What's your favorite team - ever?

[satchel]

Following our fearless leader's "Who's your favorite team" thread, it occurred to me to ask - what's your favorite team ever? What I mean is, the particular team-year that you love the most. It could be the team that brought your city a championship when you were a kid, or the team that had all your favorite players on it, the first team you followed, etc.

I'll start, though my answer will likely earn a :rolleyes: from some of the old-timers. For me, it's the 1998 Yankees. As I said on XD's thread I'm a lifelong Yanks fan, but I wasn't following baseball closely from '89-'96 or so. In 1998, I was living in Boston, in my second-to-last year of a miserable graduate school experience. The explosive greatness of that Yankees team was really a saving light for me and rekindled my lost interest in the game. It gave me something to think about and immerse myself in that was a hell of a lot more fun than the work I was doing in the lab. And that team was (for a Yankees fan) pretty easy to love.

What are yours?

[chrisfostermusi]

76 reds

[BuzzBuzzard]

'86 Mets, but only because I was prenatal in '69, although I'll take the '93-'94 NY Rangers over the Mets

[Xanadu Dragon]

Can't do it. It would be like asking a parent to pick their favorite kid.

[gyb13]

Originally posted by Xanadu Dragon
Can't do it. It would be like asking a parent to pick their favorite kid.
In how many of these teams have you played or coached? ;)

My pick is the same as Satch's. What can I say - I'm a Yankee fan, and I'm young.

[ChrisCary]

Originally posted by Xanadu Dragon
Can't do it. It would be like asking a parent to pick their favorite kid.

yeah, but parents often pick their first born son.



'76 Yankees.

First team I can remember....... Thurman Munson.

Lost the world series but I think it's good for a kid to know defeat before he tastes victory.

[Xanadu Dragon]

Still can't pick just one. I have been rooting for the Yankees for 28 seasons. There's a lot of special teams in there for me.

[TGwynn19]

'84 Padres. I was living in Iowa at the time and I had talked my Mom into driving me to Detroit to see a game. But a 14 year old has a hard time getting WS tickets. :(

[sweaver]

1972 Reds, because that was the year, at age 8, I became a fan. And they went all the way to Game 7.

[Skip]

Ditto 72 Reds. First year I got to attend a number of games, and I was old enough (10) to at least feel like I "got it"

[sweaver]

Skip, my blood brother. We must quaff a few in honor of Tony Perez.

[pic41]

The 1927 Yankees with Ruth and Gerhig in their primes have to be my favorites. Although i never saw them in person, I have managed them often in APBA baseball and my winning percentage is way over .700 and that is against other great teams.

[rza93]

1993 Yankees.

[BBapplepie]

Amazing Amazing Amazing 1969 METS

[Golden Bear]

The 1993 Phillies were a special team; bunch of kooky characters who almost all had career years. Fun, fun team to follow, even though they broke your heart in the end.

[satchel]

Originally posted by rza93
1993 Yankees.

why? I am just curious, as this wasn't a really really good team and as I recall not a terribly lovable one either. what makes them special to you?

[Xanadu Dragon]

Originally posted by satchel
why? I am just curious, as this wasn't a really really good team and as I recall not a terribly lovable one either. what makes them special to you?

Could have been Spike Owen - - no? :stinker:

[rza93]

Originally posted by satchel


why? I am just curious, as this wasn't a really really good team and as I recall not a terribly lovable one either. what makes them special to you?

because that team introduced me to baseball and yankees fever.
(well a friend of mine loved the yankees his whole life and introduced the interest of baseball to me that year.) everytime taking the 4 train with him to go to high school or going home, he would always talk about the yankees. and i started to follow that team and players like, mattingly, tartabull, stanley, and etc.
and i just fell in love with the yankees and later baseball.

