Background
The Philadelphia Phillies won the National League East division by one game over the Montreal Expos then defeated the Houston Astros, three games to two, in the National League Championship Series. The Kansas City Royals won the American League West division by fourteen games over the Oakland Athletics then swept the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
Two first-year managers, Dallas Green of the Phillies and Jim Frey of the Royals, found themselves with an opportunity to do what no other manager had done before them, win a World Championship for their respective clubs. This was the first appearance for the Phillies since losing to the New York Yankees in the 1950 Series and just their third overall, having lost also to the Boston Red Sox in 1915.
The Royals entered the league as an expansion team in 1969. They had early success under the leadership of Whitey Herzog, winning their division from 1976 to 1978, but each year they would lose to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, exacting revenge with a sweep of the Yankees in the 1980 ALCS. The Phillies had a strikingly similar run entering this Series, as they were also divisional winners from 1976 to 1978, losing to the Cincinnati Reds in 1976 NLCS and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977 and 1978, before regrouping in 1980 and triumphing over the Houston Astros in the League Championship Series.
Read more about this topic: 1980 World Series
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)