Recap
The 1995 Major League Baseball season was the first season to be played under the expanded postseason format, as the League Division Series (LDS) was played in both the American and National leagues for the first time. However, due to the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike which carried into the 1995 season, a shortened 144-game schedule commenced on April 25, when the Florida Marlins played host to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After the 1994 season was ended due to the players' strike, there was still a deal that had to be worked out. However, it wasn't until major league owners parlayed plans to have replacement players play in 1995 that the players got into serious negotiations. Due to the strike, there was no official defending champion for the year. However, the negotiations pushed the start of the season back to late-April, already 18 games into a regular season.
Despite the strike, which alienated many fans, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr. surpassed Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played streak when he played in his 2,131st straight game on September 6. Games during the playoffs were also broadcast simultaneously, meaning that games were broadcast only regionally. Despite the oddities, the 1995 season is now considered a financial success where the two best teams in baseball (in their leagues) met up in the World Series, the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves. For the first time since 1954, the Indians were the AL representatives in the World Series. This came on the heels of dominating the AL Central (beating second place Kansas City by 30 games).
They met the Boston Red Sox, who had AL MVP Mo Vaughn (39 home runs, 126 RBI) and got to start the series at home. Regardless, Cleveland swept the Red Sox. Meanwhile, in the other ALDS series between Seattle and Yankees, the Yankees stormed out to a quick 2–0 series lead at Yankee Stadium, winning game 2 on a 15th inning walk-off home run by Jim Leyritz. However, as the series shifted to The Kingdome in Seattle, the Mariners, who had made a 13-game comeback on the California Angels to force a one-game playoff (which Randy Johnson got the win), the Mariners won games 3 and 4 to cause a classic game 5, in which the Mariners came back three times to win on Edgar Martínez's famous double that scored Joey Cora and Ken Griffey, Jr.. In the ALCS, the Mariners surprised the Indians by taking game 1, however, on the power of pitchers Dennis Martínez and Orel Hershiser, the Indians managed to knock off Seattle in 6.
In the NLDS, it was the near-opposite to the New York/Seattle series. The Cincinnati Reds, who'd run away with the NL Central, swept the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves took both games vs. Colorado at Coors Field before the Rockies finally won a game in game 3. However, the Braves finished off the Rockies at home in game 4. Then, in the NLCS, after taking both games at Riverfront Stadium, the Braves finished the sweep of the Reds at home.
In the 1995 World Series, the Braves took the first two at home vs. Cleveland. Then, during the three games at Jacobs Field, the Indians won games 3 and 5 but those games sandwiched around the Braves 5–2 game 4 victory. In game 6, the Braves, on the power of an 8-inning, one-hitter thrown by Tom Glavine and David Justice hitting a solo home run in the sixth inning, won 1–0 and won the World Series. The victory made the Braves the first team to win World Series in three home cities (Boston (1914), Milwaukee (1957), and Atlanta (1995)).
what a year. the competitiveness of the ABL really brought the NBA out of its duldrums.