Inside:
A Dodgers' 1991 World Series ticket! Hooray! An unused ticket for a series the Dodgers didn't play! Uh, what now?
The 1991 season was played before divisional realignment, so a team could theoretically finish the season and within a week's time start Game One of the World Series (there was no Divisional Series like today--only a best-of-four League Championship Series, which if both winning teams swept would take only five days). Thus, the net effect of such a short postseason was every team not yet mathematically eliminated from contention printed playoff tickets--even World Series tickets--to sell to eager beaver fans and scalpers before the regular season concluded. That year, three National League teams were fighting for two playoff spots heading into October: the Pittsburg Pirates (who finished 14 games ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals in the NL East) and the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves over in the NL West. (Of course Atlanta played in the NL West. Duh.)
On October 1st, the Dodgers were atop their division, one game up on the Braves. But both teams were tied for first by October 3rd, setting up a critical season finale against the San Francisco Giants. (If you don't know anything about the spirited Dodger/Giant rivalry, see this photo.) The Dodgers being the Dodgers, known as "Dem Bums" while stinkin' it up in Brooklyn before moving out to Los Angeles in 1958, were eliminated October 5th by Trevor Fuckin' Wilson, who pitched a complete game shutout. (The Giants finished 19 games out of first place, but both teams have a long history of knocking one another out of the postseason.) And once Eddie Murray grounded out to second base in that ninth inning, thousands of voided Dodger playoff tickets made their way into trash bins or transmogrified into bookmarks. Handy!
(FYI: the Minnesota Twins won the World Series, defeating the Braves in seven games. The home team won every game. Baseball fever: catch it!)
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