Presented by BBSI BOISE.
This Day In Sports…July 10, 1968:
Major League Baseball announces that each league will split into East and West divisions for the first time the following season. The move was spurred by MLB’s second expansion, with the San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos joining the National League and the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots debuting in the American League in 1969. That created one round of playoffs—the NL and AL Championship Series. And it paid off immediately, as fans were locked in on the New York Mets, who swept the Atlanta Braves in the first NLCS, three games-to-none. The Amazin’ Mets went on to win the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles.
Wild card teams were added to the playoffs in 1994, creating the first Divisional Series as the NL and AL went from two to three divisions each. The one-game Wild Card playoff was added in 2012, expanding the postseason field from eight teams to 10. And in 2021, two more playoff teams were added, with the two clubs in each league with the best record getting a bye. The Wild Card round became a best-of-three series at the same time.
The National and American Leagues had played with eight teams apiece for 60 years starting in 1901—then the AL went to 10 in 1961 with the addition of the Los Angeles Angels and the expansion version of the Washington Senators. The NL followed suit in 1962 when the New York Mets and Houston Colt 45s joined the league. And since 1903, the winner of each league had gone directly to the World Series. Until 1997, the Fall Classic was the only time teams from the two leagues would face each other in games that counted.
Back to 1969, and the Seattle Pilots sidebar. Non-aficionados of the sports may not know that Seattle had an MLB team before the Mariners. The Pilots played at Sick’s Stadium, a minor league ballpark that used to house the Pacific Coast League’s Seattle Rainiers. It was not ready for prime time. The Pilots and Royals were supposed to join the AL in 1971, but Missouri Senator Stuart Symington used his influence to move the timeline up two years. That was fine for K.C., but not for Seattle. Stands were hurriedly added to Sick’s, which seated 19,000 on Opening Day and 25,000 in June. The stadium’s water system couldn’t handle crowds of more than 8,000. You can only imagine.
The Pilots’ 68-94 record and last-place finish in the new AL West was overshadowed by the franchise’s financial crisis. Efforts at an ownership change into early 1970 were unsuccessful, and the Pilots—with their players already at spring training in Arizona—declared bankruptcy. The American League took control of the franchise and sold it to Milwaukee car dealer (and future baseball commissioner) Bud Selig. Trucks loaded with the Pilots’ equipment had been sitting in Provo, waiting for instructions on whether to drive to Seattle or Milwaukee. You know which way they went. In one week’s time, the franchise became the Milwaukee Brewers.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
