Scoreboards

• The most exciting wild card playoffs took place in the shadow of the 1998 home run race
• This expansion wild card team captured the World Series twice in its short existence
• Four teams have progressed from the wild card tournament to the championship

Wild Card Playoffs amidst the Sosa/McGwire Homerun Record

Lost in the mania of who would wear the single-season home run crown was the Chicago Cubs battling for a wild card berth. While McGwire could swing for the fence, Sosa was required to hit for power and average. Would the result have been different? We’ll never know. Sosa actually looked like he was going to hold the record for a while until McGwire went on a tear and hit five homeruns on his last 19 swings of the bat.

Sosa had other things on his mind as his Cubs were attempting to become a wild card team. Not only that, he was trying to break his streak of 1,247 games without a playoff appearance. Here he was in one of the most exciting races of all-time and he had never been in a playoff game…not even as a wildcard team. Sosa and the Cubs succeeded by beating the San Francisco Giants in a wild card game 5 – 3.

Florida Marlins: The Most Successful Wild Card Team

The Florida Marlins entered the league in 1993 and by 1997 they had won their first wild card playoffs. This first foray into baseball’s postseason resulted in their first World Series championship. It was also the first time since the format was implemented in 1995 that a wild card team had won the Fall Classic. The Marlins promptly traded away the bulk of their players due to financial reasons amid much criticism. They rebuilt their team and in 2003 won the wild card tournament to make it to the postseason for a second time. The Marlins season was complete when they finished with their second World Series win.

Wild Card Teams Battle for the World Series

The 2002 NL and AL wild card playoffs resulted in the San Francisco Giants and Anaheim Angels making the postseason. Both teams progressed through the playoffs winning their respective series and capturing the pennant for each league. This culminated in a West Coast World Series match-up. This was the first time that two wild card teams met in the World Series.

The Giants appeared to have the Fall Classic well in hand leading the series 3 – 2 and holding a 5 – 0 lead in game 6. In the bottom of the seventh, the Angels exploded for three runs and added another three in the eighth to win the game. The Angels captured the World Series over a “dumbfounded” Giants team the following game.

In 2004, the wild card team Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in 4 games to win the World Series. The Cardinals made the playoffs with the best won-loss record in the National League while Red Sox squeaked in through the wild card playoffs. In the American League finals, the Red Sox came back from a three game deficit to the Yankees and won four straight games to take the pennant.