[SmedIndy]

1969 Pilots
1977 Cubs
1899 Spiders
1919 White / Black Sox
1929 A's
1977 Blue Jays

[Skip]

Originally posted by sweaver
Skip, my blood brother. We must quaff a few in honor of Tony Perez.
Among others. Since we are adjacent we should meet up in Ashland or Lexington. If nothing else we can (I hope) trash the Pirates and Dodgers. :D

[Ytown Tribe fan]

1985 Royals.

My first team, growing up, was the Tribe of the early '60s. My dad took us to Pirates games from time to time, but he was always a dyed-in-the-wool Tribe fan, and he'd been following them since Feller was a rookie and Jack Graney was calling games on the radio.

The Giants were my local team in the mid-70's and I went overseas in the military for several years after that, settling in KC in the early '80s.

Watching the '85 Royals was thrilling -- George Brett, Saberhagen, Hal McRae, Quiz, "Bam-Bam" Biancalana, Lonnie Smith -- he was the key acquisition that season. The great ALCS against Toronto. After pulling that one out, every Royals fan KNEW that George and gang wouldn't let them lose the WS against the Cards. We just KNEW it. Somehow they would win.

The '95 Tribe is a close second.

[TGwynn19]

Originally posted by Ytown Tribe fan
1985 Royals.

. The great ALCS against Toronto. After pulling that one out, every Royals fan KNEW that George and gang wouldn't let them lose the WS against the Cards. We just KNEW it. Somehow they would win.


So you KNEW about the bribe to the 1B ump in game 6??? :D :p

[Ytown Tribe fan]

Oh, you must have that confused with the botched call in Game TWO of the WS -- the one that gave St. Louis the lead.

No one remembers THAT bad call. :p

[KCBOOMER]

Well, it would probably be the '56 Dodgers.

Runner up would be the '85 Royals.

[Fleet N. Ema]

I was in primary school in 1969 and MLB came to Canada for the first time! It was an amazing experience for a kid in a sports-crazy house.

1969 Expos by a bullet. They sucked, but I felt they were mine!

Best Regards

John

[WiredTiger]

1984 Detroit Tigers. The great start, the Morris no-hitter, Whitaker and Trammell always getting on that year, Willie Hernandez shutting the door every time, Kirk Gibson's Homer to close things out. As perfect of a season as a baseball fan could hope for.

The only thing that would have been better would have been to play the Cubs!

[Xanadu Dragon]

April 1984 - - remember it well - - everyday, wait for the Tigers to lose (as I was a Yankee fan) and they rarely did!

[mandamin]

1987 Twins. Not a great team, but for a kid in third grade who was really paying attention to baseball for the first time, to get to watch his team go all the way, that was just cool. A bunch of fun, colorful characters on that team, too. Puckett, Hrbek, Blyleven, Berenguer...fun stuff.
A close runner-up would be the 2000 (that's right, NOT 2001) Mariners. That was the first summer I spent out here (after going to college here for three years), and I got to go to a bunch of games at Safeco and watch Dave Niehaus narrate most of the rest, and it was a blast. Mariners' broadcasters and fans don't know a lick about baseball (generally speaking), but man, do they have a good time. Before Ichiro-mania, the Mariners were a team that had just lost Griffey and looked on paper like A-Rod and NOBODY else, and yet they kept winning. Nobody's going to remember them because they didn't have Ichiro and didn't win 116 games, but to me, after seven consecutive summers of sitting in a crowd of about fifteen and watching a bunch of glorified single A jokers fumbling the ball around the Metrodome, that team was very nearly the most fun I've ever had watching this game.

[WiredTiger]

Originally posted by Xanadu Dragon
April 1984 - - remember it well - - everyday, wait for the Tigers to lose (as I was a Yankee fan) and they rarely did!

I never felt the Tigers were in trouble at any point during the season... playoffs included. The Yankees didn't have a bad team that year either. Winfield, Baylor, Griff Sr., Niekro, Guidry, Mattingly.

