1971 Pittsburgh Pirates
To qualify their Cinderella-hood, I should begin by stating that the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates were plenty great. They won 97 regular season games and buzzed throughout the San Francisco Giants in a four-game NLCS.
But the Baltimore Oriole team they faced in that year’s World Series was another monster, a 101-win titan that featured four 20-game winners.
When the O’s took the first two matches, most people penciled the defending champs in for a repeat.
Then the unlikely, a three-game run that saw them beat Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson and Dave McNally to be able. After dropping Game 6, the Pirates responded with a Game 7 road win that would cement one of the great upsets in Series history.
1995 Seattle Mariners
Prior to 1995, the Seattle Mariners had finished over .500 only twice in their 18-year existence rather than qualified for the playoffs.
With every losing effort, the prospect of baseball in the Pacific Northwest grew dimmer and dimmer. This was, after all, the town that had lost its first franchise, the Seattle Pilots, after just 1 season.
Midway during that strike-shortened ???95 season, it seemed like more of the same. On August 20, the Mariners were 53-53 and 12.5 games behind the first-place California Angels.
Subsequently the improbable, a scorching run over the season’s final month and shift together with a epic Angels collapse. The clubs finished the regular season tied, and Seattle capped the comeback by winning a one-game playoff.
In the franchise’s first playoff series they dropped the opening two games to the Yankees before lifting another furious comeback to force a decisive Game 5. After there, Seattle place a cherry atop their improbable season by walking-off contrary to New York at the bottom of the 11th inning.
The Mariners would shed in the ALCS to the Cleveland Indians, but too much good came in the ???95 season to end on such a sour note.
Randy Johnson became a celebrity, Edgar Martinez struck the highest high of his remarkable career, and the indelible image of Ken Griffey Jr. giggling under an onslaught of teammates signaled baseball salvation in Seattle.
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