The Cardinals rebounded from a disappointing season to win the East Division. The Giants rebounded from a disappointing quarter-century to win the West Division. The Cardinals won the pennant, but fell in the World Series to the Twins. It was manager Whitey Herzog's last pennant, and also the Cardinals' last pennant of the millennium. Despite their recent struggles, I think the Cardinals have to rank as the best National League team of the 20th century.

         Lots and lots of runs were scored this year. Lots of guys posted MVP-type numbers. Faced with a plethora of fine candidates, the voters decided on Cubs' outfielder Andre Dawson. Dawson was a legitimately fine player, and he had some nice numbers this year. I have him among the top four in a number of other seasons. But there is no way he was the MVP this year.
        Dawson led the league in home runs and RBI, which counts for a lot. But his on-base percentage was awful, three points below the league average of .331. Dawson's low OBA was directly responsible for his low run scored total. He scored 41 runs when not hitting a homer, a very low total for an everyday player who bats in the middle of the order. Dawson also wasn't among the top five in slugging or OPS.
        What's more, Dawson's team finished last in the division. He had a fine year defensively — but Dale Murphy, Tony Gwynn, Tim Raines and Eric Davis were all fine defensive players. All of those guys had better years than Dawson. I'm picking Raines, Darryl Strawberry and Davis as the best ones; Murphy and Gwynn were equally great, but I can't choose everybody, and their teams were really bad.
        As you can see, a lot of guys had big offensive numbers this year. Nevertheless, I'm choosing Ozzie Smith as the MVP. He had his best year at the plate, as many players did. He produced 179 runs, fourth in the league (and one more than Dawson). He was, of course, the best defensive shortstop in the league, and probably the best defensive shortstop ever. And his team won the pennant.
        Maybe it's an eclectic choice, seeing how Ozzie had zero homers. I don't really know who the best player was; it may have been Tony Gwynn, and he isn't among my top four. But Ozzie also had a great year, and he might have been the league's best player. And his team won, which counts for a lot.
        There are many "what-ifs?" in baseball history, and one of the most intriguing was Eric Davis. As you likely know, Davis was plagued by injuries his whole career. Every year, some part of his body has broken down, as if it wasn't made to handle the rigours of being a professional athlete, or the long baseball season. He has even survived cancer. There is no obvious reason why he is so injury prone, except that some players are, and there's not much that can be done about it.
        But what an athlete. For a couple of years, Eric Davis was the greatest power-speed threat to ever play in the major leagues. When Davis was young, Pete Rose said he was capable of hitting 100 homers in a season; Pete is prone to hyberbole, but in 1986 Davis did hit 27 homers, while stealing 80(!) bases. This year was more of the same. He had a good eye at the plate, and at age 25 there was every reason to think that Eric could both hit 500 homers and steal at least 500 bases. In other words, be what Barry Bonds has become. But the injuries cut terribly into his career; he played brilliantly at times, but never sustained his success. At this writing, I believe that Eric still holds that career record for stolen base percentage.
        Benito Santiago played in 146 games as a rookie catcher, and had a 30-game hit streak (a rookie record). He was also a defensive sensation, and began winning Gold Gloves next season. He seemed destined for stardom, but never developed as a hitter, a direct result of Santiago's failure to learn the strike zone. But Santiago's career has been resilient; he survived a near-fatal car crash in 1998, and in 2002, at age 37, was selected to the All-Star team for the first time in ten years.