Hello, and welcome to my column about positivity. Please leave all negative feelings at the door as they won’t be tolerated.
Lol, just kidding, I’m a super negative person. I’m Irish, an attorney, and a Kansas City sports fan. I never stood a chance.
But sometimes I have these terrible bouts of optimism. They’re rare, and rarer do they come to fruition, but despite my nature/nurture, these feelings hit me like a piano falling five stories and landing on top of my head.
With that in mind, I looked back
through the history of baseball (mainly the Wild Card Era) to find some teams that started off oh so slowly before kicking into gear and either making some noise down the stretch or winning the whole damn thing. This is not an exhaustive list, just some teams I found interesting.
As the late, great Lou Brown once said about winning streaks, “It has happened before.”
The 2019 Washington Nationals started 19-31 before finishing 74-38, which still wasn’t enough to capture the National League East, but did enable them to get into the playoffs as a Wild Card. After wins against the Brewers, Dodgers, and Cardinals, the Nationals knocked off the Astros in seven games to win the World Series. Led on offense by a 20-year-old Juan Soto and contract-year Anthony Rendon (I’m sure he did well with his next team), the Nats received excellent pitching from Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, and Mad Max Scherzer.
Go back eight years to that September, and the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals were 10.5 games back on September 5. A furious month capped by a maddening final day of the season boosted them into the playoffs where they beat the Phillies and Brewers. They trailed the Rangers 7-5 in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the World Series before storming back and winning in extras, forcing a deciding Game 7 that resulted in a St. Louis championship.
In 2009, the Colorado Rockies were 12 games under .500 on June 3 with a record of 20-32. Led by star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado finished the season 90-72 before falling in the division series.
Two years earlier, the 2007 Colorado Rockies reached the World Series only to lose to the Boston Red Sox. But on May 21st, the playoffs, let alone the World Series, looked out of reach, as a loss to the Diamondbacks dropped them to 18-27. In June, the Rockies lost eight straight. Despite all that, they swept the Phillies and Diamondbacks on their way to capturing the pennant.
On May 27, 2005, the Houston Astros, then still in the National League, were 15 games under .500 at 16-31. Yet, they finished the season 83-73-1 (yes, they finished with a tie) before taking out the Braves and Cardinals to win the pennant. But then the future Pope showed up and the fun ended.
Let’s get back to another World Series winner: the 2003 Marlins were 19-29 after a loss on May 22nd and had just fired their manager, Jeff Torberg. But under new manager Jack McKeon (who managed the Royals for two-and-a-half seasons in the 70s), the Marlins finished 72-42 before preventing the awful Cubs and equally awful Yankees from winning the pennant and World Series, respectively. Great work, Jack. Also: Moises would not have caught that ball, so says the Billy Goat.
Of course, there were major comebacks in the pre-Wild Card era, such as:
- The 1989 Toronto Blue Jays, who started 12-24 before (a) firing their manager and (b) finishing 77-49 to win the American League East.
- The 1974 Pittsburgh Pirates who were 14 games under .500 as late as June before reaching the pennant.
- The 1973 New York Mets who were 13 games under .500 in August before winning the pennant and losing the World Series in seven games.
Sure, things look dire for the Royals right now, but if those nine teams listed above prove anything, it’s that the season is 162 games long for a reason. It helps, sure, to start off strong, and most championship caliber teams do so.
But not all of them.
