstition known as the "Curse of the Bambino", which was one of the most well-known aspects of the rivalry.
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2001 World Series The 2001 World Series was the 97th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Arizona Diamondbacks and the three-time defending World Series champions and American League (AL) champion New York Yankees. The Diamondbacks defeated the Yankees four games to three to win the best-of-seven series. Considered one of the greatest World Series of all time, memorable aspects included two extra-inning games and three late-inning comebacks. It ended on a Game 7 walk-off hit in the form of a bases-loaded blooper single off the bat of Luis Gonzalez. This was the third World Series to end in this way, following and . This was also the Yankees' fourth consecutive World Series appearance, after winning it in , , and .
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1992 National League Championship Series The 1992 National League Championship Series was played between the Atlanta Braves (98–64) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (96–66) from October 6 to 14. A rematch of the 1991 NLCS, Atlanta won the 1992 NLCS in seven games to advance to their second straight World Series. The series ended in dramatic fashion; in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7, with Atlanta down 2–1 and the bases loaded, the Braves' Francisco Cabrera cracked a two-run single that scored David Justice and Sid Bream. Bream famously slid to score the Series-winning run, beating the throw by Pirates left fielder Barry Bonds.
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Wait 'til This Year Wait 'til This Year is a reality-type docu-drama film which follows a Boston Red Sox fan during the 2004 baseball season, when the team ended their famous losing streak by winning the World Series.
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1990 New York Yankees season The New York Yankees' 1990 season was the 88th season for the Yankees. The team finished in seventh place in the American League East with a record of 67-95, finishing 21 games behind the Boston Red Sox. It was the Yankees' first last-place finish in 24 years, and the first in the two-division era. New York was managed by Stump Merrill and Bucky Dent. The Yankees played at Yankee Stadium.
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1998 Major League Baseball season The 1998 Major League Baseball season ended with the New York Yankees sweeping the San Diego Padres in Game 4 of the World Series, after they had won a then AL record 114 regular season games. The Yankees finished with 125 wins for the season (regular season and playoffs combined), which remains the MLB record.
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Billy Bean William Daro Bean (born May 11, 1964) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers (1987–1989), Los Angeles Dodgers (1989), and San Diego Padres (1993–1995), as well as the Kintetsu Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball in 1992.
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1960 New York Yankees season The 1960 New York Yankees season was the 58th season for the team in New York, and its 60th season overall. The team finished with a record of 97–57, winning its 25th pennant, finishing 8 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles. New York was managed by Casey Stengel. The Yankees played their home games at Yankee Stadium. In the World Series, they were defeated by the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games.
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Mike Mohler Michael Ross Mohler (born July 26, 1968) is an American former Major League Baseball player. A pitcher, Mohler played for the Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, and Arizona Diamondbacks from 1993 to 2001. Attended East Ascension High School and Nicholls State University, playing on both baseball teams.
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1992 Los Angeles Dodgers season The 1992 Los Angeles Dodgers season was a poor one for the team as it finished last in the Western Division of the National League with a record of 63 wins and 99 losses. Despite boasting what was nicknamed the "Outfield of Dreams", being manned by Eric Davis, Brett Butler, and Darryl Strawberry, injuries to key players and slumps from others contributed to the franchise's worst season since moving to Los Angeles. Additionally, the Dodgers cancelled four home games during the season due to the L.A. Riots. Despite the poor finish, the Dodgers had some hope for the future as first baseman Eric Karros won the National League Rookie of the Year Award, the first of five consecutive Dodger players to do so. The 1992 season also saw the Dodgers drop television station KTTV Ch.11 as their chief broadcaster of Dodger baseball, ending a 34 year-35 consecutive season association with that station. Additionally, it was the first time the Dodgers lost 90 games in a season since 1944.
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1994 Texas Rangers season The 1994 Texas Rangers season involved the Rangers finishing first in the American League West with a record of 52 wins and 62 losses. The season was cut short by the infamous 1994 player's strike.
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Bill McKechnie William Boyd McKechnie (August 7, 1886 – October 29, 1965) was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a third baseman during the dead-ball era. McKechnie was the first manager to win World Series titles with two different teams (1925 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1940 Cincinnati Reds), and remains one of only two managers to win pennants with three teams, also capturing the National League title in 1928 with the St. Louis Cardinals. His 1,892 career victories ranked fourth in major league history when he ended his managing career in 1946, and trailed only John McGraw's NL total of 2,669 in league history. He was nicknamed "Deacon" because he sang in his church choir and generally lived a quiet life.
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Baltimore Orioles (minor league) "Orioles" is a traditional name for baseball clubs in Baltimore (after the state bird of Maryland, with the colors of black and orange/gold/yellow). It was used by major league teams representing the port city from 1882 through 1899 in the old American Association and the original National League two decades after its founding in 1876, and by a charter team franchise member of the new American League from 1901 through 1902. The American League franchise was later shifted against the city's will to New York City with former famous player and now owner/manager John McGraw in 1903 and renamed the New York Highlanders, which later became the modern New York Yankees, a decade later (in order to give the new A.L. "bragging rights" by also having a team in the "Big Apple" versus the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers). Their string of championships and hall-of-fame roster of players began in the "Roaring Twenties", some baseballers say with the trading of the now famous "Babe Ruth", the "Bambino", and "Sultan of Swat", George Herman Ruth of southwest Baltimore, (formerly briefly with the old, now minor league Orioles of the International League with owner/manager Jack Dunn (1878–1928) in 1914, then traded later in the season to the Boston Red Sox because of new Federal League competition from the neighboring Baltimore Terrapins) now from the also financially pressed Red Sox team in 1919 to the New York Yankees. Since 1923, the Yankees have compiled 27 World Series championships (with the St. Louis Cardinals being second, having won 11 between 1926 and 2011), and the 1980s are the only decade so far in which they have failed to win at least one title.
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Black Sox Scandal The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball match fixing incident in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally losing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate led by Arnold Rothstein. The fallout from the scandal resulted in the appointment of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first Commissioner of Baseball, granting him absolute control over the sport in order to restore its integrity.
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1931 Philadelphia Athletics season The 1931 Philadelphia Athletics season involved the A's finishing first in the American League with a record of 107 wins and 45 losses. It was the team's third consecutive pennant-winning season and its third consecutive season with over 100 wins. However the A's lost the 1931 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. The series loss prevented the Athletics from becoming the first major league baseball team to win three consecutive World Series; the New York Yankees would accomplish the feat a mere seven years later. The Athletics, ironically, would eventually earn their own threepeat in 1974, some forty-three years after the failed 1931 attempt.