The 1991 Los Angeles Dodgers won 93 games.
Ninety-three.
In most baseball seasons, that’s a postseason team.
In 1991, it was an early vacation.
The Dodgers finished the season 93–69, good for second place in the National League West—just one game behind the Atlanta Braves.
The Pittsburgh Pirates won 98 games. Atlanta won 94.
Then came the Dodgers at 93.
Everyone else in the NL was below them.
But in 1991, there were only two divisions in each league and only the division winners made the playoffs.
So the Dodgers watched October from home.
The team was managed by Tommy Lasorda and featured names like Brett Butler, Kirk Gibson, Darryl Strawberry, Mike Scioscia and Orel Hershiser. They scored 665 runs and allowed just 565, finishing with a +100 run differential.
And the Braves?
They were just getting started.
Atlanta’s 94-win season marked the beginning of one of baseball’s strangest dynasties. The Braves would win the NL West again in 1992—and eventually capture 14 consecutive division titles. The lone World Series win in 1995 didn’t do enough to put them in the category of all-time sports dynasties.
The 1991 Dodgers never got the chance to see what they could do in October.
Today, a 93-win team missing the postseason would be almost unthinkable.
Back then?
It was just baseball.
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