1995 American League Division Series - Seattle Vs. New York

Seattle Vs. New York

Both teams finished the strike-shortened 1995 season with 79 wins. The Seattle Mariners were making their postseason debut on the strength of an amazing divisional comeback. The New York Yankees made it to the postseason for the first time since losing in the 1981 World Series, and the only time with Don Mattingly on their roster, as the AL Wild Card. The series featured at least ten runs per game and two extra-inning games. Ken Griffey, Jr. was the star, hitting five home runs. The total amount of home runs from both teams at the end of the series was 22, a record for a postseason series despite only having five games.

Griffey also was one of two key participants in perhaps the most iconic moment ever for Mariners fans, DH Edgar Martínez's two-run double in the bottom of the eleventh inning of Game 5, on which Griffey scored the winning run from first base. The result of the series, and what became known as "The Double," is considered a redemptive moment for long-suffering Mariners fans, and often credited with ensuring that Major League Baseball remained in Seattle.

Seattle's win marked the fourth time in history that an expansion team won its first postseason series, after the New York Mets in their first championship season, in 1969, Montreal in 1981, and San Diego in 1984. Florida and Tampa Bay have since accomplished the same feat.

The format of this series and the one in the NL was similar to that of the League Championship Series prior to 1985, a five game set where in the first two games were played at one stadium and the last three at the other. This was much criticized as the team with homefield advantage had their games back ended. At the same time a team with two games often preferred them in the middle as opposed to three straight in the opposing team's ballpark. The highly unpopular format was later abandoned for the present more logical 2–2–1 format.

Even though the Yankees made it to the post-season for the first time since 1981, they were still reeling from the strike, because they had the best record in the American League when it was taken away by it. Yankees Manager Buck Showalter sat in "admitted misery" throughout that fall, as he "ached for Mattingly, the one player he believed deserved a postseason more than anyone else in the game." Mattingly had led active players in both games played and at bats without ever appearing in the postseason then.