Definition of Pennant Race

In baseball, a pennant race refers to the battle between teams in a division or league for the championship. The term pennant is a reference to a banner or flag that the winning team is traditionally allowed to display over their stadium if they win a championship.

  1. Pre-1969

    • Prior to 1969, each league of Major League Baseball--the National and the American--crowned one winner that would play in the World Series. The team that ended up the best won-loss record would win the pennant race, with a playoff sometimes needed if there was a tie when the regular season ended.

    Divisional play

    • Starting in 1969, both leagues went to divisional play, dividing up the teams into eastern and western divisions. Teams within a division raced for a pennant, then met in a playoff series to determine the league champion.

    More divisions

    • In 1994, baseball further divided the teams into eastern, central, and western divisions. This meant that there would be three separate divisional pennant races within each league, followed by a post-season that involved the successful clubs and the one with the next best record--a wild-card team.

    History

    • Two of the most exciting pennant races were the 1951 race in the National League between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers and the four-way affair in the American League in 1967 won by the Boston Red Sox. Other great pennant races occurred in 1947 between the Red Sox and New York Yankees in the AL and in 1962 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in the NL.

    Expert Insight

    • The Yankees have won a total of 39 American League pennants as of June 2009. Of all the teams in baseball, only the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals have been unable to win a pennant race as of this writing.