Playoffs?!? Playoffs?!?!?!?

In the American Baseball League, there is one and only one way to reach the Proprietor’s Cup: you must win your division. There are no wild cards. Each season, the two division winners, and the division winners only, make the Cup. (By the way, there have been 17 times that a second place club, and twice a third place club, actually finished with a better regular season record than the winner of the other division. That and a nickel, as they say.)

Of course, there’s no guarantee that at the end of a 60-game schedule there will be one clear winner of each division. Occasionally we get a playoff the old-fashioned way, as two (or more) clubs tie for first place. When that happens, among the rarest of rare spectacles occur - a playoff!

Not only are playoffs rare (only 10 of 124 races have ended in ties in 62 seasons of ABL play), but they’ve resulted in some of the greatest moments in all of ABL history. Here we’ll recount some of those moments.

The first playoff in the forward direction of time came in 1990, the sixth season of ABL play. Defending champ New York that season faced a tough challenge from arch-rival Brooklyn, and both clubs finished 34-26. New York got the home bid for the one-game playoff by luck of the draw and took advantage as Bonds winner Will Clark overcame a Kevin Mitchell two-run home run in the first with a two-run shot of his own to tie the score. New York never looked back and went on to a 6-2 victory.

But that first tied season gave us not one, but two playoffs as New England and Chesapeake surprised in the East by each finishing a phenomenal 40-20. New England hosted that playoff, but Chesapeake took an early 1-0 lead on a Gary Redus double. The lead held until the bottom of the sixth, when Andre Dawson homered to tie the score. The tie held until the bottom of the 10th, when pinch-hitter Gerald Perry drilled a two-out single off Larry Andersen to score Otis Nixon with the winning run.

That started a tradition of great playoff games, but also a tradition of a long, long wait. We’ll keep you waiting a bit longer before telling the story of the next playoff, in 2002, twelve seasons after the first playoff. Instead, we’ll tell the story of the 2007 playoff, a rematch of 1990 between the Brooklyn Bums and the New York Manhattans. Once again the game was in Manhattan, and once again that played large. New York led 3-0 in the 8th, but Brooklyn tied the score on a Rich Aurilia home run and hits by Alex Rodriguez and Vlad Guerrero – Guerrero’s hit winning him the batting title and costing Lance Berkman the triple crown. In the bottom of the 9th, New York’s light-hitting shortstop Jack Wilson shocked the world with a pennant-winning home run to send New York on to the Cup.

In the forward direction the next tie came in 2022, between the Gulf Coast Santiagos and the Chesapeake Crabbers. This was another rematch, this time of the contest we’re saving for last. Patience, grasshopper. This was a good one, too, despite both clubs limping into it. Gulf Coast came in with both Tyler O’Neill and young superstar Ronald Acuna out with injury. Chesapeake was forced to start their 5th starter Steven Matz. In the end, it was Chesapeake taking the victory in St. Petersburg 6-4 with ace Julio Urias coming on in relief on short rest to quell a Gulf Coast rally with a game-ending strikeout.

In the prime direction ties have been more common, happening five times in just 21 seasons, and have taken on a slightly different flavor. Twice the tie involved not two clubs, but three, necessitating a four-club playoff that included even the fourth place finisher. That cellar-dweller had no chance of winning the division in the playoff, but could improve its draft position and cause the second Monday, Week Eleven game to be the division-decider. In the event, in both three-way tie seasons the fourth place club lost that Monday contest, necessitating a Tuesday winner-take-all final game.

In 1978 that final game was a doozy. New England, after vanquishing Chesapeake, faced a Chicagoland club that had just shut out last place Gulf Coast 3-0. The clubs played to a 2-2 tie until the bottom of the 8th, when Gary Carter launched a 3-run shot over Moby for a 5-2 New England win to send the Ahabs on to the Proprietor’s Cup.

Thirteen years later (earlier?), another three-way tie involved both Chicagoland and Gulf Coast, but this time the tie was in the West as the league had re-aligned to match geography. On Monday Gulf Coast took care of Mississippi 9-3 as Rocky Colavito hit 2 home runs, while Chicagoland beat last place Ohio Valley 7-4. On Tuesday it was Chicagoland’s Jim O’Toole turning in a 5-hit gem in a 5-1 win.

History has not been kind to the Mississippi Hucks. The Curse of the Snakeskin has kept the Hucks from winning a single championship in 62 seasons. Yet in playoff games Mississippi has been less than terrible. Yes, they were eliminated in the first round of the 1965 three-way tie by Gulf Coast, but in both 1976 and 1968 Mississippi took care of business. Even to get to the playoff in 1976 Mississippi had to win Saturday and Sunday games in Brooklyn with their backs to the wall, then ended up playing in Brooklyn again on Monday. Tony Perez hit a 2-run home run in the top of the seventh, and that was the difference as they won 2-1.

