jwz@ttrdc.UUCP (James Zubert) (09/27/85)
Hi again!
Well, there I go again, looks like I made another mistake! In the list
of division winners since 1969 under the year of 1980, I mistyped the number
of games for the American League LCS. The Royals swept the Yanks in three (3)
games. It also appears, from the number of flames that I have received, that
Houston and not the Dodgers won the NL West in 1980. Unfortunately, I can not
verify my mistake (must have read it wrong), since the source that the list was
compiled from, the "WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA YEAR BOOKS" has been packed away
by my helpful wife (We're moving in "only" 2 months!) However, Houston does
seem right as a divisional winner for that year, so I agree that this change
should be made to the list that I posted. I apologize for the mistake.
As a side note, wasn't there a year where the Astros and Dodgers had to
meet in a playoff game to decide the Division championship?
Anyway, I had hoped to show some interesting things (at least to me)
about past division winners. For instance, from '82-'83-'84, of 12 divisional
titles, there are 12 different teams that won. If you go back 4 years to '81
the "score" is 15 out of 16 (the Dodgers won twice). Now, if you add the
possibilities for this year, only KC has a chance to repeat from '84, and
Toronto and St. Louis hang on (are the Yanks dead?) the "score" from '81 would
be 16 out of 20! If you add the Mets, it becomes 17 different teams out of
20! In prior years however, one or more teams generally repeated from one
year to the next ('78-'79-'80 is an exception, but is still in recent years).
Will this be a continuing trend? Is the time of the dynasty dead in baseball?
Why is there such a change from years past?
One glaring change in baseball that occured during these years is
the advent of free agency. I don't believe that this is the only reason, but
I do feel it is a major contributor to these changes. This is not a blast
against free agency, just merely a comment. Other reasons may be the fact
that enough ball players had "career" years that particular year, enough to
push them over the top (has parity reached baseball?) Another possible reason
is that team owners reward their top players with contract extensions or an
additional bonus, thereby reducing the ballplayers' "desire" for the following
year (a Chi-Sox example). Injuries also can play a big part in the revolving
door of divisional championship teams of recent years (a Chi-Cubs example.)
Any other ideas or opinions out there in net land concerning the up and
down seasons that most ball clubs have from one year to the next? I am
interested in this area and I would welcome discussion, either through E-mail
or by posting.
It should also be noted that '78 is the only year that all four division
winners repeated from the year before, and from '76-'78, there were only 5
different teams to appear in post season play out of 12 possibilities. Maybe
there hasn't been quite as much dominance by certain teams for consecutive
years as it seems like it used to be!
Sorry again for the 1980 screw up. The posted list, except for 1980, now
agrees with my little scratch paper of divisional champions. That does not
necessarily mean that my scratch paper is totally accurate. If you see any
other mistakes, please let me know.
jcs at !ihnp4!ttrdc!jwz