Word: playoff
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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After 162 games, the baseball playoffs begin today. By another quirk of fate, it just so happens that in this decade, all four of this year's playoff teams have been at the threshold of a world championship but have been unable to cross it. All four have smelled the roses, but none of them got to keep them, much less the trophy. Or the rings. And their fans could smell the roses...
...natural superiority of baseball can be expressed in two electric words: pennant races. The daily games through September and the all-or-nothing arithmetic of a sport still unsullied by complex playoff pairings give baseball a dramatic structure without parallel. Last week, as the California Angels gamely struggled to overtake the Oakland A's, Bert Blyleven, the bearded 38-year-old ace of the pitching staff, said, "This is what everybody plays for, to go into the last week of the season and have the games make a difference...
...always been my ambitiion to play professional hockey and hopefully my NCAA playoff performance will earn me an opportunity with a pro team," said Krayer, who lost his remaining collegiate eligibility...
...Yanks had done the impossible, gaining more than 10 games on the Sox since the middle of August to force the playoff at Fenway Park. Bucky Dent had done the impossible, depositing a home run over Yaz's head into the net behind the Green Monster, putting the Yanks ahead. And the Red Sox, hoping to do the impossible, were down to their last out against Goose Gossage...
...final swing in a playoff game. A lazy pop foul to third baseman Craig Nettles. And the Yankees and Yankee fans (at the time, myself included) rejoiced their own "impossible dream...