1986 MLB season | |
---|---|
League | Major League Baseball |
Sport | Baseball |
Duration | April 7 – October 27, 1986 |
Number of games | 162 |
Number of teams | 26 |
TV partner(s) | ABC, NBC |
Draft | |
Top draft pick | Jeff King |
Picked by | Pittsburgh Pirates |
Regular Season | |
Season MVP | AL: Roger Clemens (BOS) NL: Mike Schmidt (PHI) |
Postseason | |
AL champions | Boston Red Sox |
AL runners-up | California Angels |
NL champions | New York Mets |
NL runners-up | Houston Astros |
World Series | |
Champions | New York Mets |
Runners-up | Boston Red Sox |
World Series MVP | Ray Knight (NYM) |
The 1986 Major League Baseball season saw the New York Mets win their second World Series title, their first since 1969.
Statistic | American League | National League | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
AVG | Wade Boggs BOS | .357 | Tim Raines MTL | .334 |
HR | Jesse Barfield TOR | 40 | Mike Schmidt PHI | 37 |
RBI | Joe Carter CLE | 121 | Mike Schmidt PHI | 119 |
Wins | Roger Clemens BOS | 24 | Fernando Valenzuela LA | 21 |
ERA | Roger Clemens BOS | 2.48 | Mike Scott HOU | 2.22 |
SO | Mark Langston SEA | 245 | Mike Scott HOU | 306 |
SV | Dave Righetti NYY | 46 | Todd Worrell STL | 36 |
SB | Rickey Henderson NYY | 87 | Vince Coleman STL | 107 |
American League
| National League
|
League Championship Series (ALCS, NLCS) | World Series | ||||||||
East | Boston | 4 | |||||||
West | California | 3 | |||||||
AL | Boston | 3 | |||||||
NL | NY Mets | 4 | |||||||
East | NY Mets | 4 | |||||||
West | Houston | 2 |
Team Name | Wins | %± | Home attendance | %± | Per Game | Est. Payroll | %± |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Los Angeles Dodgers [1] | 73 | -23.2% | 3,023,208 | -7.4% | 37,324 | $15,213,776 | 38.7% |
New York Mets [2] | 108 | 10.2% | 2,767,601 | 0.2% | 34,168 | $15,393,714 | 42.1% |
California Angels [3] | 92 | 2.2% | 2,655,872 | 3.4% | 32,389 | $14,427,258 | 0.0% |
St. Louis Cardinals [4] | 79 | -21.8% | 2,471,974 | -6.3% | 30,518 | $9,875,010 | -16.4% |
Toronto Blue Jays [5] | 86 | -13.1% | 2,455,477 | -0.5% | 30,315 | $12,801,047 | 37.2% |
Kansas City Royals [6] | 76 | -16.5% | 2,320,794 | 7.3% | 28,652 | $13,043,698 | 23.5% |
New York Yankees [7] | 90 | -7.2% | 2,268,030 | 2.4% | 28,350 | $18,494,253 | 29.9% |
Boston Red Sox [8] | 95 | 17.3% | 2,147,641 | 20.2% | 26,514 | $14,402,239 | 32.2% |
Baltimore Orioles [9] | 73 | -12.0% | 1,973,176 | -7.5% | 24,977 | $13,001,258 | 7.6% |
Philadelphia Phillies [10] | 86 | 14.7% | 1,933,335 | 5.6% | 24,167 | $11,590,166 | 8.9% |
Detroit Tigers [11] | 87 | 3.6% | 1,899,437 | -16.9% | 23,450 | $12,335,714 | 19.2% |
Chicago Cubs [12] | 70 | -9.1% | 1,859,102 | -14.0% | 23,239 | $17,208,165 | 35.5% |
San Diego Padres [13] | 74 | -10.8% | 1,805,716 | -18.3% | 22,293 | $11,380,693 | 1.7% |
Houston Astros [14] | 96 | 15.7% | 1,734,276 | 46.4% | 21,411 | $9,873,276 | -1.2% |
Cincinnati Reds [15] | 86 | -3.4% | 1,692,432 | -7.8% | 20,894 | $11,906,388 | 42.4% |
Texas Rangers [16] | 87 | 40.3% | 1,692,002 | 52.1% | 20,889 | $6,743,119 | -12.2% |
San Francisco Giants [17] | 83 | 33.9% | 1,528,748 | 86.7% | 18,873 | $8,947,000 | 8.8% |
Cleveland Indians [18] | 84 | 40.0% | 1,471,805 | 124.6% | 18,170 | $7,809,500 | 19.2% |
Chicago White Sox [19] | 72 | -15.3% | 1,424,313 | -14.7% | 17,584 | $10,418,819 | 5.8% |
Atlanta Braves [20] | 72 | 9.1% | 1,387,181 | 2.7% | 17,126 | $17,102,786 | 15.5% |
Oakland Athletics [21] | 76 | -1.3% | 1,314,646 | -1.5% | 15,839 | $9,779,421 | 8.0% |
Milwaukee Brewers [22] | 77 | 8.5% | 1,265,041 | -7.0% | 15,813 | $9,943,642 | -11.9% |
Minnesota Twins [23] | 71 | -7.8% | 1,255,453 | -24.0% | 15,499 | $9,498,167 | 64.8% |
Montreal Expos [24] | 78 | -7.1% | 1,128,981 | -24.9% | 14,112 | $11,103,600 | 17.2% |
Seattle Mariners [25] | 67 | -9.5% | 1,029,045 | -8.8% | 12,549 | $5,958,309 | 29.2% |
Pittsburgh Pirates [26] | 64 | 12.3% | 1,000,917 | 36.0% | 12,357 | $10,938,500 | 18.0% |
Network | Day of week | Announcers |
---|---|---|
ABC | Monday nights Sunday afternoons | Al Michaels, Jim Palmer, Tim McCarver, Keith Jackson, Don Drysdale |
NBC | Saturday afternoons | Vin Scully, Joe Garagiola, Bob Costas, Tony Kubek |
The 2005 Major League Baseball season was notable for the league's new steroid policy in the wake of the BALCO scandal, which enforced harsher penalties than ever before for steroid use in Major League Baseball. Several players, including veteran Rafael Palmeiro, were suspended under the new policy. Besides steroids it was also notable that every team in the NL East finished the season with at least 81 wins. Additionally it was the first season featuring a baseball team in Washington, D.C. since the second iteration of the Washington Senators last played there in 1971; the Washington Nationals had moved from Montreal, the first relocation of a team in 34 years and currently the last time this has occurred in the majors.
