DEFENDING THE CROWN
When Major League Baseball expanded in 1969, it split each league into East and West divisions. The Red Sox were among the original six in the American League East, yet in 48 years of division play, the Red Sox have never won the AL East in back-to-back years. The Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays have each won back-to-back titles at least once. The Red Sox are trying to join the club this year.
Here is a look at the only multi-year runs in division history:
ORIOLES
• Three seasons: 1969-1971 The champions each of the first three seasons of divisional play, the Orioles won the World Series in 1970 behind MVP Boog Powell.
ORIOLES
• Two seasons: 1973-1974 Manager Earl Weaver's early run of division dominance carried into the mid-'70s, but the O's lost in the ALCS each of these two years under Weaver.
YANKEES
• Three seasons: 1976-1978 With Thurman Munson and Graig Nettles, the Yankees were division favorites in the mid-'70s and won the World Series in '77 and '78.
YANKEES
• Two seasons: 1980-1981 With three different managers in two seasons, the Yankees won two more division titles and wouldn't win another until 1996.
BLUE JAYS
• Three seasons: 1991-1993 Since their debut in 1977, the Blue Jays have won six division titles, half of them in one early '90s burst when they also won back-to-back World Series.
YANKEES
• Nine seasons: 1998-2006 Under manager Joe Torre, the Yanks were a dynasty that won nearly a decade's worth of division titles until the Sox halted the streak in '07.
YANKEES
• Two seasons: 2011-2012 The last time a team won back-to-back AL East titles, the Yank lost in the ALCS each year. The next year, the Red Sox won the World Series.