[Rauseo]

The 45 Senators. They used a 4 man rotation, all 4 starters where Knuckleballers. Leonard, Niggeling, Haefner, Wolff. Offesnivly they kinda stunk, but they had some solid players. The always underrated Harlond Clift, Buddy Lewis, George Myatt. And one of the worst HoF'ers of all time Rick Ferrell.

[LeGrandOrange]

There are a couple teams I like.
For some reason, the first one is the 1986 Angels. What a geriatric club that was, but what a great group of geriatrics, Don Sutton, Bob Boone, Bobby Grich, George Hendrick, Rick Burleson, Doug DeCinces, Brian Downing, John Candelaria, and, of course, Reggie! Any team with Reggie is cool.
Throw in young Wallace Keith Joyner, who I need to give a NetShrine plug to, Mike Witt, Kirk McCaskill, and that blossoming reliever named Chuck Finley, not to mention the electric fielding of Gary Pettis, and you've got a hell of a group. :)
It's a shame they lost the LCS the way they did, because that was a great bunch.
(And I almost forgot Terry Forster, the Fat Tub of Goo. *g*)
Also, the 1995 Mariners are a team I have a soft spot for. I saw them clinch, reason enough to like them. The 2001 Mariners won 116, these guys only won 79 in a strike year, but I think they captured the hearts of fans in 1995 a lot more then 6 years later. It had the "brothers" Martinez, Little Joey, Bone, Blower Power, Dan the Man, Vince Coleman, and that Junior guy. And that Unit person as well. I'd be remissed if I forgot legendary Luis Sojo, with the "inside the park grand slam" that was a double and an error. So many reasons to like that team.

[satchel]

We have a lot of new posters since this thread died some 14 months ago, so I thought it would be fun to revive it.

What's your favorite team-year, and why?

[Skip]

Funny how time makes you think. I was tempted to change my vote to the '90 Reds. But as cool as that WS was, and as improbable, I didn't really follow the team as strongly during that season as I did in the 70's. I was a day-in/day-out Reds fan as a kid in the 70's. I lived and died by the Reds then. Following them in '72 is my earliest and most fond prolonged baseball memory ... so the vote stands.

[Skip]

I wonder what the correlation is between favorite team-year and age of voter! I'd bet most occured in the 10-16 year old age range. First vote - mine did. Second vote - Steve's didn't.

[clemente21]

Without a doubt, the 1990 White Sox.

It was my last year of graduate school, and I routinely worked weeknights from 2pm-4am. After hating the White Sox for years (first out of reflex of being a Cub fan, then because of LaRussa), I had started to become a Sox fan during their rebuilding '89 season. Those of you in Chicago remember the "Big Rock Candy Mountain" - Jeff Torborg used to be a guest at least once/week with Chet Coppock. Jeff Torborg and John Rooney's radio broadcasts pretty much helped me make the transition.

It was a team that finished the year with three starting hitters under 22 years old. Sosa and Ventura were in their first full years, and we had to wait impatiently for four months to see a 22-yo Frank Thomas - who promptly went out and put up .330 BA with a .983 OPS. It also had Bobby Thigpen saving 57 games.


My favorite team as a kid was the 77 Cubs. What a lousy bunch... Herman Franks in charge, 3 guys with a .800+ OPS... Manny Trillo was arguably their best overall non-pitcher. But, I was a 13-year-old without cable TV, and the Cubs were still the best thing on all summer...

[poorme]

your dime your dancefloor Clemente! That was a great year all around. early in the year, ventura went through like an 0-41 stretch. i was at the game, ventura broke the streak with a swinging bunt and got a standing ovation. next time up he took Clemens deep into the CF bullpen.

[BravesWin!]

1991 Braves...far and away

-Andrew

[JamesI]

1983 Baltimore Orioles. I was 9 years old, Cal Ripken was already my hero. Until a recent move where it disappeared O had a poster of Cal still in his Rochester Red Wings uniform...