The 1985 Major League Baseball season ended with the Kansas City Royals defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh game of the I-70 World Series. Bret Saberhagen, the regular season Cy Young Award winner, was named MVP of the Series. The National League won the All-Star Game for the second straight year.
The 1997 Major League Baseball season was the inaugural season for Interleague play, as well as the final season in the American League for the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to the NL the following season. The California Angels changed their name to the Anaheim Angels. The Florida Marlins ended the season as the World Champions defeating the Cleveland Indians in a seven-game World Series, four games to three.
The 1998 Major League Baseball season ended with the New York Yankees sweeping the San Diego Padres in the World Series, after they had won a then AL record 114 regular season games. The Yankees finished with 125 wins for the season, which remains the MLB record.
The 1999 Major League Baseball season ended with the New York Yankees sweeping the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.
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.
The 1994 Major League Baseball season began on April 3, but ended prematurely on August 11, 1994 with the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike. The season started despite the expiration of MLB's previous collective bargaining agreement at the end of 1993. It was the first season played under the current three-division format in each league. It was also the first with an Opening Night game involving two National League teams, which did not become permanent until 1996.
The 1988 Major League Baseball season ended with the underdog Los Angeles Dodgers shocking the Oakland Athletics, who had won 104 games during the regular season, in the World Series. The most memorable moment of the series came in Game 1, when injured Dodger Kirk Gibson hit a dramatic pinch-hit walk-off home run off Athletics closer Dennis Eckersley to win the game for Los Angeles. The Dodgers went on to win the Series in five games.
The 1992 Major League Baseball season saw the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the Atlanta Braves in the World Series, becoming the first team outside the United States to win the World Series.
The 1989 Major League Baseball season saw the Oakland Athletics win their first World Series title since 1974.
The 1987 Major League Baseball season ended with the American League Champion Minnesota Twins winning the World Series over the National League Champion St. Louis Cardinals, four games to three, as all seven games were won by the home team.
The 1984 Major League Baseball season started with a 9-game winning streak by the eventual World Series champions Detroit Tigers who started the season with 35 wins and 5 losses and never relinquished the first place lead.
The 1982 Major League Baseball season. Making up for their playoff miss of the year before, the St. Louis Cardinals won their ninth World Series championship, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers, four games to three.
The 1980 Major League Baseball season concluded with the Philadelphia Phillies winning their first World Series championship.
The 1979 Major League Baseball season. None of the post-season teams of 1977 or 1978 returned to this year's postseason. In a re-match of the 1971 World Series, the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Baltimore Orioles in seven games in the 1979 World Series.
The 1977 Major League Baseball season. The American League (AL) had its third expansion as the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays began play. 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 1970 Major League Baseball season: The Seattle Pilots relocated to Milwaukee and became the Brewers, thus returning Major League Baseball to Wisconsin for the first time since the relocation of the Milwaukee Braves to Atlanta following the 1965 season. Major League Baseball returned to Seattle in 1977, when the Mariners began play.
The 1964 Major League Baseball season was played from April 13 to October 15, 1964. This season is often remembered for the end of the New York Yankees' third dynasty, as they won their 29th American League Championship in 44 seasons. However, the Yankees lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. As of 2022, the Cardinals are the only National League team to have an edge over the Yankees in series played (3–2), amongst the non-expansion teams.
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 1944 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 18 to October 9, 1944. The St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns were the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. In an all-St. Louis postseason, the Cardinals then defeated the Browns in the World Series, four games to two.