May 4th 2014, 21:03:38
Yep. 1979. The Bucs had teams 1990-1992 that COULD have won 3 straight WS but they were locked up against Atlanta and couldn't get past them. In part that was because the Braves had such a great farm system. It also didn't hurt that they had Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smotlz.
My wife is from DC and was born at Bethesda NH, so she obviously has some feelings for the O's. I always tell her that Balitomore owns Pitssburgh unless it's a WS. The last 2 WS the Pirates won (1971,1979) were against the O's.
I'd love to see realignments that put, say, the Nats, O's, Phillies and Pirates in the same division. Similar markets and like you said, no one team has to attempt to outspend a big market club like the Yankees or Red Sox.