[TimmyB]

Originally posted by Skip
I wonder what the correlation is between favorite team-year and age of voter! I'd bet most occured in the 10-16 year old age range. First vote - mine did. Second vote - Steve's didn't.

12 years old. You just don't forget your first love...

The '78 Red Sox (yes, really). I started watching in '76. '77 was a great pennant race between NY, Boston and Baltimore. When the '78 season started we all had high expectations. Boston had, arguably (and, man, did we argue), the best roster on paper. Everything is history, of course. July 12th. The Boston Massacre. The amazing comeback. The playoff. BuckyBleepingDent. I doubt I will ever care so much about a team as I did that year.

'86 is second, of course. The funny part about that is I had really ignored baseball from the '81 strike on. But, I had always liked KC, so I watched a lot of the '85 series and that had me ready for baseball again in the spring of '86. Excellent timing. Lousy ending.

My favorite vicarious season is the '67 Impossible Dream. I picked up the Impossible Dream album at a flea market in the summer of '80 and listened to that thing every day. Twice a day sometimes. I dreamt in Ken Coleman's voice when I slept that summer.

[JamesI]

Originally posted by Skip
I wonder what the correlation is between favorite team-year and age of voter! I'd bet most occured in the 10-16 year old age range. First vote - mine did. Second vote - Steve's didn't.

9 years old...close enough for ya?

[GGC]

1975 Red Sox. I was 7 at the time and this team was my introduction to baseball. They spoiled me. I expected the BoSox to go to the World Series a little more often than they have and maybe win one.

I would have been better off being 15 years older and exposed to those awful early 60's Sox, That may have helped me put things in perspective.

[rcartman28]

The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers aka "Harvey's Wallbangers". Even though they came up one game short, they were the most fun to watch. I was 23 that summer.

[sweaver]

And you can revisit those halcyon days here, in an extremely well-written remembrance. http://www.netshrine.com/hahnert.html

[Luis]

The 1962 Mets. They were entertaining.

[pwdennis]

The 67 Red Sox - a team expected to do nothing, winning the greatest pennant race in the history of the game. Other than Yaz (who established himself as a superstar) and Jim Lonborg, nobody had a career year but most players put up solid seasons.

Second - the 75 Red Sox - the loss of Jim Rice to a broken ankle late in the season undoubtedly cost this time the World Series title - the mighty "Big Red Machine" struggled to beat them in 7 games and would not have beaten the Sox with Rice in the lineup. This team would have dominated the late 70s had it not been for the sudden arrival of free agency. Rice, Lynn, Yaz, Fisk, Evans plus decent role players

[Craig S.]

The 1985 Jays - George Bell making that division-clinching catch meant the team had finally made it over the hump.

The 1992-93 teams were great (the Carter homer is the best moment in franchise history), but that '85 team meant a little more because it didn't have as much of a "bought" feel as those later teams. Once they won the division in '85, we knew it was only a matter of time before they won a Series.

[rc3000]

Without a doubt the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, aaah to be able to run home from school to watch the world series again...
sorry James1 but that was a great world series!!!

[--JDD]

LA Dodgers, five year span... 1977-1981

I grew up watching those guys beat the NL more often than not, and having to go thru the Yankees in the Series.

Good times, my childhood.

[Soapy]

Please don't answer Duran Duran.

What is your favorite season of your favorite team?

Mine is the 1977 Southside Hitmen.

No pitching to speak of, just a bunch of bashers.

Zisk, Gamble, Johnson, Garr, Lemon, Soderholm...Gamble's afro.

What a fun bunch to watch.

Kevin

[bigjohnstudd]

duran duran rocks!!!!

my favorite season is that of '87. i don't want to date myself, but that it was. my first season following baseball, i just learned all the mlb rosters and st. louis was my second favorite team. it was something else to see those twinkies win. it captured the entire state.

thank the baseball gods' for injuries.

it was still special none the less.