Baseball's Biggest Chokers Ever
Five MLB Teams That Collpsed on the Way to a Championship
The Phillies, the Red Sox, the Angels and the Cubs have all choked miserably in historic playoff races. Here are their stories. And one bonus tale about the 2004 ALCS.
In the wake of the New York Mets historic collapse in the National League East, Suite101 Baseball takes a look at five other teams that have choked -- and choked badly --down the stretch. Here are four of the most memorable collapses, and one bonus piece concerning the worst playoff collapse in baseball history.
On July 19, 1978, the New York Yankees were 14 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League's East Division. Frustrated with the mediocre performance of his highly paid star-laden ball cub, George Steinbrenner forced the resignation of manager Billy Martin on July 23, and replaced him with Bob Lemon. The team immediately responded to the switch by winning 19 and losing just 8 in the month of August.
By the time September 7th rolled around, the Yankees had closed the gap to four ganes as they headed into Fenway Park for a make or break four game series. In a homestand that will probably never be forgotten by either franchise, the Yankees blew the doors off the Red Sox, winning all four games by a combined score of 42-8. The sweep became forever known in baseball circles as the "Boston Massacre."
The two teams eventually finished the season with identical 99-63 records, and thus had to meet in a one game playoff at Fenway Park to determine which team would move on to the playoffs and which team would go home for the winter. The Yankees won the game 5-4, largely on the back of a seventh inning three-run homer from their light-hitting shortstop Bucky Dent.
When the last out was recorded, the Yankees had overcome the greatest deficit in baseball history, and once again, it seemed that the Curse of the Babe had struck directly at the collective heart of the Beantown faithful.
1964 Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies held a 6 1/2 game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals with only twelve games remaining in the 1964 season. Manager Gene Mauch was already getting his World Series pitching rotation in order for what seemed to be an inevitable Fall Classic matchup with Mickey Mantle's New York Yankees.
Philadelphians eagerly looked forward to their team's first World Series appearance since the Whiz Kids had won the N.L. Pennant in 1950. But then the team collapsed in historic fashion, and it was very, very ugly.
They lost 10 games in a row, and saw their lead over St. Louis disappear completely. When it was all said and done, the Cardinals were 93-69, and the Phillies were 92-70. The agonizing collapse crippled baseball in Cheesesteak Town for more than a dozen years. The team wouldn't return to the postseason until the 1976 Phillies won the National League East.
1969 Chicago Cubs
In the first year of divisional play, the Chicago Cubs held a 9 1/2 game lead over the Mets in mid-August. The Cubs seemed poised to earn their first post-season birth since they had been stricken by the Curse of the Goat in 1945. But in that memorable last year of the hippie decade, it seemed an almost certainty that the curse was about to be broken.
But then came the big collapse. The Cubs stumbled in the latter half of August, and then completely sucked wind in September, posting an 8-17 record while the Mets got hot and stayed hot. In the end, the Cubs, who had onced owned a seemingly insurmountable lead with just six weeks to go, finished eight games behind the Metropolitans. It would be another fiteen years before the Cubs made it back to the playoffs.
1995 California Angels
The Angels were literally running away with the American League West in 1995. With only six weeks to play, the team held an 11 1/2 game lead over the Seattle Mariners.
But then the Angels faltered badly, losing 27 of the final 39 games of the season. Meanwhile the Mariners, who were led by the wrecking crew of Ken Griffey, Edgar Martinez, Tino Martinez, Jay Buhner and a 20-year old shortstop named Alex Rodriguez, caught fire. They won 24 of their final 36 games and forced a one game playoff to determine which team would move on to postseason play.
The Mariners won the game 9-1 as Randy Johnson pitched a gem, striking out twelve batters and surrendering just three hits and one run. It would be seven more years before the Angels made the postseason.
Bonus: The 2004 New York Yankees
Sure, it happened in the postseason and not in a race for the postseason, but it would be criminally remiss to ignore the worst collapse, nay, the worst choke in baseball histoy. After the first three games of the 2004 American League Championship Series, the New York Yankees led the Boston Red Sox three games to none. The fact that the Yanks won Game 3 by a score 19-8 made a series victory seem inevitable.
But then the Yankees throats tightened up. They lost Game 4 when David Ortiz hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the twelfth inning off reliever Mariano Rivera. Then it got worse. The Sox won Game 5 when Ortiz had another game-winning walk-off hit, this one an RBI single in the bottom of the 14th inning.
Curt Schilling then beat the Yankees in Game 6 in the famous (and now questioned) "bloody sock" game, and Boston finished off the Bombers in a 10-3 blowout in Game 7.
With the choke complete, the Curse of the Babe seemed to have been reversed, and Boston rode their euphoria to a four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.
Although Met fans can take some comfort in the fact that they are not alone in the annals of baseball history, their loss of a seven game lead with just seventeen to play will not be forgotten for a long, long time.
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