The 2003 Major League Baseball season ended when the Florida Marlins defeated the New York Yankees in a six-game World Series. The Detroit Tigers set the American League record for losses in a season, with 119, and the Marlins became the first team to win the championship twice as a wild card.
The 2001 Major League Baseball season finished with the Arizona Diamondbacks defeating the New York Yankees in seven games for the World Series championship. The September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. pushed the end of the regular season from September 30 to October 7. Because of the attacks, the World Series was not completed until November 4. The 2001 World Series was the first World Series to end in November.
The 1996 Major League Baseball season was the final season of league-only play before the beginning of interleague play the following season. The season ended with the New York Yankees defeating the defending champion Atlanta Braves in six games for the World Series title, the Yankees' first championship since 1978. The record for most home runs hit in an MLB regular season, set at 4,458 in 1987, was broken, as the AL and NL combined to hit 4,962 home runs. Only 196 shutouts were recorded in the 2,266 MLB regular-season games. This was the first season in the Divisional Series era to be played to the full 162 games, as the 1994–95 player's strike caused the first two seasons of the era to be abbreviated.
Entering the season as the three-time defending World Series champions, the Oakland Athletics' 1975 season involved the A's winning their fifth consecutive American League West title with a record of 98 wins and 64 losses. They went on to play the Boston Red Sox in the 1975 American League Championship Series, losing in three straight games.
The 1961 Kansas City Athletics season was a season in American baseball. In their seventh season in Kansas City, the 61st overall for the franchise, the A's finished with a record of 61–100, tying the expansion Washington Senators for ninth place, last in the newly expanded 10-team American League. The A's finished nine games behind the league's other expansion team, the Los Angeles Angels and 47+1⁄2 games behind the World Champion New York Yankees.
The 1969 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 7 to October 16, 1969. It included the third Major League Baseball expansion of the decade, with the Kansas City Royals, Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres, and Seattle Pilots each beginning play this season. The season was also celebrated as the 100th anniversary of professional baseball, honoring the first professional touring baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869.
The 1986 Major League Baseball season saw the New York Mets win their second World Series title, their first since 1969.
The 1983 Major League Baseball season ended with the Baltimore Orioles defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in the fifth game of the World Series. Rick Dempsey was named MVP of the Series. The All-Star Game was held on July 6 at Comiskey Park; the American League won by a score of 13–3, with California Angels outfielder Fred Lynn being named MVP. As of 2024 this remains the most recent season where no player hit for the cycle in a game.
The 1968 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 10 to October 10, 1968. It was the final year of baseball's pre-expansion era, in which the teams that finished in first place in each league went directly to the World Series to face each other for the "World Championship."
The 1959 Major League Baseball season was played from April 9 to October 9, 1959. It saw the Los Angeles Dodgers, free of the strife produced by their move from Brooklyn the previous season, rebound to win the National League pennant after a two-game playoff against the Milwaukee Braves, who themselves had moved from Boston in 1953. The Dodgers won the World Series against a Chicago White Sox team that had not played in the "Fall Classic" since 1919 and was interrupting a Yankees' dynasty that dominated the American League between 1949 and 1964.
The 1977 Major League Baseball season saw the American League (AL) having its third expansion, as the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays began play, with Seattle returning to the MLB fold after a seven-year absence when the Pilots relocated to Milwaukee to become the Brewers. However, the National League (NL) did not expand, remaining at 12 teams compared to the AL's 14, until the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins joined the NL in 1993.
The 1974 Major League Baseball season: The Oakland Athletics won their third consecutive World Series, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to one.
The 1966 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 11 to October 9, 1966. The Braves played their inaugural season in Atlanta, following their relocation from Milwaukee. Three teams played the 1966 season in new stadiums. On April 12, the Braves ushered in Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium with the Pittsburgh Pirates taking a 3–2 win in 13 innings. One week later, Anaheim Stadium opened with the California Angels losing to the Chicago White Sox, 3–1 in the Angels' debut following their move from Los Angeles to nearby Orange County. On May 8, the St. Louis Cardinals closed out old Sportsman's Park/Busch Stadium I with a 10–5 loss to the San Francisco Giants before opening the new Busch Memorial Stadium four days later with a 4–3 win in 12 innings over the Atlanta Braves.
The 1967 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 10 to October 12, 1967. The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Boston Red Sox four games to three in the World Series, which was the first World Series appearance for the Red Sox in 21 years. Following the season, the Kansas City Athletics relocated to Oakland.
The 1954 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 13 to October 2, 1954. For the second consecutive season, an MLB franchise relocated, as the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles, who played their home games at Memorial Stadium.
The 1953 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 13 to October 12, 1953. It marked the first relocation of an MLB franchise in fifty years, as the Boston Braves moved their NL franchise to Milwaukee, where they would play their home games at the new County Stadium. This was also the first regular season of the televised Major League Baseball Game of the Week, originally broadcast on ABC.
The 1973 Major League Baseball season was the first season of the designated hitter rule in the American League.
The 1952 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 15 to October 7, 1952. The Braves were playing their final season in Boston, before the team relocated to Milwaukee the following year, thus, ending fifty seasons without any MLB team relocating.
The 1971 Major League Baseball season was the final season for the Senators in Washington, D.C., before the team's relocation to the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb Arlington for the following season, as the Texas Rangers, leaving the nation's capital without a baseball team of its own until 2005.
The 1976 Major League Baseball season ended with the Cincinnati Reds winning their second consecutive World Series championship.
