Definition of a Baseball Pennant Race

A baseball pennant race is the competition for a baseball title within the American and National Leagues of Major League Baseball. The term came about due to the fact that the winning club is allowed to fly a pennant at its stadium.

  1. Modern pennant races

    • Modern pennant races are decided through a playoff system that involves the three winners of each division as well as a wild-card team from each league. The wild card is the non-division winning team that has the best record in the league. The playoffs in each league are broken down into a pair of Divisional Series, with the winners of those meeting in a League Championship Series to decide the pennant.

    Pre-1969

    • Before 1969 the team with the best record in each league would be declared the pennant winner. This made for some exciting pennant races and caused the baseball played in September between teams near the top to be extremely exciting.

    1967

    • The pennant race in the American League that is regarded as the most thrilling is the 1967 pennant race that featured four teams within striking distance as the campaign wore down. The Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, and Boston Red Sox all were in a tight pack coming down the stretch, with Boston winning the pennant on the final day of the season.

    1951

    • The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants were in an exhilarating pennant race in 1951; the two teams finished the regular season with identical 96-58 records. The three-game playoff to determine the National League pennant was won by the Giants when, in the bottom of the ninth inning of the deciding contest, Bobby Thompson erased a Dodger lead with a three-run home run.

    Famous collapses

    • Sometimes how a team loses a pennant race is more memorable than how others win one. In 1964 the Philadelphia Phillies lost the NL pennant despite leading the St. Louis Cardinals by six and a half games with 13 left to play. Likewise the Red Sox led the New York Yankees by more than a dozen games as late as July in 1978 but lost the American League East pennant when they were defeated in a one game playoff by New York.