The 1993 San Francisco Giants

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The 1993 Giants didn’t win the World Series. They didn’t even make the playoffs after winning 103 games. What they did do, however, was connect to their city in a way that made the victories that were to come more special. Here are ten teams that did the same for their cities, proving that winning the final game isn’t always the only way to win.

  1. 1953 Milwaukee Braves: Having left Boston, the Braves became beloved in Milwaukee because they were the city’s first big-league team. They took on the powerhouse Dodgers and Yankees, and beat them both.
  2. 1962 New York Mets: After the Giants and Dodgers left for San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1958, the National League finally returned to New York.
  3. 1995 Seattle Mariners: For the first time since the team was founded in 1977, it made the playoffs.
  4. 1995 Cleveland Indians: Cleveland hadn’t made the playoffs since 1954—a drought of forty-one years. Until this team.
  5. 1967 Boston Red Sox: After years of losing following the retirement of Ted Williams, this team went from worst to first place and returned the Red Sox to the heart of Boston.
  6. 1936 New York Yankees: The first champions since Ruth. Joe DiMaggio became a star.
  7. 1968 Detroit Tigers: After the five-day riots of 1967 that divided the city, baseball reunited the people.
  8. 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates: The team slogan of “We Are Family” became a rallying cry for the city and helped propel the Pirates to the World Series.
  9. 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers: Years of turmoil generated by a messy divorce between the co-owners of the team resulted in Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball having to take control of the Dodgers and had made the team the laughingstock of the league. With new ownership in place and an exciting team on the field, the 2013 team made baseball fun again in Los Angeles.
  10. 1985 Toronto Blue Jays: The Montreal Expos had been the first Canadian team to make the playoffs, but it was this Canadian team that turned one of the great hockey cities into baseball lovers, too.