Braves, Giants franchises molded by 1993, the last great pennant race

The last great pennant race left some with the most beautiful memories in their careers and others with the ugliest of scars.

It created the most radical change in baseball’s playoff format, widely celebrated by today’s players, but lampooned by many who played the game before them.

No matter what happens in the waning weeks of this year’s playoff races, nothing will compare to the drama 25 years ago. The Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants were engrossed in a pennant race that forever changed two franchises, altered the design of future playoff races, and perhaps will lead to dramatic change in the sport.

‘I’ll never forget that’

The Braves won 104 games and the National League West on the final day of the regular season. The Giants won 103 games, but lost their final game and spent the playoffs at home.

“When we lost that last game,” said former Giants manager Dusty Baker, “I kept going back to Candlestick every day for a week. I would sit in my office every day watching the playoff games. All by myself.

“My wife called one day, and said, ‘Baby, it’s over. You’ve got to come home. Please come home.’

“I swear I’ll never forget that as long as I live.”

Anyone and everyone who experienced the Last Great Pennant Race share the same sentiment, whether it was Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz and home run champion Fred McGriff from the Braves, or home run king Barry Bonds and All-Star first baseman Will Clark from the Giants.

The Braves would win 14 consecutive division titles and the 1995 World Series, but they believe the 1993 team – which lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Championship Series, was the greatest of them all.

“I think that loss to the Phillies,” Smoltz said, “hurt more than any other loss just because that team was the best I played on.”

The Giants would go on to win three World Series championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014, but they believe that their 1993 team may have been the greatest in franchise history, led by Bonds, who hit .336 with a league-leading 46 homers and 123 RBIs.

“It was as magical a season as it can be, without going to the playoffs,” Giants president Larry Baer said. “It completely ushered baseball back to San Francisco after literally being pronounced dead and gone.”

103 wins, no playoffs

The final regular-season game – October 3, 1993 – also marked the 42-year anniversary Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World’’ to win the pennant. The Giants brought in Thomson to sit on one side of the Giants’ ownership group, and Hall of Famer Willie Mays to sit on the other side.

“We tried to reprise 1951,” Baer said, “but that plan didn’t work out so well.”

Together, they watched future Hall of Famer Mike Piazza hit two home runs and Eric Karros produce three hits and two RBI in the Dodgers’ 12-1 rout. It turned out to be the last 100-victory team Baker managed. The last Giants’ team to win more games was in 1905.

“That hurt, and it still hurts,” says Clark, the Giants’ great. “You play so extremely well all year, and on the last day of the season, they’re playing the expansion Rockies and we’re playing our hated rivals.

“You win 103 games and go home. You kidding?”

Wild card changes game

MLB realigned in 1994 with three divisions and a wild card, only to see the strike cancel the postseason. The Braves finally won the World Series when baseball resumed in 1995.

The Giants had to wait until 2002 until they reached the World Series, losing to the Los Angeles Angels, before their historic run in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

“That pennant race led to the manifestation of the wild-card system, which has been so great for baseball,” said Bud Selig, Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball. “When you win 103 games, you should be rewarded.”

Now, 25 years later, playing in their second new ballpark since that year, the Braves are poised to return to the postseason after a four-year absence. The Giants will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive year. Maybe one day, they’ll meet again in the postseason, as they did in 2010, but never again will they have the feeling of the summer of ’93.

The reality is that the last great pennant race might actually be the last pure race, too.

“All I know is that none of us will ever forget 1993, how could you?” said John Schuerholz, the Braves general manager from 1990-2007. “It was remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. A classic. It couldn’t have been more dramatic.

“Never again will we see anything like it.”