Word: season
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Rarely have so many late-September games held the potential to make such an epic difference for so many teams. In all of baseball's four divisions, the pennant races will not be officially decided until this week, the final seven days of the season. Only the San Francisco Giants, astride the National League West, possess breathing room ahead of the late-charging San Diego Padres. Powered by outfielder Kevin Mitchell (46 homers) and first baseman Will Clark (109 RBIs), the Giants may boast the game's most titanic twosome since the Yankee era of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle...
...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...
...indestructible shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., the O's represent an amalgam of rookies and major-league rejects. A typical lineup includes six players who have been released or traded cheaply by other teams. | Jeff Ballard, their junk-balling star pitcher, had a career record of 10-20 before this season. Cleanup hitter Mickey Tettleton never clubbed more than eleven homers in a year; in '89 he already has 25. As the O's clubhouse T shirts...
Talent will triumph over adversity. The Oakland A's were the preseason favorites in the American League West. Even after moody slugger Jose Canseco missed the first half of the season and superstar stopper Dennis Eckersley soon joined him on the disabled list, manager Tony La Russa kept the Bay Area Bombers at the head of the pack. Now Eckersley and Canseco (who just unveiled a 900 number for fan calls) are back, joined by the sultan of swipe, base stealer Rickey Henderson, rescued from the clutches of the New York Yankees. Still, the A's must shake...
...East, Zimmer can relax enough to tell his ball club, "If you're not enjoying this, you should get a real job." The mood is infectious, whether it is .300-hitting first baseman Mark Grace describing the pennant race as "really neat" or rookie phenom Dwight Smith likening the season to a "dream." Only one thing stands between the Cubs and ecstasy: the ragtag St. Louis Cardinals, managed by Whitey Herzog, the game's resident genius...