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1978 Milwaukee Brewers
The 1978 Milwaukee Brewers
As the season reaches its final days the Brewers are looking to extend the greatest run of success in franchise history, although changes to the postseason rules have played a role in that conversation.
Until 2020 the Brewers had never made the postseason in more than two consecutive seasons and had done that just twice: They represented the American League in the postseason in 1981 and 1982, and the National League in 2018 and 2019 (and eventually again in 2020 and 2021).
They’re on to the stretch run for what could be a fifth consecutive postseason appearance, although their current streak was aided greatly by a one-time rule change and could be impacted by another: The Brewers finished eighth in the National League during the abbreviated 2020 season but qualified for that year’s expanded playoffs, and their race for the postseason this year is in part fueled by the addition of a third Wild Card in each league.
For the Brewers’ first 24 years in Milwaukee and their lone season in Seattle the only path to the postseason was winning one of baseball’s four divisions. They did that just twice over that span. Starting in 1995 the Wild Card added another route to the postseason, and the Brewers took advantage of that in 2008. Starting in 2012 there were two Wild Cards, and the Brewers used the second one to return to the postseason in 2019. Now there are three, again lowering the bar for what counts as a postseason team.
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Long postseason droughts have been one of the defining narratives in Brewers franchise history, with the team only occasionally reaching playoff relevance across their first four decades in existence. If the new postseason format had existed for that entire time, however, their story might be entirely different. Here are seven Brewers teams that missed the postseason under their format but would have played in October under the current model:
1978
Under the new playoff model the first Brewers team ever to win more than 76 games in a season would also have been the franchise’s first team to qualify for the postseason: Their 93-69 record was the third best in the American League East but better than any team in the AL West, which the Royals won at 92-70.
1979
A year later the Brewers were better yet at 95-66. They were once again better than any team in the American League West but had the misfortune of playing in the American League East, where they finished eight games behind a Baltimore team that went on to win the pennant. The Brewers were seven games better than the West-winning Angels, but their first postseason berth would still have to wait.
1980
The 1980 Brewers were never a serious contender under the postseason format of the time: Their last day tied for first place was on April 25 when they were 6-6 on the season, and they finished 17 games behind the first place Yankees in the AL East and 14 games back of the second place Orioles. Their 86-76 record, however, gave them the AL’s fourth-best record. Under the current postseason format this would have been the third of five consecutive seasons where the Brewers qualified for the playoffs.
1987
The narrative around “Team Streak” would have been entirely different in a modern context: A 12-game losing streak in May knocked them out of first place and they never approached postseason position again, finishing in third place and seven games back of the AL East-winning Tigers. This season once again, however, the Brewers would have been better than any AL West team. Their 91-71 record would have qualified them for the postseason again under the current rules, giving them six postseason appearances in a ten-year span.
1988
Under the format of the time the 1988 Brewers had one of the great near-misses in franchise history: They were one of four teams to finish within two games of first place in the AL East. Under the current postseason format their race would have been even closer: Their 87-75 record would have left them tied with the Blue Jays for the third AL Wild Card, and the Brewers would have held the tiebreaker by winning their season series with Toronto by a single game, 7-6.
1992
It’s possible the entire narrative of Brewers franchise history could have been altered under a different postseason format in 1992, when the Brewers finished four games back of the eventual World Series Champion Blue Jays and missed the postseason. Under the current format they would have been the AL’s top Wild Card, and it’s possible the momentum of a playoff appearance might have caused Paul Molitor’s ensuing free agency to play out differently.
2014
The 2014 Brewers will always be a story of what could have been, as a team that led the National League Central for 159 days collapsed mightily down the stretch and went just 11-25 in its final 36 contests to fall out of the race in the division and eventually out of postseason contention altogether. Their 82-80 final record that season, however, would still have been the sixth-best in the National League and would have qualified them for the postseason under the current format.
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