The 1999 American League Division Series (ALDS), the opening round of the 1999 American League playoffs, began on Tuesday, October 5, and ended on Monday, October 11, with the champions of the three AL divisions—along with a "wild card" team—participating in two best-of-five series. The teams, which were identical to those qualifying in 1998, were:
- (1) New York Yankees (Eastern Division champion, 98–64) vs. (3) Texas Rangers (Western Division champion, 95–67): Yankees win series, 3-0.
- (2) Cleveland Indians (Central Division champion, 97–65) vs. (4) Boston Red Sox (Wild Card, 94–68): Red Sox win series, 3–2.
The higher seed (in parentheses) had the home field advantage (Games 1, 2 and 5 at home), which was determined by playing record. The Yankees played the Rangers, rather than the wild card Red Sox, because the Yankees and Red Sox are in the same division.
The Yankees rolled over the Rangers, who scored 945 runs in 1999, for the second straight year three games to none. The Red Sox battled back down two games to none against a Cleveland Indians team that was the first to score 1,000 runs in a season in nearly 50 years and won the Series three games to two, thanks to Pedro Martínez. The Yankees would go on to defeat the Red Sox four games to one in their first-ever meeting in the postseason in the AL Championship Series, and would then go on to sweep the National League champion Atlanta Braves in the 1999 World Series.
Famous quotes containing the words american, league, division and/or series:
“The ideal of the self-sufficient American family is a myth, dangerous because most families, especially affluent families, do in fact make use of a range of services to survive. Families needing one or another kind of help are not morally deficient; most families do need assistance at one time or another.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 5:19-23.
“For in the division of the nations of the whole earth he set a ruler over every people; but Israel is the Lord’s portion: whom, being his firstborn, he nourisheth with discipline, and giving him the light of his love doth not forsake him. Therefore all their works are as the sun before him, and his eyes are continually upon their ways.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus 17:17-9.
“As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)