Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Cardinals and All the Wild Card Winners

2011 Wild Card Winners, Tampa Bay Rays and St Louis Cardinals (dandodiary.com, usatoday.com)

Wow. What a finish to the baseball season yesterday.  Everyone’s talking about it, some say the biggest night in baseball history.

The Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals are in the playoffs following two of the biggest collapses (simultaneously mind you) in baseball history by the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves.  I can’t believe it myself.

The Rays and Cards enter the postseason as the wild card of each’s repective league.  Here’s a list of every wild card winner since the playoff system was instituted in 1995 – a year after baseball went on strike and there were no playoffs at all.

Four wild card winners went on to win the World Series: the 2002 Anaheim Angels, the 2004 Boston Red Sox and the Florida Marlins twice (1997, 2003).

The Boston Red Sox have won the most wild cards – 7.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

1995 – New York Yankees

1996 – Baltimore Orioles

1997 – New York Yankees

1998 – Boston Red Sox

1999 – Boston Red Sox

2000 – Seattle Mariners

2001 – Oakland A’s

2002 – Anaheim Angels (won World Series)

2003 – Boston Red Sox

2004 – Boston Red Sox (won World Series)

2005 – Boston Red Sox

2006 – Detroit Tigers (lost World Series)

2007 – New York Yankees

2008 – Boston Red Sox

2009 – Boston Red Sox

2010 – New York Yankees

2011 – Tampa Bay Rays

NATIONAL LEAGUE

1995 – Colorado Rockies

1996 – Los Angeles Dodgers

1997 – Florida Marlins (won World Series)

1998 – Chicago Cubs

1999 – New York Mets

2000 – New York Mets (lost World Series)

2001 – St. Louis Cardinals

2002 – San Francisco Giants (lost World Series)

2003 – Florida Marlins (won World Series)

2004 – Houston Astros

2005 – Houston Astros (lost World Series)

2006 – Los Angeles Dodgers

2007 – Colorado Rockies (lost World Series)

2008 – Milwaukee Brewers

2009 – Colorado Rockies

2010 – Atlanta Braves

2011 – St. Louis Cardinals