In 1968 Mississippi faced perennial powerhouse Chicagoland after both clubs finished 33-27. Once again, the game was more than we could have hoped. Roberto Clemente’s 1st inning home run essentially clinched the Triple Crown for him, and 3 more runs in the 2nd put the Lakers up 4-1. But Mississippi scored 2 in the 3rd and 2 more in the 4th to take a 5-4 lead they’d not surrender. Down 6-4 in the 9th, Chicagoland scored on a 2-out throwing error by Woody Woodward that put the tying run in scoring position. But then Orlando Cepeda popped out to Woodward to send the Hucks to the Cup. (Which, of course, they lost.)

In the history of the ABL there have been 15,250 regular season games. Of those, 1112 have ended in a walkoff hit or home run. That’s a percentage of a little more than seven. In 14 playoff games, three have ended on a walkoff hit or home run. That’s a percentage of almost 21 and a half! So we’ve been lucky. 

In 1981, it took more than luck to get Brooklyn to a playoff with Ohio Valley. Due to a rainout, the Sternwheelers hosted Brooklyn for a rare four-game series to finish Week Ten in Cincinnati. They needed to win just 2 of those to to take the West, but Brooklyn won on Friday and swept a doubleheader on Saturday. Ohio Valley finally won on Sunday, and the clubs flipped home fields, traveling to Brooklyn for their 5th game in 4 days. 

With the score tied at 4 in the bottom of the 10th of that 5th and final contest, Bobby Bonds drew a leadoff walk from Tom Hume, then went to 2nd on Rick Cerone's hit. Bonds went to 3rd on a Larry Bowa fielder's choice, and Willie Randolph stepped to the plate. Randolph had 2 hits already, and now delivered his 3rd, sending Bonds home with the game-winner for the 3rd walkoff hit in ABL playoff history. Yes, we’ve been lucky. 

So now let’s talk about luck. There have been ten clubs who’ve earned their spot in the Proprietor’s Cup by winning a playoff. Of those ten, nine have lost that Cup. It’s worse than that, though, because the only winners, the 1990 New York Manhattans, of course were facing another club in New England that had also played and won a playoff. So somebody had to win. The other eight clubs who won a playoff all ended their season by losing in the Cup.

So was it worth it? You’ll need to decide after reading about the final playoff in this narrative. In 2002, Chesapeake and Gulf Coast fought to a 36-24 tie. Gulf Coast, winners of six straight in Week Ten to erase a three-game deficit, went into the playoff exhausted, with only fourth starter Jim Brower available to start. Chesapeake, winners of their final two to keep pace with Gulf Coast, had gotten only eight starts out of ace Pedro Martinez due to injury. But on Monday of Week Eleven, he’d make start number nine. The game was in St. Petersburg., and it would be a game to live on in league history forever.

Truth be told, the outcome of the game was never much in doubt. Chesapeake scored three runs in the first inning and led 9-0 after the top of the fourth. But the  pitching performance put on by Pedro Martinez was one we will never forget. After Chesapeake rocked Brower for 3 solo home runs in the 1st, Martinez took the mound. He walked 1 in the 1st, but struck out 2. He struck out 2 more in the 2nd, and in the 3rd, and in the 4th. His 2 strikeouts in the 4th started a string of 9 straight strikeouts. By this time, with Chesapeake holding that 9-0 lead, manager Bill Russell started looking for an excuse to pull his ace and get ready for the Cup. But Martinez just kept recording strikeouts. In the 7th he walked another batter, and in the top of the 8th Jeff Kent led off with a ground out to thirdbase. Martinez then struck out the next 2. He was at 18 strikeouts now and over 120 pitches. In the 9th Martinez hit pinch-hitter Dmitri Young leading off the inning and Russell knew he’d seen enough. He wanted to bring in a relief pitcher, but something kept his butt nailed to the bench. Stop this madness, Russell screamed at himself. But he left Martinez in. Derek Jeter struck out on 3 pitches. Jeff Bagwell fanned on 4. Martinez was at 134 pitches now. He fell behind JD Drew. Russell swore at himself, vowing to pull Martinez if Drew walked. Martinez got a strike over. Then another. On the 3-2 Drew took a mighty rip, but it was too late. The ball had disappeared into Paul Lo Duca’s glove and The Greatest Game Ever Pitched was over. Pedro Martinez had thrown a 21-strikeout, 140 pitch no-hitter in the 1-game playoff to send Chesapeake to the Cup! (Which, of course, they would lose.)

In those same 15, 250 regular season games, there have been 20 no-hitters. That’s a miniscule percentage of 0.1%. But in playoff games, we’re 1-for-14 for no-no’s, a rate about 55 times the overall no-hitter percentage. I’d say we’ve been lucky.

Pedro’s masterpiece remains not only the most clutch no-hitter in history, but also the most strikeouts in a single game in league history. (Fellow Chesapeake hurler Sandy Koufax came close, with 20 strikeouts in a game in 1967.) Of all the extraordinary events in ABL history, this one start by Pedro Martinez must remain the most extraordinary of extraordinary occurrences ever seen. And it remains The Greatest Game Ever Pitched.

Thanks for reading!