It hasn’t been easy being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan

By JERRY TAPP

It was an itch that certainly needed to be scratched… especially for their long-suffering fans.

With their win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Divisional Series, the Washington Nationals are going to the National League Championship Series (NLCS) for the first time in the history of the franchise in Washington.

As a point of historical perspective, the Nationals have been in existence since 2005. Prior to that, the franchise called Montreal home where the Expos played from 1969 to 2004. They then left Montreal for D.C. and a new start as the Nationals in ’05.

The Expos made the post-season only once in their history, losing in the NLCS three games to two in 1981. It was the first and only time the franchise had made it to the NLCS until this year, the longest drought of all franchises. In fact, of the current 30 franchises, 26 have played in either an ALCS or NLCS this century. The four teams that had not played in the ALCS or NLCS this century prior to this year were Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Washington.

Here’s a look at the last time each MLB team has played in the ALCS or NLCS with a chance to reach the World Series.

American League
Seattle-2001
Minnesota-2002
Chicago White Sox-2005
Oakland-2006
Tampa Bay-2008*
L.A. Angels-2009
Texas-2011
Detroit-2013
Baltimore-2014
Kansas City-2015
Cleveland-2016
Toronto-2016
Boston-2018
Houston-2018*
N.Y. Yankees-2019

National League
Pittsburgh-1992
Cincinnati-1995
San Diego-1998
Atlanta-2001
Miami-2003
Arizona-2007
Colorado-2007
Philadelphia-2010
San Francisco-2014
N.Y. Mets-2015
Chicago Cubs-2017
L.A. Dodgers-2018
Milwaukee-2018
St. Louis-2019
Washington-2019

*At the time of this post, the ALDS series between Tampa Bay and Houston had not been decided, therefore their years may not be current

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